Parts of a Computer

Processing Chip

The processor is the part of the computer that does the computing.

CPU is a common term for the processor, Central Processing Unit.

Inside the chip is a tiny, intricate silicone circuit.

Chips are manufactured in clean spaces with highly controlled air and other input. Foriegn objects like dust can affect quality control in the fabrication process.

Your motherboard limits which processors will work on it.

There is a swing arm mount on the mount on the motherboard, and you place the chip in the holes then swing the arm down to grip the pins.

Electricity and digital logic are used to perform the calculations. As electricity goes through the circuit on the chip, it heats up. Cooling of the chip is important and can be done with air or water cooled systems. Usually cooling is done with aluminum heat sinks and electric fans. Removing the heatsink or turning off the fan will cause the chip to overheat and reduce its performance and lifespan.

Computers use binary logic, all information is converted to numbers that are based on a series of 1s and 0s.

The smallest piece of data is a bit, 8 bits make a byte, 1024 bytes make a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes make a megabyte and 1024 megabytes make a gigabyte.

You will see these numbers a lot when referring to specifications on computer (and gaming) hardware and software needs.

1x2=2, 2x2=4, 2x4=8, 2x8=16, 2x16=32, 2x32=64, 2x64=128, 2x128=256, 2x256=512, 2x512=1024

Processors perform calculations within a measure of time.

Speed of calculations is measured in hertz Hz, Megahertz Mhz or Gigahertz Ghz. Faster is generally better and more expensive. You can use software settings to change the clock speed of the processor. This will increase performance, but will cause excess heat, which will reduce the lifespan of the chip.

In the chip, there are different sections that perform different parts of the task, prefetch, cache, arithmetic

Chips can have more than one core to do the calculations. More cores give faster results by using parallel systems. More cores are more expensive.

The Pentium was one of the first CPUs to be widely known in the public. Intel had a number of advertisements on tv in the 1990s to promote the Pentium line of chips.

IBM compatible computers have used a similar line of processors throughout the years.

Mac computers used a different processor family, but now use an Intel-based chip. This allows users to run either Mac OS or Windows on modern Macs.

Written assignment:

Write at least 3 paragraphs of at least 6 sentences to demonstrate your understanding of this topic. Use your own words, and do not copy any text from any online sources. You should provide links to web pages that have been helpful in understanding this system. Place the text on your Ning blog and print a copy to hand in. You can include photos in your post. Print this and hand it in with your notes from researching the subject.

Links

How Stuff Works - http://www.howstuffworks.com/microprocessor.htm

bits, bytes and megabytese - http://tandemtables.com/database/tables/basics/BYTES_EASY.html

Pentium 1 ad - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwiFW5WVHAU

Central Processing Unit - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit

Multi core processor - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-core_processor

Intel chips in the Mac - http://www.apple.com/intel/

What is a chip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EP0HOVF3JM

What is inside the chip's circuits - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2wxBnJpb4s

What are the sections of the cpu? http://www.maconusersgroup.org/CPUCore.html

Slideshow video of a water cooled gaming rig - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjlg-K4mN-I&NR=1&feature=fvwp