COMPUTER
HARDWARE
Muhammad Ashfaq Najar
Hardware
vs
Software
What’s inside the box?
Inside the case…
⚫ Motherboard Ethernet Card
⚫ CPU Optical Drive
⚫ Hard Disk Power Supply
⚫ Memory Fan
⚫ Video Card
⚫ Sound Card
Motherboard (Logic Board)
⚫ Heart of the computer
⚫ Everything connects to it, sometimes integrated into the
board itself.
CPU
⚫ CPU = Central Processing Unit, AKA
Microprocessor
⚫ Brain of the computer
⚫ Runs software, carries out the
instructions of a program
⚫ Uses an integrated circuit to transfer
information. For many years, CPUs
were manufactured with many ICs.
Microprocessors use just a couple, or
even only one.This makes data
transfer much faster.
Hard Disk
⚫ Holds ALL of your data, even when the power is off
⚫ Looks kind of like a mini record player
⚫ Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter
by read/write heads that float on a film of air above.
Hard Disk (cont.)
⚫ In the hard disk is a series of microscopic wells in a
ferromagnetic platter.
⚫ Data is stored by using special magnet to push/pull
electrons into and out of these wells.
⚫ This is the basis for binary: an electron is present = 1, no
electrons present = 0.
⚫ Like Moore’s Law forCPUs, we are learning how to hold
more data in smaller spaces, which makes some people a
lot of
Memory
Memory is where the processor stores the
program it is running and the information the
program is using.
There are two main types of memory:
• Read Only Memory or ROM
• Random Access Memory or RAM
RAM (Random Access Memory)
⚫ Holds the data for the software you are currently using
(cache)
⚫ Upgrading the RAM speeds up your computer, because
you can store data that you use regularly instead of having
to continually go through the trouble of grabbing it from
the hard disk (similar to internet caches)
⚫ Most computers hold 4 slots for RAM
ROM (Read-Only Memory)
⚫ Contains firmware instructions and boot information (BIOS)
about the computer, not even the operating system.
⚫ Hardware specific, can’t modify it
Video Card
⚫ Creates the images you see on your monitor
⚫ Motherboards come with integrated video
hardware with basic stuff, but a video card is like an
expansion pack and lets you render more
demanding visuals, video encoding, and TV/multi-
monitor output
⚫ Has its own RAM and processor
Sound Card
⚫ Takes sound information and feeds to the speakers
⚫ Like the video card except for audio
⚫ Sound capacity is also built in, but a sound card facilitates
the audio output from software, like audio file conversion
and audio/video editing
Ethernet Card
⚫ Connects a computer to a network (either a local network or the
internet- Ethernet, Wi-Fi, LAN, etc.)
⚫ Every Ethernet network controller has a unique 48-bit serial
number called a MAC address (kind of like an IP address),
which is stored in its own personal ROM.
⚫ Many modern motherboards have these built in now
Optical Drive (CD/DVD drive)
⚫ Called the “optical drive” because it uses optical lens to
guide the laser light that reads and writes CDs and DVDs
(and now Blu-Ray)
⚫ DVD players are optical drives forTV
⚫ Will probably be obsolete soon
Power Supply
⚫ Pretty straight-forward- takes in electricity from the wall
through a cord, those electrons power the other
components and some are diverted to store data
⚫ Surprisingly big and heavy in desktop computers
⚫ Most modern desktop computer power supplies are ATX
(Advanced Technology eXtended), and are turned on/off
by a switch on the motherboard
Fan
⚫ Some electrical power is converted into heat, but too much
heat can cause hardware failures!
⚫ So we use fans to flush out the hot air and cool it down. Items such
as the CPU and video card may have their own little fans too.
More!!!
⚫I/O devices
⚫Monitor
⚫A few fun things
Input Devices
⚫ Let you interact with the computer. Gives the computer
information.
⚫ Two most basic input devices: mouse and keyboard
More Input Devices
Network USB
Optical drive
Webcam Microphon Scanner
Camera
e
Output Devices
⚫ How the computer communicates back to you and gives
you information
Monitors
Old monitors
were big and
bulky because
they used a
cathode ray
tube to display
color
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT):
A vacuum tube containing an
electron gun, a fluorescent
screen, and a mechanism to
accelerate or deflect the
electron beam.
Newer Monitors
⚫ LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) uses a thin layer of liquid crystal
⚫ When we apply a current to these crystals, each one changes its
alignment.
⚫ Each pixel is broken down into 3
subpixels with red, blue, and green
color filters. With careful
manipulation of the voltage, each
subpixel can range over 256
shades, giving us 16.8 million
possible colors!
Cases & Stickers
⚫ Just pictures of really cool cases that you can personalize.
Stickers for laptops. Not hardware just awesome
Chip Art
⚫ Easter eggs for hardware
⚫ So tiny it can only be seen with a microscope!
Thanks
