Week One - Important Points

Hardware Lectures-
you should be able to get copies from Mr. McWilliam or you can download from the following links

Lecture 1
video version
audio version
jargon
slides

Lecture 2
video version
audio version
jargon
slides

You need to be able to define

• define binary
• explain why computers use binary code
• complete simple converstions between binary and decimal
• explain the purpose of ascii
• translate from binary to characters using an ascii table

You need to be able to define each of the following and describe them in terms of size, speed, cost and how they work

• ROM (Bios)
• Registers
• Cache (L1, L2)
• RAM (Main Memory)
• Magnetic Storage - Floppy Drive, Hard Drive, Tape Drives
• Optical Storage - CD-Rom Drive, DVD Drive
• (another great resources - How Computer Memory Works (read both pages))
  

Describe the purpose of components of a motherboard including

• battery
• clock
• fan
• cpu
• BIOS (ROM)
  
• RAM (Memory)
• expansion slots (know the types of expansion slots)
  
• ports (know the types of ports)