Posts Tagged ‘computer parts’

386 and 486 computer parts

Friday, August 6th, 2010

The 80386 microprocessor architecture was developed and introduced by Intel in 1985. It may have appeared to be groundbreaking new technology at the time, but little did they know then that it will be true for the next 25 years. We’re in 2010 and most personal computers are still using operating systems based on i386 (aka x86 or 32bit) technology, although all computer processors support the next big thing: 64bit architecture (aka x64 or 64bit).





It seems that it will take a lot of time to make the transition to 64bit, mostly because users are not yet forced to adopt this relatively new technology. 64Bit operating systems have one huge advantage over 32bit, they could address a huge quantity of system memory up to 256TB (instead of the 4GB limit for 32bit operating systems). Microsoft for example decided to limit maximum addressable system memory to 192GB for Windows 7 (PRO, Enterprise and Ultimate) and to 2TB for Windows Server 2008 (R2 too).

Personally I didn’t upgrade my computer when 80386 processors became available in my price range, missing a huge step in computer hardware development. From a 12MHz 80286 processor with 2MB of RAM I upgraded directly to a 33MHz i486SX, which had a lot of extra features (compared to the 80286).

The biggest advantage of this upgrade was the 8 memory slots that could support 32MB of system memory (8 x 4MB modules). This 486SX computer stayed in the family for a long time, we even ran Windows 98 on it when we upgraded the hard drive to 1GB (for about 100$).

At the time 386 and 486 computer parts were basically the same, removable processors used the same socket main boards, so users could easily upgrade even if the performance difference (between 386SX and 486SX or 386DX and 486DX) was insignificant.

Hard drives in that era came in sizes from 40MB to 2GB, and they were all supported by both processors (by their motherboards and hard disc controllers), although there was some kind of barrier around 500MB before both chips were simultaneously available, but it wasn’t common knowledge, mostly because no one that still used first generation 80386 processors could afford a hard disc close to 500MB. When CD-ROMs were introduced they didn’t have this problem if you had an operating system that could support the 650/700MB file system.

Floppy drives are not worth mentioning because they were amongst the worst technologies ever developed. Right from the start they were so primitive that new 3.5” 1.44MB drives could be used with 8088XT (or older) systems too (although only in 720K mode) so data could be transferred with these downgraded floppy disks from a brand new 80486DX (or later) machine to a 8088XT and vice versa.

Video cards were still very primitive and they were connected through 8bit (shorter) or 16bit (longer) ISA slots.

Other 386 and 486 computer parts included special hard disk controllers that also supported some kind of early RAID features, network cards, dial-up modems and so on.

The dial-up modems had a life exactly like the floppy disc drive, with the least improvements over the years. On the picture you can see a very old ISA slot modem next to a model made for PCI slots that’s  still used today. Who knows what the future will bring, but what we can say for sure is that some technologies are never  improved significantly (they never become practical), while others double their speed, capacity and/or quality in every cycle (6-12months).

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Name The Parts Of A Computer

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is a component which determines the speed of the computer. This speed is measured in Gigahertz (GHz). The producers are offering different types of processors at different prices. The mother board is the nerve center of the computer and it coordinates numerous hardware functions. These contain chips, boards and cables for the installed components. Each personal computer has a power source which changes the alternative current into direct current. Another important component is the cooling fan. This prevents the overheating of the system. Usually this is attached to the power source.





The Memory. The ROM (Read Only Memory) chips contain instructions which are sent to the computer in order to learn how to communicate with the user and other hardware components. These are found on the mother board. The RAM (Random Access Memory) chips allow the functioning and saving of temporary files, as long as the computer is working. The capacity of the RAM chips are measured in megabytes (MB, 1 million bytes) and in gigabytes (GB 1,073,741,824 bytes). These chips are found from 128 MB up to 2 GB each.



The components which are chosen by the user. The personal computers have graphics cards, sound cards and other, which control the functions of the screen, speakers and secondary devices like scanners and printers. All the computers are using USB entries. The personal computers also need a network card or a modem in order to connect to the internet and other computers.



Entry and storage components. The keyboards and the mice are the most often met entry components used at a personal computer. It allows the user to send commands to the computer by typing texts or selecting options. The hard drive is the main storage unit for programs and files. Before the personal computers ever have these kinds of components, there were used disks for saving files.



The hard drives are simplifying the computer use and are making them more useful but not essential. A personal computer needs a CD or DVD drive for installing programs or copying files from the computer’s hard drive. Many manufacturers are building personal computers with a CD drive but without a floppy drive, but this can be bought.



Display. The computer’s screen allows the user to view the computer’s content. Today, the screens can show both text and graphics. Are able to display millions of colors. The personal computer’s screen needs a cable to be attached with, unlike the laptops which have the screen integrated in the computer.



Cases. The computer’s components must be put inside a case in order to protect the system from dust, water or any other danger. The personal computers are found in different models from the ones which stand vertically, to the compact ones which have built-in keyboards or screen.

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What Parts Make Up A Computer

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

In order for a computer to work properly, it has to contain some basic parts. A microprocessor, internal memory, data and command bus and external memory; all these components are mounted inside a computer case.





The microprocessor - it represents the brain of the computer, the coordinator of all the operations that are made. A microprocessor contains inside areas in which it can save data of short lengths. These locations are named registry, and each registry has a special name (AX, BX, etc.). From all the registry, there is one which has a special role, and that is the IP registry (Instruction Pointer). The microprocessor is connected to the other computer parts through the data bus and command bus.



The internal memory – physical, it is made out of more integrated circuits with a role in keeping the information, which have an exterior aspect that resembles with the microprocessor. The microprocessor can write or read data from the memory. Reading requires obtaining the saved information, and the writing consists in the submission of information in memory. The internal memory is made out of more parts with equal sizes, which are named memory spaces. The memory spaces are numbered in order starting with the value of 0 (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). These tags which are put over the memory spaces are named memory addresses.



The data bus and command bus – even though the name is pretentious, these buses are nothing but a bunch of wires (copper tracks on a printed circuit board). Of course, on the command bus are running the commands, and on the data bus are running the transferred data between the computer’s components. All the devices which are different than the microprocessor or the internal memory are named peripheral. The screen, the printer, are named output peripherals because the data are coming out of the internal memory and go to the devices. The keyboard is a input peripheral because the data are running backwards, from the exterior into the internal memory.



The external memory – is represented by magnetic disks, which have the property to read and write information of the magnetic support. The external memory usually has a bigger capacity than the internal ones. In the external memory are saved more programs and their corresponding data. The external memory is made out of hard drives and floppy disks. The hard drives are usually mounted inside the computer case and can be detached from the computer only by the removal of the case. The flexible disks are introduced in a particular space, are used as long as are needed, after which can be removed easily. Thanks to the constructive module, the hard drives have a very large storage capacity for the information and a very high writing speed. The hard drives are used for massive data saving or for fast program running. The flexible disks, with a smaller storage capacity, are used to transfer data between computers or to keep some important information into a safe place.

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Recycling Computer Parts In Sc

Friday, March 19th, 2010

You had enough of your old computer and you are thinking on buying a new one, but what will you do with this old one ? You can not throw them in your garbage cans like you do with all other kinds of products. Everything which is an electrical device must be recycled in a specific way, stop feeding the Earth with all sort of toxic wastes. So you want to know how can you get rid of an old computer ?





According to some recent statistics made by Greenpeace and other similar organizations, it seems that the E-Pollution is one of the most harmful ways of environmental imbalance through the alarming increase of computers and accessories simply thrown away in fields without being subjected to a suitable recycling process. It is heard that only in the United States, about 200 tons of old computers and other electronic devices are thrown away yearly in the most inappropriate places.

Fortunately, there are some decent solutions so that this recent type of data pollution can be avoided, and we will list some of them so that anyone can use them when they want to get rid of older electronics without harming the environment in any way.

The simplest way to get rid of an old computer, but still in a good performing shape, it is to donate it to an organization, institute or even to a person who will enjoy using it. Here, the options are various, you can choose between schools or kindergartens less endowed, public libraries or rural areas if you can insure the transport also. Besides these options, you can also appeal to a mediation service for these kinds of situations, of course if there are any services in the area you develop your business.


If the electronic devices or computers which you want to throw away are not in a good performing shape, the step you need to take next is to take the computer to a recycling post or send it to spare parts. Here you have to choose between the shops and computer companies, which distributes second hand parts also, which are reparable and still functional. There are of course, the companies which are dealing specifically with collecting and recycling these kinds of products.

What you are not allowed to forget is when you want to recycle or get rid of an old computer, you must erase any kind of personal data or professional data off the computer’s hard drive. There are different programs which can help you do this easier, but if you’re just not in the mood for this, or you’re not to familiar with these kinds of operations, then you simply take the hard drives out of the computer’s case and put them into a safe place, somewhere into a locked box. Don’t worry, the ones which will come into the possession of any computer without a hard drive, will certainly know what to do with it in order to use it a long way from now on.

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Computer Parts Information

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Computers usually have four main types of parts: they are different and they perform one of the following functions: input, output, the processing function and the storage one.





The output category includes the devices which allow the computer to send information to you. The normal flow of information for output parts is: computer-> user. This information usually takes the form of sound or sight, but there are new devices which can send information for other senses like skin (touch) and for the nose (for the sense of smell). The common and well known output devices include monitors, speakers and printers.

On the other side, the input devices let you enter information on the computer and generally, the information flow for this kind of devices is user-> computer. This range of computer parts is much wider than the output category and it includes the standard well known keyboard, the mouse, scanners, microphones, light pens or joysticks.




Input devices are the parts that let you enter and manipulate information on a computer. These devices range from the standard keyboard and mouse, to scanners, microphones, joysticks, and light pens.

On the inside, the classic computer has a lot of parts, which work of course as a system. These parts are usually hosted by the computer case (in the case of a desktop computer, the big box hosts all these parts). For iMacs, all the inside parts are built into the monitor case,and the most important of them is the motherboard. It is like the backbone of a computer. All the other individual pieces connect somehow to this central motherboard. The most important elements of the motherboard are the processor chip, the memory and the PCI slots. Everything inside the central unit is connected to the motherboard through sockets which are set up for low-level programming(usually via BIOS). The computer memory is also connected to the motherboard and they work in some sort of symbiosis. All the add-on cards, video, audio, and all the other cards, for printers and for other devices are also connected to the motherboard. A modem can usually be found on the inside of an add-on card.




The processor is the brain of the computer and the most well known processors are Pentium and AMD chips. The processor speed is measured in MegaHertz (MHz) and in GigaHertz(Ghz). They are related measurement units, and 1GHz values 1000 MHz.

The memory is another essential part of the computer, of the hardware components and it is used to store the information temporarily, before it is manipulated by the processor. It is known as the Random Access Memory and abbreviated, everybody heard about RAM. This kind of memory is available only when the computer is turned on and it is measured in Megabytes (don’t confuse with MHz, which represent speed).

PCI slots are some outlets on the motherboard and they allow you to install extra components like sound cards, modems, video cards, and other kind of devices.

In the storage category we have the hard drive and the floppy drive, and the storage solutions have developed very fast in the last years. The hard disk is a device which has as main role information storage. This kind of memory is permanent and it exists even if the computer is turned off.

The floppy drive is available for a portable storage solution, the floppy disk. This disk can store data from one computer and you can move it on another computer. If you own an iMac, you will not have such a drive. Floppy disks, which nowadays have been successfully replaced by CD’s and other innovative storage solutions, were 3 1/4 inches in size and they could store 1.44 Mb of data.

Hope you made an idea about computer parts and which are their main roles in a computer’s functioning!

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Pictures Of Basic Computer Parts

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Inside any computer you will find some basic parts. The basic parts are the minimum required for a computer to function properly in any application. So we have the outer case, the motherboard, the microprocessor, the video card, the memory, the network interface card, the hard drive, the sound card, the floppy disk drive and the optical drive.




You will be provided below with a list of computer parts, each with its description and descriptive picture in order for you to understand better which is which and what is does.




Let’s start with the motherboard, which is one of the main parts without which the computer cannot work. It’s practicaly the support for the other parts which are attached to it, and it’s main role is to create the links between all the pieces you have in your computer.



Followed by the processor, or the microprocessor which is the central unit of information processing of a computer, which coordinates the system and which physically presents as an electronic chip. It controls the activities of the whole system and can process the user’s data. It’s the main element of a computer system; the chip, that is placed on the motherboard is very complex, and can reach up to millions of transistors. The microprocessor insures the data and instruction processing, both from the operating system as the ones from inside the user’s applications; it reads, process and control the applications and executes or supervises the information transfer and controls the general activity of the other components that make up the system.



The video card, or graphics accelerator card, is an expansion card whose function is to generate and output images to a display

The RAM, or the Random Access Memory, is the generic name for any type of memory that can be:

- random accessed, offering direct access to any of its location or address in any order, even randomly;

- implemented on electronic chips (and not on magnetic or optical devices as the hard disks or CDs).




The network interface card, or LAN adapter, is an expansion card designed for allowing the computers to connect to a network of computers.



The hard drive, or hard disc, is an electro-mechanical device for data storage or saving. Data saving is done on a magnetic surface on the rounded metallically cups.



The sound card, or the audio card, is a computer expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under control of computer programs.



The CD-ROM, or the Compact Disc Read-Only Memory: is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains accessible data to a computer for data storage and music playback. The CD-ROM doesn’t allow the computer to write anything to a CD.

The Floppy Disk Drive, or floppy drive, diskette drive, 3.5 inch drive, 5.25 inch drive, reads data from and writes data to a small disk. The most common type is the 3.5 inch drive followed by the completely 5.25 inch drive, among other sizes.

So now you know how basic computer parts look like and what are used for. We hope this information has been useful and has answered your questions and doubts about computer parts.

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