Intro to computer Hardware Flashcards
What is the Motherboard and its function
It connects all of the computer’s components together which allows them to communicate with each other via the use of buses. Ex: CPU can transfer and communicate with RAM by using bus to transfer data
What are the sizes available for the motherboard
E-ATX: Largest, ATX: Standard, Micro-ATX: Smaller, Mini-ATX: Smallest
What are buses in the motherboard
They allow data to be transferred between components. Ex: CPU communicating with RAM
What is CPU
It’s the brain of the computer. It does math to execute instructions it’s given in programs or OS
What are the components of the CPU
ALU (Arithmetic logic unit), CU (Control Unit), AGU (Address generation unit), and MMU (memory Management Unit)
What does the ALU do
It does the calculations in the cpu
What does the CU do
It does the management for the cpu, it directs the flow between the other components and tells them what to do
What does the AGU do
It finds where info is stored in the memory
What does MMU do
It manages the memory, stores it, protects it, and locates it
What is clockspeed
It measures how efficient the computer is on completing tasks. Hz is used
What is context switching
A processor shares time between multiple applications which gives the illusion that the computer is doing many things at once
What is RAM/Memory
Random access memory, it’s the performance of the computer. It determines how well it can run programs and how many things you can have on your computer at once
How does RAM work
When you open an application or file, it is loaded into RAM so the processor can access the data quickly and the program can be running smoothly.
Why don’t we use RAM to store everything
RAM is volatile. The data stored there is only temporarily so when the app is closed or the computer is turned off all of the data on the ram will be gone.
What does the compatibility of RAM look like and what does it mean.
It will start with DDR then # 3, 4, or 5 followed with a -MHz. So something like DDR4-2133. DDR is double data rate, the # are the generation (5 being the newest) and the MHz is the maximum speed of the RAM
