Introduction
The PC has had an amazing career, going from garage creation to everyday household electronic. One could say the PC has become what it has because of its many parts. Those parts all come together to make the personal computer. We’ll take a look at the anatomy of the PC, shedding light on how each piece comes together to make the computer run and operate all the programs we use daily.
A typical PC consists of a motherboard, memory modules, processor, hard drive(s), optical drive (DVD or CD drive), network adapter, keyboard, mouse and monitor. A PC can also have additional accessories called peripherals attached to ports on the machine. These peripherals include printers, cameras, scanners and other external devices.
A computer is often separated into two elements – hardware and software. The hardware consists of what we’ve discussed, while the software includes the operating system and programs that run on the system, like a web browser or word processor program. Both the software and hardware come together to create a user experience that we’ve come to know as the personal computer.
Dissecting the Personal Computer
A personal computer is built around a printed circuit board called the motherboard. The motherboard allows for hardware to be plugged into its available slots. A Central Processing Unit or CPU fits into a motherboard’s socket to be the brain for all the computer’s operations. The motherboard obtains power from the power supply cables that plug into power slots on the board. The motherboard may have integrated support for video, audio and networking, or these features can be added via AGP, PCI or PCI express slots on the board. The memory modules are installed directly into the motherboard RAM slots. These can be dual slots, triple or quad slots in most personal computers. The motherboard also connects the hard drive through SATA cables, IDE cables or SCSi ones.
Central Processing Unit or CPU
The processor of the personal computer handles directives from all the parts of the machine. It’s considered the brain of the personal computer. The processor runs at speeds clocked through frequency, like a 2.5GHz Intel. Many modern processors come with more than one core, making them dual or quad core means more concurrent processing power. The CPU talks to the memory modules along with the video controllers to handle image rendering on the computer monitor.
The CPU takes instructions from inputs on the computer, software programs and hardware installed on the system. The programs that speak to the CPU do so in programming languages which are translated to binary code so the CPU can understand what it’s supposed to do. The CPU talks directly to the onboard memory to handle directives, at which point it will process those requests and output the results to an available output handler, like a printer, hard drive, or back to the RAM module. The CPU handles all this through complex math and an understanding of binary language – the zeros and ones that make up the core language of any computer.
Intel and AMD are the two major CPU manufacturers for desktop PCs. We have guides which explain each company’s current CPU models which may be useful if you want to learn more about CPU technology: AMD CPU Guide and Intel CPU Guide.