In this chapter you will learn how to:
Describe different types of CPUs
 Explain RAM types and technologies
 Identify Motherboards
 Describe Power Supplies and Cases
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A microprocessor, or central processing unit
(CPU), handles most of the math processing in
any kind of computing device
 A CPU beats at the heart of every Windows
PC, but is also found in single-purpose
computing devices, such as iPods and Xboxes
 Two companies make most of the CPUs
found in today's devices: Intel and Advanced
Micro Devices ( AMD)
CPUs plug into motherboards designed specifically
for those CPUs
 A mother board is the part inside of a computer
that everything else plugs into
 If you have an AMD CPU, you can only use it with
a motherboard designed for AMD CPUs
 An Intel CPU requires a motherboard designed to
run an Intel chip
 The CPU's job is to process information as
quickly as possible
 The better the processor the more quickly it can
perform tasks
The basic measurement of a CPU is its speed or
how many tasks it can do in one clock cycle
 Completing one cycle per second is known as
1 hertz (Hz)
 Early CPUs measured speed in millions of
cycles per second, or megahertz Mhz
 Today's CPUs run at billions of cycles per
second, or gigahertz GHz
A CPU works directly with the motherboard to
achieve the proper speed
 Motherboards run at a specific clock speed,
measured in MHz. called the bus speed
 CPUs run at some multiple of that bus speed,
such as lOx or 25x
 If the motherboard runs at 100MHz and the
CPU has a 25x multiplier, the CPU runs at
2500 MHz (2.5Ghz)
First Intel Processor was the 4004 which
had a clock speed of 740,000 Hz
Intel 8088 CPU used in the first IBM PC had a
clock speed of 4700000 Hz, 4.7 Mhz
Intel Pentium 4 CPU ultimately reached
speeds of 3950000000 hz 3.95 Ghz
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The absolute speed a CPU can be clocked is
determined by the laws of physics
In the year 2000 Intel theorized that the
maximum speed a processor could run at was
about 1Ghz
They eventually were able to manufacture a
Pentium IV that had a clock rate of just less
than 3.95 Ghz
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If the speed of a CPU is determined primarily
by clock speed the Pentium IV would have
been the fastest CPU
Other manufacturing techniques are used to
increase the speed of a processor
Intel went from a 32 bit processor to a 64 bit
processor, allowing twice as much data to be
sent for each clock pulse
Early CPUs since the 80386 used a 32-bit architecture
 Meaning a CPU could could handle data 32 bits at a
time
 Newer CPUs are capable of handling 64 bits making
them twice as fast
 A 32-bit processing running at a clock rate of 2Ghz
is considerably slower than a 64-bit processor
running at the same speed
 Another advantage of slowing down the clock rate is
that the CPU uses less power and creates less heat
 Microsoft newer operating systems are created to
run as either 32 bit or 64 bit
Both Intel and AMD decided to combine two CPUs
into a single chip creating a dual-core architecture.
 This architecture increases both processing
capability and efficiency because each core can
pick up the slack when the other core gets too
busy, tasks can be split between each core
 Prior to dual-core CPUs, all CPUs were single core
 Modern CPU makers offer CPUs with two (dualcore), four (quad-core), six (hexa core), even
eight cores (octa-core) on a single chip
 These are known collectively as multicore
processors
CPUs have a preset list of commands they
understand called the codebook or instruction set
 Programmers write applications in different
computer languages that are translated into
code understood by the CPU's instruction set
 The processor then works through the code and
outputs commands to various parts of the
computer
Different CPUs work with incoming commands and data differently
 CPUs with same clock speed won't necessarily process the same
image in a complex application in the same amount of time
 Two CPUs might even reverse who wins when doing something
simpler, like copying a huge file from one drive to another
 Older CPUs with a fast clock speed will stagger when compared
to a CPU of today with a much slower clock speed due to the
increase from 32 bit to 64 bit processing
 AMD processors once held the edge over Intel processors in
simple efficiency, while Intel held the edge in speed
 Now Intel has joined the efficiency race in a big way and holds
both the speed* and efficiency crowns, at a very steep price
 For a lot less money you can get an AMD processor that's nearly
as good as a high end Intel processor
When the text was published, a quad-core Intel Core i7
processor running at 3.06 GHz costs about $600 at
retail. A quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 CPU running at 3.4
GHz costs about $200 retail.
All running programs have to be in RAM, it's the only way the CPU
can retrieve data fast enough to function properly
 CPU makers discovered (80386) that adding a little bit of superfast RAM (Cache) directly onto the CPU could greatly speed up
the whole computing process
 CPUs have several levels of cache, called level 1 (Ll ), level 2 (L2),
and, on the highest-end processors, level 3 (L3)
◦ Ll is the smallest and fastest
◦ L2 is bigger but slower
◦ L3 is the biggest and slowest type of cache.
◦ All cache is considerably faster than system RAM.
 As a general rule with cache, bigger cache makes for a more
efficient (and more expensive) CPU
One way to produce better/faster processors is
to speed up the system clock
 However faster CPUs require more electricity
and generate more heat
 Heat is the number one killer of electronics
devices
 Huge power consumption is an issue with
laptops and cell phones
 How do you increase speed without
increasing power consumption?
CPU makers discovered while working on CPUs
for portable computers that if you make the
components of the CPU very tiny, you can get
the same performance with less electricity
 Less electricity results in less heat
 If you improve the instruction set the CPU can
perform better with even less electricity
 Modern CPUs have slower clock speeds than
yesterday's high-end CPUs, use less electricity
and produce less heat, they also outperform
those earlier CPUs by adding cache
CPUs uses random access memory (RAM) to work
with active programs
 An active program is a program that has been
copied from mass storage into RAM
 RAM is measured primarily in terms of the amount
of data that can be held at one time
 The more RAM your system has, the more tasks it
can perform at once
 A typical stick of RAM, can hold 1 GB of data or
programming
 Many hard drives, which are also measured in
terms of capacity, can hold more than 500GB
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The big difference between RAM and Hard
Drives is volatility and speed
RAM is volatile memory, which means that if
the power goes out all the data in RAM
disappears
Ram is magnitudes times faster thnn a Hard
drive
Hard drives are nonvolatile, so the data on the
hard drive stays there even without power
RAM is considered Primary storage, Hard
drives are considered Secondary storage
RAM also has a speed rating that describes how fast it can
transfer data
 There are 3 speed technologies: DDR, DDR2, and DDR3,
each is twice as fast as the technology that preceded it
 Double data rate (DDR) RAM can send or receive data twice
for each clock tick on the motherboard
 A motherboard that runs at 100 MHz will need DDR RAM
that runs at (at least) 200 MHz
 DDR2 & DDR3 RAM run at 4x or 8x the motherboard
speed, respectively
 A motherboard that runs at 100 MHz would need DDR2400
 DDR3 motherboard at the same speed would need DDR3800
Motherboard Speed
100 MHz
133 MHz
166 MHz
200 MHz
100 MHz
133 MHz
166 MHz
200 MHz
Speed Rating
DDR2-400
DDR2-533
DDR2-667
DDR2-800
DDR3-800
DDR3-1066
DDR3-1333
DDR3-1600
RAM comes on small circuit boards called RAM
sticks
There are several different types of RAM sticks
the two most common are called DIMMs and
SODIMMs
Typical desktop computers use DIMMs
Portable computers and some desktops use
the smaller SODIMMs.
You can't mix RAM stick types or technologies
 RAM sticks are keyed so that they only fit in the
motherboard designed for that technology
 You can't install RAM that is too slow for the
motherboard, it might fit, but the system will not
boot
 RAM that's faster than the motherboard will
simply slow down for the motherboard and work
just fine
DDR2
DDR3
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Dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) have two
rows of connectors at the bottom of the stick,
one row on one side, the other row on reverse
You'll find individual RAM chips on one or both
sides of the stick
Different technologies use slight variations in
the number of pins or contacts, the main form
factor is the same ~4” wide circuit board
Small outline DIMMs (SODIMMs) are about half
the physical size of DIMMs, but they have
similar capacities and perform just as well.
 SODIMMS are used in laptops
There is another type of memory used in systems
referred to as ROM  Read Only Memory is used to store important
data directly on the chip rather than storing it on
the hard drive
 ROM typically contains instructions used by the
operating system
Everything in a computer plugs directly or indirectly into
the motherboard
 The motherboard has a lot of circuits and processing
chips that have their own distinct jobs
 Motherboards have chips that control various
components, such as keyboards, mice, monitors, etc
 Manufacturers create motherboards in many shapes
and sizes referred to as form factors
 Most motherboards today offer built-in networking,
sound, even have built-in video connections
24 Pin power
connector
All newer motherboards use a 24-pin connector called ATX for primary power.
Plus they use a 4-pin P4 connector to help run more stably.
Different cases offer solutions for different rooms and
purposes
 A large office, could easily handle a full-size case
with room inside for adding more things later
 A small, all-in-one computer might work much
better for a dorm room with limited space
 The key thing to keep in mind when choosing a case
is to match the form factor of the motherboard. A
large motherboard, won't fit in a tiny case
Motherboards come in all sizes