Chapter

Typical Configuration of
1 Part - A
Computer System
Part - B Part -C Part -D
(5 Marks) Total Marks
(1Mark) (2 Marks) (3 Marks)
IV
4
Q. No. 1 Nil Q. No. 29 Nil
Nil

UNIT A
Review of Block Diagram of Computer System
1. What is computer?
input, process them and gives out the output
Ans: It is an electronic device designed to automatically accept the
according to the instructions.
2 What is hardware of computer?
keyboard, monitor etc., are called hardware of
Ans: The physical components of the computer such as CPU,
computer.
3. What is software?
Ans: A sequence of instructions or computer programs is called software.
4. Draw the neat block diagram of computer and explain.
Ans: CPU

Control unit

Arithmetic
Input unit Output unit
and logic
unit

Registers

Primary memory
Secondary
Fig. Computer block diagram
Acomputer block diagram contains following important functional units.
Input unit - A device which is used to input or feed the data into a computer system.
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 System
Typical Configuration of Computer

and generates the desired

processes the input called
etc. It as brain or heart of
Mouse,
Joystick computing device. itis
commonly
is a fastest component,
2
Keyboard,
Anampte:ProcessingUnit(CPU) - It As itis mostimportant
accuracy.
Central highspeedand
It guides
output
the
with
computersystem.
be performed in a computer system.
tasks/jobsto
followingparts: the sequence of
CPUcontains - It
schedules all communication.
and logical (AND
OR NOT)
Control Unit (CU) for arithmetic (+- * )
thesignals
8.
devices bysending (ALU) - It performs
the Logical Unit execution ofinstructions. bits, 16 bits,
Arithmetic and Registers have different sizes like 8
b.
computations. It is also calledas temporarily.
instructions
data and processing. There are
- It stores the and results after
the
c. Registers64 bits. processing
32 bits or programs before the
stores the data and
Memory unit - It secondarymemory. called output
device.
primary memoryand the results is
two types - and print
device which is used to view
Output unit - A
Printer, Speaker etc.,
Example:Monitor, examples. called input devices.
input devices? Give the data from the user are
5. What are which are used to accept or feed
Ans: The devices etc.,
mouse, joystick
Example: Keyboard, examples. devices.
devices? Give called output
6. What are
output the results are
which are used to display or print
Ans: The devices
speaker etc.,
Example: Monitor, printer, calculations.
ALU, CU and
registers. logical(AND OR NOT)
Give the functions of arithmetic (+ * ) and
7. Unit) It is used for particular task.
Ans: ALU (Arithmetic Logic components required for execution of a
designed for controlling all the manipulation of data.
CU(Control Unit) An unit used as scratch pads for
devices which are
Registers are the temporary
MOTHERBOARD
expansion cards,
8. What ís a
motherboard?
all the system components like CPU, RAM,
(PCB) used to connect
Ans: A Printed Circuit Board motherboard.
graphic cards etc., is called
electronic
9. What is a microprocessor? (group of IC's) that resides in computers and other
"microprocessor" is a small chip
Ans: A processor, or
devices.
10. What is the purpose of registers in the CPU? be used as scratch pad during data processing.
devices can
Ans: The registers are temporary storage
11. Explain the characteristics of motherboard. supply tyPe,
factor is the specification of a motherboard It explains the dimensions, power
Ans: The form
location of mounting holes, number of ports on the back panel, etc. controllers and
chipset is a collection of microchips (such as CPU. BIOS, memory, mass storage, interfaces,
A work together to perform specific functions.
input-output devices) designed with built-in circuits on motherboard to
compatibility of the CPU and uue
Processor socket - It is a place where CPU is connected. It is designed as per the
motherboard.
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12. Explain the types of
Ans: XT (eXtended motherboards. 3

ie. LIF(Low InsertionTechnology)Motherboard It was used in earlier times. It has

Force) socket. DIMM RAM slots and 1SA the old type socket for CPU.
AT (Advanced Technology) expansion slots. It has 12 pins power
Motherboard
inches wide and 1l inches long. This
It was the first type of
motherboard used in PC's. Its
connector.
motherboard suffered from a lot of problems, like size was
12
components and overheating. cumbersome access to
Baby AT Motherboard - It is a
motherboard used in the lBM PC/AT. combination of XT and AT mother board. A smaller
Introduced in 1987, the Baby AT reduced width from version of the original AT
its maximum length was l3", 12" to 8.5". Although
most boards were only 9" or 10" long. The
build in sockets for VO ports (serial, Baby AT was the first PC
Widely used in 386, 486 and early Pentium parallel, etc.), which were cabled to motherboard to
connectorS
PCs, the Baby AT was superseded by the on the back of the case.
ATN (Advanced Technology ATX motherboard.
The AT\X layout rotated the eXtended) motherboard -The PC motherboard that
CPUand memory 90 degrees, allowing superseded the Baby AT design.
sockets. The power supply blows air over full-length
the CPUrather than pulling air expansions to be plugged into al
13. Explain any three through the chassis.
components motherboard.
Ans: The different motherboard
of
socket, BIOS, CMOS, memory and components are Processor CPU
expansion
output ports, buses, disk controller socket, power slot, input /
Graphics Clock
sockets etc., card slotgenerator Front side bus
The details of components are given
below: High-speed
A CPU / Processor socket - The Memory slots
smaller IC's are combined and graphics bus
(AGP or PC1!
form the CPU is connected to a
socket. motherboard through this Express) Northbridge Memorybus
(memory
BIOS (Basic Input Output System) - A :pontroller hub)
(ROM) chip, which contains the Read-only memory
firmware, or start-up Internal
instructions for the computer system. This is also called the bus
i PCI
BIOS. As computer is switched on, BIOS performs the Southbridge Bus Unboard
POST PCI (UO controller graphics
(Power On Self Testing). That means checks all the devices Bus hub) DE controller
connected to the computer whether those are connected SATA
USB
properly or not and functioning properly or not. It gives Ethernet Cables and
the Audio Codec ports leading
control to the operating system after the successful testing. CMOS Memory off-board
PC1 Slots
CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) - It is a LPC
lithium battery provides the power supply to a motherboard to Bus Super /O
Serial port
keep required information when the system is off. The Flash ROM
Parallel part
Floppy isk

information includes system date, time and other related (Blos) Keyboard
Mouse

information.
Fig. Schematic diagram of
14. Explain the motherboard with the schematic diagram. motherboard
Ans: A particular microchip is designed for specific function. All
those microchips are connected to formt
efficient chipset for the computer system. A chipset of the motherboard includes north
BIOS, memory slots, expansion slots etc., The functions of north bridge and south bridge, south bridge, CMC
bridge is described.
Northbridge is an Intel chipset that communicates with the computer processor and controls
memory, the PCI bus, Level 2 cache, and all Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) interaction w
communicates with the processor using the frontside bus (FSB).
activities. Northbric

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Computer Systern
SonthhrHdge is nn Intel chipset that manages the basic forms of inputloutput (1/O) such as Universal Serial p.
(USB), serial, nudio, Integrated Drive Flectronics (DE), and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) LO
computer

Computer Memory
I5. Explain the different types of memory.
Ans: The computer memory is the storage space in computer where data is to be processed and instructions
required for processing are stored.
Mainly there are two types.
Primary (internal) memory -Itincludes cache memory and primary/main memory
Secondary (external) memory -It includes magnetic disk / opticaldisk and magnetic tapes.
Primary memory These are present in the mother board of your computer system. The different internal
memorices are RAM and ROM.
Secondary memory - It is much larger in size than main memory but it is slower. It normally stores system
programs, instruction and data files. It is also known as auxillary memory.
Secondary memories cannot be accessed directly by a processor. As a first step the data / infornation of auxillary
memory is transferred to the main memory and then that information can be accessed by the CPU.
Example: Floppy disk, Hard disk, CD's, Pendrive etc.,
16. Expand RAM, ROM,DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, DDR SDRAM.
Ans: RAM - Random Access Memory
ROM - Rcad Only Memory
DRAM - Dynamic Random Access Memory
SRAM - Static Random Access Memory
SDRAM- Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
DDR SDRAM - Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory.
17. Explain cache memory.
Ans: Cache memory is a very high speed sermiconductor memory which can speed up CPU. It acts as a buffer
between the CPU and main memory. It is used to hold those parts of data and program which are most frequently
used by CPU. The parts of data and programs are transferred from disk to cache memory by operating system, from
where CPUcan access them.

CPU L2 RAM

Fig. 1.3 Cachememory

There are different levels of cache memory. Level l (Ll) cache is present inside the CPU and Level2 (L2) cache is
situated at the mnother board of computer system.

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Advantages
" Cache memory is faster than main memory.
nconsumes less access time as compared to main memory.
t stores the program that can be executed withina short period of time.
Itstores data for teporary use.
Dis-advantages
Cache memory has limited capacity.
Itisvery expensive.
18. Where is levell (.)eache is located?
Ans: Level 1(L) cache is present inside the CPU.
19, Where is level2 (L2) cache is located?
Ans: Level 2 (L2) cache is situated at the mother board of computer system.
Expansion Slots
20. What is an expansion slot?
Ans: A place where expansion slots are connected.
21. What is the use of expansion slots?
Ans: These slots are used to connect the expansion cards for providing the new features to a computer system.
22. Explain the memory slots and expansion slots.
Ans: (a) Memory slots - It is also called as RAM slots. It is used to connect the RAM chips to the mother board. In
modern motherboards we find DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Module) memory slots. Earlier SIMM (Single Inline
Memory Module) slots were in use.
(b) Expansion slots - This slot is helpful to enhance the motherboard features by inserting the expansion cards. An
expansion card is a small circuit board with specific feature. The different expansion cards available in the market
are sound card, VGA card, LAN card etc.,
23. Expand IDE.
Ans: Integrated data/ Drive electronics
24. Explain different slots present in the motherboard.
Ans: ISA (Industrial Standard Architecture) - It is a 16 bit card.
The 16-bit ISA bus was used also with 32-bit processors for several years. An attempt to extend it to 32 bits, called
Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA), was not very successful.

Fig. ISA card

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) - It is a 32 bit card.
PCI was introduced by Intel in 1992 as an expansion to the ISA bus. The PCI bus is a 32-bit (133MBps) computer
bus that is also available as a 64-bit bus and was the most commonly found and used computer bus in computers.
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Systerm
PCI
Slots

Fig. PCI card

AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)
AGP is an advanced port designed for Video cards and 3Daccelerators. It was designed by Intel and introduced in
August of |007.The AGP channel is32-bits wide and runs at 66 MHz.
AGP slot

Fig. AGP card

25. Expand MID.

Ans: Musical instrument digital interface.
26. What is MIDI port?
Ans: It is a communication protocol designed for recording and playing music through digital interface.
Buses and Ports
27. How does computer communicate with other devices?
Ans: A computer communicates with other devices through buses.
28. What is a bus? Explain the different types of buses.
Ans: A bus is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a comnputer, or between
computers.
The internal bus connects all the internal components of a computer, such as CPU and memory to the
mothertboard. Internal data buses are also referred to as a local bus, because they are intended to connect to local
devices. The different internal buses are:
Control bus - It transmit the signals to control and coordinate the operations of the computer systemn. It also used
to direct and monitor the actions of the other functional parts of the computer system.
Address bus - Before data or instructions can be written into or read from memory by the CPU or VO sections, an
address must be transnmitted to memory over the address bus. The transfer of address between the devices takes
place by the address bus.
Data bus - The bidirectional bus, sometimes called the memory bus, handles the transfer of data and instructions
between the devices.
The external bus is made up of the clectronic pathways that connect the different external devices. such as printer.
peripheraldevices etc., to the computer.
29. What is a port?
Ans: A place to connect the input / output and peripheral devices to computer system.

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30. Explain the different input /output ports.

Ans:Thesc ports are also called as communication ports. The /O ports connects the cxternal devices. The different
VO ports are described below:
Serial port: It transmits the data bit by bit and it supports bi-directional data flow. It is also called COM port.
Parallel port: Ittransmits the data byte by byte and it supports unidirectional data flow. It is also called LPT port.
USB port: t is an advanced input/output port. It is a plug and play port. That means a devices that work with a
computer system as soonas they are connected. The user does not haveto manually install drivers for the device or
even tellthe computer that a new device has been added.
31. How many bits of data are sent in a serial port?
Ans: ONE bit at a time.

32. What is meant by plug and play device?

Ans: Adevice can be casily connected or disconnected without restarting your computer or installing the drivers.
33. Is device/disk controller a hardware or software?
Ans: Hardware

34. Expand USB.

Ans: Universal Serial Bus.

35. Mention two features of USB port.

Ans: (i) It is a plug and play port. Therefore need not installany drivers.
(i) Upto 127 different devices can be connected through USB hubs.
(ii) It transmits the data with high speed.
36. What is an interface?
Ans: It is the media to communicate between the devices. It also can be defined as a shared area in which two
devices can exchange the data or signals.

Power Supply
37. Explaindifferent types of power supply.
Ans: SMPS - Adevice that converts electrical current from an ACline circuit to DC for electronic devices. It also
regulates the output voltage or current.
UPS -An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is a device that allows your computer to keep running for at least a
short time when the primary power source is lost. There are two types of UPS-Online UPS and Offline UPS.
38. Expand SMPS and UPS.
Ans: SMPS - Switched Mode Power Supply
UPS -Uninterruptible Power Supply
39. Explain the types of UPS.
Ans: Online UPS - In this, power supply flows through an inverter whether the main power supply is ON or OFF.
In this inverter is ON continuously. Therefore this type of UPS is also called continuous mode UPS.
Advantages of On-line UPS: It gives very good continuity of power supply and protection. There is no user
interaction.
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8 comparatively costlier
It is
Dis-advantages ofOn-line UPS: doesn't remains its ON state as Online UPS.
Instead it becomes to ON
inverter only
In this, the load derives power directly from AC
Off line UPS -
supply gets OFF.
When the main supply is ON the supply.
DC supply from Batteries
when the Main
gets OFF, then inverter come to play and convert incoming
supply
When the Mains AC
to AC.
UPS - Less expensive. But nott suitable for online applications.
Advantages OfOFF-
line
may happen and it requires user interaction.
Dis-advantage - Data loss
approximate power consumption by a computer system?
40. What is the monitor.
computer uses around 180 to 200 watts excluding
Ans: Atypical desktop computer system.
different components required for ASsembling the sDeakes
41. List the
RAM, hard disks, DVD Drives, SMPS, keyboard, mouse, monitor, PC case.
Ans: Processor, motherboard, customised configurations by using more
devices with
requirements user can opt for
nd printer. Depending or
required specifications.
configuration of a personal computer.
42. Write the standard
QuadCore Desktop Processor with 3.4 GHz
Ans: Precessor (CPU) - Intel
Motherboard - Intel ATX mother board.
RAM -4 GB DDR3 SDRAM
Hard disk - 1TB, 7200RPM seagate
Monitor- 21.5" diagonal IPS widescreen
DVD-RW- Sony 54x SuperMulti DVD writer
with 500 Watts SMPS
PCcase with SMPS - Minitower cabinet
Keyboard - Multimedia USB Keyboard
Mouse - Logitech USB optical mouse
Speaker - HP USB powered compact speakers
Multiple Choice Qustions (MCQ's)
1. A motherboard is a
(a) processing circuit board (b) printed circuit board
(c) printed switching board (d) processing switching board
2. Computer communicates with other devices through
(a)slot (b) disk controller
(c) port (d) Bus
3. How many bits of data is transmitted in a serial port at a time
(a) 1Bt (b) 4 Bits (c) 8 Bits (d) 16 bits
4. Which is an USB device?
(a) Floppy disk (b) CD
(c) DVD (d) Pendrive
5. Which of the following is a fastest memory?
(a) RAM (b) Cache (c) Hard disk (d) SSD

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6. Identify the volatile memory.

(a) ROM (b)HD (c) RAM (d)Pendrive
7. Which of the following is an
(a) UPS
alternate power supply?
(b) SMPS
(c) CMOs
(d)BIOS
8. Level 1 cache is situated in
(a) CPU (b) Mother board
(c) Hard disk (d) SMPS
9. Which of the following is a primary memory?
(a) HD (b) CD/DVD
(c) Pendrive
(d) RAM
10. Group of 8 bits =
(a) 1 Byte (b) 2 Bytes (c) 4 Bytes (d) &Bytes
11. A parallel port transmits group of bits at a time
(a) 4 (b)8 (c) 16 (d) 32
12. is a secondary memory.
(a) RAM (b) ROM (c) Cache (d) Hard Disk
13. Expansion of USB
(a) Uniform Service Board (b) Universal Service Board
(c) Universal Serial Bus (d) Universal Serial Board

Answer keys
2 3 8 10 11 12 13
d b a d a b d

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