Parts of a Computer - Brain of a Computer
By ioplus3
The Human Brain is awesome. It can be a powerful tool if used properly. It makes what a person is. His personality, memory, emotions, his own way of thinking, etc. In short, the brain is what a human himself is. People have done great things, thanks to their brain. But an average human brain is slow, lazy and not very good with complex mathematical calculations or keeping very big records. Writing texts helped us to store information and pass it to generations. But eventually, paper de-grade and information get lost over the time. Thus, God gave us Computers, Internet and Google, but we became dumb like donkeys. And then he gave us Social networking sites like Facebook to get inspired, but we brought down our laziness to level Sloth. Well, I am sloth too, thus I should not complain much. Enough jokes now.
I will now explain 3 main parts of a Computer in context to a Human Mind.
A. Doing complex mathematical calculations depends on the intelligence of a person. If we take a simple addition but very long one, people who are not that smart, like me, will do it slowly on paper, while an intelligent person like an accountant can do it a lot faster without the use of paper and pen. Similarly, Logical thinking depends on different IQ level of different persons.
B. A human can keep only one or two task/ thought in an active/ conscious region of the brain on which he is currently working or thinking. Rest of the memories, tasks, thoughts are stored in an unconscious/ passive state of the brain which we can recall any time we wish. When we recall these inactive thoughts and we remember them, it stays in active mind only till we do not move to other thought. We are switching our thoughts back and forth whole time we are awake. The active state of mind is small in storage as we can only keep one or two things at a time, but the passive mind has a lot of capacity to store.
C. The computer is stupid instead of being lazy. It needs to be told everything you want to do. It needs to be told each and every step. Most of these repetitive tasks are listed and written down as programs. These programs are stored on passive storage devices.
A is Processor.
An active mind in B is RAM.
Passive mind in B and C is Storage Devices like HDD, SSD, etc.
Processor, which is also known as Micro Processor or Central Processing Unit or in short CPU, does all the mathematical and logical thinking.
Full form of RAM is Random Access Memory. It makes a space where Programs from storage can be loaded and made active to make a computer perform a task. The results of this operation can be stored temporarily in RAM, but to store it permanently it needs to be placed on the passive storage device. Everything in RAM is active programs and temporary results. Once power is lost everything in RAM is gone.
Storage devices store results, data, information, and programs permanently unless modified by the user. Power loss does not affect the information inside storage.
Only two companies make Desktop Processors, namely Intel and AMD. CPU is the fastest device on a computer.
Many companies make RAM. Few key ones are Kingston, Corsair & G Skill. They use to be slow devices but they are catching up with the speed of CPU in recent years and soon in future should match the speed of Processors.
Hard disk drive (HDD) are made by many but two companies dominate the HDD market, namely Western Digital and Seagate. Solid state drive (SSD) is a faster option for storage in comparison to HDD. They are about 5 times faster. HDD are slowest in speed among RAM and CPU, but SSD is catching up the older generation of RAM. Few of the SSD manufacturers are Samsung, Intel, Crucial & SanDisk.
All the 3 parts of the computer brain are connected to each other via a system of parallel pathways called Buses and their speed difference is controlled by small but complex electronic chips called Chipset. Both Buses and Chipset are fabricated on a board, along with Socket for CPU and ports for RAM, HDD, SDD, etc. This board is called Motherboard.
Power to all these devices is given by SMPS, an acronym for Switched-Mode Power Supply, which converts High AC Voltage to different levels of Low DC Voltage to be used by different Electronic devices.
Parts of a Computer - Detailed
The Human Brain is awesome. It can be a powerful tool if used properly. It makes what a person is. His personality, memory, emotions, his own way of thinking, etc. In short, the brain is what a human himself is. People have done great things, thanks to their brain. But an average human brain is slow, lazy and not very good with complex mathematical calculations or keeping very big records. Writing texts helped us to store information and pass it to generations. But eventually, paper de-grade and information get lost over the time. Thus, God gave us Computers, Internet and Google, but we became dumb like donkeys. And then he gave us Social networking sites like Facebook to get inspired, but we brought down our laziness to level Sloth. Well, I am sloth too, thus I should not complain much. Enough jokes now.
I will now explain 3 main parts of a Computer in context to a Human Mind.
A. Doing complex mathematical calculations depends on the intelligence of a person. If we take a simple addition but very long one, people who are not that smart, like me, will do it slowly on paper, while an intelligent person like an accountant can do it a lot faster without the use of paper and pen. Similarly, Logical thinking depends on different IQ level of different persons.
B. A human can keep only one or two task/ thought in an active/ conscious region of the brain on which he is currently working or thinking. Rest of the memories, tasks, thoughts are stored in an unconscious/ passive state of the brain which we can recall any time we wish. When we recall these inactive thoughts and we remember them, it stays in active mind only till we do not move to other thought. We are switching our thoughts back and forth whole time we are awake. The active state of mind is small in storage as we can only keep one or two things at a time, but the passive mind has a lot of capacity to store.
C. The computer is stupid instead of being lazy. It needs to be told everything you want to do. It needs to be told each and every step. Most of these repetitive tasks are listed and written down as programs. These programs are stored on passive storage devices.
A is Processor.
An active mind in B is RAM.
Passive mind in B and C is Storage Devices like HDD, SSD, etc.
Processor, which is also known as Micro Processor or Central Processing Unit or in short CPU, does all the mathematical and logical thinking.
Full form of RAM is Random Access Memory. It makes a space where Programs from storage can be loaded and made active to make a computer perform a task. The results of this operation can be stored temporarily in RAM, but to store it permanently it needs to be placed on the passive storage device. Everything in RAM is active programs and temporary results. Once power is lost everything in RAM is gone.
Storage devices store results, data, information, and programs permanently unless modified by the user. Power loss does not affect the information inside storage.
Only two companies make Desktop Processors, namely Intel and AMD. CPU is the fastest device on a computer.
Many companies make RAM. Few key ones are Kingston, Corsair & G Skill. They use to be slow devices but they are catching up with the speed of CPU in recent years and soon in future should match the speed of Processors.
Hard disk drive (HDD) are made by many but two companies dominate the HDD market, namely Western Digital and Seagate. Solid state drive (SSD) is a faster option for storage in comparison to HDD. They are about 5 times faster. HDD are slowest in speed among RAM and CPU, but SSD is catching up the older generation of RAM. Few of the SSD manufacturers are Samsung, Intel, Crucial & SanDisk.
All the 3 parts of the computer brain are connected to each other via a system of parallel pathways called Buses and their speed difference is controlled by small but complex electronic chips called Chipset. Both Buses and Chipset are fabricated on a board, along with Socket for CPU and ports for RAM, HDD, SDD, etc. This board is called Motherboard.
Power to all these devices is given by SMPS, an acronym for Switched-Mode Power Supply, which converts High AC Voltage to different levels of Low DC Voltage to be used by different Electronic devices.
All of the above devices are housed inside a metal chassis called CPU Cabinet. Almost everyone mistakenly calls CPU cabinet as CPU, but it is not. CPU perform mathematical and logical tasks whereas, CPU Cabinet house it along with other necessary parts.
A software called Operating System (OS) is the main software that is stored permanently on Passive storage like SSD & HDD and is the first program that loads automatically in the RAM when powered up for Active use. It needs from few seconds to few minutes, depending upon the speed of passive storage and RAM, to get ready to accept tasks that need to be executed by a User.
Major motherboard manufacturers are Asus, Gigabyte & MSI.
There are many companies that make SMPS & CPU Cabinet, key ones are Cooler Master, Antec & NZXT.
World market in PC Operating System is owned by Windows by Microsoft. Then we have Apple iOS, Linux, etc.
There are much smaller but important devices on a Motherboard. I will discuss them in my next blogs, but for now, I hope you are clear about the main parts that collectively work as the brain of a computer.
Parts of a Computer - Detailed
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