Main Components Of A Computer
Computers are complex machines that appear to be very intelligent but in reality are only very fast. Six essential components provide the various capabilities that a computer needs to do its job and appear to be so smart. Of course, no computer works without some form of electrical power, either from an outlet, a battery or a solar cell.
It's what the computer does with the electricity that's so interesting. Chips are made of silicon with embedded transistors that can be turned on or off, which is the language of 1's and 0's that computers understand. Central Processing UnitThe CPU handles all computations and is a traffic cop for the entire machine, directing what happens and when. A CPU consists of the control unit, or CU, and the arithmetic logic unit, or ALU.
Apr 17, 2013 - Most people heavily rely on computers today so it is in their best interest to understand a basic computer's components, functions, and cost. The motherboard is the main component of a computer. It is a board with integrated circuitry that connects the other parts of the computer including the CPU, the RAM, the disk drives (CD, DVD, hard disk, or any others) as well as any peripherals connected via the ports or the expansion slots.
Parts Of Computer And Their Functions Wikipedia
The CU gets program instructions from the computer’s memory, deciphers them and executes them. The ALU does the math and makes decisions. CPUs exist in the form of a silicon chip with millions of transistors. Some computers have more than one processor, and some chips contain more than one CPU. Read-Only MemoryRead-only memory, or ROM, stores pre-configured information for the computer that's usually used during the startup process.
ROM chips are much like RAM chips, except the computer doesn't store information to ROM chips, but can only read from them. Some chips, such as the Basic Input-Output System are erasable read-only memory. These are also known as EPROM chips, and a special process is used to write new information to these chips. ROM chips are non-volatile, meaning they don't lose information when power is removed. Secondary StorageSince RAM is volatile and computers do not normally write to ROM, computers use a form of secondary storage called disk storage. Disks are small round platters with an oxide coating that can hold a magnetic charge. The charge for a particular spot on the disk can be either on or off, again supporting the computer language of 1s and 0s.
Other forms of secondary storage include solid state disk, which is an array of non-volatile memory chips that mimic a normal disk. Flash drives are a form of solid state drive.