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, Dreamweaver)

·        Working with Numbers

·        Spreadsheets  (Excel, Lotus, …)

·        Accounting  (Money, Quicken, …)

·        Mathematics  (Geometer’s Sketchpad, Mathematica, …)

·        Working with Data

·        Databases  (Access, Oracle, …)

·        Stand-Alone

·        Multi-user - Networked

·        Information Retrieval

·        CD-ROM Databases

·        Remote Databases

·        Web-Based Information

·        Multimedia Applications

·        Education

·        Entertainment

·        Graphic Design

·        Multimedia Development

·        Digital Image Editing (Photoshop, Paint Shop, …)

·        Digital Video Editing (Premiere, Pinnacle, …)

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, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-RW, DVD+RW

·        Communications

·        Modem,  ISDN Modem - Phone Line

·        Network Adapter

·        Cable Modem and Network AdapterCard

·        DSL Modem and Network Adapter Card

·        Wireless

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

·        Baby AT

·        System Bus

·        66MHz / 100MHz / 133MHz

·        400MHz / 533MHz / 800MHz …

·        Bus Structure - expansion slots

·        ISA - Industry Standard Architecture

·        VESA - Video Equipment Standards Association

·        PCI - Peripheral Connection Interface

·        AGP - Advanced Graphics Peripheral

·        PC Card (formerly, PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association (People Can’t 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

·        CardBus - Laptop Computers (32-bit)

·        CardBay – USB via a PC Card

·        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

·        USB 2.0 (up to 60MBytes/s)

·        IEEE 1394 (Firewire™ Apple Computers) - for high speed peripherals (up to 50MBytes/s)

·        Digital video transfer

·        Controllers

·        IDE (Integrated Device Electronics)

·        Supports Disk Drives Only

·        Drives Limited to 528 MB

·        EIDE (Enhanced IDE)·

·        Supports Drives, CD-ROM’s, 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

·        Celeron

·        Supports 66MHz system bus (766MHz or less CPU)

·        Supports 100MHz system bus (800MHz or more)

·        Level 1 (L1) Cache - 32kB - memory built into CPU

·        L2 Cache - 128kB (256kB at 1.2GHz or above) – secondary memory that feeds L1 cache

·        Pentium III

·        Supports 133MHz system bus

·        L1 Cache - 32kB

·        L2 Cache - 512kB

·        Expanded multimedia (MMX) instruction set

·        Pentium III Xeon

·        Multiple processor support

·        Pentium 4

·        Supports 400MHz system bus

·        L1 Cache - 8kB plus 12kB Execution Trace Cache

·        L2 Cache – 256kB (512kB at 2.2GHz or above)

·        Expanded multimedia instruction set

·        Xeon

·        Multiple processor support

·        Itanium

·        64-bit internal

·        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)

·        DDR-SDRAM (Double Data Rate-SDRAM)

·        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 Gigabytes

·        Data Managed in Units called Clusters

·        One Physical Drive can be Partitioned into Multiple Logical Drives

·        Cluster Size Dependent on Partition Type

·        File Systems – File Allocation Tables (FAT)

·        Features vary by Operating System

·        FAT16 - DOS, Windows 3.1x/95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

·        Maximum of 32,768 Clusters (215)

·        Maximum Cluster Size 65,536 Bytes (216)

·        Maximum Partition Size 2.1G (215 x 216)

·        FAT32 - Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, Windows 98/Me/2000/XP (not Windows NT!)

·        Supports Partitions up to 2 Terabytes

·        Supports Windows XP Partitions only to 32GB

·        NTFS - Windows NT (Service Pack 4 or higher), Windows 2000, Windows XP

·        Recommended Maximum Partition of 2TB

·        Supports Security Features of Windows NT

·        Input Devices

·        Keyboard

·        Standard - May Cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

·        Ergonomic - May Drive You Crazy …

·        Pointing Device

·        Mouse - Serial, Bus, USB

·        Trackball

·        Touchpad

·        Digitizing Pad

·        Microphone ( w/ Voice Recognition Software)

·        Scanning Device

·        OCR - Optical Character Recognition

·        Images  (Picture, Slides, Negatives, …)

·        Graphics Card

·        Various Bus Structures

·        PCI Local Bus - (Peripheral Connection Interface)

·        AGP - (Advanced Graphics Peripheral) - works in conjunction with PCI bus

·        Resolution in Pixels

·        640x480, 800x600

·        1024x768, 1280x1024, …

·        Color Depth - Number of Simultaneous 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 – resolution, color depth

·        Monitor

·        Size Measured Diagonally (14-Inch, 15-Inch, 17-Inch, … )

·        Resolution - Measured in Pixels

·        Dot Pitch - Gray Space Between Pixels (.28 or lower!)

·        CRT – (Cathode Ray Tube) curved screen

·        Flat Screen – CRT with flat screen

·        Flat Panel – LCD (Liquid Crystal Diode) Panel

·        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

·        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-ROM’s and Audio CD’s

·        Backup/Archive Devices

·        Removable Disks - ZIP (100MB, 250MB), Superdisk (120MB),  Jaz (1GB, 2GB)

·        CD-R - recordable CD's (650MB)

·        CD-RW - reusable CD's

·        DVD – competing standards – Plus and Minus

·        DVD-R, DVD+R – recordable DVD (4.7GB)

·        DVD-RW, DVD+RW – reusable DVD

·        Sound Cards

·        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

·        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