1.3 What Is in There?

 Memory  Hard disk drive  Motherboard  CPU

Memory  RAM 【隨機存取記憶體】 : A type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly 【 RAM 是電腦記憶體 之一種可隨機存取】  Memory 【記憶體】 : Internal storage areas in the computer 【電腦內部儲存區】

Memory (cont.)  Processor 【處理器】 : A part inside your computer that executes all commands 【處理器是你電腦內部之一 部分，可以執行所有的指令】

Memory (cont.)  Gigabyte (GB): 1000MB  Megabyte(MB): or almost one million bytes 【 或幾乎一百萬位元組】

Memory (cont.) An adequate amount of Random Access Memory (RAM), or simply memory, does more for your computer’s performance than processor speed. These days, 2 gigabytes(GB) of RAM is the minimum. Get 8 GB or more if you can afford it.

Memory (cont.) Many new computer systems now come with 2GB-32GB of RAM. If your computer is slow and you have only 256 or 512 megabytes ( MB ) of RAM, then you should consider adding more RAM.

Hard disk drive  Hard drive 【硬碟】 : The storage area inside your computer 【你電腦內部儲存區】  Kilo 【千】 : 1000  mega 【百萬】 : 1000kilo 或 10 6  Tera 【十億】 : 1000Giga or 10 12

Hard disk drive (cont.) () ( ) Most new desktop machines come with at least 250 gigabytes ( GB ) of hard drive ( sometimes called hard disk drive ) space. If you are using your computer just for Internet access, then this is enough.

Hard disk drive (cont.) If you are using your computer for other purposes, such as movie editing or other memory consuming tasks, then you might want to consider larger disk space.

Hard disk drive (cont.) () The hard disk drive (HDD) in your system is the “data center” of the PC. It is here that all of your programs and data are stored when you use the computer.

Hard disk drive (cont.) () ( ) Your hard disk (or disks) is/are the most important of the various types of permanent storage used in PCs (the others being floppy disks and other storage media such as CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, tapes, removable drives and USB flash drives).

Hard disk drive (cont.) (), () nce ( ). The hard disk differs from the other storage devices primarily in three ways: size ( usually larger ), speed ( usually faster ) and permanence ( usually fixed in the PC and not removable ).

Hard disk drive (cont.) Hard disk devices are almost as amazing as microprocessors in terms of the technology they use and how much progress they have made in terms of capacity, speed, and price in the last 20 years.

Hard disk drive (cont.) () () () The first PCs hard disks had a capacity of 10 megabytes (MB) and a cost of over $100 ( NT$ 3,400 ) per MB. Newer hard disks have capacities approaching 100 terabytes ( TB ) and a cost of less than 1 cent ( NT$ 0.3 ) per MB!

Hard disk drive (cont.)  RPM : Revolution Per Minute 【每 分鐘轉速】  Revolution 【革命、旋轉】

Hard disk drive (cont.) This represents an improvement of 100,000,000% (one hundred million %) in just less than 25 years, or around 67% improvement per year.

Hard disk drive (cont.) That is 67% improvement every year for the past 25 years! Isn’t that amazing? At the same time, the speed of the hard disk has increased dramatically as well.

Hard disk drive (cont.) () () HDDs are measured by their capacity in terabyte (TB) or gigabyte (GB) and their speed in revolutions per minute or RPM. That means the speed that the hard disk spins.

Motherboard () The motherboard is a complex printed circuit board (PCB), and is the central part of many electronic systems, particularly the computer. It is also known as mainboard, system board, logic board (Apple Computers) or in short mobo.

Motherboard (cont.) The basic purpose of the motherboard is to provide the electrical and logical connections for the other components of the system to communicate.

Motherboard (cont.) () A desktop computer is built with a CPU, graphics video card, sound card, hard disk controller, memory (RAM), and other essential components on the motherboard.

Motherboard (cont.) Motherboards are NOT specific to computers. You can also find them in mobile phones, clocks, stop watches, electronic toys, etc.

Motherboard (cont.) Motherboards include components of a computer such as microprocessors, main memory, and the interfaces between CPU and other external components.

Motherboard (cont.) A few things that motherboards nowadays include are: 1.Sockets for microprocessors 2.Slots where RAM, graphic card, and other components are installed 3.Memory controller hub

Motherboard (cont.) () 4.Input/Output ( I/O ) hub to help the interface between CPU, RAM and Peripheral Component Interconnect ( PCI ) buses () 5.Basic Input/Output System ( BIOS ) 6.Expansion card slots, etc

Motherboard (cont.) If you have time and you are interested, it is not too difficult to build your own computer.

CPU (central processing unit) () The central processing unit (CPU) is the “brain” of the computer and is responsible for accepting data from input devices, processing the data into information, and transferring the information to memory and output devices.

CPU (cont.) The CPU is organized into the following three major sections: ()  Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)  Control Unit  Registers

CPU (cont.) It should be noted that nowadays the terms microprocessor and CPU are used interchangeably.

CPU (cont.) Technically, if the control unit, registers, and ALU are packaged into one integrated circuit (IC), then the unit is called a microprocessor, otherwise the unit is called a CPU.

CPU (cont.) Just as the architecture of a building defines its overall design and function, so computer architecture defines the design and functionality of a computer system.

CPU (cont.) The components of microcomputers are designed to interact with one another, and this interaction plays an important role in the overall system operations.