The Chemistry of Laptop Batteries Explained
Laptop batteries come in all shapes and sizes also differ in their chemical composition. The chemistry of a battery refers to the chemical make-up of the cells inside the outer casing. This artilce explains the most common chemistries used in laptop batteries. More ...
The Hard Disk Drive vs. The Solid State Disk
Much has been written about solid state disks (SSDs) becoming the next big thing1 in the IT industry. But as to whether or not we have enough knowledge of how it will revolutionize the industry is a different question. How much do we really know about SSDs? More ...
MPEG4, H.264, MJPEG Compression for DVR Recording - What's the Difference?
The main objective of Video compression is to have the smallest file size possible while still preserving good video and audio quality. MPEG4, H.264, and MJPEG are three DVR CODECs that aim to compress the videos for transferring purposes. Each of these formats have their own strengths and weaknesses. More ...
IEEE-1394 FireWire
IEEE 1394 FireWire is a serial bus designed by Apple Computer as a replacement for legacy interfaces like serial ports, parallel ports, and SCSI. Article updated for IEEE 1394a FireWire 400 and IEEE 1394b FireWire 800. More ...
External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (eSATA)
Initially all SATA (and PATA) interfaces were for internal hard disks. With the introduction of eSATA, the SATA interface can be used with external storage media. This puts eSATA in competition with Universal Serial Bus (USB) and Firewire. Especially since, like USB and Firewire, eSATA allows hot swapping. More ...
What You Need To Know About Server Memory
DDR is Double Data Rate which is what all memory is now. Since DDR came out it's gone through a few generations DDR, DDR2, DDR3 and now DDR4. These different generations of memory have different peak transfer rates. 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 ...
How to Build a Computer
Branded computers can offer both value and performance, yet parts are often short-spec in one place or another. Sadly you'll often get a performance "bottleneck" such as a slow graphics card, only a basic amount of memory, or a slimline motherboard with too few upgrade slots. Luckily, computers are surprisingly easy to build. More ...
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 ...
The RS-232 Serial Port
The RS-232 serial port was used to connect a mouse, modem, and/or printer. The RS-232 serial port is now totally obsolete. I would be very surprised if you ever run into a PC with an RS-232 serial port except possibly in a third-world country. However, 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 ...
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 ...
Anatomy of a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
Color LCD displays have a sandwich-like structure. One layer of the sandwich has liquid crystal between two glass plates. One glass plate has a matrix of thin film transistors on it. Liquid crystals move depending upon the charge applied to a tiny capacitor by its related transistor. More ...
Laptop Computer Bottom Access Covers
Laptops are made easy to upgrade and repair by the location of access covers on the bottom of the computer. Covers are placed there for access to frequently upgraded components like the hard drive and the memory. More ...
Power and Your PC
The power coming into a computer is the most critical component, and it may be one of the most overlooked. It is just taken for granted that it will always be there and working properly. More ...
