Post AP Test- Computer Hardware

Complete West Ranch AP Student Survey

2 Videos

Transistors - The Invention That Changed The World Video

How a CPU is Made Video

Processors (CPU)

Intel v. AMD
These are the two main processor producers on the market and they fill two different niches. AMD processors tend to be on the less expensive side, however they are best used in budget computers where price matters more than stellar performance.

Clock Speed and Number of Cores
Clock speed is pretty simple to understand - it’s how many calculations a processor can crunch in a single second. This is generally measured in gigahertz, abbreviated GHz. For example, if a processor says 3GHz, that means it can perform 3 billion calculations per second.
Cores on the other hand are how many individual processors are combined onto one board. So if a processor says it has 4 cores, then that means that there are 4 processors combined onto one processor. Having multiple cores on a computer will allow multiple tasks to be carried out at once more efficiently.

Frequency

It's really simple (if you leave aside the internal cpu organization & concepts like pipelining, etc.) The unit that you're asking about (GHz) refers to the frequency. Frequency is the reciprocal of time. This means that it gives the measure of work done per unit time. For example, suppose you can throw two apples in one second then the frequency of your throw is 2Hz or 2Hertz. Similarly, suppose a processor has a frequency of 1.8GHz then this means that it can produce 1,800,000,000 cycles per second. This means that if an instruction takes one cycle to complete then this CPU can execute 1,800,000,000 instructions in a single second. But remember that a complete execution of instruction takes more than one cycle cos pipelining is used which completes an instruction in many steps & therefore instead of trying to complete a single instruction, pipelines are used to make progress on all the instructions simultaneously. This means that the clock speed alone can never be a reliable factor for a processor selection because a pentium processor with high frequency will still lose to any modern i7 with lower frquencies. This means that evolving internal architecture is the main reason for boost in the performances. However two processors of same generations & similar models can be selected using frequency alone. For example, if you have two i7 processors, both of them are from 6th gen then assuming that the internal architecture is similar, we can directly compare them using their frequencies.

Define the Following Computer Parts

Case
Drive Bays
RAM
Hard Drive
Motherboard
Processor/CPU/Chip
Peripherals
- Input Devices
- Output Devices
Fan
Operating System
Graphics Card
Sound Card
NIC Card
USB
Power Supply

Find and label the parts in a desktop computer.

Internal Parts of a Computer Video and Vocabulary

How To Identify The Components Inside Your Computer Video

Hardware Assignment (10pts)- Form a small group of 2-3 people. Pick a desktop computer in Coach Burill's classroom to study. Label as many internal parts of the computer as you can with sticky notes. Take pictures of your work. Add your pictures to a Google Doc and share with Coach Burrill. In the Google Doc, name each computer part that you labeled and what it's function is. Make sure everyon's name is at top of the Google Doc.

Take in Class Hardware Quiz

Artificial Intelligence Study

Complete West Ranch AP Student Survey

Read article and hand write a 1 page paper describing the article and include your thoughts on the article/topic. Due at end of class. (5 Points)- There's a dark secret at the heart of artificial intelligence: no one really understands how it works.

Read article and hand write a 1 page paper describing the article and include your thoughts on the article/topic. Due at end of class. (5 Points)- 10 Powerful Examples Of Artificial Intelligence In Use Today

Read article and hand write a 1 page paper describing the article and include your thoughts on the article/topic. Due at end of class. (5 Points)- What Will Our Society Look Like When Artificial Intelligence Is Everywhere?

Computer Science: The New Literacy

Rigorously Developed