Description of Hardware Systems running inside Personal Computer PCs

 Hardware Systems running inside Personal Computer

The hardware of Personal Computers is normally based on the microprocessors made up of Intel™ series along with other associated components and the personal computers have also operating system software. The standard PC hardware is consisting of following components:

1.       The main unit which further consist of various boards inside it,

2.       The input devices like keyboard and mouse,

3.       The output devices like VDU (visual display unit) and if possibly a printer and

4.       An optional connection to a network.

5.       The circuit board which is also called the motherboard is mounted in the main unit.

The motherboard of PC includes a bunch of chips & IC and many other components on it. These components has to work together in order to provide required digital processing of data. The control of input and output devices is also carried out through this motherboard. The personal computer have suitable power supply module for the working of motherboard and the peripheral devices mounted in the main unit called central processing unit of personal computers. The motherboard comprises of the microprocessor chip (CPU), RAM the memory modules, BIOS ROM, ISD and keyboard mouse display interface.

The main Processor of PCs

The main processor is the heart of computer which has to run all software & programs loaded in the memory of CPU. The processor does and issues the commands to peripheral devices for useful work to be done by the whole hardware. The programs are stored on memory called hard disk inside the main unit or CPU. The function of hard disk is to hold all the data and useful information which is required to retain even the power to computer is off.

Programs inside PCs

 There are two main types of software of programs usually required for operation of computer:

1.       The operating system and

2.       The application

 These software or programs named operating system and application are stored at hard disk. The hard disk also stores the information and data created by operation of this software along with the data created by the user of computer in personnel desired location but by default in the document files. Whenever these documents are required to shift to other computers these are transferred to movable storage devices floppy disk , USBs etc.

Input and Output Devices of PCs

The information required to put in to PC, some suitable input hardware is required and similarly PC gives his results on suitable devices for these input and output hardware devices are attached with the computers. The keyboard is a input device because it is used for data input, and the VDU displays or Monitor screen is output device. For graphical input, the mouse is used which provides a very efficient input. The mouse operation is generally to be selected from menus or by clicking on icons and buttons. This is a typical example of the graphical user interface (GUI).

Network of Computers

If more than one computer is required to connect with each other for the sharing of data and information and resources of printer etc, a network is designed. For the effective communication of computers between each other over this network some suitable hardware additionally required like a network card, modem, data switches, dedicated communication cables etc. Some of these components are mounted inside CPS like modem or network card.

Compact Disks

A Compact Disk (CD) ROM drive is used for large data storage on optical disk. The CDs are media of information and data storage and backup as well because if required it can be read through CD drive. For example the application software once written can be stored on CD and can be re-installed when required.

Hardware of CPU

The motherboard has some slots for expansion boards and memory modules to be added to the CPU. The power supply and disk drives are mounted separately on the casing of CPU in the main frame. The interfaces and connectors of keyboard and mouse are usually directly on the motherboard. The PC architecture is also designed in such a way that it is well suited to industrial applications as well.

Description of Hardware Systems running inside Personal Computer

RISC chips (reduced instruction set computer)

The RISC chips (reduced instruction set computer) are computer which have reduced hardware and are designed for limited operations under limited instruction set for example microcontrollers. The Single chip contains all necessary components to perform a dedicated task. Therefore where task is limited there is no need to use full computer one can go for single chip computers like system based on microcontrollers. The microcontroller can provide, in a simplified form, all the main elements of the conventional microprocessor system on a single chip.

The Microcontroller based Application Idea

Here is one example of designing a system based on the use of microcontroller, we can see that the number of hardware components/ module are reduces and limited components are used to bring a useful task.

• Here the input device is a keypad which consists of 3 * 4 switches called keypad matrix.
• The output device is consisting of only two seven segments digits.
• Remaining components: The oscillator and power supply.

Function of this MCU generic system:

 It can be any depending upon the requirements for example, we can input the data to system using keypad matrix very easily and the information is processed inside the microcontroller. The results will be displayed on the display unit, here in our case it is seven segment displays of two digits. Thus we have to processes the information accordingly so that it can use the available resources and work fine for indented purposes.

Figure 2 The Microcontroller based application design includes the use of keypad display system.

The power supply requirement for this kind of system

The above microcontroller based system and like this many more other identical system normally works on DC +5V. The current consumption of this system is very low in the order of a few or up to hundred milliamps thus power supply load is very low. This system will run on a simple mobile charger. The mobile chargers are usually based on step-down transformer, Rectifier Bridge and capacitors filters, voltage regulators or now based on advanced switched mode power supplies.