Unit 2 Task 1 P1

A processor is a small chip that resides in computers and other electronic devices. Its job is to receive input and provide the appropriate output. The central processor of a computer is also known as a CPU or Central Processing Unit. This handles all the basic system instructions like mouse and keyboard input and running applications.

A motherboard is the main circuit board of the computer. It is also known as the main board or logic board. If you ever need to open your computer the motherboard is the biggest piece of silicon you will be able to see. You'll find CPU, ROM, memory RAM expansions slots, PCI slots and USB ports. it will also have controllers for devices like the hard drive, disc drive, keyboard and mouse. Basically the motherboard is what makes everything in your computer work.

BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. This is a pre-installed program on Windows based computers (not on Macs) that the computer uses to start up. The CPU accesses the BIOS before the operating system has loaded. The BIOS then checks all hardware connections and locates all your devices. If everything is OK the BIOS then loads the operating system into the computer's memory and then finishes the boot-up process.

A power supply is a hardware component that supplies power to an electrical device . It receivespower from an electrical outlet and changes the current from AC to DC. It also regulates the voltage to an adequate amount. This allows the computer to run smoothly without overheating.

A heat sink is used to control the heat that comes from a CPU. A CPU can perform millions of calculations per second. This will start to produce heat. If this heat isn't controlled it will overheat and destroy itself. The heat sink is part of the CPU. This dissipates the heat from processor so that it doesn't overheat. A fan is often used to cool the area around the heat sink so that the heat sink doesn't over heat either.

SATA which stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment is an interface used to connect ATA hard drives to a computers motherboard. It is likely to replace Parallel ATA (PATA) for many reasons one of which is the speed that it runs at.

USB which stands for Universal Serial Bus is the most common type of computer port used in modern computers. It can be used to connect a wide range of devices like keyboards, game controllers, printers, cameras and phones.USB is quicker than older ports like parallel and serial. The latest and quickest form of USB port is USB 3.1.

RAM which stands for Random Access Memory is made up of small memory chips that forms the memory modules. These are installed in the RAM slots on the motherboard of your computer. Every time you open a program it is loaded from the hard drive to the RAM. This happens because it is easier to reading data from the RAM is quicker than reading it from the hard drive.

ROM which stands for Read Only Memory contains hardwired instructions that the computer uses when your computer boots up before the system software loads. In PCs the instructions are read from a small program in the ROM called the BIOS.

A network card is a card that makes the connection between the computer and network cable. These are

normally use an Ethernet connection. The cards come in ISA and PCI versions.

The graphics card is used to process the graphics portion of the processing load. This gives the CPU a break and means it can run more efficiently. They can speed up both 2D and 3D graphics rendering. The difference in performance is noticeable in image editing and 3D games.

A printer is an output device that prints paper documents. the most common types of printers are inkjet and laser printers. The printed document produced by a printer is often called a hard copy. This is a physical version of an electronic document. Most modern printers connect to your computer through USB.

A scanner is an input device that scans a document like a photo or a piece of text and converts it into an electronic copy. Most scanners are flatbed devices this means that they have a flat scanning surface. Most flatbed scanners have a cover that lifts up for more bulky objects like books.

A pen drive is a small data storage device that uses flash memory and connects to your computer through a USB connection. because of their size they are highly portable. Early pen drives only had a few megabytes of storage but modern ones can store several gigabytes of data.

A hard drive is what stores all the data on your computer. It houses the hard disc which is where all your folders and files are stored. A typical hard drive is about the size of your hand but can hold over 100GB of data. This data is stored on a stack of disks that are mounted in a solid encasement.