CIS 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Central Processing Unit, Network Interface Controller, Random-Access Memory

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Computing and Information Science
• Course: CIS 1000
• Professor: Zoe Zhu

Document Summary

A computer is a data processing device that performs four major functions: Special design computers: mainframe computer supports many users simultaneously, upercomputer performs complex calculations extremely fast, embedded computers touch our everyday lives in devices ranging from digital cameras, digital recorders and the electronic thermostat in your home. Motherboard, cpu, ram, hard drives, optical drive, heat sink fan. Contains the electronic brain of the computer. Memory which includes rom (that holds start up instruction) and ram (that stores any files); Central processing unit (cpu), the brain of the computer; Network interface card (nic) to connect to the internet; Expansion slots for plug in sound and video card; and. Rom and ram: rom in the bio chip, ram in memory slots. Random access memory (ram: where the programs and data the computer is currently using are stored, much faster to read because it is closer to the cpu, temporary storage location.