COMPUTER

Computer

Computer

The parts of a computer can be understood by dividing it into two major components that are:1. Software: The logical parts.2. Hardware: The physical parts.Software

Softwares are the logical components of the computer. There are two major categories of softwares that are:1. System Softwares: Those help you run the computer. 2. Application Softwares: Those made to perform a specific job.Hardware

Our main concern here will be the physical parts of the computer. Main physical parts of computer include Central Processing Unit (CPU), Memory Unit, and Bus (Stalling, 2004).

Main PartsCPU

There have been a lot of developments in microprocessors since the 286 chip. The 286 CPU are no longer sold and are very rarely found in commercial use today because of its running speed, which is between 10MHz to 20MHz. This processor has a 24-bit address bus, and is able to address up to 16 million different address locations. It also has two operating modes, which are real mode and protected mode.

The real mode is basically for normal DOS operations and it uses only 8086 code (8086 was the previous CPU). When it was in protected mode the CPU is able to access beyond the 1mb address limit and employed its added features, which were intended for multi-tasking operations such as Windows, but this CPU is not powerful enough to carry out these multi-tasking operations. The 286 came with a bus width of 16-bit internal, 24-bit address, and 16-bit external, with an external speed of between 6MHz - 25MHz, and an internal speed of between 6MHz - 25MHz. Today's common computers have 32 bit architecture with a speed up to 2GHz. RAM

The term RAM stands for random access memory which is a storage device made up of silicon chips. A computer has two types of RAM these use arrays of ...