Understanding Modern PC Specifications
There is a huge variety of different PCs available out there. Its no wonder that consumers are confused about what to buy. This article explains modern PC specifications. More ...
Basic Computer Thermodynamics
Picture the CPU of a computer cooking away because the designer wants to push too much power through a small piece of silicon. If we don't take away that heat as fast as it's created, that CPU will fry! More ...
Understanding Your PC's CPU Clock Speed and Front Side Bus
The CPU or Central Processing Unit is the brains of any computer and the two major manufacturers are Intel and AMD or Advanced Micro Devices. For many years Intel CPUs were found in nearly all PCs. And now the Intel is found in most systems but the newer Athlon class CPU from AMD have taken a large chunk of the CPU market. More ...
IEEE 1284 Parallel Port
The parallel port was primarily used to connect a printer to a PC. Today, the parallel port is obsolete, being replaced by the USB port. Although now obsolete, millions of parallel port printers were manufactured and no doubt many of them are still in use today. I'll briefly describe the it in this article because you may run into a question about it in the CompTIA A+ Certification Exam. More ...
History of the QWERTY Keyboard
In the late 1860s, American inventor Christopher Scholes developed the first typewriter. The keys were originally laid out in alphabetical order, but this led to problems with the type bars jamming when typing at speed. To remedy this, Scholes relocated the keys to keep the most frequently used letters apart, resulting in the QWERTY keyboard. More ...
SDRAM Types: DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4
With computer memory modules, DDR stands for Double Data Rate because it performs two transfers per clock cycle, the number after DDR specifies other characteristics like latency, speed, and voltage. More ...
How a laser Printer Works
Laser printers work by using a laser beam to transfer an image to an electrically charged, photo-sensitive drum. The charge on the drum attracts toner ink, which is transferred to the paper. The primary steps in the laser printing process are listed below. More ...
PC Sound Circuitry
Actual physical sound is an analog phenomenon while the computer is digital. To output a sound stored on a computer disk to a speaker the sound circuit uses a digital-to-analog converter. Sound input to the computer for recording uses an analog-to-digital converter. So PC sound circuitry is primarily an AD/DA-converter or a "coder/decoder", usually shortened to "codec". More ...
Digital Video Interface (DVI)
Today's computers use LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) displays. LCDs are a digital device. It makes little sense to convert the digital image data to analog just to convert it back to digital to display on the LCD. To avoid this double conversion, the DVI (Digital Video Interface) standard was developed. More ...
Hard Drives - ATA versus SATA
with data rates hitting the 133MB / sec mark the parallel ATA standard is maxing out, thus industry leaders got together and came up with a new standard known as Serial ATA (SATA). More ...
PC Technician Street Smarts: A Real World Guide to CompTIA A+ Skills
Hit the ground running with the street-smart training you'll find in this practical book. Using a 'year in the life' approach, it gives you an inside look at the common responsibilities of PC Technicians, with key information organized around the actual day-to-day tasks, scenarios, and challenges you'll face in the field. More ...
Solid State Drive (SSD) Basics
Why is a hard disk drive so slow compared to a solid state drive and why don't they just get rid of the hard disk drive, and store everything in solid state memory? Since 2006 computer manufacturers have been producing Solid State drive based PCs. More ...
Rambus DRAM (RDRAM)
Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) is a proprietary memory technology, designed by the Rambus Corporation, that is found in some Pentium III and Pentium 4 systems built between 2000 and 2002. When it was introduced it run at faster speed than conventional SDRAM. When DDR SDRAM was released, RDRAM became obsolete. More ...
Understanding Computer Memory
Understanding computer memory is important because your computer's memory is where the action is. Sure your computer's central processing unit (CPU) may be the computer's brain, but what good is a brain without memory? More ...
