CGS 2060 Exam 2 Technology in Focus Computing Alternatives Applicati on Soft ware Alternati ves Open source software freely distributed contains the source code and can in turn be distributed to others Can be downloaded for free from various web sites installed on many computers changes can be made to the source code and it can be redistributed OpenOffice suite similar to Microsoft Office Writer word processing Calc spreadsheet Impress presentation Base database By default files saved in Write use the odt extension GIMP is a free alterative to Adobe Photoshop that can be used to edit images Dia free program allows you to create Visio like diagrams and charts SketchUp charting option by Google Full featured 3D modeling software application Operati ng System Alternati ves Because Windows is the most widely used OS it s a prime target for viruses and hacking Linux offers portability and reduces risk of picking up viruses or malware Also it enhances privacy and takes up less space on the hard drive allowing the computer to run faster Available for download in various packages known as distributions or distros One popular Linux distro is Ubuntu Mac OS X Lion based on UNIX operating system which is stable and reliable Safe alternative to Windows The new Mission Control feature acts as a command center for the desktop Hardware Alternati ves Parts needed to make your own computer case ATX style with adequate cooling fans and enough drive bays to handle the hard drive motherboard accommodate CPU chosen drive bay processor CPU fastest that can be afforded RAM hard drive power supply video card sound card optical drives CD DVD and Blu ray necessary for software installation A disadvantage of building your own computer is not having outside support if something goes wrong Ch 6 Understanding and Assessing Hardware Evaluating Your System Your Ideal Computer To determine whether you need to upgrade your system or purchase a new one you need to define your ideal system and what you want it to do Then you need to perform a system evaluation to assess the subsystems in your computer including the CPU memory storage video and audio Moore s Law describes the pace at which CPUs small chips thought of as the brains of the computer improve Predicts that the number of transistors inside a CPU will increase so fast that CPU capacity will double every 18 months The number of transistors on a CPU chip helps determine how fast it can process data Best described as an observation of the rate of increasing transistor density Desktop systems are a better value than notebooks in terms of computing power gained for your dollar You pay more for each component of a notebook Desktops have larger monitors and are more reliable with a longer life span Notebooks are often equipped with an ExpressCard slot which can add a solid state drive SSD eSATA and FireWire ports and other capabilities to your system System evaluation conducted to determine whether your computer system has the right hardware components to do what you ultimately want it to do Look at your computer s subsystems see what they do and check how they perform Evaluati ng the CPU System Your computer s CPU processes instructions performs calculations manages the flow of information through the computer system and is responsible for processing the data you input into information CPU speed is measured in gigahertz It has several components including L2 cache ALU and level 1 cache memory The CPU is critically important because it processes instructions performs calculations and manages the flow of info through a computer system First it fetches the required piece of data or instruction from RAM temporary storage location for all the data and instructions the computer needs while it s running Then it decodes the instruction into something the computer can understand Then it executes the instruction and stores the RAM before fetching the next instruction This is a machine cycle The primary distinction between CPUs is processing power which is determined by the number of cores clock speed the amount of cache memory and front side bus performance Core complete processing section from a CPU embedded into one physical chip Multi core processing allows more to get done The most recent design innovation for PC processors an improvement upon Hyperthreading is the use of multiple cores on one CPU chip With this two or more processors reside on the same chip enabling the execution of two sets of instructions at the same time With multiple cores each program has the full attention of its own processing cores which results in faster processing and smoother multitasking Clock speed of CPU dictates how many instructions the CPU can finish in one second Each CPU is designed to run at a specific processing speed The faster the clock speed the more quickly the next instruction is processed CPU s cache memory form of random access memory that can be reached more quickly than regular RAM Because of its ready access to the CPU cache memory gets data to the CPU for processing much faster than bringing the data in from RAM There are several levels of cache memory defined by a chip s proximity to the CPU Front side bus FSB main path for data movements within the system carrying data from the CPU to memory the video card and other components on the motherboard This connects the processor CPU in your computer to the system memory The highway on which data travels between the CPU and RAM The total number of cars that go by in one minute depends on the number of lanes of highway and the speed of the cars The throughput of the FSB depends on how much data it transfers per cycle bytes and its clock frequency Hz The faster the FSB the faster you get data to the processor the faster your processor can work on it Hyperthreading provides quicker processing of information by enabling a new set of instructions to start executing before the previous set has finished CPU benchmarks measurements used to compare performance between processors Generated by running software programs specifically designed to push the limits of CPU performance CPU usage the percentage of time that your CPU is working CPU usage graph records your CPU usage for the past several seconds If you see that your CPU usage levels are greater than 90 during most of your work session a faster CPU will contribute a great deal to your system s performance A quad core CPU with hyperthreading has eight virtual CPUs Evaluati ng the
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