Inside a PC

Tom Kelliher, CS 102

Sept. 7, 2001

Administrivia

Announcements

Assignment

Be familiar with the following terms.

From the Word 97 Essentials text, read Projects 1 and 2 and Appendix A (Our first lab will be Project 3.).

From Last Time

Computer operation theory.

Outline

1. Important terminology.

2. PC show and tell.

Coming Up

Word exercises: Lab 3. Bring the workbook.

Important Terminology

You are responsible for being familiar with all these terms.

1. Modem --- expansion card used to connect a PC to an analog phone line so that digital data can be sent through the analog telephone network.

2. Keyboard --- primary input device.

3. Mouse --- primary pointing device.

4. Parallel port --- used for connecting a printer. A parallel port has a fixed rate for data transfer. Data is transferred eight bits at a time.

5. Parallel data --- data that is transferred several bits at a time.

6. Printer --- output device. Connects to parallel port. Two types of printers: bubble jet, laser.

7. USB port --- a high speed port which is replacing older serial and parallel ports. Some devices which can be connected to USB ports: printer, keyboard, mouse, scanner, speakers.

8. Motherboard --- the PC's main circuit board.

9. Memory SIMM --- a small circuit board which holds the PC's RAM. Plugs into the motherboard.

10. Ethernet --- Another name for the cable connecting computers into a network. Physically, we saw two types: thinwire (like cable TV cable) and 10BaseT (like a telephone cable).

11. Static discharge --- a single static discharge can destroy computer components.

12. CPU --- central processor unit. The Pentium, Pentium III, Celeron, Athlon, etc. chip. It controls the PC.

13. Bus --- a set of wires that permit data to be transferred from an I/O device to memory.

14. PCI expansion bus --- a fast expansion bus. Expansion cards (sound cards, network adapters, etc.) plug into slots on the bus.

15. AGP bus --- an extremely fast bus, used to connect the video card to memory.

16. ROM BIOS --- the integrated circuit (chip) that contains the PC's start-up program.

17. Video adapter --- the expansion card which controls the PC's monitor.

18. Monitor --- the tv-like display.

19. Sound card --- the expansion card which provides multi-media. It controls the PC's stereo speakers (not the simple one which ``beeps'' at us all the time) and will be connected to the CD-ROM drive.

20. Hard drive --- the PC's main disk drive. Uses magnetic technology.

21. Platter --- a disk with a iron oxide (rust) coating. The bits and bytes of which files are composed are stored here. The platter is rigid for a hard drive and flexible for a floppy drive.

22. Read/Write head --- an arm with a sensor at the end which reads and writes data from/to the platter. On a hard drive, the head flies above the platter. On a floppy drive, the head contacts the platter.

23. Transistor --- the simple switch from which all computer chips are constructed. It has two states: on and off. This is why all computers use the binary (0 and 1) number system.

24. Scanner --- an input device for reading an image on paper into the PC.

    CD-ROM drive --- a high capacity optical disk drive. 660MB of storage. Read-only.

25. CD-R --- a CD that you can write-to once. Often used for burning music CDs.

26. CD-RW --- a CD that you can write-to several times. CD, CD-R, and CD-RW aren't always compatible with each other. Be careful.

27. DVD --- an extremely high capacity optical disk drive. Up to 17GB of storage.

PC Show and Tell

Systems, motherboards, disk drives, floppies, SIMMS, and all sorts of goodies.