Computer Hardware Familiarization Part-4

The Network Interface Card or NIC also Known as LAN Card is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. Whereas network interface controllers were commonly implemented on expansion cards that plug into a computer bus, the low cost and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most newer computers have a network interface built into the motherboard.

An Ethernet network controller typically has an 8P8C socket where the network cable is connected. Older NICs also supplied BNC, or AUI connections. A few LEDs inform the user of whether the network is active, and whether or not data transmission occurs. Ethernet network controllers typically support 10 Mbit/s Ethernet, 100 Mbit/s Ethernet, and 1000 Mbit/s Ethernet varieties. Such controllers are designated 10/100/1000 - this means they can support a notional maximum transfer rate of 10, 100 or 1000 Megabits per second.

The Network Interface Card

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Next is the  sound card is an internal computer expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under control of computer programs. The term sound card is also applied to external audio interfaces that use software to generate sound, as opposed to using hardware inside the PC. Typical uses of sound cards include providing the audio component for multimedia applications such as music composition, editing video or audio, presentation, education and entertainment (games) and video projection. Many computers have sound capabilities built in, while others require additional expansion cards to provide for audio capability.

 The Sound Card

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 Early ISA bus sound-cards were half-duplex, meaning they couldn't record and play digitized sound simultaneously, mostly due to inferior card hardware. Later, ISA cards like the Sound Blaster AWE series and Plug-and-play Sound-blaster clones eventually became full-duplex and supported simultaneous recording and playback, but at the expense of using up two IRQ and DMA channels instead of one, making them no different from having two half-duplex sound cards in terms of configuration. Towards the end of the ISA bus' life, ISA sound cards started taking advantage of IRQ sharing, thus reducing the IRQs needed to one, but still needed two DMA channels. Many PCI bus cards do not have these limitations and are mostly full-duplex. It should also be noted that many modern PCI bus cards also do not require free DMA channels to operate.


Also, throughout the years, sound-cards have evolved in terms of digital audio sampling rate. Along the way, some cards started offering wave-table synthesis, which provides superior MIDI synthesis quality relative to the earlier OPL-based solutions, which uses FM-synthesis. Also, some higher end cards started having their own RAM and processor for user-definable sound samples and MIDI instruments as well as to offload audio processing from the CPU.

    

The Easy and Hard Way of a Computer Hardware Driver Installation.

When installing on a newly purchased computer or reinstalling driver on a old computer, driver installation can be both taxing or easy a breathing fresh air. A computer or laptop has two major components and that is the hardware and the software. Without one of these two the computer or any gadgets is useless. The hardware must work properly with the software to produce a beautiful piece of machine. Of these two the hardware require the most time in getting it to work properly. 

There is several computer hardware that requires separate driver installation for them to function properly.

1.       Network adapter components

a.       Network Interface Card

b.      Wireless Connectivity

c.       Bluetooth

2.       Display  Adapters

3.       Sound, video and Game controllers

4.       Chip components

5.       Mouse or Pointing Devices.

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The easy of installing the driver for the specific hardware components is by using the installer that comes with the computer or laptop. This driver is usually located on a piece of CD-ROM that comes with the laptop of computer. By running that specific CD-ROM we just need to follow the instruction or commonly known as wizard Installation guide to fully install the entire required hardware driver. This method is the easiest way of installing a driver.

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The hard way of driver installation is if the CD-ROM that contains the driver for all hardware components is gone. For this method we need an internet connection. Not just an ordinary internet connection because we need to find and download the correct version for each specific computer hardware. Yes each computer hardware has a different version. Not all computer hardware drivers will work once they were installed. So it is very important that we need to know several things about the driver that would make them the correct driver for that specific hardware.

List of things that we need to know about the driver before we install in the computer.

1.       Operating system Type

2.       Driver Version

3.       Manufacturer

For every driver that we need to install we need to know the current operating system of the computer. Especially in the Windows based computer or laptop. There are several version of the same driver for each version of windows operating system. Like the driver for the Windows 98 or ME will not work for Windows NT and the rest of its different windows version. So it is very important to know where that driver’s manufacturer and version so that driver compatibility is maintained at all times. Also the correct manufacturer driver version should be established to make the driver finder works a lot faster. Instead of going from one place to another, we can go through the manufacturer website or support page. This method can be very fast instead of searching the whole internet just looking for that specific driver.

Another very easy way of driver installation is by using software that detects the entire needed driver by your computer. Once installed these software driver detector can be used to quickly determine all the needed driver type and version, download each one of them and begin installation as soon as the possible. We only need to run it and it will find the correct driver software. This software is being to check all the driver components and once finish finding each driver. The software can be easy to use once the proper setup has been on- looker is washed properly. Once the driver have been identify, it is now the time to download and then installation could begin for each hardware component of the computer.

How about you what do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts on these.

Computer 101: Parts on the Outside Part-1

Hello I hope your day is going fine, hope your in good health. Okay we will start on a blog series that will tackle on the computer hardware parts on the outside and on the inside. a lot of people who uses computer for almost everything don't have the time to know what's on the outside and what is on the inside of this very important machine.First of all i assume everyone knows what a computer look's like. Lately it has taken on a lot of very different shape and sizes and function but on this series of blog we will focus on the Desktop Computer, the first computer which was tailored made for offices, leisure spot, activity center and many more and of course your own home sweet home. Still remember your first computer, what was the specification of that? how big is the Monitor. What was the speed of the processor, how large was the hard drive and the memory. What was the color. How did you feel when your parents bought you your first computer. I'm sure you have a lot of memories regarding that time.

To start with the computer is made up several key component during it early years. They are the Monitor, Central Processing Unit, the keyboard, the mouse (pointing device) and also we have the printer. This was the basic parts ohhh I almost forgot, the speaker and microphone. The Monitor is your basic output devices, this is where we see what we are doing. The monitor is our windows to the uses and function of the computer. From CRT technology to thin LCD upto LED and HD technology monitor of today.The main basic difference of the monitor today than its ancestor is the size, another is the power consumption. Your old CRT monitor eats a lot of power when in use. But todays, LCD and LED screen eats smaller electricity even on if left open for a long time. Another big savings for the LCD/LED screen is the space the old CRT uses. Just imagine a 19" inch Desktop CRT of even bigger and compare it to the space needed for the LCD/LED screen.

Keyboard

Numeric Keypad

Now let's go to the keyboard, there not much difference from the keyboard of the old days to the keyboard of today.It's basically the same design from the old model up to the new and latest model. There may be a few enhancement here and there, soft keys, hand rest to name a few enhancement. But still it is the same keyboard even if the wireless model and folding keyboard. The keyboard is the main input devices that is attached to the computer. It's like a type writer without the loud sounds. This is what we used to type documents and fill-out electronic forms online. This is also were we controlled our computer if it hangs, we pressed three keys to restart it. To access CMOS setup content and menu we press certain during the boot-up process. If your want to view process on your computer under windows we press certain key combination. For editing of document we also access the keyboard, especially for the people who uses the shortcut method of accessing all the function of the word processing software. The most ordinary keyboard will not function properly if water or liquid is poured into it. Buy some high-end type have built in protection for this kind of substance if accidentally spill into it.

Mouse with a lighted Scroll Wheel

Next is the Mouse or you pointing device. Just like the keyboard the mouse has changed little ever since it was introduced in it's early days. From mouse with balls used for arrow movement to the infrared and scroll mouse of today. Basically it's the same design even the wireless one. There are also other type of pointing device used in computer, the track ball which has the ball on the upside not under. all mouse are still susceptible to the wear and there of the parts inside it just like the keyboard. If a key is used more often than the other chances are that key will be the first to be depressed.

Infrared Mouse tracker

The nest item is the CPU or the Central Processing Unit, or the System Unit. It's be called by a lot of names. But we been referring to the same thing when it come to the computer. Well its better to talk about it on my next post. I'll be adding a couple of picture here as soon as i can.