UNIT – I

PC Hardware

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• A Computer System is a combination
of “Components working together to perform
a specific task”.
• When these Components are attached to the
CPU than a user can perform task, like playing
movies, songs, games, preparing assignments
in MS word, or browsing the internet.
• These Components are Input and Output
Devices.
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• Without these input / output devices, a
computer is just a dumb machine.

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Difference between Input and Output
Devices
• Input and output devices performs two types of
operations in a computer system.
• Input is any data that we send to a computer for
processing. That can be an image from a Digital
Camera, or some letters types via keyboard in a
word document.
• Output is the result of the data we can see
through some output device like a picture
displayed by the Monitor, a word documented
printed by a printer etc.
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 Input Devices
• An input device feeds data to the computer
system for processing.
Keyboard
•Barcode Reader
Mouse
•Pen / Stylus
Scanner
•Touch Screen
Digital Camera
•Webcam
Camcorder
•Biometrics (Thumb
Gamepad
impression / Face detection)
Joystick
Steering wheel
Mic
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 Stylus

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 Output Devices
• Output devices displays the processed form of
data to the end user.
• Monitor
• Printer
• Speaker
• Plotter
• projector ,
• OMR(optical mark recognition) is a device, it is
software. The device used by the OMR software
is a scanner -- which is an out put device.
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 Plotter

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 A look inside a Computer

• The central processing unit (CPU), also called

a processor, is located inside the computer
case on the motherboard.
• It is sometimes called the brain of the
computer, and its job is to carry out
commands.
• Whenever you press a key, click the mouse, or
start an application, you're sending
instructions to the CPU.

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• The CPU is generally a two-inch ceramic square with
a silicon chip located inside.
• The CPU fits into the motherboard's CPU socket,
which is covered by the heat sink, an object that
absorbs heat from the CPU.
• A processor's speed is measured in megahertz
(MHz), or millions of instructions per second;
and gigahertz (GHz), or billions of instructions per
second.
• However, the actual speed of the computer depends
on the speed of many different components—not
just the processor.

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 Computer Hardware & Networking-
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• Now comes the 4 digit number. The first digit is the
Generation of the processor.
• 2nd generation processor is ‘Sandybridge’.
• 3rd Generation processor, digit is ‘3’ with code name
‘Ivybridge’.
• The latest in the market is the 4th generation with
codename ‘Haswell’.
• The remaining three digits i.e. ‘770’ are known as ‘SKU
Numeric digits’. Used for inventory management, Stock
Keeping Unit distinct item as it is offered for sale.
• Being specific these three digits signify the position of
the processor in that generation.
• Naturally the processors with higher processor
numbers are better at performance.
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 Product Line Suffix

M – Mobile
MQ – Mobile Quad core
MX – Mobile Extreme
T – Power Optimised
S – Performance Optimised
K – Unlocked Multiplier
U – Ultra High Energy Efficient
• There are many processor manufacturers for
personal computers, but the most well-known
ones are Inteland AMD.
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 Motherboard
• The motherboard is the computer's main
circuit board.
• It's a thin plate that holds the CPU, Memory,
Connectors for the hard drive and optical
drives, expansion cards to control the video
and audio, and connections to your
computer's ports (such as USB ports).
• The motherboard connects directly or
indirectly to every part of the computer.

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 Motherboard

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 Motherboard Components
• 1. Back Panel Connectors & Ports-
– Such as display ports, audio ports, USB ports, Ethernet
ports, PS/2 ports etc.
• 2. PCI Slots - Peripheral Component Interconnect
– Slot for older expansion cards such as sound cards,
network cards, connector cards.
• 3. PCI Express x1 Slots
– Slot for modern expansion cards such as sound cards,
network cards (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth), connector
cards (USB, FireWire, eSATA) and certain low-end
graphics cards.

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• 4. PCI Express x16 Slot
– Slot for discrete graphic cards and high bandwidth
devices such as top-end solid state drives.
• 5. Northbridge- Also known as Memory
Controller Hub (MCH).
The Northbridge chip connect all the major components
of the motherboard with each other.
It is used to connect the CPU to the memory, cache, PCI
express bus etc.
Beginning from Intel Sandy Bridge (2nd Gen)in 2011, this
motherboard component is no longer present as it
has been integrated within the CPU itself.
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6. CPU Socket
7. ATX 12V Power Connector Connects to the 4-pin power cable of a power
supply unit which supplies power to the CPU.
8. Front Panel USB 2.0 Connectors Connects to USB 2.0 ports at the front or
top of a computer case.
9. Front Panel Connectors
Connects to the power switch, reset switch, power LED, hard drive LED
and front audio ports of a computer case.
10. IDE Connector Connects to older hard drive disks and optical drives for
data transfer.
Have been replaced over by SATA(Serial Advanced Technology
Attachment).
11. CMOS Battery Supplies power to store BIOS settings and keep the real-
time clock running.
12. Southbridge Also known as the Input / Output Controller Hub (ICH).
Chipset that allows the CPU to communicate with PCI slots, PCI-Express x 1
slots (expansion cards), SATA connectors (hard drives, optical drives), USB
ports (USB devices), Ethernet ports and on-board audio.
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13. SATA Connectors
Connects to modern hard disk drives, solid state
drives and optical drives for data transfer.
14. Fan Headers
Supplies power to the CPU heat sink fan and
computer case fans.
15. RAM Slots
16. ATX Power Connector Connects to the 24-pin
ATX power cable of a power supply unit which
supplies power to the motherboard.

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17. mSATA Connector Connects to a mSATA solid
state drive. In most cases, this SSD is used as
cache to speed up hard disk drives, but it's
possible to re-purpose it as a regular hard drive.
18. Front Panel USB 3.0 Connector
Connects to USB 3.0 ports at the front or top of
the computer case.
19. Power & Reset Button
Onboard button to turn on, turn off and reboot
the computer.

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 Motherboard Form Factor
• FORM FACTOR
• This is a specification format for a motherboard.
• All the components, slots, ports etc can be
arranged in various forms.
• But this will lead to problem and chaos, as all
manufacturers will follow their own convenient
and suitable format.
• So there are specifications or set of format that
define the shape and size of the motherboard. It
specifies the layout of the motherboard.

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 The most common & most famous form factors

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 Motherboard Form Factor Comparison Chart
Mini-ITX MicroATX ATX
17 x 17 cm 24.4 x 24.4 cm 30.5 x 24.4 cm
Maximum Size 6.7 x 6.7 in 9.6 x 9.6 in 12 x 9.6 in

RAM Slots 2 2 to 4 2 to 8
DIMM, DIMM DIMM
RAM Type
SODIMM
1 2 to 4 4 to 7
Expansion Slots

0 to 1 1 to 3 1 to 4
Graphics Cards

SATA ports 2 to 6 4 to 8 4 to 12

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 Power supply unit
• The power supply unit in a computer converts
the power from the wall outlet to the type of
power needed by the computer.
• It sends power through cables to the
motherboard and other components.

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 RAM (random access memory)
• RAM is your system's short-term memory.
Whenever your computer performs
calculations, it temporarily stores the data in
the RAM until it is needed(Volatile).
• The more RAM you have, the more things
your computer can do at the same time.
• Many people add extra RAM to their
computers to improve performance.

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 Hard drive
• The hard drive on your computer is where the
software is installed, and also where your documents
and other files are stored. Hard drive is long-term
storage.
• When you run a program or open a file, the computer
copies some of the data from the hard drive onto
the RAM.
• When you save a file, the data is copied back to
the hard drive. The faster the hard drive is, the faster
your computer can start up and load programs.

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 Expansion cards
• Most computers have expansion slots on the
motherboard that allow you to add various types
of expansion cards. PCI (peripheral component
interconnect) cards.
• You may never have to add any PCI cards
because most motherboards have built-in video,
sound, network, and other capabilities.
• However, if you want to boost the performance
of your computer or update the capabilities of an
older computer, you can always add one or more
cards.
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• Sound card
– The sound card, also called an audio card, Most
motherboards have integrated sound, but you can
upgrade to a dedicated sound card for higher-quality
sound.
• Network card
– The network card allows your computer to
communicate over a network and access the Internet.
It can either connect with an Ethernet cable or
through a wireless connection (often called Wi-Fi).
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• Bluetooth card
– Bluetooth is a technology for wireless
communication over short distances. Like
wireless keyboards, mice, and printers. It's often
built into the motherboard or included in
a wireless network card.
– For computers that don't have Bluetooth, a USB
adapter, called a dongle, can be purchased.

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 Software
• Computer software or simply software is any set of
instructions that directs a computer to perform specific
operations.
• Computer software consists of computer programs,
libraries, firmware and related non-executable data
(such as online documentation or digital media).
• Computer software is non-tangible, contrasted with
computer hardware, which is the physical component
of computers.
• Computer hardware and software require each other
and neither can be realistically used without the other.

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 Types of Software

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 Computer Hardware & Networking-
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 Types of software
• Software is the language of a computer. And like
human language, there are many different computer
languages.
• Essentially, computer software can be divided into
three main groups depending on their use and
application.
• These are system software or operating system
referred simply as the OS, application software and
programming languages.
• Usually most of us interact with a computer using
application software.

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 1. System Software
• System software or operating system is the
software used by the computer to translate
inputs from various sources into a language
which a machine can understand.
• Basically, the OS coordinates the different
hardware components of a computer.
• Among these UNIX is used for large office setups
with extensive networking.
• HP -UX and AIX are some operating systems used
by HP computers.
• Apache OS is quite popular with web servers.
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 2. Application software
• Application software is used to interact with a
computer.
• Popular examples of application software are the
Microsoft office suite which includes Word, Excel
and PowerPoint.
• Internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox is two
applications used to access the internet.
• E-mail software like Outlook express is used to
manage Emails.
• The anti-virus is an application and so is the
Media player.
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 3. Programming languages
• This is a computer software which is used exclusively
by computer programmers.
• A simple way to understand programming languages is
to think of them as bricks which can be used to create
applications and operating system.
• C++, Java and Simlab are some popular programming
languages.
• Generally Java is used for internet applications.
• C++ is a language of professional developers and used
extensively in developing operating systems.
• PHP is another language used for internet applications.

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 ROM BIOS
• (ROM Basic Input Output System) The BIOS in a PC
stored on a ROM chip.
• Early PCs used a ROM BIOS, but PCs today use a flash
memory BIOS because it can be updated in place.
• In order to update a ROM BIOS, the computer case had
to be opened, and the ROM chip had to be located and
replaced.
• Nevertheless, a BIOS stored in ROM is more secure
than one in flash memory, because it cannot be
changed from an external source.

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 Functions of BIOS

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• Short for Basic Input / Output System, the BIOS.
• BIOS is a ROM chip located on all motherboards
• The principal job of a computer's BIOS is to govern the
early stages of the startup process, ensuring that the
operating system is correctly loaded into memory.
• BIOS allows you to access and set up your computer
system at the most basic level.
• The BIOS includes instructions on how to load basic
computer hardware and includes a test referred to as
a POST (Power On Self Test) that helps verify the
computer meets requirements to boot up properly.
• If the computer does not pass the POST, you will
receive a combination of beeps indicating what is
malfunctioning within the computer.
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 Major Functions of BIOS

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 main functions of a PC BIOS
1. POST - Test the computer hardware and make sure
no errors exist before loading the operating system.
2. Bootstrap Loader - Locate the operating system. If a
capable operating system is located, the BIOS will
pass control to it.
3. BIOS drivers - Low level drivers that give the
computer basic operational control over your
computer's hardware.
4. BIOS or CMOS Setup - Configuration program that
allows you to configure hardware settings including
system settings such as computer passwords, time,
and date.
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 The boot process
• Why is Booting Required ?
• Hardware doesn’t know where the OS
resides and how to load it.
• Need a special program to do this job –
Bootstrap loader.
• Bootstrap loader locates the kernel, loads
it into main memory and starts its
execution.

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 BIOS Interaction

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 Tasks performed at boot up
• Run diagnostics to determine the state of
machine. If diagnostics pass, booting
continues.
• Runs a Power-On Self Test (POST) to
check the devices that the computer will
rely on, are functioning.
• BIOS goes through a preconfigured list of
devices until it finds one that is bootable. If
it finds no such device, an error is given
and the boot process stops.

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• Initializes CPU registers, device
controllers and contents of the main
memory.
• After this, it loads the OS.
• On finding a bootable device, the
BIOS loads and executes its boot
sector.
• In the case of a hard drive, this is
referred to as the master boot record
(MBR) and is often not OS specific.
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• The MBR code checks the
partition table for an active
partition. If one is found, the MBR
code loads that partition's boot
sector and executes it.
• The boot sector is often operating
system specific, however in most
operating systems its main
function is to load and execute a
kernel, which continues startup.
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 POST and Important Beep Codes
• http://download.cnet.com/s/bios-beep-
codes/
• To download Beep codes

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 Know about different connectors.
A - 20-pin ATX
ATX Power Connector (To
Motherboard)
B - 24-pin ATX
24-pin Version of ATX
Power Connector
C - 4-pin Floppy
Powers Floppy devices
D - 4-pin ATX12V
Added power for P4
E - 5-pin SATA
Powers SATA Devices
F - 4-pin Peripheral
Power Hard Drives,
Drives, etc.
G - 6-pin PCI Express
Added Power for PCI
Express Cards
H 6-pin PCI Express
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Power
 1. VGA
• Analog VGA interface was
created in the late 1980’s it
connect between a
computer and monitor.
• VGA consists of 15
contacts arranged in three
rows, each of which
corresponds to three
separate channels – red,
green and blue.
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 • Parallel Advanced Technology
Parallel ATA (IDE) Attachment (PATA) cables are used for
the connection of storage devices such as
hard disks, solid-state drives, and CD-ROM
drives to the computer’s motherboard.
• The Parallel ATA cable is a ribbon cable
with two or three connectors, one of
which plugs into the ATA connector
mounted on the motherboard and the
remaining connector(s) plug into drives.
• Each connector has 40 pins (44 pins for the
smaller form-factor version used for 2.5″
drives).
• Note that if two drives are attached to a
single cable, one must be configured as
master and the other as slave.

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 • SATA cables are designed to replace
SATA the older ATA cables used for
connection of storage devices.
• Since SATA offers higher data transfer
speeds, almost all modern desktop
motherboards have integrated SATA
host adapters.
• Unlike PATA, the same SATA
connectors are used on both 3.5-inch
SATA drives (used in desktop and
server computers) and 2.5-inch drives
(for portable computers).
• Each SATA cable has two 8-pin
connectors (one on each end) and
connects one motherboard socket to
one hard drive.

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 • Today it is the most popular
standard for connecting various
USB peripheral devices to a computer.
• There are 3 versions of USB:
• USB 1.0/1.1 – offers data transfer
speeds up to 12Mbit / s and uses
four wires (2 for data and 2 for
power supply)
• USB 2.0 – This is the most
commonly used version of this
type of interface. It provides
higher data transfer rates (480
Mbit / s) and compatibility with
older versions of USB.
• USB 3.0 – provides max. data
transfer rate up to 4.8 Gbit / s (600
MB / s theoretical speed) and
backward compatibility with
previous versions.

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 • eSATA or External Serial
eSATA Advanced Technology
Attachment is an external
interface for the new
SATA technologies.
• The e-SATA port is very
similar to the SATA ports
inside the computer. It
allows connection of
external hard drives or
optical drives, providing
data transfer speeds,
about three times faster
than FireWire 400 and
USB 2.0.
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 • This is the successor of VGA
DVI designed to provide very
high visual quality to digital
display devices such as LCD
computer displays.
• It allows you to transmit
digital signals between the
video source and display
using a digital protocol in
which the desired
illumination of pixels is
transmitted as binary data.
There are 3 types of DVI
connectors:

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 DVI
• DVI-A used to transmit analog signals (compatible
with VGA) to an analog display, such as a CRT
monitor or budget LCD.
• DVI-D can transmit only digital signals. It provides
direct digital connection between any digital
video source (such as PC videocard) and digital
LCD monitor.
• DVI-I can work with both types of signals (DVI-A
and DVI-D). DVI-I cables are capable to transmit
either a digital-to-digital signal or an analog-to-
analog signal.
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 • HDMI or High-Definition
HDMI Multimedia Interface is used
for transmission of high-
definition video between
digital video sources (like PC
graphic card or Blue ray
player) and digital LCD
monitors. HDMI provides the
transmission of DVI video
signals and audio signals
simultaneously. HDMI is
backward-compatible with
DVI digital video (but only
with DVI-D or DVI-I not DVI-A)
used on modern computer
monitors and graphics cards.
There are 4 types of HDMI
connectors:

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 HDMI
• Type A – This is the most popular type. The male connector
outside dimensions are 13.9 mm x 4.45 mm and has 19
pins. It is also electrically compatible with single-link DVI-D.
• Type B – This connector dimensions are 21.2 mm x 4.45
mm (it has 29 pins). Type B is electrically compatible with
dual-link DVI-D
• Type C – It is Mini connector intended for portable devices
(10.42 mm x 2.42 mm) with 19 pins. Type C is used mostly
for connecting digital cameras and camcorders.
• Type D – A Micro connector with 19 pins and dimensions
(2.8 mm x 6.4 mm) resembling a micro-USB connector

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 • A FireWire is very
FireWire similar but faster than
USB ( offers speeds up
to 400Mbps in 1394a
and 800Mbps in
1394b). It allows you
to send data to and
from high-bandwidth
digital devices such as
printers, scanners and
digital camcorders. A
single 1394 port can
be used to connect up
63 external devices at
a maximum cable
distance between
devices of 4.5 meters.
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 RJ 45 • RJ 45 cables are used to
connect computers to local
area networks. There are
two basic types of RJ 45
cables – straight-trough
and crossover. A straight-
trough cable is required to
connect a computer to
hub/switch, while if you
want to connect two
computers directly you will
need a crossover cable.
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