SYSTEM UNIT

COMPONENTS
Assignment 2.1

Motherboard
A motherboard is the central Printed Circuit Board
(PCB) in modern computers. It holds many of the
important components of the system, while
providing connectors for other components.
The BIOS software is built into the PC, and is the
first code run by a PC when powered on. The main
function of the BIOS is to load and start an
operating system. When the PC starts up, the first
job for the BIOS is to identify system devices such
as the video display card,, hard disk, keyboard and
mouse and the CD/DVD drives.
The BIOS then picks up the software on a hard disk
or a CD, and loads that software onto the computer.
This then gives the computer control. This process
is called booting.

Stick of RAM
This is a place in the computer where the
operating system, applications and the and data
is kept so that they can easily be accessed by
the computers processor.
The data on the RAM is there as long as the
computer is on, but when the computer is turned
off, the RAM loses the data. When the computer
is turned back on the operating system and other
data is again loaded onto the RAM through the
hard drive.

Hard Drive
Hard Drive - This is the computers internal disk drive.
It is used to permanently store data, documents and the
computers programs and the operating system.
An internal hard drive works as a bootable device,
which contains operating system information as well as
storage of computer's data and users files.
A hard disk is a device that is used to store large
amounts of data in a computer system. Hard disks are
different from other memory because they are nonvolatile. This means that they keep the data even when
the power is not on.

Graphics Card
Graphics Card - is used to output images to
display.
Graphics cards translate the binary data into
pictures, so that it can be viewed on the
computer screen. it uses the pixels on the
screen to make the image and then sends the
information to the monitor, through the cable.
There are four main components to make the
graphics card work. First is the motherboard,
where the graphics card gets the power from.
Second, is the processor, which decides what to
do with each pixel on the screen.
Third is the memory needed to store information
about each pixel and where the completed
pictures are stored.
Last is the monitor, which allows the user to view
the actual pictures.

The graphics card uses

1 of 3 interfaces. One
PCI (peripheral
component
interconnect), AGP
(advanced graphics
port) and PCIe (PCI
express).

Sound Card/Audio Card

Sound Card/Audio Card - inputs and outputs
audio signals to and from a computer.
An audio card is an internal computer component
that processes audio files that playback through
computer speakers.
An audio card plays music files, and can handle a
variety of different audio file formats. This
includes .wav, .mp3 and .cda.
The quality of the sound card and speakers both
affect the overall sound quality of the computer
system. Speakers plug directly into the back of the
sound card.

CPU Processor
CPU Processor - is the part of the computer that that carries
out instructions of a computer program.
It is in charge of processing data. How it will process data will
depend on the program. It just follows the instructions inside
the program.
The CPU sits in the motherboard. All of the other hardware
components and programs installed on the system has go
through the CPU before the function can be completed.
When a function is sent, the CPU gets it from RAM and any
other hardware in order to process it. The CPU then reads the
instructions linked to the task before sending it back to RAM.
There are two types of data that the CPU handles. One is the
data that needs to be processed, and the other is the program
code that is connected to the data. The programming code is a
list of instructions on how the data should be handled and
processed. This has to be in a language that the CPU can
understand.

Network Card
Network Card - This allows a computer to physically
connect to a local area network.
A network card is an expansion card which installs into a
computer and enables that computer to physically
connect to a local area network.
A network card acts as the interface between a computer
and a network cable. The purpose of the network card is
to prepare, send, and control data on the network.
A network card is the physical connection between the
computer and cable. It converts the data sent by the
computer into a form which can be used by the network
cable. It also translates the data coming from the cable
into bytes so that the computer's CPU can read it.