Ultrabook

          Ultrabook - What is an Ultrabook?

The term Ultrabook, what do they really mean? The ultrabook is a new Intel-defined format. Basically it is a new way of calling notebooks or laptops, to differentiate a little ocean of varieties available. Unlike netbooks that are smaller but also less powerful, ultrabooks offer virtually the same comfort as laptops.

This new category of notebooks with the name ultrabook, where requirements are to have a latest generation powerful processor (core i5, core i7), be ultra lightweight, ultra-thin (less than 20 mm).

The first offer the advantage of having access to all the tools such as Word, Excel, Photoshop, Adobe Reader etc. This type of machine is dedicated to professionals as offering great performance. Note that the name "ultrabook" is the property of the Intel. Therefore, all machines that bear the name of "ultrabook" are automatically equipped with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, generally.

Ultrabook Technology

In terms of capacity, ultrabooks have nothing to envy to other laptops. Indeed, although it slightly larger in width and length than a netbook, but significantly lower in height, which leaves a few millimeters. They are equipped with facilities at the forefront of technology. Thus, you will be able to find a wide variety of processor-equipped ultrabook with an Ivy Bridge technology. Graphics cards up to 1 GB, all backed by the RAM between 4 and 16 GB The display quality is at the rendezvous with surprising resolutions for these small cars. Also, you will not be disappointed by the complete connection of ultrabooks.

Connectivity

Indeed, they are equipped with Ethernet, HDMI, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, WiFi, but also a Thunderbolt port. Recall that the Thunderbolt technology offers data transfer rate that is 20 times faster than the USB 2.0. In terms of storage capacity, you will delighted, because many of the machines are equipped with SSD sometimes reaching the size of 256GB or accompanied by mounted SATA hard drives with capacities from 500 GB to 1 TB The use of SSD provides an opportunity for ultrabooks be particularly fast at startup.

Autonomy

Power and battery of an ultrabook is more than obvious that these machines are not useful if they were not independent. Thus, we will be entitled to models that can run up to 11h in a row even if we say that the average range of these machines is 6:30. There are also equipped with touch screens ultrabooks which gives rise to a mid-computer combination, half tablets. To provide better handling, this type of ultrabooks running Windows 8. You will be able to find from Asus, Toshiba, Samsung, Aspire and many others. However, you should know that the major parts of ultrabooks are not equipped with CD / DVD player. You have understood, everything is done to preserve the smoothness of these machines.






Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental 

NetBook

                       NetBook - What is netbook? 

 

The concept of netbook is not so far from its portable design, but it is lighter and thinner, and limited storage than a laptop. Netbooks are like physical paper book; its design is just like a laptop. His name also reflects its main purpose: Net synonymous English Internet and book for "book", in short, the book for the Internet. The term netbook promoted by Intel.

The netbook are primarily made ​​for those who work mainly on office tools (Word, Excel or equivalent) while seeking maximum autonomy while traveling.

The first audience is of course the students, who can spend all day typing courses without needing to recharge the battery, while being able, in the evening, connect to the internet or watch movies.

All those who have a fairly limited use of their computer and will often move to acquire these new computers are much more than a fad.

The netbooks are serious competitors for mobile tablets and standard laptops, but each retains its specificity and its audience.

What is a Netbook?

A Netbook is characterized by:

CPU and Main Memory: Intel has developed a specific processor, the Atom. Its main objective, provide a processor with a very low power consumption and low cost. Few netbooks are not equipped with an Atom processor.

For the RAM, it is typically 1-2 GB, We recommend 2 GB, 1 GB, but enough to use his netbook in acceptable conditions.

The size of the screen: in fact, the largest netbooks offer a screen measuring between 7 "(17.8 cm) and 10" (25.4 cm) while laptops usually have a screen with a diagonal of 15 (38.1 cm). "These small screens are therefore limited to resolutions of 800 × 480 for the 7 "and 1024 × 600 for the 10".

Size and weight: If there is only one inch difference in the diagonal of the screen between a 9 inch netbook and 10 inches in practice increases the size of several centimeters. With a 10 inch screen, the surface of the netbook is closer to an A4 sheet of paper half an A4 ... Generally, 10-inch netbooks exceed 1 Kg "fateful" but limiting itself to a weight of 1 , 5kg up where other portable exceed 2kg. On the other hand, a larger netbook also offers a larger and therefore more comfortable to use keyboard. Do not overlook the size of the charger that there must also be kept as small as possible.

Storage: It is imperative to identify its needs in terms of storage capacity. Netbooks with non-volatile memory (SSD or Solid State Drive) is limited to 12 GB or 20 GB as those offered with a standard hard drive offer at least 80 GB of storage. This ability is more suited to multimedia use and can store videos and music in abundance. However, the hard drive is more sensitive to shocks while being a little heavier. Some versions are now available with hard drives of 160GB.

Do not underestimate the capacity for netbooks do not sound with optical drives (CD or DVD drives).

Autonomy: Netbooks are in fact characterized by a range of over the phone. But depending on the model, this time varies from 2 hours to over 10 hours. Educate yourself before you make your purchase.

Equipment: In addition to the disk and display the characteristics of netbooks are usually very close: 3 USB ports, a VGA output, a network port, a memory card reader SDHC, WiFi and a webcam. Some models are equipped with original Bluetooth and / or WiFi 802.11n (faster than standard 802.11g). Finally, the cheapest model, the webcam is usually limited to 0.3 Mega pixels against 1.3 Mega pixels on netbooks "upscale." Given the intended use of a netbook, standard equipment is usually enough.

Please note that some models offered by telephone companies come with a 3G module (internal or external USB).

What can you do with a netbook?

Generally, netbooks can do a little of everything except 3D applications but they quickly show their limits whether in computing power, storage space or because of their small screen and small resolution.

Components that fit netbooks are not powerhouses.

Even on the Internet, it may be expected to slow or jerky Flash animations including Youtube, Dailymotion, etc. This type of inconvenience does not occur with a conventional portable even less powerful.

Netbooks are capable of playing against trouble-free 720p HD video, DivX (and derivatives such as Xvid), DVDs (external drive is required) and audio formats compressed or not. Listen to music or watch a DivX seeking just the processor and it is possible to surf or work at the same time.

In terms of photo editing, use a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation program, it is often the limited resolution of the netbook which is disadvantageous. We must "scroll" a lot and in all directions because the toolbars are highly invasive in 1024 × 600! Side games, sure, netbooks are not made ​​for that.






Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental 

Extended Industry Standard Architecture

           EISA - Extended Industry Standard Architecture 

  Extended Industry Standard Architecture(in practice almost always shortened to EISA and frequently pronounced "eee-suh") that extends the ISA standard to a 32-bit interface. It was developed in part as an open alternative to the proprietary "Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)" that IBM introduced in its PS/2 computers. It is a bus standard for IBM compatible computers. It was announced in late 1988 by PC clone vendors as a counter to IBM's use of its proprietary Micro channel Architecture (MCA) in its PS/2 series.

EISA, is the term used to describe the expansion slots and related circuitry (the expansion bus) found in some higher-priced PCs. If you see an ad for an EISA computer, it's talking about a PC with EISA slots.

EISA was developed by a group of PC manufacturers to compete with IBM'S Micro Channel expansion slots, the kind found in most IBMPS/2 computers. Like the Micro Channel slots, EISA slots can transfer 32 bits at a time at high speed, compared with 8 or 16 bits at relatively slow speeds for the standard slots in a regular pc. But EISA slots have the advantage of accepting standard PC add-in boards, which are by far the most common type you can buy, and which won't fit in the Micro Channel slots.

EISAextends the AT bus, which the PC clone Vendors retroactively renamed to the !SA bus to avoid infringing IBM's trademark on its PC/AT computer, to 32 bits and allows more than one CPU to share the bus. The bus mastering support is also enhanced to provide access to 4 GB of memory. Unlike MCA, EISA can accept older XT and ISA boards – the lines and slots for EISA are a superset of ISA.

EISA was much favored by manufacturers due to the proprietary nature of MCA, and even IBM produced some machines supporting it. It was somewhat expensive to implement, so it never became particularly popular in desktop PCs. However, it was reasonably successful in the server market, as it was better suited to bandwidth-intensive tasks. Most EISA cards produced were either SCSI or network cards. EISA was also available on some non-IBM compatible machines such as the AlphaServer, HP 9000-D, SGI Indigo2 and MIPS Magnum.







Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental 

Micro Channel Architecture

       Micro Channel Architecture (MCA Bus) 

  The terms Micro Channel, Micro Channel architecture, or just MCA, all refer to the same thing: a kind of expansion bus used in PCs. MCA was a distinct break from previous bus architectures such as Industry Standard Architecture. The pin connections in MCA are smaller than other bus interfaces. For this and other reasons, MCA does not support other bus architectures. Although MCA offers a number of improvements over other bus architectures, its proprietary, nonstandard aspects did not encourage other manufacturers to adopt it.

 It has influenced other bus designs and it is still in use in PS/2s and in some minicomputer systems. The MCA bus was IBM's attempt to replace the ISA bus with something "bigger and better". When the 80386DX was introduced in the mid-80s with its 32-bit data bus, IBM decided to create a bus to match this width. MCA is 32 bits wide, and offers several significant improvements over ISA. The MCA bus has some pretty impressive features considering that it was introduced in 1987, a full seven years before the PCI bus made similar features common on the Pc. In some ways it was ahead of its time, because back then the ISA bus really wasn't a major performance limiting factor:

32 Bit Bus Width: The MCA bus features a full 32 bit bus width, the same width as the VESA and PCI local buses. It had far superior throughput to the ISA bus.

Bus Mastering: The MCA bus supported bus mastering adapters for greater efficiency, including proper bus arbitration.

Plug and Play: MCA automatically configured adapter cards, so there was no need to fiddle with jumpers. This was eight years before Windows 95 brought PnP into the mainstream!

MCA had a great deal of potential. Unfortunately, IBM made two decisions that would doom MCA to utter failure in the marketplace. First, they made MCA incompatible with ISA, this means ISA cards will not work at all in an MCA system, one of the few categories of PCs for which this is true. The PC market is very sensitive to backwards-compatibility issues, as evidenced by the number of older standards that persist to this day. Second, IBM decided to make the MCA bus proprietary. It in fact did this with ISA as well, however in 1981 IBM could afford to flex its muscles in this manner, while by this time the clone makers were starting to come into their own and weren't interested in bending to IBM's wishes.

These two factors, combined with the increased cost of MCA systems, led to the demise of the MCA bus. With the PS/2 now discontinued, MCA is dead on the PC platform, though it is still used by IBM on some of its RISC 6000 UNIX servers. It is one of the classical examples in the field of computing of how non-technical issues often dominate over technical ones. But one of MCA's disadvantages is that it has poor DMA controller circuitry.

Features of Micro Channel Architecture

• I/O data transfers of 8-, 16-, 24-, or 32-bits within a 64KB address space (16-bit address width).

• Memory data transfers of 8-, 16-, 24-, or 32-bits within a 16MB (24-bit address width) or 4GB (32-bit address width) address space.

• An arbitration procedure that enables up to 15 devices and the system master to bid for control of the channel.

• A basic transfer procedure that allows data transfers between masters and slaves.

• A direct memory access (DMA) procedure that supports multiple DMA channels. Additionally, this procedure allows a device to transfer data in bursts.

• An optional streaming data procedure that provides a faster data-transfer rate than the basic transfer procedure and allows 64-bit data transfers.

• Address- and data-parity enable and detect procedures.

• Interrupt sharing on all levels.

• A flexible system-configuration procedure that uses programmable registers.

• An adapter interface to the channel using:

• A 16-bit connector with a 24-bit address bus and a 16-bit data bus

• A 32-bit connector with a 32-bit address bus and a 32-bit data bus

• An optional matched-memory extension

• An optional video extension.

• Support for audio signal transfer (audio voltage-sum node).

• Support for both synchronous and asynchronous data transfer.

• An exception condition reporting procedure.

• Improved electromagnetic characteristics.






Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental 

Semi Conductor

    SemiConductor - What is SemiConductor? 

  Semiconductors are widely used in electronics to make components such as diodes, transistors, thyristors, integrated circuits as well as semiconductor lasers.

A semiconductor is usually a solid chemical element or compound that can conduct electricity under some conditions, making it a good medium for the control of electrical current. Its conductance varies depending on the current or voltage applied to a control electrode. Semiconductor is use for manufacturing chips.

A semiconductor device can perform the function of a vacuum tube having hundreds of times its volume. A single integrated circuit (IC), such as a microprocessor chip, can do the work of a set of vacuum tubes that would fill a large building and require its own electric generating plant.






Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental 

Laptop

        Laptop - What is a Laptop Computer?  

 

A Laptop computer (also called portable computer or notebook computer in English) (Other terms, such as ultrabook or netbook, refer to specific types of laptop) is designed with portability in mind. It was developed in the late 1980s. It is briefcase style with a foldout screen with a clamshell form factor, suitable for mobile use and with a miniature keyboard. It is small enough to use in your lap. The laptop is battery or AC-powered personal computer that should be charged via a plug and socket, and when it runs out of power, it must be recharged regularly.

Laptop computer originally monochrome CRT-based, The components of a laptop are built-in monitor; keyboard, touchpad (which replaces the mouse), USB, graphics card and sound cards as well as high-capacity batteries that are made to keep the laptop power for a long period of time.

The laptops are more expensive because the technology to be more compact and they are more difficult to design and manufacture. If you have a limited space, it is worth considering a "portable" computer. They give you exactly the same comfort and performance of a desktop computer, but they take up less space.

How is a Laptop Different from a Desktop?

There are some important differences between laptop and desktop is its mobility as well as its compact size. The laptops computer work with the same equipment using a desktop computer thanks to its numerous I/O ports. This basically turns your laptop computer into a desktop, with one main difference: You can easily disconnect the equipment and take the laptop with you wherever you go. However, some laptop computer, such as netbooks, sacrifices some functionality in order to be even more portable. There are many different styles and brands of laptop and they all come with different software and programs. Laptop computer can also be used to access the Internet using a USB wireless. They can also be connected to a microphone, webcam and digital camera. The screen sizes of these computers are 12 inches to 16 inches.

You get all multimedia qualities of your laptop without response time thanks to a RAM memory of 2 GB on average and a graphics card that is just as powerful as a desktop. Thus you can easily enjoy your favorite DVDs, playing video games or edit your pictures. Your laptop can handle it all.






Chapter : Introduction to Computer

• Computer Fundamental