LO1 Understanding computer hardware
1.1 Hardware
1.2 Components
1.7 units of measure
1.5 communications hardware
1.9 number conversions
1.4 connectivity methods
1.3 computer systems
1.6 troubleshooting
1.8 number systems
Output
Input
microphone
keyboard
mouse
Speakers
Monitor
Plotter
Communications devices
Routers
Switches
Hubs
High quality printing but it is expensive
used to connect two different networkd
used to connect devices but send packets to everywhere on the network
only used on the same LAN unlike routers - only send packets to the correct device on the network
high quality sound but not very private
not very portable
Processor
Manages all the hardware activities required to receive instructions and data
Motherboard
this is the main printed circuit of a PC. Components such as the CPU are directly connected to it via sockets
Storage
Primary
Secondary
RAM
ROM
Register
Flash drives
cloud storage
SSD
HDD
Desktop
Tablet
Smartphones
Embedded
PC
Mac
Laptops
IPhone
Android
IPad
built in computer
Microwave
cars
fridge
android
Wireless
Fibre
Copper wires
slower than fibre
UTP/STP
cheaper than fibre
less interference than copper
cables are thinner
expensive
Bluetooth
WI-Fi
uses radio frequencies
laser networks
Switch
Router
Network Hub
Hybrid network hub
central connection point
equal resource sharing
receives packets
processes them and forwards them onto a specific device
WAN or LAN
Forwards packets between networks
includes internet access
wireless and wired LANs
Identifying faults
Troubleshooting tools
Investigating faults
symptoms
date
fault
problem history
error code
Binary values
Decimal values
1000MB = 1024MiB
TB(Terabyte)
PB(Petabyte)
GB(gigabyte)
MB(Megabyte)
KB(kilobyte)
GiB (Gibibyte)
TiB (Tibibyte)
MiB (Mebibyte)
PiB (Pebibyte)
KiB (Kibibyte)
Base 2 (Binary) the units are 0 to 1
Base 16 (Hexadecimal), we can only use a single character. Numbers of 10 and over are changed to letters and so. for base 16, the units are 0-9 and A to F up to 16
Base 10 (Decimal) the units are 0 to 9
