Computer

A programmable electronic machine

that performs high-speed
mathematical or logical operations or
that assembles, stores, correlates, or
otherwise processes information.
Computer Hardware
 The Basic Structure of A Computer
System Consists of Three Parts
1. CPU
Performs arithmetic and logic operations
2. INPUT – OUTPUT DEVICES (Peripherals)
Keyboard, Monitor, Modem, Mouse, Joystick,
Speakers, Printers, etc.
3. MEMORY
Primary – directly accessible by the CPU.
Secondary – external memory for storing data.
 Computer Hardware
The physical components of a
computer system, such as the
circuit boards, chassis, enclosures,
peripherals, cables, etc.

It does not include data or

computer programs.
Overview of Computer Hardware
• Motherboard
• CPU
• RAM
• Harddisk
• CD-ROM
• Floppy Disk
• Display Card
• Sound Card
• LAN Card
 Computer Diagram
The Block Diagram as shown below is a representation of
the fundamental pieces of any computer system. So
whether it is a PC or MAC or some other type of computer
it will have most if not all of these components.
 Main Memory
• Storage media installed on the motherboard
– store data and instruction to be executed by the
CPU
• Main memory is classified into
– RAM
– ROM
– CMOS
 ROM
• ROM – Read Only Memory
• ROM is non-volatile
– Data are stored permanently
– Data can only be read but cannot be
changed
• Store instructions and tells the
computer how to load the operations
system when booting up
– Basic Input/Output System (BIOS)
 CMOS
• Complementary Metal Oxide
• holds information about the system and
its peripherals even while the system is
powered off
• example the user set value on the clock
is retained even after the power is
turned off
 CMOS
• CMOS - Complementary Metal-Oxide
Semiconductor Memory
• It has the characteristics of both ROM
and RAM, ie:
– it is non-volatile
– information in CMOS can be changed
• In computer, CMOS stores the
configuration information about a
computer like capacity of the hard disk
and the current time and date.
 Computer Hardware
RAM ROM
(Random Access Memory) (Read Only Memory)

Short term memory in a A small memory that

computer. When the allows fast access to
computer is turned off, all permanently stored data
the information stored but prevents addition to or
here disappears. A modification of the data.
memory device in which
information can be
accessed in any order.
Computer Hardware

RAM ROM
 Computer Hardware

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

or
Microprocessor
Central Processing Unit
 CPU
• A CPU consists of two parts, the ALU
and the CU.
• Both the ALU and the CU contains
registers, which are
– high-speed memory
– temporarily hold data and instructions
during processing.
CPU Performance depends on…
• Clock rate
– the speed at which the CPU can execute
an instruction.
– unit is Hertz (Hz).
 CPU Performance depends
• Cache Memory
on…
– memory that is placed inside the CPU.
– it is random access memory (RAM) that a
microprocessor can access more quickly than it
can access main memory.
– acts as an intermediate between registers and the
main memory.
– it stores some frequently accessed data so it
shorten the time of accessing the RAM.
– increasing the size of the cache memory will
greatly improve the overall performance of the
computer system.
 Different kind of CPU
• Intel
– Celeron Common features
– Pentium 4 Clock rate > 2GHz
– Xeon
• AMD
Differences
– Duron
Word Size
– Athlon XP
Cache Memory Size
– Sempron
Front Side Bus
– Athlon 64
No. of transistors
 Computer Hardware

The CPU is usually protected

from Heat by a
Heatsink and Fan combination
Fan and Heat Sink
Motherboards
 Overview
• You will learn to

– Explain how motherboards work

– Identify the types of motherboards

– Explain chipset varieties

– Upgrade and install motherboards

– Troubleshoot motherboard problems

 Historical/Conceptual

How Motherboards Work

 Motherboard Characteristics
• Form factor defines
– Size of the motherboard
– General location of components and parts

• Chipset defines
– Type of processor and RAM supported

• Built-in components
– With a built-in NIC, extra NIC not needed
 Layers of the PCB
• Motherboards are officially printed
circuit boards (PCBs)

– PCBs come in multiple layers with

highways of wires (bus systems) in
the layers

– These highways of wires are called

traces

• Boards are standardized

so that they can fit in cases
 The AT Form Factor
• IBM invented the AT form factor in the
early ’80s
– Lasted through mid ’90s
– Currently obsolete
– Large keyboard socket, split power socket
(P8/P9)
– Baby AT was smaller version

• Alternatives were
– LPX
– NLX
ATX Motherboard Parts
 ATX Form Factor
• Created in 1995
– About same size as Baby AT
– Had many ports accessible from rear of PC
including mini-DIN
– RAM was closer to Northbridge and CPU for
better performance
– Uses the soft power feature to turn PC on and
off through software
 ATX Spin Offs
• MicroATX and FlexATX two smaller
versions of ATX
– Many techs and Web sites use the term mini-
ATX to describe these boards
– Cases need to be matched to motherboards
– Can’t put a larger motherboard into a smaller
case
– Case manufacturers have made
accommodations for smaller
motherboards in larger cases
 ATX Spin-offs
• BTX (Balanced Technology Extended)
– Due to heat, cooler form factors needed

• Three subtypes of BTX

– BTX designed to replace ATX
– microBTX designed to replace microATX
– picoBTX designed to replace FlexATX

• Proprietary form factors

– Unique to a specific company
– Don’t follow standards and drive purchase to
that company
Chipsets
 Chipsets
• A chipset defines
– The processor type
– Type and capacity of RAM
– What internal and external devices the
motherboard will support
– Serves as an electronic interface among the
CPU, RAM, and I/O devices

• Most modern chipsets have two primary

chips
– Northbridge
– Southbridge
 North

South

CSC 370 (Blum) 34

 Chipset
• The main components of the computer
(processor, memory, cache, etc.) plug into the
motherboard and communicate via the
chipset.
• The chipset determines which type of
processor can be used, how fast a processor,
how much memory, what type of memory, and
so on.
• The chipset’s function are typically broken
into two sets, one handled by the
Northbridge and the other handled by the
Southbridge.
 Northbridge
• The Northbridge handles the high-speed, high-
volume data communication between the CPU,
cache, memory and AGP (accelerated graphics
port). That is it helps the CPU work with RAM
(on Intel-based systems)
• Since the Northbridge manages the processor-
memory interaction (the front-side bus
bottleneck), its performance is critical.
• The Northbridge determines the FSB speed.
Typically the processor operates at a
multiplicative factor (the CPU multiplier) of the
FSB speed.
– It uses synchronous memory, recall SDRAM.
 Southbridge
• The Southbridge allows communication
with a greater variety of slower devices. It
connects to the secondary buses – USB,
IDE, PS/2, Ethernet.
– Sits between expansion slots and EIDE and
FDD controllers
– Also called the I/O Controller Hub (ICH5) or
peripheral bus controller
• Since it handles accessing the hard disk,
the Southbridge manages a bottleneck of
its own, especially for memory-intensive
applications.
 Chipset Chips
• Not always called Northbridge and
Southbridge

• Intel-based motherboards may refer to

them as

– Memory controller hub (MCH) for Northbridge

– I/O controller hub (ICH) for Southbridge

 Northbridge
• Older
Northbridge
functions
– Worked
similar
on Intel

• Newer
Northbridge
functions
– Only AMD
 Chipset Schematic

• Schematic of
an older
chipset
 Chipset Schematic

• Schematic of
an modern
chipset
 Many Makers of PC Chipsets
• Intel

• VIA

• AMD

• SiS

• Ali

• NVIDIA
 Intel Chipsets

Chipset North- South- CPU RAM

bridge bridge

Intel 8295X 82801 LGA 775 Core 2 Dual-channel DDR2

975X MCH GB ICH, Extreme, Core 2 up to 8 GB
Express 82801 Due, Pentium 4,
GR ICH, Pentium 4 with
82801 HT, Pentium D
GDH ICH
Intel 82P965 P965 All LGA775 Dual-channel DDR2
P965 GMCH ICH8 up to 8 GB
Express

Intel 82910G ICH6 or Pentium 4 with DDR up to 2 GB

9100GL GMCH ICH6R HT, Celeron D
Express
 NVIDIA Chipsets
Chipset North- South- CPU RAM
bridge bridge

NVIDIA nForce4 1 Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, 2

nForce-4 Sempron
NVIDIA nForce 1 Intel LGA 775, Core 2 Dual-
SL1 Intel 570 SL1 Extreme, Core 2 Duo, channel
Pentium D, Pentium 4, DDR2
Celeron D
NVIDIA nForce 1 Atlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, 2
nForce 590 590 SLI Athlon 64 X2
SLI AMD

1. NVIDIA doesn’t make a Northbridge/Southbridge distinction

2. Athlon has MCC built into CPU so RAM capabilities are
determined by CPU, not chipset
 VIA Chipsets

Chipset North- South- CPU RAM

bridge bridge

VIA K8 K8T900 VT8251 Opteron, Athlon

Series 64, Athlon FX,
Sempron

VIA P4 PT890 VT8237A Pentium 4, SDRAM with ECC,

Series Celeron DDR, DDR2 up to 4
GB

• Athlon has MCC built into CPU so RAM

capabilities are determined by CPU, not
chipset
 Motherboard Components
• Not all chipset features may be supported
with ports (for cost savings)

• Some motherboards may add features

– USB / FireWire

– Sound

– RAID
Upgrading and Installing
Motherboards
 Choosing a Motherboard and Case

• Modern motherboards can fit into any type

of case manufactured today
– But verify that the form factor is supported

• Be sure you have access to the

motherboard manual

• Cases come in six basic sizes: slimline,

desktop, mini-tower, mid-tower, tower, and
cube
 Options to Look for in Case
• Removable face

• Front-mounted ports

• Detachable motherboard mount

• Power supply
 Removing the Motherboard
1. Remove all the cards

2. Remove obstructing drives

3. Remove the power supply (only if

necessary)

4. Document the position for wires for the

speaker, turbo switch, turbo light

5. Unscrew the old motherboard

– The motherboard mounts to the case with
 Installing the New Motherboard
1. Install the CPU and RAM on the new motherboard before
putting it in the case

2. Mount the new motherboard in the case

3. Reinstall the hard drive(s), power supply, and so forth that

had to be removed to get the old motherboard out

4. Insert the power connections and other wires

5. Test!
 Wires, Wires, Wires

• LEDs have positive and negative connections

– They work one way;

they don’t work the
other way

– It’s okay to
experiment
IT Technician

Troubleshooting
Motherboards
 Troubleshooting Symptoms
• Catastrophic failure

– System will not boot

– Although uncommon, most motherboards will fail (if

they’re going to) within the first 30 days due to
manufacturing defects, called burn-in failure

– Electrostatic discharge is the other most common

cause

– To fix, replace the motherboard

 More Troubleshooting Symptoms
• Component failure

– Intermittent problems

– Examples include a hard drive that shows up

in CMOS but not in Windows

– Most common causes are electrical surges

and ESD
– Sometimes a BIOS upgrade may solve this
problem if the issue is lack of BIOS support
for a newer technology
 More Troubleshooting Symptoms
• Ethereal symptoms

– Things just don’t work all the time

– PC reboots itself for no apparent reason

– Blue Screens of Death

– Causes include faulty components, buggy

device drivers or application software, slight
corruption of the operating system, and power
supply problems
 Troubleshooting Techniques
• Isolate the problem by eliminating potential
factors

– If the hard drive doesn’t work, try a different

hard drive or try the same hard drive with a
different motherboard

• If the new hard drive works, you know it wasn’t the motherboard

• If the same hard drive with a different motherboard works, you can
suspect the motherboard
Motherboard
Motherboard
Motherboard
 Motherboard
• It is the main circuit board that links all
the hardware components together.
• There are many chips or IC (Integrated
Circuit) on the motherboard which
contains millions of transistors.
 Types of Bus
• System Bus
– Data transmission between CPU and the
main memory via System Bus. It is also
known as the Front Side Bus (FSB).
• Peripheral Bus
– Data transmission between main memory
and peripherals via Peripheral Bus.
 Bus Lines
• Bus line is a physical wiring that
connects the components of the
computer system on the motherboard.
 Bus Width
• It is the size of the bus lines.
• It determines the number of bits that the
computer can transmit at one time (say,
one clock cycle).
– eg: a 32-bit bus can transmit 32 bits at a
time.
– the larger the bus width, the faster the
transmission.
 Examples of Peripheral Bus
• ISA Bus
– Old sound card
– Faded out already
• PCI Bus
– For most of the interface card like
• LAN Card
• MODEM
• Sound Card
• Capture Card
 PCI
• Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
• Intel introduced the PCI bus structure pretty
much at the same time it introduced the
Pentium.
– Like the VESA bus, it interfaces with the
Northbridge so it is fast.
– It is also self-configuring.
– It allows for bus mastering.
– It was effectively free (provided automatically by
Intel).
– It allowed data bursting.
– It was scalable.
– While introduced by Intel, it works with other
processors including Machintosh.
 Bus Comparison Table

CSC 370 (Blum) 67

 PCI Card Connectors

A PCI card has 47 pins with no bus mastering and has 49 pins with bus
mastering.
PCI Slots
 Putting a card in
• Keep the card in its anti-static bag until you are
ready to insert it.
• Turn off and unplug the PC.
• If you don’t have a wrist strap to protect against
electrostatic discharge (ESD) then after
removing the card from the bag touch the PC’s
power supply. The smallest shock could ruin
the card or the motherboard.
• Insert the card straight in or at most a slight
angle.
• Screw the card to the box with a connection
screw – it keeps the card in place and can help
ground it.
 Putting a card in (Cont.)
• Close the computer, plug it in and start.
• You should get a message from the operating
system that it has detected new hardware.
• It will search for a driver and/or request that you
insert a CD with the driver.
• You may need to reboot depending on the
device.
• You should look for the new device in the device
manager to make sure there are no conflicts.
 Plug and Play
• Plug and Play (PnP) is a feature in which the
system configures a device automatically rather
than the user having to set jumpers and choose
resources, etc.
• For PnP one needs:
– A PnP BIOS
– A PnP operating system
– A PnP device
• All PCI devices are PnP
• A device which is not PnP is called a “legacy” device.
 How Plug and Play Works
• Initially the PnP devices are put on hold and
resources are assigned to legacy devices.
• Then the system starts querying the PnP
devices about the resources each wants.
• A PnP device will provide a list of resources it
could use.
– For example, it would not specify IRQ 3 but rather
specify that it could use IRQ 3 or IRQ 5 or IRQ 7.
• A file with PnP information, called the Extended
System Configuration Data (ESCD), is kept.
 AGP
• Specification developed by Intel, even
faster than PCI and more directly
connected to the Northbridge is the AGP
(Accelerated Graphics Port).
• It is dedicated to graphics. It will have its
own slot to be used only for this purpose.
 Examples of Peripheral Bus
• AGP Bus
– Designed for Display Card only

• USB Bus
– For most of the peripheral
• MP3 Player, Digital Camera
• Keyboard, Mouse
• Printer, Scanner
• etc
 Ports and Interface Cards
• The interface between peripheral
devices and the CPU.
• A port is built on the motherboard while
an interface card is inserted into slots
on the motherboard.
• Sometimes, an interface card may
become a built-in function on the
motherboard.
 Back of COMPAQ 7000

Input Terminals

Input & Output

Terminals

Input & Output

Terminals
Input & Output
Terminals
Input & Output Terminals

Most Computers have Icons and

Color Coded Connections to help
with attaching all the Required
and Optional Peripherals.
 Input & Output Terminals

Keyboard Mouse
Universal
USB
Serial Bus

Joystick
Parallel
Printer
Input & Output Terminals

Monitor
Input & Output Terminals

FireWire
IEEE 1394

Audio Inputs and

Outputs
 Input & Output Terminals
NOT for Ethernet Jack
Phone

Line for Output for

Phone Modem a Phone
Input & Output Terminals
Inside View
Cards and Drives
 Computer Hardware

RAM CPU’s Hard Floppy CD ROM

Memory Processors Motherboards Drives Drives Drives

Video
Mice Keyboards Modems Monitors Printers
Cards

Multimedia Sound Video Backup Computer Other

Speakers Cards Camera Drive Cases Equipment
 USB Flash Drives
USB flash drives are compact and easy-to-use
devices that are similar in use to your computer
hard drive. USB flash drives slip into your
pocket, conveniently around your neck or on a
keychain for ultimate portable storage.

USB flash drives also are called thumb drives,

jump drives, pen drives, key drives, tokens, or
simply USB drives.
 Hard Drive
Cover Removed
Hard Disk and Read/Write Heads
Disk Track
Adding RAM
COMPAQ 7000
 Power Input
AC Power Input

110 Volt / 220 Volt

Selection Switch
Back of Drives
DVD DRIVE
CD/RW DRIVE

ZIP DRIVE

FLOPPY DRIVE

HARD DRIVE
Cards and Drives
Expansion Cards
VIDEO CARD
FireWire CARD
1394, i.LINK

SOUND CARD

EITHERNET CARD

MODEM CARD
Power Supply
Heat Sink and Fan
on CPU
RAM Cards
?
What is This?
?
? ?
? ?
Battery
 Warning

Static Electricity can

Destroy Computer
Components