Computer Hardware

CPU

• CU
• ALU
• Data registers
• I/O
• Architecture: x86, x86-64, ARM, RISC-V, MIPS
• Vendors: Intel, AMD, Apple

Storage

• Register
• Cache
  • L1 ~ L3
  • Motivation: Fetching data from main memory takes a lot of time.
• (Main) memory = RAM
  • What is RAM
  • Volatile
    • SRAM
      • Fast
    • DRAM
      • Slow
    • SDRAM
      • DDR1 ~ DDR4
    • Speed: 2133, 2400, 1600MHz
  • Non-volatile(NVRAM)
    • Flash

• Massive Storage

  • SSD
    • Fast, short lived, integrated circuit
  • HDD
    • Slow, long lived, magnetic storage
    • Weak against magnetic fields and vibration
    • speed: 5400rpm, 7200rpm
    • 
  • SSD vs HDD?

  • Interfaces

    1. Drivers: NVME vs Intel RAID vs AHCI vs IDE
    2. PCIE vs SATA
    3. M.2(right) vs mSATA(left)

    4. Valid combinations: - PCIE, NVME - PCIE, AHCI - SATA, AHCI

• Speed

• 

Bus

• Internal
  • SATA
  • PCIE
• External
  • USB Type A(2.0, 3.0, 3.1gen1), C(3.1gen2, 3.2, thunderbolt)
  • HDMI
  • VGA
  • SD card
  • Ethernet
  • 3.5mm Audio Jack

GPU

• Purpose: large scale, highly paralleled simple tasks
• Vendors: Intel, Nvidia, AMD - | CPU | GPU | | —————————— | —————————– | | sophisticated tasks, precision | highly paralleled simple tasks| | small amount of calculations per time | large anoumt of calculations per time | | complilation, virtual machine emulation, complex control flows and branching | Graphics, neural networks, crypto mining, password/hash cracking |

Motherboard

- North birdge is vanishing over time.

Peripherals

• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Touchpad
• Screen
• Printer

Questions

1. What is your laptop specifications?
2. Find your ideal laptop.
3. What are the following components? CPU, GPU, SSD, HDD, DDR3 RAM, register, cache.