CE 536 - Networking and Microcomputer Systems
Day 2: Microcomputer Architecture and Components
Microcomputer Needs: What do you want the computer to do?
- Application Needs
- Component Needs
Computer Hardware
- System Unit - case, motherboard, ports
- CPU
- Memory
- Disk Drives
- Input Devices
- Graphics Card
- Monitor
- CD-ROM Drives
- DVD Drives
- Backup/Archive Devices
- Sound Cards
- Communications
Microcomputer Needs: What do you want the computer to do?
- Application Needs
- Working with Words
- Word Processing (Word, WordPerfect,
)
- Desktop Publishing (Publisher, PageMaker,
)
- Presentation Software (PowerPoint, Freelance,
)
- World-Wide Web Publishing (FrontPage,
)
- Working with Numbers
- Spreadsheets (Excel, Lotus, Quattro Pro,
)
- Accounting (Money, Quicken,
)
- Mathematics (Matlab, Mathematica, Maple,
)
- Statistics (SPSS, SAS,
)
- Engineering (Adina, Ansys,
)
- Working with Data
- Databases (Access, dBase, Paradox, Oracle,
)
- Stand-Alone
- Multi-user - Networked
- Information Retrieval
- CD-ROM Databases
- Remote Databases
- Web-Based Information
- Multimedia Applications
- Education
- Entertainment
- Graphic Design
- Multimedia Development
Microcomputer Needs: What do you want the computer to do?
- Component Needs
- Input Devices
- Keyboard
- Pointing Device
- Mouse
- Trackball
- Joystick
- Digitizing Pad
- Microphone ( w/ Voice Recognition Software)
- Scanning Device
- OCR - Optical Character Recognition
- Images (Picture, Slides, Negatives,
)
- Multimedia
- Audio
- Video
- Playback
- Capture
- Resolution / Frames per Second
- CD-ROM / DVD
- Communications
- Modem - Phone Line
- ISDN Modem - Phone Line
- Network Adapter
- Cable Modem and Network AdapterCard
- DSL Modem and Network Adapter Card
Computer Hardware
System Unit - case, motherboard, ports
- Case - Expandability, Aesthetics, Security
- Desktop
- Mini-tower
- Tower
- Power Supply - sized in WATTS
- Motherboard
- Design
- ATX - standardized PC AT desktop motherboard
- micro-ATX - simplified/reduced size ATX
- NLX - riser card (w/slots) is mechanical foundation into which motherboard plugs (through edge connector)
- System Bus
- Bus Structure - expansion slots
- ISA - Industry Standard Architecture
- VESA - Video Equipment Standards Association
- MCA - (IBM) Microchannel Architecture
- EISA - Extended ISA (32-bit)
- PCI - Peripheral Connection Interface
- AGP - Advanced Graphics Peripheral
- PC Card (formerly, PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association (People Cant Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms) ) -Laptop Computers (16-bit)
- Types: I - 3.3mm thick; II - 5mm; III - 10.5mm
- Card Information Structure (CIS) - information stored in standard location and format on PC Cards
- Card and Socket Services - operating system extensions for PC Cards and the sockets into which they plug
- Card Bus - Laptop Computers (32-bit)
- Zoomed Video Port - connected to video frame buffer
- Ports
- Serial (COM1, COM2) - Mouse, Modem (115kbits/s)
- Parallel (LPT1, LPT2) - Printers, Scanners (115MBytes/s)
- SCSI - Small Computer System Interface (5 MBytes/s)
- Daisy-Chained Devices - plug into each other; last device must be terminated
- SCSI ID - unique to each device
- SCSI-2 (Fast SCSI) - faster data transfer (10MBytes/s)
- SCSI-2 (Wide SCSI) - 16-bit (20MBytes/s)
- SCSI-3 (Ultra SCSI) - even faster
- USB (Universal Serial Bus) - designed for low/medium speed peripherals (1.5Mbits/s - 12Mbits/s (1.5Mbytes/s))
- Hot Plug
- Controls up to 127 devices simultaneously
- IEEE 1394 (Firewire™ Apple Computers) - for high speed peripherals (up to 50Mbytes/s)
- Controllers
- IDE (Integrated Device Electronics)
- Supports Disk Drives Only
- Drives Limited to 528 MB
- EIDE (Enhanced IDE)
- Supports Drives, CD-ROMs, Tape Drives
- Primary IDE or EIDE Controller - supports up to 2 disk drives
- Secondary Controller - supports CD-ROM drives and tape drives
- Master Device - first device on an IDE or EIDE controller - set via DIP switches or jumpers
- Slave Device - second device on a controller
- ROM BIOS (Read Only Memory Basic Input/Output System) - contains instructions for starting (booting) the computer - AMI, Phoenix
- CMOS RAM (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Random Access Memory) - maintains the system configuration when the power is off
- Cleared when the Battery Dies!
- CPU (Central Processing Unit)
- Processor Type
- 80486-DX (w/ Math Coprocessor)
- Supports 66MHz system bus
- Cache memory on CPU chip
- 32-bit internal
- 32-bit external (I/O)
- 80486-SX (w/o Math Coprocessor)
- Pentium (586 - AMD, Cyrix)
- Double the cache
- 32-bit internal
- 64-bit external
- Two integer processing units
- One (64-bit) floating point processor
- Pentium w/ MMX (optimized for Multimedia)
- Pentium Pro (optimized for 32-bit software)
- Level 2 (L2) cache on separate chip (running at same clock speed as processor chip)
- Pentium II (Pentium Pro w/ MMX)
- Supports 100MHz system bus
- L2 cache at half the processor speed
- Slot mounted assembly instead of chip in socket
- Pentium II Xeon
- Larger L2 cache running at processor speed
- Pentium III (expanded MMX instruction set)
- Pentium III Xeon
- Celeron
- Similar to Pentium II, however:
- Only supports 66MHz system bus
- Smaller L2 cache, but built into chip (faster)
- Socket mounted chip
- Itanium
- Processor Speed - MHz (Megahertz)
- Performance Comparisons by Benchmarks
- Memory
- RAM (Random Access Memory)
- Measured in Megabytes
- Different Configurations - often installed in banks of 2
- SIMM - Single Inline Memory Module
- DIMM - Dual Inline Memory Module
- RIMM - Rambus Dual Inline Memory Module
- Different Types
- EDO (Extended Data Output)
- SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic RAM)
- RDRAM (Rambus DRAM)
- Different Speeds - depending on processor speed
- Disk Drives
- Floppy Drives
- 5.25 Inch - 360K, 1.2M
- 3.5 Inch - 720K, 1.44M, 2.88M
- Hard Drives
- Plug into Primary IDE (EIDE) Controller or a SCSI Controller
- First IDE (EIDE) Drive is the Master (from which the system will boot)
- Second IDE (EIDE) Drive set as Slave
- Capacity Measured in Megabytes or Gigabytes
- Data Managed in Units called Clusters
- One Physical Drive can be Partitioned into Multiple Logical Drives
- Cluster Size Dependent on Partition Type
- FAT16 - DOS, Windows 3.1x, Windows 95
- Maximum of 32,768 Clusters (215)
- Maximum Cluster Size 65,536 Bytes (216)
- Maximum Partition Size 2.1G (215 x 216)
|
Partition Size |
Cluster Size |
|
500M |
16K |
|
1G |
32K |
|
2.1G |
64K |
- FAT32 - Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2
- Cluster Size of 4K
- Supports Partitions into the Terabytes
- NTFS - Windows NT
- Similar to, but incompatible with, FAT32
- Supports Security Features of Windows NT
- Input Devices
- Keyboard
- Standard - May Cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Ergonomic - May Drive You Crazy
- Pointing Device
- Graphics Card
- Various Bus Structures
- VESA Local Bus - (Video Equipment Standards Association) 486s and early Pentiums
- PCI Local Bus - (Peripheral Connection Interface) most Pentiums
- AGP - (Advanced Graphics Peripheral) - works in conjunction with PCI bus
- Resolution in Pixels
- 640x480
- 800x600
- 1024x768
- 1280x1024
- Color Depth - Number of Simultaneous Colors
- 4-bit - 16 Colors
- 8-bit - 256 Colors
- 16-bit - 65,536 Colors - High Color
- 24-bit - 16.8M Colors - True Color
- Data Speed - 32-bit, 64-bit, 128-bit
- Video Memory - 1MB, 2MB, 4MB, 8MB
- Determines Display Resolution and Colors
- Memory Required = Width x Height x Color Depth
|
To Display: |
With Colors: |
Memory: |
|
640x480 (307,200) |
16.8M (3 bytes) |
1MB |
|
800x600 (480,000) |
16.8M |
2MB |
|
1024x768 (786,432) |
64K (2 bytes) |
2MB |
|
1280x1024 (1,310,720) |
256 (1 byte) |
2MB |
- Monitor
- Size Measured Diagonally (14-Inch, 15-Inch, 17-Inch,
)
- Resolution Measured in Pixels - 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024
- Dot Pitch - Gray Space Between Pixels (.28 or lower!)
- Reduce Flicker
- Non-Interlaced versus Interlaced
- Vertical Scan Rate (80+ Hz refresh)
- CD-ROM Drives
- Up to 650M of Data fits on a CD-ROM
- Data can be Digital Audio, Video, Programs, or Text
- Depending on Drive, Plugs into EIDE Controller, SCSI Controller, or Sound Card
- Speed Determines How Fast Data Can be Accessed
- Single Speed (1x) , Double (2x), Quad Speed (4x)
- Variable Speed - typically up to 40x or more
- DVD Drives- Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc
- Up to 17GB of Data fits on a DVD Disc
- Can Play Conventional CD-ROMs and Audio CDs
- Backup/Archive Devices
- Removable Disks - ZIP (100MB, 250MB), Superdisk (120MB), Jaz (1GB, 2GB)
- CD-R - recordable CD's (650MB)
- CD-RW - reusable CD's
- Can Play Digitized Audio Through Speakers
- Can Digitize Audio with Microphone or Line-In Inputs
- Quality of Recording and Playback Varies
- Telephone Quality - 8-bit at 11KHz
- AM Radio Quality - 8-bit at 22KHz
- CD Quality - 16-bit at 44KHz
- Mono or Stereo
- MIDI Port (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
- Game Port for Joystick
- "Sound Blaster" Compatibility Recommended
- Communications
- Modem
- Speeds in Bits per Second
- 14,400 (or 14.4K) up to 56K
- Standards - V.34, V.42bis, V.90,
- Up to 4-times faster with Data Compression
- ISDN Modems
- Network Interface Cards
- Cable Modems with Network Interface Cards
- DSL Modems with Network Interface Cards