How to Draw and Graph Computer Techonolgy Hardware
Computer Hardware
Computer Hardware
The figurer is an amazingly useful general-purpose technology, to the point that at present cameras, phones, thermostats, and more than are all now little computers. This section will introduce major parts and themes of how reckoner hardware works. "Hardware" refers the physical parts of the calculator, and "software" refers to the code that runs on the computer.
Fries and Transistors
Here is a silicon chip inside its plastic package. I pulled this out of the east-waste pile at the Stanford CS building, and then it's probably kind of old. This is a modest chip with just a few "pins" of electric connection. Later nosotros'll see a bigger chip with hundreds of pins.
Within the plastic package is a fingernail sized silicon chip with transistors and other components etched on its surface. Tiny wires connect the chip to the outside. (CC licensed attribution sharealke 3. wikipedia user Zephyris)
Modern computers use tiny electronic components which can be etched onto the surface of a silicon fleck. (See: wikipedia chip) Notation that silicon (chips, solar panels) and silicone (soft rubbery textile) are dissimilar!
The near common electronic component is the "transistor" which works equally a sort of amplifying valve for a catamenia of electrons. The transistor is a "solid state" device, meaning it has no moving parts. It is a basic building block used to construct more circuitous electronic components. In particular, a "chip" (below) tin exist congenital with an arrangement of 5 transistors. The transistor was invented in the early 1950's, replacing the vacuum tube. Since then, transistors have been fabricated smaller and smaller, allowing more than and more of them to be etched onto a silicon chip.
Moore's Police
Moore's law (Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder) states that the density of transistors on a chip doubles most every ii years or so (sometimes listed as every 18 months). The increase is due to improved scrap making applied science. It is not a scientific law, simply a broad prediction that seems to continue working. More broadly, information technology captures the idea that per dollar, computer technology (not just transistors) gets exponentially ameliorate as time goes along. This is quite articulate if you expect at the cost or capability of computers/cameras etc. y'all have owned. Moore's Law results in more than capable computers (compare what an iPhone 7 can do vs. the original iPhone) too equally cheaper computers (less capable computers evidence up everywhere, like in thermostats and cars).
Computers in life: Control Systems
Control System / Moore's Flashlight Demo
Computer Hardware - CPU, RAM, and persistent storage
Now let's talk nearly the three major parts that brand up a calculator -- CPU, RAM, and Persistent Storage. These iii are found in all computers: laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
i. CPU
CPU - Key Processing Unit - inevitably referred to equally the "brains" of the computers. The CPU does the active "running" of code, manipulating data, while the other components have a more passive part, such as storing data. When we say that a computer can "add together two numbers, a billion times a second" .. that's the CPU. When you hit the Run push button, the CPU ultimately "runs" your code. Later on on, we volition complete the picture of how your Javascript code is run past the CPU.
Bated: CPU "Cores"
CPU Examples
CPU Variant: GPU - Graphics Processing Unit
two. RAM
RAM - Random Access Retention, or just "memory". RAM is the working scratchpad memory the reckoner uses to store code and data that are being actively used. RAM is effectively a storage expanse of bytes under the command of the CPU. RAM is relatively fast and able to retrieve the value of any item byte in a few nanoseconds (i nanosecond is 1 billionth of a second). The other main characteristic of RAM is that it only keeps its state so long as it is supplied with power -- RAM is not "persistent" storage.
Suppose you are working on your computer and it suddenly loses ability and the screen goes blank. You understand that what you were working on is gone. RAM has been wiped clean, leaving y'all simply with what yous last saved to disk (below).
RAM Examples
3. Persistent Storage: Hard Drive, Flash Drive
How a Difficult Bulldoze Works Video (Webm is an open standard video format, works in Firefox and Chrome). 4:xxx in the video to run into some reading/writing of bits.
Persistent Storage, Newer Technology: Flash
Persistent storage - long term storage for bytes as files and folders. Persistent means that the bytes are stored, even when power is removed. A laptop might employ a spinning difficult drive (besides known equally "hard disk") for persistent storage of files. Or it could apply a "wink drive", besides known as a Solid State Disk (SSD), to shop bytes on flash chips. The hard drive reads and writes magnetic patterns on a spinning metal deejay to store the bytes, while wink is "solid state": no moving parts, just silicon chips with tiny groups of electrons to store the bytes. In either case, the storage is persistent, in that it maintains its land even when the power is off.
A flash drive is faster and uses less power than a difficult disk. Yet, per byte, flash is significantly more than expensive than hard drive storage. Flash has been getting cheaper, so it may take over niches at the expense of difficult drives. Wink is much slower than RAM, and so it is not a good replacement for RAM. Note that Adobe Flash is an unrelated concept; it is a proprietary media format.
Flash storage is what underlies USB thumb drives, SD cards for utilize in cameras, or the congenital-in storage in a tablet or telephone.
File Arrangement
The difficult drive or flash drive provides persistent storage as a flat area of bytes without much structure. Typically the difficult deejay or wink disk is formatted with a "file arrangement" which organizes the bytes into the familiar blueprint of files and directories, where each file and directory has a somewhat useful name like "resume.txt". When y'all connect the drive to a calculator, the estimator presents the drive's file arrangement to the user, allowing them open up files, move file effectually, etc.
Essentially, each file in the file system refers to a block of bytes, so the "flowers.jpg" name refers to a block of 48KB of bytes which are the data of that image. The file organization in consequence gives the user a proper noun (and probably an icon) for a block of data bytes, and allows the user to perform operations on that data, like move it or copy it or open it with a program. The file system also tracks information nearly the bytes: how many in that location are, the time they were concluding modified.
Microsoft uses the proprietary NTFS file arrangement, and Mac OS X has its Apple proprietary HFS+ equivalent. Many devices (cameras, MP3 players) employ the very old Microsoft FAT32 file system on their flash cards. FAT32 is an erstwhile and primitive file system, only it is good where wide support is of import.
Persistent Storage Examples
Pictures of Hardware
Below are images of a depression-end Shuttle calculator with a 1.8ghz CPU, 512MB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. It cost virtually $200 in around 2008. Information technology bankrupt, and then became a classroom instance.
Here is the flat "motherboard", a little smaller than a viii.v x 11 piece of paper, that the various components plug in to. At the center is the CPU. At the far right is the RAM retention. But to the correct of the CPU are a couple support chips. Prominently, one of the chips is covered with a copper "heatsink" .. this presses tightly against the chip, dissipating the heat from the chip into the surrounding air. The CPU also had a very large heatsink, but it was removed to brand the CPU visible.
The CPU is held tightly against the motherboard by a little lever mechanism. Here the mechanism is released and then the CPU tin exist picked upwards. The fingernail sized CPU is packaged underneath this metallic embrace which helps conduct the estrus from the CPU up to its heatsink. The gray stuff on the metal fleck cover is "thermal paste", a fabric which helps conduct rut from the chip housing to its (not shown) heatsink.
Flipping the CPU over shows the little gilt pads on the lesser of the CPU. Each pad is continued past a very fine wire to a spot on the silicon flake.
Here is a motion picture of another chip, only with the top packaging removed. You see the pinky-fingernail silicon bit at the center with the tiny transistor details etched onto it. At the chip border, see the very fine wires connecting parts of the chip to outside pads (CC licensed attribution sharealke 3. wikipedia user Zephyris)
Now looking from the side, the heatsink and the RAM retentivity card tin be seen more than conspicuously, sticking upwards from the motherboard.
RAM is congenital with a few chips packaged together onto a niggling card known as a DIMM that plugs into the motherboard (dual inline retentivity module). Here we encounter the RAM DIMM removed from its motherboard socket. This is a 512MB DIMM built with 4 chips. A few years earlier, this DIMM might take required eight chips in society to store 512MB .. Moore'south law in action.
This is a difficult drive that connects to the motherboard with the visible standard SATA connector. This is a 160GB, "3.5 inch" drive referring to the diameter of the spinning disk within; the whole bulldoze is almost the size of small-scale paperback book. This is a standard disk size to use within a desktop estimator. Laptop computers utilize 2.5 inch drives, which are a scrap smaller.
This is a USB flash drive that, like a hard bulldoze, provides persistent byte storage. This is also known as a "thumb bulldoze" or "USB key". It is essentially a USB jack connected to a flash storage chip with some support electronics:
Here it is taken apart, showing the flash chip that actually stores the bytes. This chip can store about one billion bits .. how many bytes is that? (A: 8 bits per byte, so that'due south about 125 MB)
Here is a "SD Card" which provides storage in a camera. Information technology's very like to the USB flash bulldoze, just a different shape.
Microcontroller - Inexpensive Reckoner Chip
Arduino Reckoner
0 Response to "How to Draw and Graph Computer Techonolgy Hardware"
Post a Comment