Nt1310 Unit 2 Assignment 1

Jordan Moran
Unit 2 – Task 1
Assignment 1
John Handlovic

Table of Contents:
CPU
RAM
ROM
HDD
Motherboard
BIOS
Power Supply
Network Card
Graphics Card
Fan
Heat sink
Cooling
Controllers
IDE
EIDE
Master Slave
Ports
USB
Parallel
Serial

Internal System Components
CPU

The CPU is a component within the PC that works on a list of things to do (instructions). It reads the list of instructions and executes each one in order. A list of instructions that a CPU can read is a piece of software (computer program). A machine that is capable of doing similar jobs of a CPU is often called a ‘Turing machine’ by mathematicians. A problem with a CPU is the faster it is the more heat it will generate, with this being caused you’d have to use a more efficient …show more content…
A HDD consists of one or more rapidly spinning disks with magnetic heads arranged on an ‘arm’ that reads and writes the data. The read-write arm is moved by the actuator which is controlled by a servo motor or a stepper motor in the past. Data sent to and from the hard drive is interpreted by the ‘disk controller’, which tells the hard drive what to do and how to move the components in the drive for example the read/write actuator arm.
The different types of ways a HDD can connect to the motherboard/ CPU by multiple types of cables, a few used are: SATA (Serial ATA), PATA (Parallel ATA) and possibly Fibre Channel. SATA being the most commonly used of the three due to how fast it can transfer data, its cost and how small/thin it is compared to the older version known as PATA/IDE. Being previously known as an IDE cable, the PATA is a thicker, slower and more expensive version of SATA however some systems still use the PATA due to the little support their PC’s have and out dated their motherboard might be.
The main difference and the most noticeable change is their appearance. SATA looking like a single-grouped red cable that is extremely thin in comparison to the PATA that is made up of several individual wires that are connected together, each wire in charge of its own …show more content…
It does this by pushing the heat away from the component/motherboard. There’s a variety of ways to improve this. For example, using Thermal Adhesive and Thermal Grease to fill tiny air gaps between the heat sink and the component will make its cooling ability better.
Cooling
Cooling is a crucial role for components where this IS required. The more advanced/fast your PC/ components are the more cooling power you need. A common way of cooling is liquid cooling, this is extremely common as it’s quiet, doesn’t require too much cleaning as much as a fan would. A less commonly used cooling method is only used for extreme computers. Liquid nitrogen can be poured into a small silo placed above the CPU to replace the job of the heat sink.

CACHE
Cache stores commonly and recently opened files so if they’re opened again they can be opened quickly. The reason it is faster as it doesn’t need to keep re-fetching or re-calculating the data. There are Caches for the CPU, HDD and some web browsers.

Show More

NT1310 Unit 1 Assignment 2

Nt1310 Unit 1 Assignment 2