1. Hardware Lesson 3
Inside your computer

2. Hardware Review Motherboard Processor / CPU Bus Bios chip Memory
Hard drive
Video Card
Sound Card
Monitor/printer
Ports

3. Software Software = Computer Program = Instructions
Allow you to use your computer
Without software, the computer is useful as a planter

4. Computer memory BIOS (flash memory) Read Only Memory (ROM)
Random Access Memory (RAM)
chips on motherboard
open files
Virtual (part of your OS)
pagefile.sys
Video
graphics and games

5. Memory facts
Stored in KB (kilobytes), MB (megabytes), GB (gigabytes), TB (terabytes)
One MB ~ 1 million memory locations
A memory location (byte) stores one character
So, 512 MB will store about 512 million characters.
One MB can store about 500 pages of text information

6. Booting order 1, 2, 3 . . . BIOS Operating System Utilities
Windows or Linux
OS X on an Apple
UNIX on a Sun station
Utilities
AntiVirus software
Internet security
Application software

7. BIOS Stores date and time Basic hardware settings
Memory and hard drive info
Disk boot order
Boot password
Etc.

8. BIOS entry screen

10. BIOS boot disk setup

11. BIOS advanced setup

12. BIOS
More info

13. Operating System
Loads drivers (small software applications) to run all the hardware in your computer
Video drivers
Printer drivers
Mouse and keyboard drivers
Etc.

14. Operating Systems
Windows Products
Linux.org
Apple Software
Unix

15. Using Software
When you open an application, memory must be used to store the program that’s running and the file you have open.
Open files are stored in RAM chips.
Physical chips
Temporary storage of files and instructions
When files are too big to fit in RAM, the excess goes to Virtual Memory (on the hard drive).
The video is stored in Video memory, often in special chips on the Video card.

16. Creating Files Sometimes you don’t need to save … Listing to music
Playing games
Surfing the Net
When you do need to save a file, you must select a storage device.
In this class, you will save to your number; your personal drive on the school network.
At home, you probably save to the C drive; the hard disk in your computer.

17. Storage devices Can be internal or external Measured in:
Size (MB, GB, TB)
Speed (mHz)
Hard drive (contains disk)
Floppy
CD/DVD
Flash – static devices (no moving parts)
Floppy disk image from

18. Hardware Lesson 3
Inside your computer