Quiz 2 - Computer Parts/Hardware

Question 1

Types of Computers

Answer 1

1. Microcomputer: Used for scientific and engineering purposes
2. Laptop
3. Workstation: Specifically designed for user’s needs (e.g. high performance)
4. Supercomputer: Measured in FLOPS (floating point operations per second)
   Contains tens of thousands of processors, performs up to a billion processes
5. Mainframe: Can be used for large scaled transactions (e.g. to watch what a consumer likes)
6. Server: Gives information that is requested from client
7. Integrated Computing

Question 2

CPU Arithmetic/Logic Unit (ALU) Parts

Answer 2

Register - small amount of special storage units that contain:
AC (Accumulator): holds results
MBR (memory buffer): holds data while operation executes

Question 3

CPU: control unit

Answer 3

The organizing force in the computer, contains:

Instruction register (IR): stores instruction that is being executed

Program counter (PC): stores the address of the next instruction to be executed

Memory address register (MAR): stores address of memory cell to be read/write

Question 4

PGA vs LGA vs BGA

Answer 4

PGA has the pins on the CPU itself

LGA has pins on the motherboard itself

BGA has balls on the motherboard

Question 5

Symptoms of Overheating

Answer 5

Too much thermal paste can impede the flow of heat and cause CPU to heat up rapidly

Not enough TP or unevenly spread TP can cause the CPU to heat up and shut itself down

Failure to connect the fan power to the motherboard can cause the CPU to heat up and shut itself down

Question 6

Chipset: Northbridge and Southbridge

Answer 6

Chipset - controls data flow around the computer

Northbridge - data flow between memory and processor - processor and graphics card

Southbridge - controls data flow to the devices: USB, IDE, SATA, LAN and Audio, I/O

Question 7

Motherboard Failures and Fix

Answer 7

Catastrophic failure (PC won’t boot): renders the motherboard non-functional and often irreparable. Catastrophic motherboard failures can result from various causes, including electrical issues, physical damage, manufacturing defects, or a combination of factors

Component failure:
malfunction or failure of one or more electronic components that are soldered or integrated onto the motherboard itself.

Ethereal (most difficult to diagnose):
PC reboots itself, you get a blue screen of death:Faulty component, etc.

Fix: Flasing the BIOS
Can fix a lot of system stability problems, but cannot improve the hardware

Question 8

Main Memory (RAM vs ROM):

Ram - temporary holding area for data

ROM - read only memory, contains the boot loader which tells the device how to start