Hardware terms

what is a digitizer?

a device that allows you to write on it and puts the text on the screen (ex. a tablet digital artists use)

what is a copper cable?

cables that achieve speeds of up to 40 Gb (ex. coax cables)

what are fiber cables?

they can achieve speeds above 100 Gb (ex. ethernet cables)

attenuation

the loss of signal strength in networking cables or connections (longer the cable, lower the strength)

EMI stands for?

electromagnetic interference

EMI does what?

where signals from a device or cable leak out and disrupts signals of another device or cable

are copper cables vulnerable to EMI?

they are highly vulnerable and need shielded cables to protect them

are fiber cables vulnerable to EMI?

no they are not because they are basically light not copper

what is a twisted pair cable?

a cable where on the inside it consists of 8 wires that are twisted into 4 pairs

what are the two type of twisted pairs?

Shield twisted pair (STP) and unshielded twisted pair (UTP)

what is the RJ11 connector used for?

Its a 4 pin connector used for older telephones

what is the RJ45 connector used for?

it is a 8 pin connector used for computer networks

explain a cat 5 cable

100 Mbps, and used in older networks

explain a cat 5e cable

1 Gbps, it has more twist per foot to handle disturbances

explain a cat 6 cable

10 Gbps or 1 Gbps, also can be 55 meters, and includes a piece of plastic to minimize crosstalk

explain a cat 6a cable

10 Gbps and uses thicker wires to carry a more powerful signal for a longer distance

what type of coax connector do you use for old data connector

BNC connector

what type of coax cable do you use for cable modems?

F connector

what are fiber optic cables?

cables that transmit data using light over flexible glass or plastic

What are the advantages of a fiber optic cable?

not vulnerable to EMI, long transmission distance, speeds up to 255 Tbps

What are the disadvantages of a fiber optic cable?

most expensive cable, difficult to install, difficult to troubleshoot, can’t easily repair the cable

SMF stands for?

single mode fiber

MMF stands for?

multi mode fiber

SMF does what?

a single strand of fiber that’s generally sending or receiving data

MMF does what?

a fiber that allows you to send and receive data at the same time (installed in pairs)

what are the four types of fiber optic connectors?

ST, LC, SC, and dual LC connectors

what is a ST connector?

a older style connector that has a straight tip and used in SMF installs

what is a LC connector?

snap style connector and used in SMF and MMF installs

what is a SC connector?

a snap in style ST connector that is used in SMF and MMF installs

what is a dual LC connector?

a dual version of the LC connector

what are the two types of older cables used to connect hard drives?

SCSI (Scuzzy) and IDE/PATA

what are the modern cables used to connect hard drives?

SATA connectors

HDMI and DP supports what two inputs?

audio and video

what is a punch down block?

a block used when installing network cables, and you can attach multiple cables on the block and connect the block to a switch

what is a molex?

a type of connector used for IDE hard drives

DDR stands for?

Double data rate

SRAM stands for?

static ram

DRAM stands for?

dynamic ram

what is SRAM?

memory that is used as cache inside CPUs, not something you can change

what is DRAM?

ram that we installed on the motherboard

what is DIMM?

memory/ram used on desktop or servers

DIMM stands for?

dual inline memory module

ECC ram stands for?

error checking and correcting ram

what is ECC ram?

when ram can detect and fix errors in data on ram

RAID stands for?

redundant array of independent disks

what does RAID do?

combines multiple other hard drives that are used for data protection or increasing storage capacity

what is RAID 0?

uses disk striping to combine drives, spreading data across all drives. Used for speed but has no redundancy

what is RAID 1?

provides data protection by mirroring data across two disks. Creates redundancy, no performance lost, but only uses the storage of one drive

what is RAID 5?

uses disk stripping to combine drives into a larger, faster drive and distribute saved data across all drives. Needs 3 disks, good redundancy, good storage, but is slow when losing a disk

what is RAID 10?

combines disks into a RAID 1 array and then combines those arrays into a RAID 0. Needs 4 disks and is good at everything, but if RAID 1 fails, you lose everything

what is M.2?

a method used to connect ssd drives, usually on the motherboard (you screw one side in)

what are the two types of m.2’s?

A sata (will be slower) or NVMe (will be faster)

what is a PCIe?

a high-speed slot on a motherboard for devices

NVMe stands for?

Non volatile memory express

by looking at the ssd’s how can you tell if it’s sata or NVMe?

one the end sata has 2 notches and NVMe has one

what is SLI?

it allows you to bond two graphic cards together

PCI stands for?

peripheral computer interconnect

what is a PCI?

the older version of a PCIe slot that is a lot slower

PCIe stands for?

peripheral computer interconnect express

what is the CMOS?

any change or info thats in your bios is stored in here