1. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE Version 2 – 13 March 2000 2 - HARDWARE 2

2. System Unit Box Expansion slots Expansion Cards Ports Serial & Parallel Ports Video Port Keyboard Socket Circuit Boards Power Supply Motherboard Disk Drives Firmware Transformer Ribbon Cables Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

3. Connectors The part of a cable that plugs into a port or interface to connect one device to another. Most connectors are either male (containing one or more exposed pins) or female (containing holes in which the male connector can be inserted). Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

4. Connectors Can be male (pins) or female (socket) Monitors (D9p or s) Printers (D25s) Mouse (D5s or D9s) Keyboards 9 – 15 – 25 pins Macquarie Fields College of TAFE Keyboard Network Monitor

5. Printed Circuit Boards Macquarie Fields College of TAFE Sometimes abbreviated PCB, a thin plate on which chips and other electronic components are placed. Computers consist of one or more boards, often called cards or adapters. Circuit boards fall into the following categories:

6. Printed Circuit Boards Macquarie Fields College of TAFE Motherboard: The principal board that has connectors for attaching devices to the bus. Typically, the mother board contains the CPU, memory, and basic controllers for the system. Expansion board: Any board that plugs into one of the computer's expansion slots. Expansion boards include controller boards, LAN cards, and video adapters.

7. Printed Circuit Boards Macquarie Fields College of TAFE Daughtercard : Any board that attaches directly to another board. Controller board: A special type of expansion board that contains a controller for a peripheral device. Network Interface Card (NIC) : An expansion board that enables a PC to be connected to a local-area network (LAN). Video adapter: An expansion board that contains a controller for a graphics monitor.

8. Power Supply When you hit the On switch, one little burst of electricity – only about five volts – starts a string of events that magically brings to life your computer Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

9. Motherboard Motherboard, main circuit board containing the primary components of a computer system. This board contains the processor, main memory, support circuitry, and bus controller and connector. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

10. Motherboard On most PCs, it is possible to add memory chips directly to the motherboard. You may also be able to upgrade to a faster CP by replacing the CPU chip. To add additional core features, you may need to replace the motherboard entirely. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

11. Disk Drives A systems unit can contain a variety of disk drives such as: Floppy drive Hard drive Zip drive CD-ROM drive DVD-ROM drive Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

12. Firmware (ROM) Software (programs or data) that has been written onto read-only memory (ROM). Firmware is a combination of software and hardware. ROMs, and PROMs that have data or programs recorded on them are firmware. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

13. Firmware (ROM) ROM is an acronym for read-only memory, computer memory on which data has been prerecorded. Unlike main memory (RAM), ROM retains its contents even when the computer is turned off. Most personal computers contain a small amount of ROM that stores critical programs such as the program that boots the computer. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

14. Firmware (BIOS) Pronounced "bye-ose," an acronym for basic input/output system. The BIOS is built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk. The BIOS is typically placed in a ROM chip that comes with the computer. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

15. Firmware (BIOS) The BIOS makes it possible for a computer to boot itself. Many modern PCs have a flash BIOS. The PC BIOS is fairly standardised, so all PCs are similar at this level (although there are different BIOS versions). Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

16. Firmware (BIOS) PC BIOSes that can handle Plug-and- Play (PnP) devices are known as PnP BIOSes, or PnP-aware BIOSes. These BIOSes are always implemented with flash memory rather than ROM. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

17. Transformer Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

18. Ribbon Cables A flat, thin cable containing many parallel wires. Because of their shape, ribbon cables are ideal for situations where space needs to be conserved. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

19. Keyboard Socket Macquarie Fields College of TAFE Female Keyboard, Audio, MIDI Connector 9 Pin PS/2 Female Keyboard/Mouse

20. Expansion Slots A socket inside a computer, designed to hold expansion boards and connect them to the bus. Most personal computers have from three to eight expansion slots. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE Bus

21. Expansion Cards A printed circuit board that you can insert into a computer to give it added capabilities. For example, all of the following are expansion boards: video adapters graphics accelerators sound cards accelerator boards internal modems Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

22. Expansion Cards Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

23. Expansion Cards – Video Adapter A board that plugs into a personal computer to give it display capabilities. The display capabilities of a computer, however, depend on both the logical circuitry (provided in the video adapter) and the display monitor. A monochrome monitor, for example, cannot display colours no matter how powerful the video adapter. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

24. Ports An interface on a computer to which you can connect a device. Personal computers have various types of ports. Internally, there are several ports for connecting disk drives, display screens, and keyboards. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE PS/2 Port and Port Cable

25. Serial Ports Serial Ports are like a single-lane tunnel. Information fed to it has to squeeze through the port a single bit at a time. Here, the ASCII code for the letter A is sent 1 bit at a time through the port. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

26. Parallel Ports Parallel ports are like tunnels with almost the same number of lanes as the highway that feeds them. Information flows through faster since there is little or no constriction. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

27. Video Port This picture shows a video card with port containing connections to a camcorder, antenna, stereo, TV, VCR, and PC Monitor. Macquarie Fields College of TAFE