GNVQ ICT - Intermediate
Unit 3 - Hardware and Software
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GNVQ ICT - Intermediate Unit 3 - Hardware and Software
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ProcessingThe "brain" of the computer system is the microprocessor (or processor "chip"). The two most common brands of processor are made by companies called Intel and AMD. The processor is made up of silicon wafers - these are very accurately produced to make it possible for the "chip" to carry out millions of calculations every second.
The speed of the processor is important. Over the last 20 years the speed of "chips" has doubled and the cost halved every 1.5 years. So a high-specification computer system with the fastest chip now will appear to be rather "slow" in 3 years time. As a guide an 1800 Duron processor costs around £30 The motherboard (inside the main system unit of the computer system) has a special "slot" for the processor. In the photo below the "slot" is shown as a white square at the top side of the image.
PortsThe main system unit of the computer needs to be connected to the monitor, keyboard and mouse to work properly. These connectors are called "ports" and all computer systems have several of these for different purposes. In the photo above of the motherboard of a computer system you will see some of these ports sticking out on the left hand side of the board - these usually show at the back of the computer main system unit case. Others may nowadays be situated at the front to make connecting other devices easier.
Ports can include: Serial port - to connect a mouse and/or modem Parallel port - for connecting printers and older scanners USB ports - a more modern connector - for digital cameras, scanners, some newer printers PS2 keyboard and mouse ports - for keyboard and mouse! sound input and output ports - for microphone, speakers etc. headphone socket - to connect headphones! graphics port/video port - to connect the monitor firewire port - for connecting digital video cameras etc. LAN port - a connector which is part of the network adaptor and enables the computer to be connected to other computers in a Local Area Network (LAN) joystick port - this can also be used to connect a midi interface (see input section)
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