Q1. Describe the major components of a desktop or laptop personal computer that is not more than 3 years old. There should be four categories. Each category has many components. Some components, such

ITEC625- Hands-On Assignment 1

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Q1: Describe the major components of a desktop or laptop personal computer that is not more than 3 years old. There should be four categories. Each category has many components. Some components, such as CPU has many more components. You must provide at least a complete sentence to describe this component. (50%)

A1: The 4 major computer components are listed below. Each component has 12.5% grade.

1. Hardware Components:

• CPU: describe what cpu is and its 3 major sub-components

  • Sub-component 1

  • Sub-component 2

  • Sub-component 3

• Memory: describe what memory is and the following major types of memory:

  • RAM

  • ROM

  • Flash

  • Cache

  • DMA

  • Hard disk drive (HD)

  • Solid state drive (SSD)

• Other hardware components such as monitor, keyboard, etc. No need to give each subcomponent a sentence. Just provide a list of tem.

1. Software Components:

• OS

• Applications

• Drivers

• Utilities, system services:

1. Communication Components:

• Communication Hardware components:

  • Layer 1: e.g. twisted pair, copper cable, optical fiber, etc.

  • Layer 2: e.g. Ehternet switch, WiFi switch, etc.

  • System, devices: e.g. routers, gateway, GPS, cell phones

• Communication Software components (we will learn more in detail later of the class)

  • Layer 2: e.g. WiFi, Ethernet, DSL, Cable,

  • Layer 3: IP

  • Layer 4: TCP, UDP, etc.

  • Application layer: HTTP, XML, SOAP, RPC, etc.

1. Data Components:

• File system

• Data at rest

• Data in transition

• Types of media: e.g. voice, video, data, fax, image, etc.

• Encryption, compression

• Data encoding: analog to digital (A/D), digital to analog (D/A)

Q2: Draw the layout of the following components: CPU, cache, ROM, RAM, DMA, and I/O modules. Use the line to show the interaction between every two components. For example there is a line between CPU and cache and another line between CPU and ROM. You can’t draw a line in the middle with all components hanging from the line. No other components should be included in the answer. No need to provide additional description. (50%)

A2: Below is a PPT drawing of the figures. Students need to draw a line between two components that have an interface. You can copy the figure to a PPT file and ungroup it to add the lines/interfaces. If you don’t have MS PPT application, you can print it out, manually add lines to it. Take a screen shot and save it as a pdf file or jpeg file.

Interfaces hints:

• CPU has an interface to all components up to I/O modules, but not to individual I/O device.

• I/O modules are the software interact with the I/O devices.

• Only CPU has access to Cache.

• DMA moves data from the I/O modules to RAM.

• CPU moves data from RAM to/from ROM.