Personal Computer Components and Subsystems | Hardware Components. Learn the nuts and bolts of PCs, from the core components that provide the basic functionality, to the ancillary subsystems that enhance the basic functionality, to support applications such as graphics imaging. Also learn about the role of key file components in booting DOS and Windows.
This chapter is from the book Chapter Syllabus. Hardware Components. Software Components. PC Boot Process. Several core components and ancillary subsystems comprise PCs. The core. components provide the basic functionality of the PC.
Ancillary subsystems. PCs are a package of. The components are matched for speed (somewhat tuned) to. It makes little sense to have a super fast. Central Processing Unit (CPU) chip and a slow fixed disk drive or slow Random. Access Memory (RAM).
Such a combination produces a slow system. PCs are as fast. as their most used and slowest component. Sometimes fixing PC problems is making.
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PC components are properly matched for speed. However, the best PC. PC. Nerds may brag about their fast PCs, but their. PCs rarely fail. The PC core components ranked from fastest to slowest are: CPU chip—fastest. RAMDisplay adapter. Read- Only Memory (ROM)Fixed disk drive. Universal Serial Bus (USB)Network adapter.
CD- ROM drive. CD Rewriteable (CD- RW) drive. Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) drive. Floppy disk drive. Parallel port. Serial port. Mouse. Keyboard. The nut behind the keyboard—slowest. Components and subsystems fall into three categories: hardware, software, and. Hardware components are those components physically installed in the PC.
They are the core and ancillary subsystems examined in this. Software components are covered in Chapter 9 through Chapter 1. Network connections are common components of most PC systems today.
Network connections are either dialup or Local Area Network (LAN). Cable. modem and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections are LAN connections as well. The network connections are attached to PC hardware components and work in. I discuss networking as it impacts the PC hardware and. PC hardware is the focus of this section. PC hardware core components include. CPU chip, the ROM, the RAM, chip sets and buses, the power supply, serial.
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Input/Output (I/O) ports, the floppy disk controller and drive, the. CD- ROM drive, the DVD- ROM drive, the. See Figure 1–1. These components provide all basic PC functions. Ancillary subsystems are sound. LAN adapters, video cameras, and so forth. Figure 1- 1 Typical PC system.
The main PC chassis contains the central component for all PCs. Main Logic Board (MLB). This is sometimes referred to as the system board or. The MLB is based on a specific CPU and supporting chip set. It has a specific.
CPU, the ROM, and the RAM. Serial and parallel. Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) controllers, and USB. MLB. Proprietary systems and laptop PCs have.
Video Graphics Array (VGA) display controllers incorporated into the MLB as. Other controllers are bus- connected cards inserted into the bus of the. MLB. Main Chassis The main chassis or case is the box containing most PC components. Components. may be connected to the main chassis using USB connections. The main chassis. PC's core components, and the ancillary subsystems. The main chassis for the PC Advanced Technology (AT) contained the MLB, its.
Intel 2. 86 CPU chip, ROM, and RAM. The supporting chip sets provided. Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) 8- bit and 1. Adapter cards typically installed in the AT were serial and. I/O controllers, display adapters, and disk controllers.
The typical AT. style PC chassis contained the floppy drive(s) and a fixed disk. The primary. user input was by a keyboard.
This was the typical 1. PC. In the early 1. PCs changed. At that time, Microsoft Windows made a. PC marketplace. It pressured PC manufacturers to. Similar to the 1. PCs, most MLBs had an installed Intel 3.
CPU chip—although some. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CPU chips—external CPU cache RAM. ROM, and RAM. The MLB also included the serial and parallel port I/O controllers. IDE fixed disk and floppy disk controllers. The bus connections were mainly. ISA 8- bit and 1. Some systems had specialized connectors to.
The Video Electronics Standards Association. VESA) bus and Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) MLBs had.
ISA bus. connectors. Now PCs incorporate both these evolutionary changes and revolutionary. Their MLB typically has Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon chips, RAM, ROM. IDE fixed disk, USB, bus mouse, and keyboard controllers.
PCs sometimes include a VGA controller and soundcard components as well. The. chip sets and Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) support plug- and- play controller. ISA and Peripheral Component. Interconnect (PCI) bus connectors. New MLBs are moving rapidly toward. PCI bus and USB. components. This just means that it will not be your father's PC anymore.
Also, maintenance and troubleshooting procedures change to accommodate new types. PC technologies. System Board—MLBThe MLB, system board, or motherboard is the physical foundation of a. Baseboard, planar board, or main boards are other terms used to.
MLB. It is the central PC building block because all other. Without a. system board, no electrical interconnectivity is available to allow the.
PC's hardware components and subsystems to communicate. System boards come in different configurations including: Extended Technology (XT) style.
AT style. Baby AT style. Advanced Technology Extensions (ATX) form factor and Mini ATX form. Micro ATX form factor. Flex ATX form factor. NLX form factor. The early boards emulated an IBM PC XT configuration and then the IBM PC AT. As chip sets incorporated greater functionality, MLBs shrank in.
The next generation of. Baby AT form factor. This meant that they had. Brand name PC manufacturers used.
Such proprietary configurations. MLBs be provided from the PC manufacturer. These. proprietary configurations limit the ability to upgrade PCs with faster CPU. RAM, and other capabilities. The ability to increase RAM, upgrade CPU. MLBs, but such. upgrade capabilities do not offer as many upgraded components as when an entire. MLB is replaced. See Figure 1–2.
For more detail on MLBs, see Chapter. Figure 1- 2 Baby AT Slot 1 and Socket 7 (with AMD CPU) MLB. Today's PCs use MLBs that have ATX, Mini ATX, Micro.
ATX, Flex ATX, and NLX form factors. ATX form factor MLBs evolved from the Baby. AT MLBs. Basically, the Baby AT MLB was rotated 9. PC chassis, and a new power supply connection configuration.
The longer ATX style boards permit relocation of the CPU and mounting. The longer ATX board also allows full- length expansion. I/O functions installed as components on the MLB. ATX form factor MLBs have up to seven expansion slots and external connectors. PS/2- style keyboard and mouse, as well as serial, parallel, and USB.
MLB. Some ATX form factor MLBs also.USB connections. Figure 1–3 shows a dual.Slot 1 ATX MLB with the PS/2- style keyboard and mouse connectors on the.USB connectors are next to the keyboard and.Communication (COM) port and parallel port connectors are near. 3D Home Design Free Software . ATX- style MLB. ATX MLBs are 1.
Mini ATX MLBs were the. ATX MLB form factor.
The Mini ATX MLB was 1. Figure 1- 3 ATX Slot 1 MLB. Micro ATX MLBs followed the Mini ATX MLB and are smaller still with a 9.
Similar to the ATX MLB, the micro ATX MLB has. USB, serial, and parallel connectors. It supports up to four expansion card slots that may be a combination of ISA. PCI, ISA/PCI, and Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) bus slots. The MLB- installed. Musical Instrument. Digital Interface (MIDI)/game and audio output connections.
The Flex ATX MLB is also a smaller board. Its dimensions are 9.
It has the same mounting as the Micro ATX MLB and the same standard. ATX rear I/O panel. The smaller packaging of the Flex ATX reduces the overall. PC. user. NLX MLBs are designed for low- profile PC systems. They support current and.
AGP, tall Dual Inline Memory Modules (DIMMs), and. An AGP bus connector may be mounted on the. MLB, but ISA and PCI bus expansion slots cannot.
Thus, a distinguishing NLX. PCI and ISA bus card slots are. MLB inserts. The NLX riser card can. PCI bus slots and an unspecified (but low, like one or two).
ISA bus slots. The expansion cards are inserted parallel to the MLB. MLB. The NLX motherboard may be 8. One key area of evolution for the MLBs is in the power supply interface. The. older boards used a power supply with a built- in power switch. In this case, the.
Volts Alternating Current [VAC]) wires were only. Other AT- style power supplies had.