STORAGE

STORAGE

Alternatively referred to as storage, storage media, or storage medium, a storage device is a hardware device capable of holding information. There are two storage devices used in computers; a primary storage device such as computer RAM and a secondary storage device such as a computer hard drive. The secondary storage could be a removable, internal, orexternal storage. In the picture to the right, is an example of a Drobo, an external secondary storage device.

Without a storage device, you and your computer would not be able to save any settings or information and would be considered a dumb terminal. Below, are some additional examples of storage devices that are used with computers.

HARD DRIVE

Alternatively referred to as a hard disk drive and abbreviated as HD or HDD, the hard drive is the computer's main storage media device that permanently stores all data on the computer. The hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956 and consists of one or more hard drive platters inside of air sealed casing. Most computer hard drives are in an internal drive bay at the front of the computer and connect to the motherboard using either ATA, SCSI, or a SATA cable and power cable. Below, is an illustration of what the inside of a hard drive looks like for a desktop andlaptop hard drive.

As can be seen in the above picture, the desktop hard drive has six components: the head actuator, read/write actuator arm, read/write head, spindle, and platter. On the back of a hard drive is a circuit board called the disk controller.

Tip: New users often confuse memory (RAM) with disk drive space. See our memory definition for a comparison between memory and storage.

How is data read and stored on a hard drive?

Data sent to and from the hard drive is interpreted by the disk controller, which tells the hard drive what to do and how to move the components within the drive. When the operating system needs to read or write information, it examines the hard drives File Allocation Table (FAT) to determine file location and available areas. Once this has been determined, the disk controller instructs the actuator to move the read/write arm and align the read/write head. Because files are often scattered throughout the platter, the head will often need to move to several different locations to access all information.

All information stored on a traditional hard drive, like the above example, is done magnetically. After completing the above steps, if the computer needs to read information from the hard drive it would read the magnetic polarities on the platter. One side of the magnetic polarity is 0 and the other is 1, reading this as binary data the computer can understand what the data is on the platter. For the computer to write information to the platter, the read/write head aligns the magnetic polarities, writing 0's and 1's that can be read later.

External and Internal hard drives

Although most hard drives are internal hard drives, many users also use external hard drives to backup data on their computer and expand the total amount of space available to them. External drives are often stored in anenclosure that helps protect the drive and allow it to interface with the computer, usually over USB or eSATA. A great example of a backup external device that supports multiple hard drives is the Drobo.

External hard drives come in many shapes and sizes. Some are large, about the size of a book, while others are about the size of a cell phone. External hard drives can be very useful for backing up important data and taking with you on the go. They can store a lot of information, including music and movies.

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BUS

BUS

When referring to a computer, the bus also known as the address bus, data bus, or local bus is a data connection between two or more devices connected to the computer. For example, a bus enables a computer processor to communicate with the memory or a video card to communicate with the memory.

The bus contains multiple wires (signal lines) that contain addressing information that describes the memory location of where the data is being sent or where it is being retrieved. Each wire in the bus carries a single bit of information, which means the more wires a bus has the more information it can address. For example, a computer with a 32-bit address bus can address 4GB of memory, and a computer with a 36-bit bus can address 64GB of memory.

A bus is capable of being a parallel or serial bus and today all computers utilize two bus types, an internal bus or local bus and an external bus, also called the expansion bus. An internal bus enables a communication between internal components such as a computer video card and memory and an external bus is capable of communicating with external components such as a USB or SCSI device.

A computer or device's bus speed is listed as a MHz, e.g. 100MHz FSB. The throughput of a bus is measured in bits per second or megabytes per second.

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MEMORY SLOT

MEMORY SLOT

Alternatively referred to as the brain of the computer, processor, central processor, or microprocessor, the CPU(pronounced as C-P-U) was first developed at Intel with the help of Ted Hoff in the early 1970's and is short for Central Processing Unit. The computer CPU is responsible for handling all instructions it receives from hardware and softwarerunning on the computer.

In the below picture, is an example of what the top and bottom of an Intel Pentium processor looks like. The processor is placed and secured into a compatible CPU socket found on the motherboard, and because of the heat it produces it is covered with a heat sink to help keep it cool and running smoothly.

As can be seen by the above picture, the CPU chip is usually in the shape of a square or rectangle and will have one notched corner to help place the chip into the computer properly. On the bottom of the chip are hundreds of connector pins that plug into each of the corresponding holes on the socket. Today, most CPU's resemble the picture shown above; however, Intel and AMD have also experimented with slot processors that were much larger and slid into a slot on the motherboard. Also, over the years there have been dozens of different types of sockets on motherboards, each socket only supports so many different processors, and each has its own pin layout.

In the CPU, the primary components are the ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) that performs mathematical, logical, and decision operations and the CU (Control Unit) that directs all of the processors operations. Over the history of computer processors, the speed (clock speed) and capabilities of the processor have dramatically improved. For example, the first microprocessor was the Intel 4004 that was released November 15, 1971 and had 2,300 transistors and performed 60,000 operations per second. The Intel Pentium Processor shown on this page has 3,300,000 transistors and performs around 188,000,000 instructions per second.

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/mothboar.htm

CPU

CPU

Alternatively referred to as the brain of the computer, processor, central processor, or microprocessor, the CPU(pronounced as C-P-U) was first developed at Intel with the help of Ted Hoff in the early 1970's and is short for Central Processing Unit. The computer CPU is responsible for handling all instructions it receives from hardware and softwarerunning on the computer.

In the below picture, is an example of what the top and bottom of an Intel Pentium processor looks like. The processor is placed and secured into a compatible CPU socket found on the motherboard, and because of the heat it produces it is covered with a heat sink to help keep it cool and running smoothly.

As can be seen by the above picture, the CPU chip is usually in the shape of a square or rectangle and will have one notched corner to help place the chip into the computer properly. On the bottom of the chip are hundreds of connector pins that plug into each of the corresponding holes on the socket. Today, most CPU's resemble the picture shown above; however, Intel and AMD have also experimented with slot processors that were much larger and slid into a slot on the motherboard. Also, over the years there have been dozens of different types of sockets on motherboards, each socket only supports so many different processors, and each has its own pin layout.

In the CPU, the primary components are the ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) that performs mathematical, logical, and decision operations and the CU (Control Unit) that directs all of the processors operations. Over the history of computer processors, the speed (clock speed) and capabilities of the processor have dramatically improved. For example, the first microprocessor was the Intel 4004 that was released November 15, 1971 and had 2,300 transistors and performed 60,000 operations per second. The Intel Pentium Processor shown on this page has 3,300,000 transistors and performs around 188,000,000 instructions per second.

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/mothboar.htm

MOTHERBOARD

MOTHERBOARD

Alternatively referred to as the mb, mainboard, mobo, mobd, backplane board, base board, planar board, system board, or logic board on Apple computers. The motherboard is a printed circuit board that is the foundation of a computer and allows the CPU, RAM, and all other computer hardware components to function and communicate with each other.

Below is a graphic illustration of the ASUS P5AD2-E motherboard and some basic explanations of each of the major portions of the motherboard. Clicking on the below image will give you a larger more detailed version of the below picture.

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RAM

RAM

Alternatively referred to as main memory, primary memory, or system memory, Random Access Memory (RAM) is a computer storage location that allows information to be stored and accessed quickly from random locations within DRAMon a memory module. Because information is accessed randomly instead of sequentially like a CD or hard drive the computer is able to access the data much faster than it would if it was only reading the hard drive. However, unlike ROMand the hard drive RAM is a volatile memory and requires power in order to keep the data accessible, if power is lost all data contained in memory lost.

As the computer loads parts of the operating system and drivers are loaded into memory, which allows the CPU to process the instructions much faster and your computer to load faster. After the operating system has loaded, each program you open such as the browser you're using to view this page is loaded into memory while it is running. If too many programs are open the computer will swap the data in the memory between the RAM and the hard disk drive.

Over the evolution of computers there has been several different variations of RAM used in computer. Some of the more common examples are DIMM, RIMM, SIMM, SO-DIMM, and SOO-RIMM. Below is an example image of a 512MB DIMMcomputer memory module and what the typical desktop computer memory card will look like. This memory module would be installed into memory slots on the motherboard.

Tip: New users often confuse memory (RAM) with disk drive space. See our memory definition for a comparison between memory and storage.

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my biodata

Assalamualaikum wbt...

Name : Khairul Anwar Bin Razak
Ages : 20th
From : Parit Sulong, Batu Pahat.
Hobby : Watch movie, play video game, help friend.
Primary school : Sek. Keb. Parit Sulong.
Secondary school : Smk. Penghulu Saat.
Present : UiTM Negeri Sembilan, Kampus Kuala Pilah.
Siblings : 3 from 5.
Favourites food : Any kind of keropok.
My best friends : AS120 4A1, AS120 4A2 & all at kampung.

That's all, wassalam..