System Unit

System Unit

Expansion Card

~An expansion card is a printed circuit board that can be installed in computer to add functionality to it. For example, a user may add a new graphics card to his computer to give it more 3D graphics processing power. An audio engineer may add a professional sound card to his machine to increase the computer's audio input and output connections. Users that need more Firewire or USB ports can add Firewire or USB expansion cards, which provide additional connections.The first microcomputer to feature a slot-type expansion card bus was the Altair 8800, developed 1974-1975. Initially, implementations of this bus were proprietary but by 1982 manufacturers of Intel 8080/Zilog Z80-based computers running CP/M had settled around the S-100 standard.

Network Interface Card

~A network interface card is used to connect a computer to an Ethernet network. The card provides an interface to the media. This may be either using an external transceiver or through an internal integrated transceiver mounted on the network interface card PCB. The card usually also contains the protocol control firmware and Ethernet Controller needed to support the Medium Access Control (MAC) data link protocol used by Ethernet.

Cache Memory

~CacheCache (pronounced cash) memorymemorymemory is extremely fast memorymemorymemory that is built into a computer’s central processing unit (CPU), or located next to it on a separate chip. The CPU uses cachecachecache memorymemorymemory to store instructions that are repeatedly required to run programs, improving overall system speed. The advantage of cachecachecache memorymemorymemory is that the CPU does not have to use the motherboard’s system bus for data transfer. Whenever data must be passed through the system bus, the data transfer speed slows to the motherboard’s capability. The CPU can process data much faster by avoiding the bottleneck created by the system bus.

"A cache is a short-term storage place. Main computer memory is wayslower than microprocessor chips, and they can spend most of their timewaiting to get a value from memory to operate on. You could speed upall memory, but this costs lots of money and power. If you can onlyafford to speed up a small fraction of the total memory, it's a goodidea to arrange for the computer to use the fast memory more often thanit uses the slow memory. A memory cache is one way to do this."

Tim Mooney

Plug & Play

~In computing, plug and play is a term used to describe the characteristic of a computer bus, or device specification, which facilitates the discovery of a hardware component in a system, without the need for physical device configuration, or user intervention in resolving resource conflicts.Plug and play refers to both the traditional boot-time assignment of device resources and driver identification, as well as to hotplug systems such as USB and Firewire.

Sockets

~Sockets are used nearly everywhere, but are one of the most severely misunderstood technologies around. This is a 10,000 foot overview of sockets. It's not really a tutorial - you'll still have work to do in getting things operational. It doesn't cover the fine points (and there are a lot of them), but I hope it will give you enough background to begin using them decently.

Chips (Computerchips)

~A computer chip is a small electronic circuit, also known as an integrated circuit, which is one of the basic components of most kinds of electronic devices, especially computers. ComputerComputerComputer chipschipschips are small and are made of semiconductors that is usually composed of silicon, on which several tiny components including transistors are embedded and used to transmit electronic data signals. They became popular in the latter half of the 20th century because of their small size, low cost, high performance and ease to produce.The modern computer chip saw its beginning in the 1950s through two separate researchers who were not working together, but developed similar chips. The first was developed at Texas Instruments by Jack Kilby in 1958, and the second was developed at Fairchild Semiconductor by Robert Noyce in 1958.

Slots

~An opening in a computer where you can insert a printed circuit board. Slots are often called expansion slots because they allow you to expand the capabilities of a computer. The boards you insert in expansion slots are called expansion boards or add-on boards.

Buslines

~In computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data between computer components inside a computer or between computers.
Early computer buses were literally parallel electrical buseswith multiple connections, but the term is now used for any physical arrangement that provides the same logical functionality as a parallel electrical bus. Modern computer buses can use both parallel and bit-serial connections, and can be wired in either a multidrop (electrical parallel) or daisy chain topology, or connected by switched hubs, as in the case of USB.

Serial Port

~In cpmputing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time (contrast parallel port). Throughout most of the history of personal computers, data transfer through serial ports connected the computer to devices such as terminals and various peripherals.
While such interfaces as Ethernet, FireWire, and USB all send data as a serial stream, the term "serial port" usually identifies hardware more or less compliant to the RS-232 standard, intended to interface with a modem or with a similar communication device.

Parallel Port

~Parallel port is a simple and inexpensive tool for building computer controlled devices and projects. The simplicity and ease of programming makes parallel port popular in electronics hobbyist world. The parallel port is often used in Computer controlled robots, Atmel/PIC programmers, home automation, ...etc... Here a simple tutorial on parallel port interfacing and programming with some examples.

Universal Serial Bus

~USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a way of setting up communication between a computer and peripheral devices. USB is intended to replace many varieties of serial and parallel ports. USB can connect computer peripherals such as mice, keyboards, PDAs, gamepads and joysticks, scanners, digital cameras, printers, personal media players, flash drives, and external hard drives. For many of those devices, USB has become the standard connection method. USB was designed for personal computers, but it has become commonplace on other devices such as PDAs and video game consoles, and as a power cord between a device and an AC adapter plugged into a wall plug for charging. As of 2008, there are about 2 billion USB devices sold per year, and about 6 billion total sold to date.The USB 1.0 specification was introduced in 1996. It was intended to replace the multitude of connectors at the back of PCs, as well as to simplify software configuration of communication devices. The original USB 1.0 specification had a data transfer rate of 12 Mbit/s.

Firewire Port

~Firewire ports are forms of a serial port that make use of FireWireFireWireFireWire technology to transfer data rapidly from one electronic device to another. The FireWireFireWireFireWire portportport has been in common use since 1995, when Apple, Inc. first began to include the portportport on a number of digital camcorders. Today, the FireWireFireWireFireWire portportport is used on a number of other devices. However, the FireWire port is not just for establishing a connection between various electronic devices and a computer system. In fact, FireWire connections can be created directly between two independent devices. Today, there are small printers manufactured for direct use with a digital camera. Making use of a Firewire port to establish a connection, the original file on the digital camera can be printed out on the printer. This completely eliminates the need for uploading photos to a hard drive and then initiating a printing process.