Integrated Circuit

Integrated Circuits play a very important part in electronics. Most are specially made for a specific task and contain up to thousands of transistors, diodes and resistors. Special purposes IC's such as audio-amplifiers, FM radios, logic blocks, regulators and even a whole Micro Computer in the form of a micro controller can be fitted inside a tiny package.  

                                                     

                                                                   

Front Side Bus Or System Bus

The bus that connects the CPU to Main Memory on the Mother board. I/O buses, which connect the CPU with the systems other components, branch off of the system bus.

The system bus is also called the front side bus, memory bus, local bus, or host bus.

North Bridge

The North bridge is the chip or chips that connect a CPU to Memory, the PCI Bus, Level 2 cache and AGP activities. The North bridge chips communicate with the CPU through the FSB.

The North bridge chip is one of two chips that control the functions of the chip set. The other is the South Bridge. The  can consist of more than one discrete chip while the South bridge is typically only one discrete chip.

Switch Mode Power Supply

“SWITCH-MODE POWER SUPPLY” is work of four types.

1.     ac-dc conversion called rectification

2.     ac-ac conversion ,

3.     dc-ac conversion and

4.     dc-dc conversion.

1.     A switch mode power dc output voltage using a circuit known as Buck Converter or Step-Down SMPS,

2.     step up an unregulated dc input voltage to produce a regulated dc output voltage using a circuitknown as Boost Converter or Step-Up SMPS,

3.     step up or step down an unregulated dc input voltage to produce a regulated dc output voltage ,

4.     invert the input dc voltage using usually a circuit such as the Cuk converter, and

5.     produce multiple dc outputs using a circuit such as the fly-back converter.

A switch mode power supply is a widely used circuit nowadays and it is used in a system such as a computer, television  receiver, battery charger etc. The switching frequency is usually above 20 kHz, so that the noise produced by it is above the audio range. It is also used to provide a variable dc voltage to armature of a dc motor in a variable speed drive. It is used in a high-frequency unity-power factor circuit. 
  

Processor

Processor Packaging

• Present time commonly used processor form factors are the pin grid array (PGA) processor packaging and the Single Edge Contact Cartridge (SECC).
• PGA processors plug directly into the motherboard using zero-insertion-force (ZIF) sockets.
• SECC cartridges are mounted into an integrated circuit board or “slot” on the motherboard.

Intel Processors

• MMX was introduced with the Pentium processor and consists of 57 processor instructions geared specifically toward the improvement of sound and video processing. Table A-10 lists additional characteristics of Intel processors.

 Summary of Intel Processors

Processor	Form Factor	Voltage	Speeds	L1 Cache (KB)	L2 Cache (KB)	Socket
Pentium	273- or 296-pin      PGA	3.3 or 5	60–233 MHz	16	256–512 (On motherboard)	Socket 4, 5, or 7
Pentium Pro	387-pin PGA	3.1 or 3.3	150–200 MHz	16	256–1 MB (Integrated cache)	Socket 8
Pentium II	242-pin SEC	3.3	233–400 MHz	32	512 (Integrated cache)	Slot 1
Pentium III	242-pin SECC or 370-pin PGA	1.3–2.05	450 MHz– 1.3 GHz and higher	32	256–512 (Integrated cache)	Slot 1 or PGA 370
Celeron	SEPP or 370-pin PGA	1.3–2.05	Up to 2.2 GHz	16–32	0–512	Socket 370, Slot 1
Pentium 4	478-pin or 423-pin PGA	1.1–1.8	1.7–2.8 GHz	8	256–512	PGA 478 or PGA 423
Itanium	Slot M	1.7	733–800 MHz	32	96	Slot M

AMD Processors

• K6-II Are available in a variety of clock speeds up to 550 MHz. The K6-II provided support for 3DNow! and used a Socket7/Super7 motherboard interface. All K6-II processors use 3.3 volts.
• K6-III Offers 64-KB L1 cache and a full-speed 256-KB L2 cache. Designed to fit into a Socket7/Super7 motherboard, the K6-III supports a 100-MHz bus speed and comes with 3DNow! support.
• Duron The Duron processor is currently available in speeds up to 1.3 GHz. The Duron includes a 128-KB L1 cache and a 64-KB L2 cache, which is synchronized to the processor speed and supports 3DNow! and SIMD instruction sets, providing increased capabilities in graphic and audio applications.
• Athlon The Athlon utilizes Socket A motherboard connections. The Athlon has 128 KB of L1 cache and 256 KB of L2 cache, all of which runs at full CPU speed.
• AMD processors, all the way to the recent AMD K6-III, continue to utilize the original socket 7 form factor.

Cyrix Processors

• The 6x86-P Cyrix processors ranged from 120 to 200 MHz, and functioned at roughly the same speeds as the Pentium equivalents. Cyrix still makes a few lower-end CPUs such as the Cyrix M-II, which like the AMD processors, uses a socket 7 form factor. Another Cyrix processor, the VIA C3, uses a Socket 370 ZIF socket.

Intel Hub Architecture

Short for "Intel Hub Architecture" IHA is the replacement for the north bridge and south bridge found on computer motherboard.   The IHA is found on all of Intel's 800 series chip sets, and much like the processor, the IHA has two ports, the GMCH and the ICH.

GMCH (Graphic Memory Control Hub)-  The GMCH or graphic and AGP Memory control Hub for short is similar to the north bridge and helps control the AGP and memory.

ICH (Intel Control Hub)-  The ICH or I/O controller hub for short is similar to the South bridge and is responsible for the I/O ports and PCI controller.

South Bridge

The south bridge is an integrated circuit on the Motherboard that is responsible for the hard-drive controller I/O controller and integrated hardware such as sound card video card if present on the motherboard USB PCI IDE BIOS and Ethernet.  The south bridge gets its name for common being south of the PCI bus.

      Although the south bridge handles a lot of the I/O devices, slower and less prominent input/output devices, such ass the serial port keyboard, and Non USB Mouse are handed by the super Input/Output.

Note:     Some newer chip set are combing the south bridge and super I/O chip in o a single chip and reffering to this chip as the super south bridge chip.  some manufacturers such as Nvida and SIS have ever combined the north bridge south bridge and super Input/Output in to a single chip.

Memory

Random Access Memory is an essential part of every PC system RAM stores information temporarily so that it can be used and accessed by the components of the system.

         When working with RAM there are two distinct types that you will encounter.  Static RAM (SRAM)
and dynamic RAM .  SRAM is costly then DRAM is used for cache memory in systems.  DRAM which has become very affordable in recent years, is now cheap enough to make it possible to use it in large quantities in PC system.

SIMM(Single Inline Memory Module)-   There are two type of SIMMs 30-pin and 72-pin.  The 30-pin units, which were introduced first transfer data 8 bit at a time.  The 72- pin SIMMs transfer data 32 bits at a time.  The 72-Pin SIMMs apart from having 42 pin is 1.25 inches longer then the 30-pin SIMMs at 4.25 inches.

DIMM(Dynamic Inline Memory Module)-  Most DIMMs have 168- pin are installed vartically and are secured by cache that engage the module at each end.  DIMM use a 64 bits data bus.  DDR SD RAM uses 184-pin DIMMs.

MEMORY TYPE-

Fast Page Mode RAM-  FPM use a 25-Mhz clock rae and a maximum bandwidth of 200 Mbps.  FPM RAM employs sophisticated method of locating data within RAM.

Extended Out Data Out RAM-  EDO RAM is suppor s a clock rae of 40 MHz and a maximum bandwidth of 320 Mbps.

Synchronous DRAM-  SD RAM comes in variety of speeds so that the memory canbe purchased to match the speed of the system bus in which it will be installed, curently SD RAM is available in PC66 PC 100 and PC133 versions.  These versions offer the same data rates as their names and offer 528 Mbps 800 Mbps and 1.1 Gbps for PC100 and 2.1 Gbps for PC 133.

Ram Bus DRAM-  RDRAM was brought to the PC memory market through a joint venture between RAM bus and Intel.  RD RAM operates at up to 800 MHz and has a maximum bandwidth of 1.6 Gbps.  RDRAM acchieves these very high lavels data through put by using a system called double clocking.

VRAM-  Video RAM is specilized memory that is use for video card and not as part of the system's main memory VRAM is known as duel- ported memory because it is able o write both of its input/output (I/O) ports at the same times.  This allow to simultaneously refresh the screen while text and images are drawn in memory.

WRAM-  Window RAM is used to inhanced video performance. Also like VRAM WRAM can be written to and read from simultaneously and is much faster then its predecessor, VRAM.

SG RAM-   Synchronous graphics RAM (SG RAM) is used on video cards to increase graphics performance.

IDE Connector(Integrate Device Electronics)

Now-a-days floppy drive and IDE connectors are built directly on the motherboard.  Most board will typically have slots for two IDE connections, primary and secondry is used for secondary ROM.  The floppy drive connector is usually located close to the IDE connectors.  

Complementry Metal Oxide Semiconductor

On each every Motherboard there is a CMOS battery responsible for providing power to the CMOS battery responsible for providing power to the CMOS so that it can retain the system settings When power off.  On older motherboard and not easily changed.  Modern motherboard include an easy to replace 3 volt watch  type battery.  Locating the CMOS Battery on any board is not a difficult task.

Expension Slots

Expansion Slots is a slots located inside a computer on the motherboard or raiserboard that allows additional board to be connected to it.  For example  if you wanted to install a new video card and install that card into the compatible expansion slots.

AGP Slots (Accelerated Graphic Port)-  AGP is a advance port designed for video cards and 3D accelerators.  Design by Intel and introduced in August 1997.  AGP introduce point to point channel that allow the graphics controller direct access the system memory.  Below is an  illustration of what the AGP slot may look like on your motherboard.

AMR- AMR(Audio-Modem Raiser)is sort for Audio/Modem raiser and allows OEMs to make one card that has the funstionality of either modem or audio or both audio or modem on one card.

CNR(Communication and Network Raiser)-  Short of Communication and Network Raiser is a specification that support audio modem USB and Local Area Networking Interface of core logic Chipset.
The technology and the CNR slots was first introduce by 'Intel" February 7 2002 and was mainly developed by leading Hardware and Software developers who helped released the AMR (Audio Modem Raiser).  Today this slots is no longer found on motherboard.
MCA(Micro Channel Architucture)-  The MCA bus was first to offer a 32 bit bus and was inended to replace the older AT-ISA  16-bit bus .  Although it did improve on the 16 bit bus,MCA was made to be in compatible withISA cords, and this perhaps was one of the reasons why it never really caught on.

EISA(Extended Industry Standard Architucture)-  The EISA bus was designed to compatible with the older ISA Expension cards meaning that both the origional 8 bit and 16 bit interface card worked in the EISA slots.  EISA Slots were used primarily in 80386 and 80486 computer and are not seen in our modem computer.

VL BUS(Visa Local Bus)-  The Visa Local Bus was used primary with the 386 and 4967 types of Computers, and it was designed for used in systems with a single processor.  The VL Bus enhanced the performance of high speed devices such as video controllers.  In terms of performance running at an unprecedented 33 MHz.  the VL Bus represented significant improvements over the older ISA bus.

PCI(Peripheral Component Interconnect)-  The PCI Bus is used in both PC and makintosh Computers and like the VL Bus provide a high-speed data path between peripheral devices and the CPU.  The PCI bus supports 33bits and 64bits data path using bus mastering additional features of the PCI bus include support for plug- and-play devices and for sharing of IRQs, helping to allviate the prlblem of the limied number of IRQs available on a system.

PCIX(Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended)-   The PCIx bus promises to be backward compatible with older PCI devices.  Using a 64bit data path and running at a clock speed of 133 MHz, the PCIx bus increase transfer speed from 132 Mbps to rather impressive 1 gigabyte per second.

Computer's Motherboard

The Motherboard is a printed circuit board that is the foundation of the computer and allow the CPU RAM and all other computer hardware components to function and communicate with each other of four type.

XT MOTHERBOARD-  XT stand for extended technology there are all old model Motherboard.  In this motherboard we find old model processor socket LIF (low insertion force) sockets, RAM slots DIMMs and ISA (Industry standard Architecture) slots, 12 pin Power Connector Port.
   
     They have slot type processor Dimms Memory Modules, ISA slots for add - on - cord, and no port.
There are connectors and add-on-cords for ports.

     EXAMPLE-   Pentium1 , PentiumMMX, PentiumII,

AT MOTHERBOARD- At stand for smart technology advance technology motherboard have PGA(Pin Grid Array) socket. SD slots and ISA slots we find above components on AT Motherboard.
 
     EXAMPLE-  PentiumIII

BABY AT MOTHERBOARD- Baby AT Motherboard have the combination of XT and AT Motherboard.  They have both slots type processor socket SD RAM slots and DDR RAM salots, PCI slots and ISA slots, 12 pin power connector on ports.

    EXAMPLE- Pentium III and Pentium V

ATX MOTHERBOARD- ATX stand for Advance technology extended latest motherboard all are called as ATX Motherboard design by ATX form factors.  In this motherboard we find MPGA processor sockets DDR RAM slots PCI slots AGP slots, primary and secondary IDE interface SATA (Serial Advance Technology Attachment) Connector 20 pin and 24 pin ATX power connector and ports.

computer

Modern computers are electronics and digital.  The actual machinery-wire transistors, and circuits is called hardware the instructions and data are called software.

 All general-purpose computers require the following hardware components.