WorkStation Care

What is a Network? A network is a connection between terminals, computers, servers, and components which allows for the easy flow of data and use of resources between one another. Different networks that we come across in our day to day life are telephone network, cable T.V network, transport network of a city etc. Understanding the Concept of Networking The idea of networking has been around for a long time and has taken on many meanings. If you were to look up "network" in your dictionary, you might find any of the following definitions: An openwork fabric; netting A system of interlacing lines, tracks, or channels Any interconnected system; for example, a television-broadcasting network A system in which a number of independent computers are linked together to share data and peripherals, such as hard disks and printers Obviously, the last definition is the one we are concerned with in this course. The key word in the definition is "share." Sharing is the purpose ...

Computer industry is a fast changing industry. A new technology is almost introduced daily. Therefore, as a computer technician it is your responsibility to replace the existing computer components with newer components to make the computer up to date. This is called computer upgradation. You usually need to upgrade the computer to improve its performance and capabilities like memory, speed, etc. Upgrading is a cost-effective way to improve the technology and increase the productivity when the budget is highly constrained. Preparing to Upgrade Before you actually start upgrading a computer, you need to prepare yourself for the upgradation so that the upgradation can be performed smoothly. This also ensures that if something goes wrong, then you can return the system to the state that it was prior to the upgradation. The following checklist will help you to determine what all things are required before performing the upgradation: Assemble the required toolkit Collect the required docu...

L1-cache first appeared in Intel's 80486DX chip: Today, bigger and better CPU cache is a natural step in the development of new CPU's.

The CPU must deliver its data at a very high speed. The regular RAM can not keep up with that speed. Therefore, a special RAM type called cache is used as a buffer - temporary storage. To get top performance from the CPU, the number of outgoing transactions must be minimized. The more data transmissions, which can be contained inside the CPU, the better the performance. Therefore,the 486 was equipped with a built in mathematical co-processor, floating point unit and 8 KB L1-cache RAM. These two features help minimize the data flow in and out of the CPU. Cache RAM becomes especially important in clock doubled CPU's, where internal clock frequency is much higher than external. Then the cache RAM enhances the "horsepower" of the CPU, by allowing faster receipt or delivery of data. Beginning with 486 processors, two layers of cache are employed. The fastest cache RAM is inside the CPU. It is called L1 cache. The next layer is the L2 cache, which are small SRAM chips on the sy...

The problem with the high clock frequencies is to ensure that other electronic components keep up with the pace. It is rather simple to make data move very fast inside a chip where the print tracks are microscopic. But when we move outside the chip, other problems appear. The other components must be able to keep up with the pace. When the frequency gets too high, the circuit board print tracks start acting as antennae and various forms of "radio noise" appears. Briefly, it becomes expensive to make the rest of the hardware to keep up with these high frequencies. The solution to this problem was to split the clock frequency in two: A high internal clock frequency, which governs the pace of the CPU. A lower external clock frequency, which governs the pace on the system bus. This is where the CPU exchanges data with RAM and the I/O units. Intel's 80486DX2 25/50 MHZ was the first chip with clock doubling. It was introduced in 1992 with great potential. For a lower price you ...

We know this from the ads: "A Pentium 166 MHZ." The 166 MHZ is the clock frequency. Actually, there is a small crystal on the system board. which continually ticks to the CPU at a steady number of clock ticks per second. At each clock tick something happens in the CPU. Thus, the more ticks per second the more data are processed per second. The first CPU's worked at a frequency of 4,77 MHZ. Subsequently then, clock frequencies rates rose to 16, 25, 50, 66, 90, 133 and 200 MHZ to the best today, which probably operate at 266 MHZ. Clock frequencies are still being increased. In a few years we will have CPU's operating at 400 and 500 MHZ. To reach these very high clock frequencies, one has to employ a technique called clock doubling .

Clock frequency and -doubling Cache RAM Areas of development The CPU – speed measurement CPU changes - historical review 80486DX4 If you have to improve a CPU – and that happens all the time – it is not only a matter of technical development. There are many bottlenecks in and around the CPU, which are continually being bettered. To understand these technological improvements, one must remember that the CPU is a data processing gadget, mounted on a printed circuit board (the system board). Much of the data processing takes place inside the CPU. However, all data must be transported to and from the CPU via the system bus.