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This isn't so much a tutorial, as it doesn't actually teach
you much.. It's more a text on hardware for those of you sick of
newbie tutorials, and looking for something interesting and
non-dangerous. This is mainly about motherboard stuff, but I stuck
something about HDs, mice and Gfx cards at the end. Hey, if people
like it and tell me, I might even stretch and do al the other
computer bits and bobs. ;)
Content
The Bios
(I) Functions
(II) Static + Passwords
Processors
(I) Fetch-Execute
(II) Clock Ticks
(III) Funky Athlon fridge chip.
The Clock
(I) What does it look like?
(II) Waves
(III) Some ASCII Art. ;)
(IV) What is Digital? (unrelated to Microns, but
hey.)
(V) Howcome Digital can't be conceived in real
life?
(VI) What does digital represent?
(VII) What is Binary?
(VIII) How do I translate between number
systems?
(IX) sums?
(X) Use Wincalc.
Chipset
(I) A what?
(II) Assembler and Machine Code
(III) Intel ones.
Microns
(I) Moore's Law
(II) Predictions / Intel. V. AMD. (Go, AMD!)
Hard Drives
(I) Origin
(II) How they work
(III) FIrst computer
Mice
(I) Rollers
(II) Cleaning
(III) Keyboard crud
Gfx Cards
(I) Built in v. NOT
(II) Components
(III) Stay away from S3s! warning
(IV) 3D and 2D cards
The BIOS.
This contains instructions which are specific for that
particular motherboard. Those programs and instructions will remain
in the PC throughout its life; usually they are not altered.
However, it is possible to get replacement / upgrade BIOS's.
Primarily the ROM code holds start-up instructions. In fact there
are several different programs inside the start-up instructions, but
for most users, they are all woven together. You can differentiate
between:
* POST (Power On Self Test)
* The Setup instructions, which connect with the
CMOS instructions
* BIOS instructions, which connect with the
various hardware peripherals
* The Boot instructions, which call the operating
system (DOS, OS/2, or Windows)
Note: Only very old or different OS's are stored on ROM,
such as OS/2. This is actually a much more efficient system.
BIOS's are static sensitive, so take care when handling
them. They can also be PWord protected... if you ever get round to
doing this, don't forget the password. As you don't use the BIOS
PWord often, this is easy to do. Don't. it's bloody hard getting the
PWord back.
Processors
Processors work on a fetch-execute cycle. each tick of the
clock, in theory, they get a bit of data... and by tick of the clock
here, we don't mean a second, we mean the tick of a computer clock.
Depending on the speed of your processor, this is anywhere from 233
million ticks per second for a 233, to 800 for an overclocked 600MHz
Athlon chip.
So, you can get, on your average computer, 400 - 500 bits
of data per second. Well, wrong actually... because not every clock
tick is taken up by getting the data. Every _fourth_ is. Well, what
about every other 3? you ask.. they are taken up with _finding_ the
data, _getting_ it, and putting it back. So, you say, your processor
runs at a quarter of the speed that in theory it should be able to
do? Well, yes. And there's no way around this, unfortunately. But,
we can make the clock speed a little faster, and it is the clock
speed that dictates the speed of the processor... (within reason).
Therefore, you can set the clock ticks on your 233 to 266,
and it'll run at 166 MHz. Yes. Unfortunately, the more clock ticks
there are in relation to what your chip is _supposed_ to run at, the
hotter it Gets. Therefore, you need to install heatsyncs/fans. In
fact, the AMD Athlon 600MHz overclocked to 800MHz, the fastest PC at
the time of writing has a minature fridge that cools the chip, which
is its own special metal box. The tower-sized case also has a box
the size of a mini-tower underneath for the cooling system. ;)
For this increase in temperature of 200MHz, the chip is
cooled to -37 degrees centigrade. that's cold. ;) (Note: AMD chips
generally run a lot hotter than Intel ones). ((Not a problem unless
u have no heatsync)) - see the micron section, below...
The Clock
Now, this fabled clock looks like, in most cases, a small
black box on your motherboard. The clock ticks it emitts are in the
form of a wave , but a different wave: one that is sqare, and it
looks like a castle ramparts. the speed of this is dictated by the
MHx setting you set with the Jumpers on your motherboard. The waves
look like so: (except slightly more square)
__ _ ____ _ _ ___
_¦ ¦___¦ ¦__¦ ¦_¦ ¦_¦ ¦__¦ ¦__ and etc.
The wave, which never changes, and is always the same, is
broadcast throughout your motherboard, and it synchronises all of
the things that go on there. For example, when you press the left
button in your game of quake, the processor assigns different bits
of your computer to do whatever is neccacery to redraw what's on the
screen, and tells it to have it done in 3 ticks' time. The same
process occurs on the gfx card itself, where the main processor
assigns a polygon to each other chip, or whatever. Infact, if you
have an old enough computer, you can see it being redrawn on the
screen... try it... run a gfx-intensive game on a 486... If the task
isn't done in time, then it all falls apart, and the computer
crashes. This is why you don't want to buy a dodgy CPU. :) (Get an
AMD Athlon!).
The signals sent run around your motherboard, through all
of those copper bits, and into the chips, ISA slots, or whatever,
and the task gets accomplished.
This signal is sent around the motherboard in that most
wonderful of things we all love, Binary. Now, Binary is what
Computers communicate with, and it is a DIGITAL thing. Digital. A
Much used term.
COmputers are electronic, and therefore, all the signals in
them are tiny pulses of electricity. Now, electricity can be one of
two things. On... or off. And this is what makes it digital. If it
could be half on as well, it would be analogue... But no. It's
digital. However, the representation of it in the form of signals
down wires is analogue, as a sound in a modem wire can be any of a
hundred million different pitches, can't it. Yes. This digital
signal is, then, a series of 0's and 1's. Binary. The counting
system that we use (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11... etc... ) is
Denary. It's Base ten... Binary is Base 2 (and Hexadecimal, which is
used, amongst other things, is base 16). Therefore it is perfect for
being what these signals are coded in. so each charactor on your
screen is represented in your computers RAM by a series of Binary
digits. Probably 8. if you go into Windows Calculator, and switch to
scientific mode (View>Scientific) you can decode this. For example,
1 in Binary is 00000001. 2 is 00000010. The way this can be decoded
is thus:
Each digit in binary represents a quantity of a certain
number, just as denary does. In denary, there is a column for 1's, a
column for 10's, and a column for 100's. And in Binary, there is a
column for 1's, 2's, 4's, 8's, etc. Let me show you:
Denary:
100s 10s 1s
1 0 0
Here, there is a one in the hundreds column, and therefore,
100 + 0 + 0 (0 and 0 are the other 2 columns) makes 100. SO 1 0 0 in
Denary represents 100. (of course, translating 100 --> 100 doesn't
work, as denary is used in both cases). In Binary, this works this:
Binary (8-bit
-- 8 digits)
128 64 32 16 8 4 2
1
1 1 1 1 1 0 1
0
SO... 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 2 + 1 = 250.
So the Binary number 11111010 = 250. Simple, eh?
It is possible to do addition, subtraction, multiplication,
in fact, EVEYTHING that is possible with denary (1--> 10)... I'm not
going to explain it because it is simply too complicated. ;) Use
Windows Calculator... the radio buttons at the top left switch
between number systems.
Chipset
We all know what assembly language is, do we not? It is the
programming language that is most native to a computer. The
instructions go directly to the chip (more or less). (Assembly
actually lays on top of Machine code, which is the real native:
Assembler is a more human-friendly version)... Each chip has their
own different version of assembler/machine code, called its
_chipset_. Each new type of chip comes with an upgraded chipset: for
example, the Intel MMX chip incorporated the...wait for it... MMX
chipset! There are also chipsets such as 3D!Now. THe most basic of
commands between, say, Intel and AMD are the same: they have to be
in order for the two to be compatible, but more advanced things are
different. This is why Alpha chips are incompatible with windows:
The chipset is completely different.
Intel has hitherto been the leader in supplying chip sets
to the Pentium motherboard. Therefore, let us just mention their
chip sets, which have astronomical names. The Neptune chip set
(82434NX) was introduced in June 1994. It replaced the Mercury set
(82434LX). In both chip sets, there were problems with the PCI bus.
In January 1995 Intel introduced the first Triton, where everything
worked. This chip set supports some new features: it supports EDO
RAM, and it offers bus master integrated EIDE control and NSP
(Native Signal Processing - one of the many new creations, which was
soon forgotten).
The sorts of things that new chipsets are used for are
varied... for example, The Intel TX Chipset, for example, supports
SDRam and UltraDMA (But the TX-set cannot cache above 64 MB RAM, and
that is a problem.), while AMD chips have their own special Graphics
chipset, which is better for that task.
Microns
The CPUs have doubled their calculating capacity every 18
months. This is called "Moore's Law" and was predicted in 1965 by
Gordon Moore. He was right for more than 30 years. The latest CPUs
use internal wiring only 0.25 microns wide (1/400 of a human hair).
But if Moore's Law has to be valid into the next century, more
transistors have to be squeezed onto silicon layers. And now there
is a new hope. IBM has for the first time succeeded in making copper
conductors instead of aluminum. Copper is cheaper and faster, but
the problem was to isolate it from the silicon. The problem has been
solved with a new type of coating, and now chips can be designed
with 0.13 micron technology. The technology is expected later to
work with just 0.05 micron wiring! Texas Instruments announced on
August 27th 1998 that they expect 0.07 micron CMOS processing in the
year 2001. At the time of writing, AMD chips run at .27 microns (?)
and Intel at .33. This explains why AMD chips are hotter, as there
is less wire, and therefore more probability of the electrons that
the electricity is comprised of hitting the side of the wires, and
creating heat.
Hard Drives
Hard drives work in much the same way as a floppy disk
does. They can, however, store a much larger capacity of data, and
therefore are much more fragile, and compact . For this reason, they
are hermetically sealed. NEVER OPEN ONE IF YOU WANT TO USE IT AGAIN.
There is, inside, 3 or 4 goldy-brown circular plates on which the
data is stored. These are much the same as the ones inside a floppy
disk, except that they are not 'floppy' but hard, or stiff. The data
is stored on the platters magnetically, which explains why floppy
disks have a "keep magnets away from me" warning on boxes u buy them
in.
IBM introduced the first hard disk in 1957, when data
usually was stored on tapes. The first 305 RAMAC (Random Access
Method of Accounting and Control) consisted of 50 platters, 24 inch
diameter, with a total capacity of 5 MB, a huge storage medium for
its time. It cost $35,000 annually in leasing fees (IBM would not
sell it outright) and was twice the size of a refrigerator.
In the early 80s, HD's became the preferred storage medium
as opposed to floppy drives (these were previously used due to
increased reliability). IBM's PS/2 (one of which I have - yay) was
one of the first PCs to be equipped with a Hard drive. I think.
Mice
Mice are, as we all know, Input devices, and as we also
know, they tell where you are on the mousemat by moving a ball in
the bottom. Which you can see. But how does it read how the ball is
moving? Well, inside the mouse are 2 rollers, at 90 degrees to each
other. When you move the mouse, u move the ball, and thus the
rollers. THe rollers have some little discs on the end of them with
slits in, and either side of the disc are light-readers, so that
when you move tha ball, the mouse can tell because light flasles on
and off in its light reader. There is also a 3rd non-functional
roller to keep the ball rolling smoothly. Note: It is perfectly safe
to turn your mouse upside down ,. take the ball out and look inside,
as long as you don't prod anything too hard (twiddle the rollers by
all means, just don't stick bits of paper in there). It is also a
good idea to get a blunt knife or screw driver and clean the crud
off the rollers every few weeks... it solidifies into little rings
around the rollers, and works to the detriment of the mouse. If it
isn't cleaned off, it can also, fallinto the mouse, and reak havok
with the insides. :) The same sort of crud builds up in keyboards,
but is harder to remove. ;)
GFX Cards
A video card is typically an adapter, a removable expansion
card in the PC. Thus, it can be replaced! The video card can also be
an integral part of the system board...This is the case in certain
brands of PCs and is always the case in lap tops. This is not nice,
as it is hard to upgrade to a better card. On a OC with a
non-removable gfx or sound card, the normal procedure if you _do_
want to replace it is to disable the built-in graphics card using
jumpers or dip switches... consult your motherboard manual. ;)
Regardless of whether it is replaceable or integrated, it consists
of three components:
* A video chip of some brand (ATI, Matrox, S3, Cirrus
Logic, or Tseng, to name some of the better known). The video chip
creates the signals, which the screen must receive to form an image.
* Some kind of RAM (EDO, SGRAM, or VRAM, which are all
variations of the regular RAM). Memory is necessary, since the video
card must be able to remember a complete screen image at any time.
* A RAMDAC - a chip converting digital/analog signals.
NOTE: Never buy an S3. Never. Ever. I've had lots, they're
all useless. Remember that.
All ordinary graphics cards can show 3D games. That is
really no special trick. The problem is to present them smoothly and
fast. If the PC’s video card is made for 2D execution only, the CPU
must do the entire workload of geometric transformations etc.! And
that task can cause even the fastest CPU to walk with a limp. In
recent years there has been an enormous development in 3D graphics
cards. Let me briefly describe those here.
There are two types of graphics cards, which can be used
for 3D acceleration:
Combination 2D/3D cards. These are ordinary graphics cards,
which have been equipped with extra 3D power.
The pure 3D cards, which only work as accelerators. These
cards require that there also is an ordinary (2D) graphics card in
the PC.
Of course the pure 3D card yields the best acceleration,
but there are also good combination cards on the market.
Njan
Credits:
version 1.1,
Converted to HTML by Penguin, optimized by Martin L.
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