Computer Hardware Fundamentals: Motherboards, CPUs, and Expansion Cards

Flashcards based on lecture notes covering PC hardware components, CPU technologies, and interface standards.

What does FPU stand for?

Floating Point Unit.

What is the main motherboard power connector commonly called?

The $24$-pin ATX motherboard power connector.

What does the CPU power connector do?

It provides dedicated power to the CPU/processor voltage circuitry, commonly through a $4$-pin or $8$-pin EPS connector.

Where does SATA data connect?

Between the SATA drive and the motherboard.

Where does SATA power come from?

The power supply unit (PSU).

What is M.2 commonly used for?

Compact motherboard-mounted devices, especially SSD storage.

What symptom can indicate a failing CMOS/RTC battery?

The computer repeatedly loses or resets its date and time after power is removed.

What is PS/2 used for?

Legacy keyboard and mouse connections.

What connector is commonly used for wired Ethernet?

RJ-$45$.

What is S/PDIF used for?

Digital audio transmission, including optical digital audio.

What did AGP primarily support?

Legacy dedicated graphics cards.

What is the modern expansion interface replacing PCI/AGP?

PCI Express (PCIe).

What PCIe slot is most associated with a GPU?

PCIe x$16$.

What PCIe slot is common for NICs, sound cards, and capture cards?

PCIe x$1$.

What is a NIC?

A Network Interface Card, which provides or expands network connectivity.

What does a capture card do?

It receives an external video signal so the computer can record, process, or stream it.

What does a riser card do?

It changes the orientation of expansion cards or provides expansion in space-constrained systems, often allowing cards to mount horizontally.

What is the motherboard?

The main printed circuit board (PCB) that connects and allows communication among the computer's major components.

What are the four basic computer functions?

Input, processing, output, and storage.

What does volatile mean?

Data is lost when electrical power is removed.

Give two examples of volatile storage.

CPU cache and RAM.

What does a motherboard form factor describe?

Its size, shape, layout, mounting pattern, and general case/power compatibility.

What are the three common desktop form factors to recognize?

ATX, MicroATX, and Mini-ITX.

What does ZIF stand for?

Zero Insertion Force.

Where are the pins/contacts in LGA?

The delicate contacts are in the motherboard socket; the CPU uses flat contact pads.

Where are the pins in PGA?

On the CPU.

What is SMT?

Simultaneous Multithreading.

What is Intel's common branding for SMT?

Hyper-Threading (HT).

What is SMP?

Symmetric multiprocessing, which uses multiple physical processors/CPU sockets.

What is the difference between multicore and SMP?

Multicore has multiple processing cores inside one physical CPU package; SMP uses multiple physical CPU packages.

What is Intel's hardware virtualization technology?

Intel VT-x / Intel Virtualization Technology (VT).

What is AMD's hardware virtualization technology?

AMD-V.

What does SLAT stand for?

Second-Level Address Translation.

What is Intel EPT?

Extended Page Tables, Intel's implementation of SLAT.

What is AMD RVI?

Rapid Virtualization Indexing, AMD's implementation of SLAT.

What is x86 commonly associated with?

$32$-bit processing/architecture.

What is the approximate RAM addressing ceiling associated with a $32$-bit environment?

About $4\,GB$ of RAM.

What is ARM known for?

Power efficiency, lower heat generation, and strong use in mobile and embedded systems.

What is the simplified CPU instruction cycle?

Fetch, decode, execute, and store/return the result.

What does ALU stand for?

Arithmetic Logic Unit.