Page 61 - A Practical Guide from Design Planning to Manufacturing

Chapter
2

Computer Components

Overview
This chapter discusses different computer components including buses,
the chipset, main memory, graphics and expansion cards, and the
motherboard; BIOS; the memory hierarchy; and how all these interact
with the microprocessor.

Objectives
Upon completion of this chapter, the reader will be able to:

1. Understand how the processor, chipset, and motherboard work
together.
2. Understand the importance of bus standards and their characteristics.
3. Be aware of the differences between common bus standards.
4. Describe the advantages and options when using a chipset.
5. Describe the operation of synchronous DRAM.
6. Describe the operation of a video adapter.
7. Explain the purpose of BIOS.
8. Calculate how memory hierarchy improves performance.

Introduction
A microprocessor can’t do anything by itself. What makes a processor
useful is the ability to input instructions and data and to output results,
but to do this a processor must work together with other components.

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