- Computers have become an integral facet in society. From business and school work to personal uses, computers are involved in many tasks of everyday life. PCs were developed in the 1970s by a man named Ed Roberts, who begin selling personal computer kits. This idea was then developed to what is called IBM-type systems. Before then, the first computers took up an entire room. Steve Jobs and his partner, Steve Wozniak, developed their own personal computer kits and started the Apple Company. Its Mac systems are not considered a PC but an entity all its own.
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Not many people have cracked open a computer to see all of the parts inside. Some of the main components, such as the hard drive and RAM, are familiar terms to the general public. Here is a list of the main components and what they are used for:
Central Processing Unit (CPU). The CPU is known as the brain of the computer. In actuality, it is the microprocessor chip that oversees all of the operations of a computer. Using assembly language, the CPU acts as a computational engine.
Memory. This is the medium that the computer uses to connect to the CPU in order to store data. Types of memory are Random-Access Memory (RAM), Read-Only Memory (ROM), basic input/output system, cashing, virtual member and flash memory.
Motherboard. All of the internal parts of the computer connect to the motherboard. It is basically a circuit board that communicates with all the components.
Power supply. This is the transformer that supplies electricity to the computer.
Hard disk. This is the permanent storage container that is used to hold data such as software programs and saved documents. Also called solid-state drives, hard drives contain many moving parts that work together for the saving and retrieval of files.
Operating System. An operating system, such as Windows, works as a user interface for the computer.
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) Controllers. This this interface is responsible for the hard drive, floppy disk drive and CD-ROM.
Sound card. This is responsible for controlling the recording and playback of audio files.
Graphics card. This device controls the showing of graphics by translating them into a format that is compatible with a computer monitor.
Ports. Every peripheral device, such as a printer or keyboard, connects to the computer through a port. Ports allow peripheral devices to communicate with the computer.
Peripheral devices. The monitor, keyboard, mouse or any type of removable storage is referred to as a peripheral device. These aid the user in interacting with the computer.
Universal Service Bus (USB). This is a type of port that is powerful and versatile.
Networking devices. Devices such as dialup modems, LAN Cards and DSL modems are all network devices that connect two or more computers. These devices are necessary for using the Internet, which is a network of connected computers. -
The user presses the 'On' button, and power is supplied to the system. The computer runs through some self-tests to make sure it is safe to load the operating system. Once the BIOS give the OK, the operating system is loaded into memory by the bootstrap loader. The operating system then takes over and starts to load the necessary items that falls into six different categories; processor, memory, device, storage, application interface and user interface.
The processor management part checks the CPU and prioritizes tasks being sent to it. Some data packets can be quite large, so the operating system separates them into manageable units before sending them to the processor. The memory management is the control of flow to and from RAM. Also, the amount of virtual memory needed is determined. Device management is the loading of devices and the drivers associated with them. Storage management is the communication with the hard drive to determine available space for the new data.
The operating system works as an application interface by being a go-between for the communication between software programs and the computer. The user interface task is similar to this one, but it is the communication between the user and the computer. After all of these things are loaded and performed correctly, the operating system continues to keep the computer running by periodically carrying out its duties.
Comments
17of26 said
on 5/14/2009 There's no such thing as "virtual member". The author is probably thinking of "virtual memory" which is actually not memory at all. It's space allocated on the hard drive where data is moved to when the computer's main memory (RAM) gets full.
17of26 said
on 5/14/2009 Basic input/output system (BIOS) is not a type of memory. It's the code that gets run when the computer first boots up (as referenced in "How it all comes together").
17of26 said
on 5/14/2009 It's worth noting that IDE is an outdated technology. Newer PCs will generally have Serial ATA (SATA) instead.
17of26 said
on 5/14/2009 Hard drives and solid state drives are not the same thing. Both are storage media but hard drives have moving parts while solid state drives do not (hence the term "solid state"). Solid state drives are also significantly more expensive than hard drives.