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Motherboard
Every system has one: The motherboard is the largest printed circuit board in
your computer. It generally houses the CPU chip, the controller circuitry, the
bus, and sockets for additional boards, which are called daughter boards. If you
have a horizontal-style computer, the motherboard is generally the one at the
bottom of the computer's box. If you have a tower-configuration box, it's along
one of the vertical sides.
MICROPROCESSOR
The
microprocessor handles the logic operations in a computer, such as adding,
subtracting, and copying. A set of instructions in the chip design tells the
microprocessor what to do, but different applications can give instructions to
the microprocessor as well. Chip speeds are measured in megahertz (MHz), so a
120-MHz chip is twice as fast as a 60-MHz chip. However, that doesn't mean
computer will run all tasks twice as fast, as speed is also influenced by other
factors, such as the design of the software you're running, the operating system
using, and so on. The first microprocessor, the 8080, was created by Intel.
Other early microprocessors included Motorola's 6800 and Rockwell's 6502. The
most popular microprocessors today are Motorola's PowerPC and Intel's Pentium.
RAM
random
access memory When
you run an application like Microsoft Word, the program is called up from its
permanent storage area (like the hard drive, floppy disk, or CD-ROM) and moved
into the RAM, where it sends requests to the CPU. Using the faster PC100 memory
preferred by 350-, 400-, and 450-MHz Pentium II processors means your
information spends less time in line before being processed. (PC100 chips are
rated to perform at bus speeds up to 100 MHz.) Your computer should have as much
RAM as you can afford so it can work efficiently. It also pays to have lots of
memory in your system because some operating systems, including Windows 95 and
98, swap applications from memory to your hard drive when the RAM gets filled.
That means that instead of having your speedy RAM sending out requests, the OS
sends the work to be done by the much slower hard drive.
ROM
read-only
memory
ROM is a storage chip
that typically contains hardwired instructions for use when a computer starts
(boots up). The instructions--contained in a small program called the BIOS
(basic input/output system)--load from ROM and start up the hard disk so that
the operating system (OS) can be loaded and the whole shooting match can begin.
Some ROM chips can be updated with new BIOS instructions--but unless you hear
them called EEPROMs or flash BIOSs, the likelihood is, they can't be.
Jumper
An on/off switch
used to alter hardware configurations. A jumper is made of wires and a small
metal piece that can connect the wires to turn the jumper on. Jumpers are found
on devices such as CD-ROM interface boards, bus expansion boards, controller
boards, input/output cards, sound cards, graphics cards, modem cards, and
motherboards.
