Central processing unit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"CPU" redirects here. For other uses, see CPU (disambiguation).

An Intel 80486DX2 CPU from above

An Intel 80486DX2 from bottom

The central processing unit (CPU) is the portion of acomputer system that carries out the instructions of acomputer program, and is the primary element carrying out the functions of the computer or other processing device. The central processing unit carries out each instruction of the program in sequence, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. This term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s. [1] The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed dramatically since the earliest examples, but their fundamental operation remains much the same. Early CPUs were custom-designed as a part of a larger, sometimes one-of-a-kind, computer. However, this costly method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely given way to the development of massproduced processors that are made for one or many purposes. This standardization trend generally began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has rapidly accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit (IC). The IC has allowed increasingly complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order of nanometers. Both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence of these digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in everything from automobiles to cell phones and children's toys.
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1 History 2 The control unit 2.1 Discrete transistor and integrated circuit CPUs 2.2 Microprocessors 3 Operation 4 Design and implementation 4.1 Integer range 4.2 Clock rate 4.3 Parallelism 4.3.1 Instruction level parallelism 4.3.2 Thread-level parallelism 4.3.3 Data parallelism 5 Performance 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References

9 External links

"RAM" redirects here. For other uses of the word, see Ram (disambiguation).

Example of writable volatile random-access memory: Synchronous Dynamic RAM modules, primarily used as main memory in personal computers,workstations, and servers. Computer memory types Volatile DRAM (e.g., DDR SDRAM) SRAM In development T-RAM Z-RAM TTRAM Historical Delay line memory Selectron tube Williams tube Non-volatile ROM PROM EPROM EEPROM Flash memory Early stage FeRAM MRAM PRAM In development CBRAM SONOS RRAM Racetrack memory NRAM Millipede Historical Drum memory Magnetic core memory Plated wire memory Bubble memory Twistor memory

Random-access memory (RAM) is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form ofintegrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in bursts, although the name DRAM / RAM has stuck. However, many types of SRAM, ROM, OTP, and NOR flash are still random access even in a strict sense. RAM is often associated with volatile types of memory (such as DRAM memory modules), where its stored information is lost if the power is removed. Many other types of non-volatile memory are RAM as well, including most types of ROM and a type of flash memory called NOR-Flash. The first RAM modules to come into the market were created in 1951 and were sold until the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, other memory devices (magnetic tapes, disks) can access the storage data in a predetermined order, because mechanical designs only allow this.
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1 History 2 Types of RAM 3 Memory hierarchy 4 Other uses of RAM 4.1 Virtual memory 4.2 RAM disk 4.3 Shadow RAM 5 Recent developments 6 Memory wall 7 See also 8 Notes and references 9 External links

CD-ROM
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CD-ROM
Media type Capacity Read mechanism Write mechanism Standard Usage Optical disc 194 MiB (8 cm) 650900 MB (12 cm) 150 KiB/s (1) 10,800 KiB/s (72) 150 KiB/s (1) 8,400 KiB/s (56) ISO/IEC 10149[1] Data storage, video, audio, open internet

Optical discs
Optical disc Optical disc drive Optical disc authoring Authoring software Recording technologies Recording modes Packet writing Optical media types Blu-ray Disc (BD): BD-R, BD-RE DVD: DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DS, DVD+R DS, DVD-RW,DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVDD, HVD, EcoDisc Compact Disc (CD): Red Book, CD-ROM,CD-R, CD-RW, 5.1 Music Disc, SACD,PhotoCD, CD Video (CDV), Video CD (VCD),SVCD, CD+G, CD-Text, CD-ROM XA, CD-i Universal Media Disc (UMD) Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD) Forward Versatile Disc (FVD) Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) HD DVD: HD DVD-R, HD DVD-RW, HD DVD-RAM High definition Versatile Multilayer Disc (HD VMD) VCDHD GD-ROM MiniDisc (MD) (Hi-MD) Laserdisc (LD) Video Single Disc (VSD) Ultra Density Optical (UDO) Stacked Volumetric Optical Disk (SVOD) Five dimensional disc (5D DVD) Nintendo optical disc (NOD) Standards Rainbow Books File systems ISO 9660 Joliet

Rock Ridge / SUSP El Torito Apple ISO 9660 Extensions Universal Disk Format (UDF) Mount Rainier See also History of optical storage media High definition optical disc format war
This box: view talk edit

A CD-ROM ( /sidirm/, an acronym of "Compact Disc Read-only memory") is a pre-pressedcompact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 Yellow Book standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data.[2] CD-ROMs are popularly used to distribute computer software, including video games and multimedia applications, though any data can be stored (up to the capacity limit of a disc). Some CDs hold both computer data and audio with the latter capable of being played on a CD player, while data (such as software or digital video) is only usable on a computer (such as ISO 9660 format PC CD-ROMs). These are called enhanced CDs. Although many people use lowercase letters in this acronym, proper presentation is in all capital letters with a hyphen between CD and ROM. At the time of the technology's introduction it had more capacity than computer hard drives common at the time. The reverse is now true, with hard drives far exceeding CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray, though some experimental descendants of it such as HVDs may have more space and faster data rates than today's biggest hard drive.
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1 Media 1.1 Standard 1.2 CD-ROM format 1.2.1 CD sector contents 1.3 Manufacture 1.4 Capacity 2 CD-ROM drives 2.1 Laser and optics 2.2 Transfer rates 3 Copyright issues 4 See also 5 References

Motherboard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board (PCB) in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard,system board, or, on Apple computers, the logic board.[1] It is also sometimes casually shortened to mobo.[2]

Motherboard for a desktop personal computer, showing the typical components and interfaces that are found on a motherboard. This model was made in 2008, and follows the ATX layout (known as the "form factor") usually employed for desktop computers. It is designed to work with AMD's Athlon 64 processor.

A motherboard of a Vaio E series laptop (right)

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1 History 2 Overview 2.1 CPU sockets 2.2 Integrated peripherals 2.3 Peripheral card slots 2.4 Temperature and reliability 2.5 Form factor 3 Bootstrapping using the BIOS 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit]History Prior to the advent of the microprocessor, a computer was usually built in a card-cage case or mainframe with components connected by a backplaneconsisting of a set of slots themselves connected with wires; in very old designs the wires were discrete connections between card connector pins, but printed circuit boards soon became the standard practice. The Central Processing Unit, memory andperipherals were housed on individual printed circuit boards which plugged into the backplane. During the late 1980s and 1990s, it became economical to move an increasing number of peripheral functions onto the motherboard (see below). In the late 1980s, motherboards began to include single ICs (called Super I/O chips) capable of supporting a set of low-speed peripherals: keyboard, mouse, floppy disk drive, serial ports, and parallel ports. As of the late 1990s, many personal computer motherboards supported a full range of audio, video, storage, and networking functions without the need for any expansion cards at all; higher-end systems for 3D gaming and computer graphics typically retained only the graphics card as a separate component. The early pioneers of motherboard manufacturing wereMicronics, Mylex, AMI, DTK, Hauppauge, Orchid Technology, Elitegroup, DFI, and a number of Taiwan-based manufacturers.

The most popular computers such as the Apple II and IBM PC had published schematic diagrams and other documentation which permitted rapid reverse-engineering and third-party replacement motherboards. Usually intended for building new computers compatible with the exemplars, many motherboards offered additional performance or other features and were used to upgrade the manufacturer's original equipment The term mainboard is applied to devices with a single board and no additional expansions or capability. In modern terms this would includeembedded systems and controlling boards in televisions, washing machines, etc. A motherboard specifically refers to a printed circuit board with expansion capability. [edit]Overview A motherboard, like a backplane, provides the electrical connections by which the other components of the system communicate, but unlike a backplane, it also connects the central processing unit and hosts other subsystems and devices. A typical desktop computer has its microprocessor, main memory, and other essential components connected to the motherboard. Other components such as external storage, controllers for video display and sound, and peripheral devices may be attached to the motherboard as plug-in cards or via cables, although in modern computers it is increasingly common to integrate some of these peripherals into the motherboard itself. An important component of a motherboard is the microprocessor's supporting chipset, which provides the supporting interfaces between the CPU and the various buses and external components. This chipset determines, to an extent, the features and capabilities of the motherboard. Modern motherboards include, at a minimum: sockets (or slots) in which one or more microprocessors may be installed[3] slots into which the system's main memory is to be installed (typically in the form of DIMM modules containing DRAM chips) a chipset which forms an interface between the CPU's front-side bus, main memory, and peripheral buses non-volatile memory chips (usually Flash ROM in modern motherboards) containing the system's firmware or BIOS a clock generator which produces the system clock signal to synchronize the various components slots for expansion cards (these interface to the system via the buses supported by the chipset) power connectors, which receive electrical power from the computer power supply and distribute it to the CPU, chipset, main memory, and expansion cards.[4]

The Octek Jaguar V motherboard from 1993.[5] This board has few onboard peripherals, as evidenced by the 6 slots provided for ISA cards and the lack of other built-in external interface connectors.

Additionally, nearly all motherboards include logic and connectors to support commonly used input devices, such as PS/2 connectors for a mouse and keyboard. Early personal computerssuch as the Apple II or IBM PC included only this minimal peripheral support on the motherboard. Occasionally video interface hardware was also integrated into the motherboard; for example, on the Apple II and rarely on IBM-compatible computers such as the IBM PC Jr. Additional peripherals such as disk controllers and serial ports were provided as expansion cards. Given the high thermal design power of high-speed computer CPUs and components, modern motherboards nearly always include heat sinks and mounting points for fans to dissipate excess heat. [edit]CPU sockets Main article: CPU socket A CPU socket or slot is an electrical component that attaches to a printed circuit board (PCB) and is designed to house a CPU (also called a microprocessor). It is a special type of integrated circuit socket designed for very high pin counts. A CPU socket provides many functions, including a physical structure to support the CPU, support for a heat sink, facilitating replacement (as well as reducing cost), and most importantly, forming an electrical interface both with the

CPU and the PCB. CPU sockets can most often be found in most desktop and server computers (laptops typically use surface mount CPUs), particularly those based on the Intel x86 architecture on the motherboard. A CPU socket type and motherboard chipset must support the CPU series and speed.

Computer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Computer (disambiguation). "Computer technology" redirects here. For the company, see Computer Technology Limited.

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem. Conventionally a computer consists of some form of memory for data storage, at least one element that carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control element that can change the order of operations based on the information that is stored. Peripheral devices allow information to be entered from an external source, and allow the results of operations to be sent out. A computer's processing unit executes series of instructions that make it read, manipulate and then store data. Conditional instructions change the sequence of instructions as a function of the current state of the machine or its environment. The first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century (19401945). Originally, they were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs).[1] Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space.[2] Simple computers are small enough to fit into mobile devices, and mobile computers can be powered by small batteries. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "computers". However, theembedded computers found in many devices from mp3 players to fighter aircraft and from toys to industrial robots are the most numerous.

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1 History of computing 1.1 Limited-function early computers 1.2 First general-purpose computers 1.3 Stored-program architecture 1.4 Semiconductors and microprocessors 2 Programs 2.1 Stored program architecture 2.2 Bugs 2.3 Machine code 2.4 Higher-level languages and program design 3 Function 3.1 Control unit 3.2 Arithmetic/logic unit (ALU) 3.3 Memory 3.4 Input/output (I/O) 3.5 Multitasking 3.6 Multiprocessing

3.7 Networking and the Internet 4 Misconceptions 4.1 Required technology 4.2 Computer architecture paradigms 4.3 Limited-function computers 4.4 Virtual computers 5 Further topics 5.1 Artificial intelligence 5.2 Hardware 5.3 Software 5.4 Programming languages 5.5 Professions and organizations 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

Arithmetic logic unit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arithmetic Logic Unit schematic symbol

Cascadable 8 Bit ALU Texas Instruments SN74AS888

In computing, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a digital circuit that performs arithmetic andlogical operations. The ALU is a fundamental building block of the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer, and even the simplest microprocessors contain one for purposes such as maintaining timers. The processors found inside modern CPUs and graphics processing units (GPUs) accommodate very powerful and very complex ALUs; a single component may contain a number of ALUs. Mathematician John von Neumann proposed the ALU concept in 1945, when he wrote a report on the foundations for a new computer called the EDVAC. Research into ALUs remains an important part of computer science, falling under Arithmetic and logic structures in the ACM Computing Classification System.

Contents
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1 Numerical systems 2 Practical overview 2.1 Simple operations 2.2 Complex operations 2.3 Inputs and outputs 2.4 ALUs vs. FPUs 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit]Numerical

systems

Main article: Signed number representations An ALU must process numbers using the same format as the rest of the digital circuit. The format of modern processors is almost always thetwo's complement binary number representation. Early computers used a wide variety of number systems, including ones' complement, two's complement sign-magnitude format, and even true decimal systems, with ten tubes per digit.
[disputed discuss]

ALUs for each one of these numeric systems had different designs, and that influenced the current preference for two's complement, as this is the representation that makes it easier for the ALUs to calculate additions and subtractions.[citation needed] The ones' complement and two's complement number systems allow for subtraction to be accomplished by adding the negative of a number in a very simple way which negates the need for specialized circuits to do subtraction; however, calculating the negative in two's complement requires adding a one to the low order bit and propagating the carry. An alternative way to do two's complement subtraction of AB is to present a one to the carry input of the adder and use B rather than B as the second input.
[edit]

Windows Registry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"HKCC" redirects here. For the performance venue in Hong Kong, see Hong Kong Cultural Centre. For the community college, see Hong Kong Community College. The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores configuration settings and options on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains settings for low-level operating system components as well as the applications running on the platform: the kernel, device drivers,services, SAM, user interface and third party applications all make use of the registry. The registry also provides a means to access countersfor profiling system performance. When first introduced with Windows 3.1, the Windows registry's primary purpose was to store configuration information for COM-based components. With the introduction of Windows 95 and Windows NT, its use was extended to tidy up the profusion of per-program INI filesthat had previously been used to store configuration settings for Windows programs.[1]
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1 Rationale 2 Criticism 3 Structure 3.1 Keys and values 3.2 Hives 3.2.1 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM) 3.2.2 HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG (HKCC) 3.2.3 HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR) 3.2.4 HKEY_USERS (HKU) 3.2.5 HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) 3.2.6 HKEY_PERFORMANCE_DATA 3.2.7 HKEY_DYN_DATA 4 Editing 4.1 Manual editing 4.2 .REG files

4.3 Command line editing 4.4 Programs or scripts 5 Locations 5.1 Windows NT-based operating systems 5.2 Windows 95, 98, and Me 5.3 Windows 3.11 6 Backups and recovery 7 Policy 7.1 Group policy 7.2 Legacy systems 8 .INI file virtualization 9 Registry virtualization 10 Equivalents in other operating systems 11 See also 12 Notes 13 Footnotes 14 References 15 External links

Auxiliary memory
n auxiliary memory is a high-speed memory found in a large main frame or supercomputer. It is not directly addressable by the central processing unit, and is connected to the
main memory by a high-speed data channel. Storage device is an addition to the main storage of a computer, for example magnetic tape, disk, or magnetic drum [1],[2]. Disk drives are the major secondary-storage I/O devices on most computers. Most secondary storage devices are either magnetic disks or magnetic tapes [3],[4]. Modern disk drives are structured as a large one-dimensional array of logical disk blocks which is usually 512 bytes. A disk drive is attached to a computer by a set of wires called an I/O bus. Several kinds of buses are available, including enhanced integrated drive electronics (EIDE), advanced technology attachment (ATA), serial ATA (SATA), universal serial bus (USB), fiber channel (FC), and SCSI buses. Disks may be attached to a computer system using a network connection such as storage area networks [5],[6]. Requests for disk I/O are generated by the file system and by the virtual memory system. Each request specifies the address on the disk to be referenced, in the form of a logical block number. Disk-scheduling algorithms can improve the effective bandwidth, the average response time, and the variance in response time [7],[8]. Algorithms such as SSTF [9], SCAN [10], C-SCAN, LOOK [11], and C-LOOK are designed to make such improvements through strategies for disk-queue ordering [12]. The movement of an entire process between disk and main memory is called swapping. Swapping in that setting occurs when the amount of physical memory reaches a critically low point and processes (which are usually selected because they are the least active) are moved from memory to swap space to free available memory [12]. Performance can be harmed by external fragmentation. Some systems have utilities that scan the file system to identify fragmented files; they then move blocks around to decrease the fragmentation. Defragmenting a badly fragmented file system can significantly improve performance, but the system may have reduced performance while the defragmentation is in progress. Sophisticated file systems, such as the UNIX Fast File System, incorporate many strategies to control fragmentation during space allocation so that disk reorganization is not needed [13],[14]. The operating system is responsible for several other aspects of disk management. A new magnetic disk is a blank slate: It is just a platter of a magnetic recording material. Before a disk can store data, it must be divided into sectors that the disk controller can read and write. This process is called low-level formatting, or physical formatting [15],[16]. Disk drives have continued to get smaller and cheaper, so it is now economically feasible to attach many disks to a computer system. Having a large number of disks in a system presents opportunities for improving the rate at which data can be read or written, if the disks are operated in parallel. A variety of disk-organization techniques, collectively called redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAIDs), are commonly used to address the performance and reliability issues [17]. The write-ahead log scheme requires the availability of stable storage. To implement such storage, we need to replicate the needed information on multiple nonvolatile storage devices (usually disks) with independent failure modes. We also need to update the information in a controlled manner to ensure that we can recover the stable data after any failure during data transfer or recovery. Because cost is so important, in practice, tertiary storage is built with removable media. The most common examples are floppy disks, tapes, and read-only, write-once, and rewritable CDs and DVDs. Many any other kinds of tertiary-storage devices are available as well, including removable devices that store data in flash memory and interact with the computer system via a USB interface. For removable disks, the operating system generally provides the full services of a file-system interface, including space management and request-queue scheduling. For many operating systems, the name of a file on a removable cartridge is a combination of a drive name and a file name within that drive. This convention is simpler but potentially more confusing than is using a name that identifies a specific cartridge [18]. Three important aspects of performance are bandwidth, latency, and reliability. Many bandwidths are available for both disks and tapes, but the random-access latency for a tape is generally much greater than that for a disk. Switching cartridges in a jukebox is also relatively slow. Because a jukebox has a low ratio of drives to cartridges, reading a large fraction of the data in a jukebox can take a long time. Optical media, which protect the sensitive layer with a transparent coating, are generally more robust than magnetic media, which are more likely to expose the magnetic material to physical damage [19]. Exercises: 1. Write a C++ program for disk scheduling using the SCAN and C-SCAN disk scheduling algorithms. 2. On what situations would using memory as a RAM disk be more useful that using it as a disk cache? 3. Could a RAID Level 1 organization achieve better performance for read requests than a RAID Level 0 organization?

[1] Auxiliary memory

[2] Disk storage

[3] Computer data storage

[4] Hard drive

[5] I/O port

[6] Bus structure

[7] Disk scheduling algorithms

[8] I/O scheduling

[9] SSTF

[10] SCAN

[11] Swapping

[12] Disk scheduling

[13] Fragmentation

[14] Defragmentation

[15] Disk structure [Additional]

[16] Disk formatting

[17] RAID

[18] Tertiary storage

[19] Optical storage

[20] Cylinder-head-sector [Additional]

[21] File system fragmentation

Hard disk drive

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Hard drive" redirects here. For other uses, see Hard drive (disambiguation).

Hard disk drive

Interior of a hard disk drive Date invented Invented by 24 December 1954[1] An IBM team led by Rey Johnson

Video of an opened hard drive

A hard disk drive[2] (HDD) is a non-volatile, random access device for digital data. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data ismagnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the platters. Introduced by IBM in 1956, hard disk drives have fallen in cost and physical size over the years while dramatically increasing in capacity. Hard disk drives have been the dominant device forsecondary storage of data in general purpose computers since the early 1960s.[3] They have maintained this position because advances in their areal recording density have kept pace with the requirements for secondary storage.[3] Today's HDDs operate on high-speed serial interfaces; i.e., serial ATA (SATA) or serial attached SCSI (SAS).
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1 History 2 Technology 2.1 Magnetic recording 2.2 Components 2.3 Error handling 2.4 Future development 3 Capacity 3.1 Units of measuring capacity 3.2 HDD Formatting 3.3 Redundancy 3.4 HDD parameters to calculate capacity 4 Form factors 4.1 Current hard disk form factors 4.2 Obsolete hard disk form factors 5 Performance characteristics 5.1 Access time 5.1.1 Interleave 5.1.2 Seek time 5.1.3 Latency 5.1.4 Data transfer rate 5.2 Power consumption 5.2.1 Power management 5.3 Audible noise 5.4 Shock resistance 6 Access and interfaces 6.1 Disk interface families used in personal computers 7 Integrity 7.1 Actuation of moving arm 7.2 Landing zones and load/unload technology 7.2.1 Landing zones 7.2.2 Unloading 7.3 Disk failures and their metrics 8 External removable drives 9 Market segments 10 Sales 11 Icons 12 Manufacturers 13 See also 14 Notes and references 15 Further reading 16 External links