Tech Talk

[Shadow_Twisted]

I am far from an expert, but I am enrolled in a Computer Sciences program as my major. My oldest brother has a tendency to speak in tech and not translate. I started to realize I was doing the same, so I'm starting this thread in an effort to bridge the gap between English and Tech and see if I can successfully turn tech speak into lamen's terms.

[Shadow_Twisted]

Expected to have more time to come up with an initial topic. As I will have to run off soon for a bit, I'll see if anyone has something they'd like to request.

[Rune174]

I'm actually going to take a major focusing on computer maintenence and repair, so I probably would be able to understand a degree of what you and your brother are saying.
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[Shadow_Twisted]

Information & Communication
Everyone knows computers are used to process and store information, but how does it all work. Well, there are 4 main parts that handle the process: CPU, motherboard, RAM, and the Hard Drive.

Motherboard: The motherboard is essential for a computer to work, as it provides a sort of highway between everything in your computer. The CPU may process the information, but the information has to get there somehow! It's no surprise that all the other components in a computer connect to the motherboard. Even the case has connections to the motherboard, otherwise pressing the power button on the front wouldn't do anything!

CPU: The Central Processing Unit is the main center of the computer. Just about every action you do on your computer sends information through the CPU. For instance, pressing the "k" key on the keyboard sends a signal to the processor saying "k was pressed!". The CPU then takes that and sees that if "k" was pressed, the letter "k" needs to display on the monitor. The processor then sends a signal to the monitor saying "You need to show "k"!" In order to process a lot of information, the CPU runs faster than most of the other components. I'll explain how that's possible later.

RAM: The term memory is usually used interchangeably with RAM. In reality, though, RAM is more like short-term memory. Once the computer powers down, everything stored in the RAM gets cleared. So why put anything in there in the first place? RAM runs at a speed close to the CPU, so it can handle the information demands of the CPU very well.

Hard Drive: The other part of memory is the long-term memory. That's what the hard drive is used for. The hard drive is more of a permanent storage device, keeping the information saved on it even after the power is off. When you start a program, most of the information is transferred to RAM, so that the CPU can access it better.

Keeping the Beat:
In order to prevent chaos and information crashing into each other, the system times everything. A system clock keeps a beat, known as a clock cycle. Information travels according to this tempo. As I mentioned earlier, though, the CPU and RAM are able to move faster than that. This is because they contain a multiplier that allows them to move information 2 or more times per clock cycle.

It's all Greek to me!
Motherboards have specific restrictions as to which components they can talk to. If you want to build a computer, it is important to know that everything can talk to each other.
Motherboard->CPU connections are called Sockets, this refers to the arrangement of pins on the CPU. If the socket on the motherboard doesn't match the pattern of pins on the CPU, they won't work.
Motherboards will list which type of RAM they can support. The 2 most common types of RAM for desktops are DDR2 and DDR3. DDR stands for Double Data Rate and refers to that multiplier I mentioned earlier.

I hope that provides some general insight to the less technically knowledgeable as to how computers work and if anything is amiss, perhaps a more experienced technical person could correct me.[/b]