FIT1047 Study Guide - Final Guide: Zettabyte, Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, Central Processing Unit
31 May 2018
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Booting the System
Saturday, 26 May 2018
5:12 PM
Components of a Computer
• CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the core of the computer
• Motherboard - largest circuit board with lots of elements
• CPU/Processor - Biggest piece of silicon encapsulated in black plastic
• CPU usually stored in motherboard; there is a particular socket for the processor to be placed
on
o CPU does processing and computations
• In order to do this, requires a program and data. Both of these are stored in
memory
• Hence, main components of a computer is the CPU and the memory
Boot Process
Step 1: Turn On Power
• First the main fan starts (or other cooling) and the motherboard clock-cycle starts
• CPU gets power and starts working
NOTES:
Power supply provides energy to motherboard and other components
Components only work if there is stable power being provided
Power good signal can be sent to the motherboard which triggers the timer chip to reset
the process and start clock ticks
Step 2: Initial Software
• BIOS is stored in non-volatile memory (ROM - Read Only Memory) on the motherboard
o It controls the start-up steps, provides initial system configurations and initially
configures accessible hardware
• The reset command in the CPU triggers the execution of an instruction at a specific location in
the BIOS chip
• Location contains a jump instruction that points to the actual BIOS start up program in the chip
• Booting really starts with the execution of this start up program
Boot Process: POST
BIOS starts with a power on self-test POST:
• System memory is OK
• System clock/timer is running
• Processor is OK
• Keyboard is present
• Screen display memory is working
• BIOS is not corrupted
If results are ok, there is a system beep
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
In order to do this, requires a program and data. Both of these are stored in memory: hence, main components of a computer is the cpu and the memory. First the main fan starts (or other cooling) and the motherboard clock-cycle starts: cpu gets power and starts working. Power supply provides energy to motherboard and other components. Components only work if there is stable power being provided. Power good signal can be sent to the motherboard which triggers the timer chip to reset the process and start clock ticks. Step 2: initial software: bios is stored in non-volatile memory (rom - read only memory) on the motherboard. It controls the start-up steps, provides initial system configurations and initially configures accessible hardware: the reset command in the cpu triggers the execution of an instruction at a specific location in the bios chip.
