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Hardware

Cables and Adapters

  • Twisted pair copper cabling - balanced pair operation.

  • Plenum-rated cable - traditional cable jacket (PVC); not flexible.

  • UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) - no extra shielding.

  • STP (Shielded Twisted Pair) - extra shielding protects against interference.

  • Coaxial cables - two or more forms share a common axis.

  • Optical fiber communication - transmission by light; no RF (radio frequency) signal.

  • Multimode filber - short-range communication; cheap.

  • Singlemode fiber - long-range communication; costly.

  • VGA (Video Graphics Array) - DB-15 connector; analog signal.

  • HDMI (High-Def Multimedia Interface) - video & audio stream; digital signal.

  • DVI (Digital Visual Interface) - single and dual link; both analog and digital signals.

  • DVI to HDMI - DVI-D & HDMI are electrically compatible; no signal conversion required and no loss of video quality.

Connectors

  • RJ11 connector - telephone connection; 6P2C (6 position, 2 conductor).

  • RJ45 connector - modular connector; 8P8C.

  • RS232 - serial communication standard; used as configuration port.

  • BNC - coaxial cable connector; rigid and bulky.

  • F-connector - cable modem.

  • USB - USB 1.1/2.0, 3.0, USB-C

Memory

  • Common memory components include RAM, DIMM, SO-DIMM, DRAM, SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM.

  • Multi-channel memory - use of multiple memory modules to increase performance.

  • Parity memory - adds an extra parity bit.

  • ECC (Error correcting code) - detects errors and corrects code.

Storage

  • Optical formats - small bumps read with a laser beam; CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Blu-ray disc.

  • SSD - non-volatile memory; no moving parts; fast performance.

  • M.2 interface - smaller storage device; faster performance; different connector types.

  • HDD - non-volatile magnetic storage; moving parts.

  • SSHD - hybrid drives.

  • USB flash drives - EEPROM; no power required to retain data.

  • RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) - different RAID levels.

  • RAID 0 - striping; high performance; no redundancy.

  • RAID 1 - mirroring; high disk utilization; high redundancy

  • RAID 5 - striping with parity; efficient; high redundancy.

  • RAID 10 (1+0) - stripe of mirrors; speed of striping & redundancy of mirroring; needs at least 4 drives.

Motherboards, CPUs, and Add-on Cards

  • Motherboard form factors:

    1. Physical size
    2. Basic layout
    3. Power
    4. Airflow

  • Major motherboard types - ATX, micro-ATX, ITX, mini-ITX.

  • Computer bus - communication path; can be used for system expansion.

  • Expansion bus - bandwidth used to measure capacity; has its own clock; PCI (parallel) and PCI Express (serial) used.

  • CPU sockets - motherboards matched with CPUs due to specific requirements; usually the largest component on the board.

  • ZIF sockets - used for PGA (Pin Grid Array), which will plug into ZIF.

  • LGA sockets - reverse of PGA.

  • Storage drive interfaces - used for SATA and PATA connectors.

  • BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) - software used to start computer; initializes CPU and memory.

  • UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - standard for BIOS; supports FAT and removable media; includes pre-boot environment.

  • Case fans - cool air pulled through PC; layout of components is key.

  • On-board fans - designed to cool an entire adapter card.

  • Heat sink - dissipate heat through thermal conduction; the grid increases surface area.

  • Passive cooling - fanless; controlled functions and low-power components.

  • Liquid cooling - coolant circulated through a computer.

  • Expansion cards - extend functionality of computer.

  • Computer uses DC voltage; most power sources provide AC voltage.

Print Technologies

  • Laser printer - high quality; fast performance; complex.

  • Color laser printers have 4 separate toner cartridges for 4 colors - cyan, yellow, magenta, black.

  • Laser printer process:

    1. Processing - build entire page in memory
    2. Charging - prepare drum with a negative electrostatic charge
    3. Exposing - write image with laser
    4. Developing - add negatively charged toner to imaging drum
    5. Transferring - move toner from drum to paper
    6. Fusing - heat and pressure
    7. Cleaning - remove excess toner

  • Inkjet printer (ink-dispersion) - cheap, quiet, high-resolution; expensive ink.

  • Thermal printers - white paper, no ink used; silent; paper sensitive to light, heat.

  • Dot-matrix printer (impact) - print-head with a small matrix of pins; good for copies; noisy, poor graphics.