Typical configuration of

computer system
 Introduction:
• Hardware consists of physical devices of the
computer such as keyboard, monitor, printer,
processor and motherboard.
• Software consists of set of instructions called
programs that instructs the computer the tasks to
be performed and how it should be performed.
• Data are values or raw facts which are provided
as input to the computer, then processed to
generate some meaningful information.
• Users are people who write computer programs
or interact with the computer.
• The computer system comprises of four main
units They are,
1. Input Unit,
2. Central Processing Unit (CPU),
i. Control Unit (CU),
ii. Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU),
iii. Registers,
3. Storage Unit,
Motherboard
 Definition:
• It is a large Printed Circuit Board (PCB) having
many chips, ports, controllers and other
electronic components mounted on it.
 Introduction
• Every component inside the computer has to
communicate through the motherboard,
either by directly plugging into it or by
communicating through one of the
motherboard ports.
• The motherboard provides a platform for all
the components and devices to communicate
with each other.
• Motherboard can be characterized by:-
– Form factor
– Chipset
– Processor Socket
Form factor refers to geometry,
dimensions, arrangement and electrical
requirements.
• A chipset is a set of electronic components
in an integrated circuit that manages the
data flow between the processor, memory
and other component.
Processor socket can be a rectangular
connector into which the processor is
mounted vertically.
Types of motherboard:-
• XT motherboard (eXtended Technology)
• AT motherboard (Advanced Technology)
• Baby AT motherboard (combination of XT and AT)
• ATX motherboard (Advanced Technology
eXtended)
Components of motherboard:-
• Processor
• BIOS
• CMOS
• Slots
• Disk controllers
• I/O Ports and interfaces
• BUS
The two chips in the motherboard chipset are:-
North bridge
South bridge

1. North bridge:- controls high speed components

like CPU, RAM and video card.
2. South bridge:- controls slower components like
sound card, net card, hard disk, CD ROM drive,
USB port ,BIOS etc.
Processor:-
Microprocessor is an integrated circuit on a single
chip that makes up the computer’s CPU.

The clock speed of a CPU is defined as the

frequency with which a processor executes
instructions or data.
The data movement between the processor and
memory is established by a communication path
called bus.

Bus :- a bus is a collection of parallel wires that

form a pathway to carry address, data and control
signals.
Registers:- are high speed storage units within the
CPU, they have least storage capacity and they are
accessed directly by the cpu.
BIOS:- Basic Input Output System

It’s a small chip on the motherboard that holds a

set of instructions to load the hardware settings
required to activate various devices like keyboards,
monitor or hard drives.

It performs a power on self test(POST), to check if

the hardware devices present & functioning.

It invokes the bootstrap loader to load the OS.

CMOS:- Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
Is a memory chip to store date, time and system
setup parameters.

CMOS and BIOS are kept powered by a small lithium

battery
Slots:-a slot is an opening where we can insert a
printed circuit board.
They increase the capability of the computer

Expansion slots
• ISA slot
• PCI slot
• AGP slot
• RAM slot
• Processor slot
• PCI express slot
• PC card
Expansion slots:-
Expansion cards are inserted in the expansion slots,
they give new feature or increased performance.
ISA:- Industry Standard Architecture
It is used to connect modem and sound card.
PCI:- Peripheral Component Interconnect
Much faster than ISA. They connect graphics
accelerator cards, sound cards, network cards,
internal modems SCSI cards
AGP :- Accelerated Graphics Port.
Designed for video card that provide high speed video
performance for games and multimedia applications
RAM slot:- used to install memory & it is of 2 types,
SIMM(72-pin)(Single Inline Memory Module)slot &
DIMM(Dual Memory Module) (168-pin) slot
Processor slot:- it is used to insert the processor
chip which is the largest chip on the mother board.
PCI Express slot:- has faster architecture than AGP
& PCI buses
PC card:- used in laptop computers , it includes Wi-
Fi card, network card & external modem.
Disk Controllers:- is a circuit that enables the cpu
to communicate with a hard disk, floppy disk etc.
Hard disk controller:-
It reads and writes information to / from the hard
drive. First standard developed is IDE (Integrated
Development Environment) also known as
ATA(Advanced Technology Attachment), connected
with 40 wire ribbon cable to the Mother Board.
Then came enhanced IDE std.
Floppy disk controller:-
Directs and controls reading from and writing to a
computers Floppy disk drive. Supports 33 wire
ribbon cable to connect 4 Floppy disk drive to
Mother board.
I/O Ports and interfaces:- they are used to connect
external devices like printers, keyboards or
scanners to the computer mother board. They are
found at the rear side of the computer.
Ports are:-
Serial port
Parallel port
USB port
AGP port
Serial port:-
Also known as COM ports or RS232c ports and used
for mouse and modem. Data is transferred serially one
bit at a time. 9-pin ports & 25-pin ports are the 2
varieties.
Parallel port:-
Used to connect external devices like printers and
scanners. Data transfer is parallel usually 8 bits at a
time, they come with 25-pin connector.
IDE port:- Integrated Digital Electronics
CD-ROM drives or hard disk drives are connected
to the mother board through IDE port
USB:- Universal Serial Bus
Is a plug and play interface between the computer
and add-on devices. Printers, scanners, digital
cameras, web cameras, speakers etc can be
connected. It supports up to 127 device. New
devices can be added with out adding an adaptor
card or even switching off the computer.
PS-2 port:-
Developed by IBM, for connecting keyboard,
mouse, trackball and touch pads
SCSI(Small Computer System Interface) Port:-
Most common interface for disk drives, Printers, and
scanners. It does high speed data transfer and I/O
operations. They are expensive and need separate
adaptors.
VGA port :- Video Graphics Adaptor:-
Used to connect the monitor to computers video
card. It has 15 holes.
Power connector:- to connect the computer’s power cable
that plugs into the wall socket.
Firewire port:-transfer large amount of data at a
very high speed(400 – 800 mbps) . It connects
camcorders and video equipments to the
computer. Invented by apple.
Modem :- modulator demodulator
Connects a PC’s modem to telephone network.
Ethernet port:- connects to a network and high
speed internet. This port resides on an Ethernet
Card, speed is 10 – 1000 mbps.
Game port :-
connects a PC to a joystick, now it is replaced by
USB.
DVI port :- Digital Video Interface
Connects a flat panel LCD monitor to the
computers video graphics cards.

Sockets: are used to connect microphone, speakers

to sound card.
MIDI port :- Musical Instrument Digital Interface
A MIDI musical keyboard can be attached to a
computer, the music played will be captured by the
computer as a sequence of musical notes.
Bus
Types:-
• Internal bus (system bus):- connects major
components like processor, memory and I/O.
• External bus :- connects external devices,
expansion slots and drive connections to the rest
of the computer.
They comprise three kinds of buses.
• Data bus :provides path to transfer data
between CPU and memory. It may have 32 or 64
or 128 bit line to transfer data.
.
• Address bus :- sends and receives address of
memory locations and devices. Width of the bus
determines the maximum no. of memory
locations it can address.
• Control bus :- used to control the use of data and
address lines, also a path for control signal.
Memory:-
• Internal memory
• Secondary memory

Internal memory includes registers, cache memory

and primary memory which is accessible directly by
the CPU. It is temporary storage, faster, expensive
and limited storage.
Secondary memory includes hard disk, floppy disk,
cd-rom drive etc.
Cache memory:-
Is a high speed memory available inside CPU to
speed up access of data and instructions stored in
RAM .
Cache is placed between RAM and CPU. During
processing, the CPU checks the cache for data. If
the data is not found then it will search in the RAM.
When found, a copy of it will be stored in the
cache, if the same data is needed again the
processor can directly access it from cache.
Primary memory
Cache is very expensive,
faster than RAM,
smaller in size,
varies from 256 KB TO 12MB.
CPU has built in level1(L1) cache and level2(L2) cache
And separate cache chip on the MB called level3(L3)
cache.
Primary memory:-
Also known as main memory. Types:-
• RAM
• ROM
RAM:-
Random Access Memory
Temporarily stores computers OS, application
programs & current data needed for processing. It
is fast memory & is volatile means when power is
switched off the data is lost.
ROM:-
Read Only Memory:-
Small memory, stores the booting instructions
called BIOS. It is non-volatile.
Types of RAM:-
DRAM-Dynamic RAM :- most common type, small
& cheap used in main memory. Transistors and
capacitors are paired to make a cell. Needs to be
refreshed continually (thousands of times per sec).
SRAM-Static RAM :-cheap & used in cache due to
its high speed, uses multiple transistors for each
memory cell. So does not need constant refreshing.
More expensive, faster than DRAM
SDRAM-Synchronous RAM:-
Special type of RAM that is synchronous to the
system clock. It reduce the CPU waiting time.
DDR-SDRAM-Double Data Rate SDRAM.
DDR-SDRAM-Double Data Rate SDRAM:-
Data transfer rate is double when compared to
SDRAM.
Power supply to a computer system:-
Types:-
• SMPS
• UPS
SMPS:- Switched Mode Power Supply
It converts 230 volts of AC power to 5 to 12 DC
volts.
The wattage is around 180 to 300 watts, 450 watts
and 500 watts.
UPS :- Uninterrupted Power Supply
It includes a battery to maintain power in the event
of power failure, it keeps the computer running for
several minutes to few hours after power failure.
Types of UPS:-
• Online UPS:- it continuously provides power from
its own inverter even when there is power. Its
expensive, should be of 500 – 600VA
• Standby UPS(Offline):- Switches to battery power
as soon as it detects a problem, during this the
computer will not receive any power.
 Basic components for assembling a
computer system.
1 Processor
2 Motherboard
Ram slot-DIMM
Hard disk inteface – IDE,SATA
3 RAM
4 Hard disk
5 Cabinet with SMPS
6 Standard keyboard
7 Optical mouse
8 DVD/Writer
9 Monitor
10 Speaker
11 OP, Languages, packages, database