Components of a Computer System (PART 1)

Hardware -  refers to the electronic circuits and mechanical parts that physically make up the computer.Following are some of the hardware computers you will encounter...

 CPU – Central Processing Unit - the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a   computer program, and is the primary element carrying out the functions of the computer or other processing device. 

Two types of CPU’s that you may encounter are pin (top photo) and pinless (bottom photo).

Pin type CPU

Pinless CPU

Memory - Memory module is a broad term used to refer to a series of dynamic random access memory integrated circuits modules mounted on a printed circuit board and designed for use in personal computers, workstations and servers.

Types of RAM

Hard disk drive - 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 is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the platters.

There are two types of Hard Drives:

SATA - serial ATA and IDE – Integrated Drive Electronics

The SATA cable or Serial ATA cables are only 7 pins wide compared to the IDE Ribbon Cable which is 40 pins. The SATA cables are also longer then the ribbon cables (some up to 1m) which make them more useful in large cases. The PATA or IDE cables are only 45cm long and can connect two hard drives to the motherboard while the SATA cable connects only one hard drive to the motherboard.

Hrad disk

Monitor - A monitor or display (sometimes called a visual display unit) is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure. The display device in modern monitors is typically a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) thin panel, while older monitors use a cathode ray tube about as deep as the screen size.

LED is not a completely different monitor from LCD. In fact, LED simply refers to a specific, more cutting -edge LCD monitor. What distinguishes the LED from other LCD monitors is the way it's lighted. With previous LCD monitors, fluorescent lights were used to light the screen. This was not a perfect system, because fluorescent lights have a somewhat limited life span. It's not uncommon to notice an LCD display starting to get dimmer after just three to five years of use. That's because the fluorescent light uses a side-light or back-light which deteriorates with time. LED lights, though, are different. One of the main differences is that LED monitors last much longer without that same dimming effect

The first computer monitors used Cathode ray tubes (CRTs), which was the dominant technology until they were replaced by LCD monitors in the 21st Century.

CRT Monitor

LED Monitor

LCD Monitor

Video card - A video card, video adapter, graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card is an expansion card whose function is to generate output images to a display. Most video cards offer added functions, such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, video capture, TV-tuner adapter, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, FireWire, light pen, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors (multi-monitor). Other modern high performance video cards are used for more graphically demanding purposes, such as PC games.

Printer - In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text and/or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most new printers, a USB cable to a computer which serves as a document source.

Some printers, commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces, typically wireless and/or Ethernet based, and can serve as a hard copy device for any user on the network. Individual printers are often designed to support both local and network connected users at the same time.

In addition, a few modern printers can directly interface to electronic media such as memory cards, or to image capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners; some printers are combined with a scanners and/or fax machines in a single unit, and can function as photocopiers.

Read the Part two of this Post,, know more about SOFTWARE.