Saturday, December 6, 2008

Part of Mother Board

Parts of Motherboard


Parts of a motherboard.

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This is ...
... my motherboard. From left to right ...
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The four white connectors ...
... are the PCI slots (numbered from 1 to 4 from left to right). Most of the present boards but the graphics ones, have this kind of connection. The PCI4 is normally only used if the second ISA is not occupied (although electrically both can be used).
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This is the power supply connector, ATX type ...
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... and so it will be plugged.
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And here we come to the headache of my friends who are not very much introduced in the world of computers:...
... the RAM sockets or connectors: the part that is guilty (when short) that computers move as turtles. The three in the photograph at the left are DIMM (black with little white levers at the ends).
A PC ends by becoming a snail, if it has not a MINIMUM of 96-128 Megabytes of RAM with Windows 98, or between 128 and 160 Megabytes of RAM with Windows 2000. motherboard481131.JPG
Going on from down left, this is the famous BIOS, that keeps the code program that starts the PC before the ...

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... the two black connectors ...
... at the left are old ISA slots, now becoming obsolete, that can be useful to connect some old boards, i.e. a LAN board that we keep in the "old but useful devices" drawer.
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This is the AGP slot ...
... it is only used for graphics boards (where the monitor is plugged). Nowadays, graphics boards are manufactured almost exclusively with this kind of connection
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This is the CPU socket ...
... that in this motherboard has to be Intel socket 370 type (PPGA or FCPGA). AMD processors need another kind of motherboard; they are not interchangeable (in this motherboard one cannot even plug Pentium III slot-1)
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This photograph, that corresponds to other PC 2-3 years old, shows filled...
... its DIMM slots and four empty slots (white) of SIMM memory. When purchasing memories to increase the size (upgrade), one has to report which kind of slot, base speed of CPU clock (for instance, 66, 100 รณ 133 Megahertz), and, if possible, show the motherboard's handbook.
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... operating system load, and this is the battery ...
... that helps to keep the BIOS configuration, clock, ... when the computer is off. Under the battery, in the long black connector, we connect the internal loudspeaker, reset, LED's ...




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Whithin these three connectors, the one shorter up is for the floppy disk flat cable connector,...
... the one at the center (black) is for the second flat cable (IDE2) to connect hard disks, CD's or DVD's, and the one down (blue) is for the first cable (IDE1) to connect disks. (each flat cable can handle two devices, one as master and the other as slave).
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... the joystick connector (15 pins) ...
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... over, the parallel port ...
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and, last, these are the connectors for



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This motherboard is equipped with internal modem, and this is the place to plug its connector (right). And now, going to the upper part of the motherboard, ...
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... and looking from the rear, from right to left, here we find the three audio connectors (this motherboard does not need an additional audio board) ...
... connector of 25 pins (pink) for printer connection, and down COM1 (left) and COM2 (right), the serial ports (where one can plug external modems and other devices) motherboard4822.JPG
These are the two USB connectors (all external devices are nowadays equipped with this kind of conection

The System Unit



System Unit

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Saturday, November 29, 2008

The History of Computers
"Who invented the computer?" is not a question with a simple answer. The real answer is that many inventors contributed to the history of computers and that a computer is a complex piece of machinery made up of many parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention. This series covers many of the major milestones in computer history (but not all of them) with a concentration on the history of personal home computers.

1946
John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly
ENIAC 1 Computer
20,000 vacuum tubes later...
1948
Frederic Williams & Tom Kilburn
Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams Tube
Baby and the Williams Tube turn on the memories.
1947/48
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain & Wiliam Shockley
The Transistor
No, a transistor is not a computer, but this invention greatly affected the history of computers.
1951
John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly
UNIVAC Computer
First commercial computer & able to pick presidential winners.
1953
International Business Machines
IBM 701 ED PM Computer
IBM enters into 'The History of Computers'.
1954
John Backus & IBM
FORTRAN Computer Programming Language
The first successful high level programming language.

1955
(In Use 1959)

Stanford Research Institute, Bank of America, and General Electric
ERMA and MICR
The first bank industry computer - also MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) for reading checks.
1958
Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce
The Integrated Circuit
Otherwise known as 'The Chip'
1962
Steve Russell & MIT
Space war Computer Game
The first computer game invented.
1964
Douglas Engelbert
Computer Mouse & Windows
Nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end.
1969
ARPAnet The original Internet.
1970
Intel 1103 Computer Memory The world's first available dynamic RAM chip.
1971
Faggin, Hoff & Mazor
Intel 4004 Computer Microprocessor
The first microprocessor.
1971
Alan Shugart &IBM
The "Floppy" Disk
Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility.
1973
Robert Metcalfe & Xerox
The Ethernet Computer Networking
Networking.
1974/75
Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair & IBM 5100 Computers The first consumer computers.
1976/77
Apple I, II & TRS-80 & Commodore Pet Computers More first consumer computers.
1978
Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston
VisiCalc Spreadsheet Software
Any product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner.
1979
Seymour Rubenstein & Rob Barnaby
WordStar Software
Word Processors.
1981
IBM
The IBM PC - Home Computer
From an "Acorn" grows a personal computer revolution
1981
Microsoft
MS-DOS Computer Operating System
From "Quick And Dirty" comes the operating system of the century.
1983
Apple Lisa Computer The first home computer with a GUI, graphical user interface.
1984
Apple Macintosh Computer The more affordable home computer with a GUI.
1985
Microsoft Windows Microsoft begins the friendly war with Apple.
SERIES
TO BE
CONTINUED