TEJ2O_Hardware

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=Hardware=

Introduction
Welcome to TEJ2O - Introduction to Computer Engineering. Computer Engineering is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and hardware-software integration instead of only software engineering or electronic engineering. Computer engineers are involved in many hardware and software aspects of computing, from the design of individual microprocessors, personal computers, and supercomputers, to circuit design. This field of engineering not only focuses on how computer systems themselves work, but also how they integrate into the larger picture. // Source: [|Wikipedia] //


 * Computer Lab Rules**

You are responsible for knowing these rules. The over-riding principle is that computers are to be used strictly for educational purposes only.

1. You are not allowed to eat (including candy), drink (water may be left at desk) or chew gum in the computer labs. 2. Do not share your passwords with others. Do not let anyone else use your account! 3. You are not allowed to play games, apart from games that are part of your course work. No commercially prepared games can be brought into the lab. 4. You are not allowed to "chat", "MUD" or otherwise have real time communication over the net. 5. You are not allowed to have streaming sound or video. (too much bandwidth). 6. Do not waste resources or print without permission of the teacher (use print preview, print PowerPoint slides six per page). 7. Do not download files without permission. 8. Do not use e-mail without permission. 9. Do not bring bags and coats into the lab.

Assignment #1 - Cover Page
To get used to the computers and our computer network, you are to complete simple assignment whereby you will open OpenOffice Write and create a document that will have your name on it, it will have my name on it, it will have the course name on it, it must have some graphic that means something to you on it, and finally, it must have your student number on it. Additionally, you must include the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The goal of this assignment is mostly to ensure you have remembered the IAUP as well as the discussion about our school network and submission protocol. You will submit this into my handin folder under TEJ2O into YOUR subfolder.


 * **Evaluation ** ||= **Value ** ||
 * Name (mine, yours) ||= 1 ||
 * Graphic ||= 1 ||
 * Submitted to the right folder ||= 1 ||
 * Student number ||= 1 ||
 * ||= 5 ||

Assignment #2 - History of the computer & Assignment #3 - The Big Question
Take a look at the development of a technology that has a major impact on our day-to-day living. This ‘hunt’ contains a series of questions. All the answers will be found using the Internet Resources links (if link is broken, use search). Just click and go to the site. Record your answers using a word processor. Please remember [|Internet Acceptable Useage Policy]as well as the [|Guideline for Academic Honesty]in writing this project. The assignment is basically 2 different assignments in one.
 * 1) In assignment #2 ,y ou are to answer the questions and put the either at the end of the slideshow or on a separate text document. You are NOT to present these to the class, they're just some research questions I want you to answer.
 * 2) In assignment #3 you are to research some historical aspect of computing. It could be from the Babbage Machine to the development of GUI operating systems, to the first consoles.

media type="custom" key="25030972"


 * **Evaluation ** ||= **Value ** ||
 * Answer to questions ||= 10 ||
 * Presentation visual ||= 5 ||
 * Presentation communication ||= 5 ||
 * ||= 20 ||
 * ||= 20 ||

Questions

 * 1) What obstacles did the first programmers face at their job site?
 * 2) Who invented the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine?
 * 3) What is the name of the first electronic computer?
 * 4) Besides being considered the first computer programmer, find out who designed a flying machine while still a teenager?
 * 5) What technological change did the transistor replace?
 * 6) Who invented the first binary computer?
 * 7) When was the first counting machine used? and what Country is credited for its development?
 * 8) What new concept in computing will make computer memory more efficient and smaller?
 * 9) Computers appear to becoming more human. What new steps are being taken to further this idea?
 * 10) What problems did the first mechanical calculator have?
 * 11) Find the name of two other machines that are considered to be important in the development of today’s computers.

The Internet Resources

 * [|Women of the ENIAC]
 * [|Konrad Zuse]
 * [|Charles Babbage]
 * [|Quantum Computers]
 * [|Trends in Computing]
 * [|Vacuum Tubes, Transistors, Integrated Circuits]
 * [|The ENIAC]
 * [|Computer Museum]
 * [|Ada] [| Lovelace]
 * [|Abacus]



A brief history of hardware
[|//Source//]
 * **Before the 1880s** || * The **abacus**
 * Early counting device
 * Invented by the Babylonians
 * Appeared in modern form in China about 1300 A.D.
 * **Pascal**
 * In 1642 developed the first arithmetic machine
 * The Pascaline
 * **Jacquard**
 * In 1801 used punch cards to determine pattern of cloth on a loom
 * Punch cards ran a machine
 * **Babbage**
 * English mathematician, often recognized as the **Father of Computers**
 * Designed two mechanical calculators, the Difference Engine (1823) and the Analytical Engine (1833)
 * Machines were never built
 * **Lady Ada**Byron Lovelace (Countess of Lovelace)
 * Daughter of Lord Byron and an accomplished mathematician
 * With Babbage worked on a paper to explain how the Analytical Engine worked
 * Recognized as the ** first programmer **, even though only her initials were included in the paper when it was published ||


 * **1880s through WW II** || * **Herman Hollerith**
 * Without Herman's invention the 1890s census data would not have been tabulated until well after the 1900 census had been taken
 * Invented an automatic electrical tabulating machine which read punch cards (like used in Jaquard's loom) representing the census data and then collated this data
 * In 1924 Hollerith's company changed its name to ** IBM **
 * **WW II spurred advancements in technology**
 * Mark I, an electomechanical device. Developed in early 40s and introduced in 1944
 * ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) built at Iowa State. First electronic digital computer
 * ** ENIAC ** (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator. Most famous of the early computers started in 1943 and completed in 1946. Had **18,000 vacuum tubes** and was the size of a gymnasium and weighed 30 ton. Each tube lasted about 20 minutes, employed about 15 men to replace tubes. To change a program had to rewire the hand-wired plug boards and set over 6000 switches.
 * Followed by the EDSAC and the EDVAC. No longer hand-wired, but programmed by an interally stored set of instructions. ||


 * **Vacuum tube generation - 1951 to 1958** || * **UNIVAC**
 * First general purpose computer designed for alphabetic as well as for numerical uses.
 * ** First commerically available computer **
 * **Punch cards** formed the input and programming done in **machine language** ||


 * **Transistor generation - 1959 to 1964** || * **Size of transistor** reduced the size of computers and increased the speed
 * Programming with **English-like** commands: FORTRAN and COBOL ||


 * **Integrated circuit generation - 1965 to 1970** || * Instead of large boards, **circuits were developed on single chips of silicon**
 * **IBM 360 series mainframe** computers introduced
 * Smaller **minicomputers** debut. Less memory and slower processing, but made computers available to smaller businesses ||


 * **Microprocessor generation - 1971 to ?** || * **Microprocessors** derived from the integrated circuits - computer on a chip
 * **Silicon Valley** becomes world renowned for manufacture of integrated circuit chips
 * Microcomputers on desks in offices and at home
 * ** 1981 - IBM PC **
 * 1987 - IBM PS/2 ||


 * **Post-microprocessor generation - 2013 to ?** || * **Optical computing** - circa 2008 - where photons produced by lasers or diodes for computation. Photons promise to allow a higher bandwidth than the electrons used in conventional computers. Functional Human-level AI?
 * **Quantum computing** - circa 2012 - using quantum relativity effects, entangled photons of light can compute functions in parallel thus increasing processor capacities by orders of magnitude.
 * **Wetware computing** - c. 2011 - using biological components to act as the components of a circuit such as AND/OR/NOT gates. While not as fast as optical or quantum computing, due to multiple connections may have globally higher relative CPU cycles. ||



Physical Hardware
// [|source] //

Hardware comprises all of the physical part of the computer such as Monitor, CPU, motherboard, RAM, CD-Rom, printer, scanner, hard disk, flash drive, processor, PCI buses, floppy disk, power supply, VGA card, sound card, network interface card, peripherals, joystick, mouse, keyboard, camera, headset and others.

On the other hard software is a logical part of a computer and is used to carry out the instructions, storing, executing and developing other software programs. A typical PC consists of a case or chassis in the desktop or tower case and these components. • Computer Fan • RAM • BIOS • Digital Circuitry • Computer Fan • PCI Slots || || • USB • Hyper-transport • AGP • ISA • EISA • VLB || || • DVD-Rom • Combo box • Joystick • BD-Rom drive || || • Data array controller • Floppy disk || || • Modems • Digital Camera • Sound, Video Cards • Printer || || • Scanner • Monitor • Speakers • Headset • Video output devices || ||
 * **Motherboard** || • CPU
 * **PC Buses** || • PCI
 * **Media** || • CD-Rom
 * **Internal storage** || • Hard disk (IDE & SATA)
 * **Other Peripheral Devices** || • Mouse
 * **Output Devices** || • Printer

**CPU (Central Processing Unit):** CPU or central processing unit relates to a specific or processor. The performance of the computer is determined by the CPU chip (processor speed) and the other computer circuitry. Currently, the Pentium chip (processor) is the most popular even though there are other chips available in the market today such as AMD, Motorola and others. The clocks speed becomes most important factor in determining the performance of a computer. The motherboard contains the hardware circuitry and connections that allow the different hardware components of the PC to interact and communicate with each other. Most computer software is being developed for the latest processors so it would be difficult to use the older systems.

**Hard Disk Drives** – Disk drive is the mechanism to run the disks. All disks need a drive to get the information, read it and put it back to the disks. Hard disk is used to store the data permanently. Often the terms disk and drive used to describe the same thing but it should be clear that a disk is a storage device.

**Modem** – A modem is used for the modulation and demodulation of the data that is transferred through the modem and the telephone lines. Modem translates the data from digital to analog from analog to digital. Because on the telephone lines data can travel in the form of the analog signals and in the computer data transmits in the form of digital signals. Modems are measured by the speed which is called baud rate. The typical baud rate is 56Kb.

**Keyboard** – The keyboard is used to type something or input information to the computer. There are different designs and models of the keyboards in the market. The most common layout of the keyboard is QWERTY layout. A standard keyboard has 101 keys and embedded keys.

**Video cards-**Video cards allow computer to display video, graphics and animation. Some video cards allow computers to display television. A video card with a digital video camera allows users to produce live video. The main types of the graphic cards are EGA, VGA and SGA.

**Network cards:** Network interface cards allow PCs to connect with each other and communicate. Every network computer is required to have a NIC card. NIC cards are required both in wired and wireless networking.

**Cables:** There are two broad types of cables internal cables, which are embedded on the mother board circuit that performs the communication between the devices and CPU. The other types of the cables are the network cables like coaxial cable, CAT 5, Ethernet cables. These cables are used for the communication purposes between the devices or computers.

**Memory** – Memory is the one of the important piece of the hardware. Sometimes memory chip memory is confused with the hard disk memory. Sometimes unallocated space of the hard disk is used as virtual memory also known as page file. This type of memory is a temporary memory and is used actual memory is less and requires some additional memory to perform a specific task.

**RAM (Random Access Memory)** RAM is a memory that is being used by the computer to store the information temporarily. For example when some work is performed on some applications that work is temporarily stored in the RAM. More RAM in the computer more faster computer works. Today at least requirement of a modern PC is 64 RAM. RAM is in the form of a chip and different vendors have developed the RAM of different capacities.

**Mouse** – Every modern computer requires a mouse for faster operations. Generally a mouse has two buttons left and right to perform different functions. One type of the mouse has a round ball under the bottom. Another type of the mouse use optical system to track the movement of the mouse.

**Monitors** – The monitor is used to display the information on the screen. All the activities of a computer, functions and tasks are seen on the computer screen and this is called outputting information. Monitors come in many sizes and shapes, monochrome or full colors. Today most computers use LCD screens. It is light weight and consumes less power as compared to the monitors.

**Printers** – The printer takes the information from the PC and transfers it to the paper of different sizes, which are placed in the printer device. There are three basic types of a printer such as dot matrix, inkjet and laser.

**Scanners**- Scanners allow you to transfer pictures and photographs to your computer. A scanner is used to scan the images and pictures. You can then send the image to someone, modify it or take a print out of it. With optical character recognition software you can convert printed documents into the text that you can use in the word processor.

**Case** – Case or casing covers the whole computer’s circuitry. There are two types of casings desktop and tower casing. There is room inside the casing to add or remove components. Cases come in many sizes like desktop, mini, midi and tower. There are some additional empty slots inside the cases such as IDE, USB, ASI, PCI and firewire slots.

**Cards** – Cards are the hardware components that are added to the computer to increase their functionalities and capabilities. Sound cards produce the sound like music and voice. The older cards were 8, 16 and then 32 bits. Color cards allow computers to produce colors. Initially there were 2, 4 and then 16 bits. The 32 cards are the standard to display almost billions of the colors on the monitor.

 = Assignment #4 - Hardware =

For each of the computer parts listed below, write the following information in a notepad document to submit 1. Hard drive 2. Random access memory (RAM) 3. Monitor 4. Central processing unit (CPU) 5. Firewire card 6. Video card 7. Sound card 8. CDROM drive 9. SD card-reader 10. Motherboard 11. Printer 12. Case 13. Mouse 14. Keyboard 15. Wireless N expansion slot card
 * __Part A__**
 * its purpose/function
 * company that manufactures it
 * an approximate price

Find a picture of each component on the internet and label it with the corresponding number. Insert it in the document at the appropriate location
 * __Part B__**



Assignment #5 - DreamBox
Build a virtual computer consisting of all the components listed in the computer component assignment. Special consideration will be given to the student who:

=OR=
 * builds the least expensive home theater PC.
 * builds the best realistic gaming computer for Battlefield 4 given their optimal specs

You must list the exact component name, the price (CDN$) and where you bought it.

Here are the components you must have: 1. Hard drive 2. Random access memory (RAM) 3. Monitor 4. Central processing unit (CPU) 5. SD Card reader 6. Video card 7. Sound card 8. Optical drive 9. Firewire 10. Motherboard 11. Printer 12. Case 13. Mouse 14. Keyboard

Some local computer stores are:

www.canadacomputers.com [|www.networksupply.ca] [|www.shoprbc.com]