What is bus width?

If you think of the computer's bus as being a freeway that carries data, then it is easy to visualize the bus width as the number of lanes on this freeway. Naturally, the more lanes available, the more data that can be carried at any given moment. Bus widths are generally designated in multiples of eight; a 32-bit bus width has the capability to carry four times the information of an 8-bit bus in the same amount of time.

  Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental

What is Bus Locking?

Bus Locking: A type of BUS architecture in which some particularly bandwidth-hungry device, for example a GRAPHICS PROCESSOR, is permitted to keep control of a computer's bus for many successive cycles to the exclusion of other devices. It was employed in some early Apple MACINTOSH systems to improve graphics throughput, but would be frowned on in today's highly multitasking, multiprocessor environments.

Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental

What is PDA (personal digital assistant)?

PDA stands for personal digital assistant, a term for a new breed of handheld computers. PDAs are supposed to combine the power and flexibility of a real computer with the convenience of those little electronic organizers- the kind made by Sharp and Casio-that let you keep track of your names and addresses and to-do items.A PDA can run much more complex software than an electronic organizer, and you're not stuck with the built in software-you can buy separate programs to customize the PDA to your specific tasks. With many PDAs you can use a stylus to write on the little screen. The PDA most people are talking about is the Newton, made by Apple, but many other companies are planning their own versions.

Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental

What is Analytical Engine?

 The Analytical Engine, designed by Charles Babbage between 1833 and 1846, anticipated many features of electronic computing devices invented in the 1940s and 1950s. Although mechanical in all its operations, the Analytical Engine could carry out calculations of arbitrary complexity under the control of punched cards. Conditional branching was possible, and Babbage had prepared test programs that included elaborate calculations based on nested loop structures. In a beautiful anticipation of twentieth-century thinking, Babbage showed that, given sufficient time, any finite calculation could be carried out by the Analytical Engine.

 Chapter : Introduction to Computer

•  Computer Fundamental

What is expansion bus or Microcomputer Buses?

On a microcomputer, the bus is usually called anexpansion busbecause its design determines the degree to which the minimum configuration of the system can be expanded with regard to memory, processing speed, graphics capability, and peripheral support. The expansion bus is the collection of wires, paths, connectors, and controllers responsible for distributing the data and instructions from the microprocessor to the peripheral expansion cards.Slotsconnected to the bus provide places to plug those cards in, and the bus then provides a mechanism for communicating with them.In modern designs the expansion bus is not normally the same bus that the CPU uses to access MAIN MEMORY, as the contention this would cause could slow the whole system down. Expansion cards may also be allowed to use DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS to avoid involving the CPU in most of their memory operations.

Examples of expansion buses include the ISA BUS and PCI BUS in the PC world, the VMEBUS for UNIX systems and the NUBUS for the Apple MACINTOSH.

Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental 

Bad Sector

                       What is bad sector?

A disk has two sides (a top and a bottom). Each side of the disk has tracks or concentric rings on the surface. Each ring is divided like a pie into equal wedges, or sectors, which are the smallest units of storage space on the disk. If one of these units is damaged or flawed, it is considered a bad sector and cannot be used.

If there was already data in that sector when it got damaged, chances are slim that you can recover that data unless you have the specialized hardware and software necessary for that sort of operation. Almost all hard disks are born with bad sectors, so don't freak out if your software utility reports them. Other bad sectors should not start appearing, though, after you start using the disk.

 Chapter : Introduction to Computer

•  Computer Fundamental

Bus Speed

                      What is Bus Speed? 

Bus Speed: The rate at which a computer's PROCESSOR BUS can transmit data, which is a crucial determinant of its overall performance. The bus speed of most personal computers remained at 33 MHz for a decade, only recently being increased to 100 MHz, and technologies such as the two-level processor CACHE, DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS or the Accelerated GRAPHICS PORT can be seen as ways to surmount this restriction by bypassing the processor bus.

Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental