Sunday, November 14, 2010

Computer Settings General Knowledge Quiz


1. Changing display of files in Windows Explorer:

Windows Explorer-> Go to View-> select any one of Thumbnails, Icons, Tiles, Details, List views.

In Windows XP,

Thumbnails:

This view shows the pictures of folders and files in the current directory. If the directory contains pictures or images then we can see them before opening them actually.

Icons:

This view shows the small icons of folders and files

along with their names. Before Windows XP, this view was named “Small Icons”.

Tiles:

This view shows the large icons of folders and files along with their names. Before Windows XP, this view was named “Large Icons”.

Details:

This view shows the name, type, size, date modified of each folder and file.

List:

This is the basic view which just lists the name of the folders and files.

2. Setting our favorite view as default in Windows Explorer:

First we have to set to the view we like for example to thumbnail. Then,

Go to Tools-> Select “Folder Options”-> Select “View” tab-> Click on “Apply to all Folders” button.

By doing this, every time when we open My Computer/ Windows Explorer, we can the files and folders arranged in thumbnail view.

Basic Components of a Computer

Basic Components of a Computer


Do you want to know what are the basic components and parts of a computer and their functions? This article answers all your questions about what are the basic computer parts and their functions.

The Processor which is also called CPU (Central Processing Unit), memory and I/O constitute the main components of any computer.

The processor is regarded as the brain of the computer. It controls the operation of computer and performs the functions of data processing.

Main Memory stores data and I/O shifts the data between computer and its external environment.

Control unit, Registers, Arithmetic and Logic Unit, instruction execution unit constitute the main components of a processor. Control unit controls the CPU operation. ALU performs the data processing.

Bus in a computer sense is nothing but a communication pathway connecting two or more devices in a computer. Every computer contains a motherboard to hold the microprocessor chip and let all the components and wires connect to it.

An Operating System is a software program that provides the computer hardware a way to communicate and operate with the computer software and controls the execution of programs on a processor managing the resources of the processor.

Hard disk/hard drive:

Many computers come with built in hard drives. Hard drive is a permanent storage unit for storing the long term memory of the computer.

For storing more number of files or for making back up, we can use the external hard drive which can be connected to a computer through the USB connection.

The number of bits of information that a processor can handle at a time is referred as the word size. For example, 32-bit processors can only handle 32 bits of information at a time. Generally the specifications of a computer like the size of the disk drive, memory of the computer are expressed in bytes.

Parallel Processing General Knowledge Quiz

The chances for parallelism are increased so much because of the availability of computer hardware for lower prices.

The performance and availability of the system can be enhanced by using multiple processors which can execute in parallel. This is not same as the superscalar processor which does the instruction level parallel execution.

Symmetric Multiprocessors and Clusters are the most common multiple processor organizations.


Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP): This is one of the earliest types of parallel organization. Here a common memory is shared by the multiple similar processors the same computer which are interconnected by a bus usually.

We cannot add processors beyond certain limit in order to increase the performance. So the more scalable organization of systems called clusters is developed

Clusters: Here multiple independent computers are grouped in a cooperative manner and makes the illusion of being one machine. Instead of sharing a common memory, each node has its own private main memory applications here.

These are generally used for supporting large work loads and in server applications. But these are complex, consume more power and occupy more space compared to SMP.

Non Uniform Memory Access (NUMA): This is a shared memory multiprocessor. Here the access time from a particular processor to a word in memory changes according to the location of the memory word

Super Computers Supercomputers are expensive with almost 10 to 15 million dollars and used for selected applications like research centers and government scientific agencies. They can perform floating point arithmetic on huge arrays of numbers with the capacity of doing millions of floating point.

Intel Processors General Knowledge Quiz

Intel Processors


Intel 4004: Intel designed 4004 in 1971, the first microprocessor having all CPU components on one chip which is the base for the modern computers.

Intel 8008: In 1972, Intel developed the first 8 bit microprocessor 8008 which is more complex than the Intel 4004.

Intel 8080: In 1974, Intel released first 8-bit general purpose microprocessor.

Intel 8086: In 1978, the 16-bit microprocessor 8086 was released. Both Motorola MC 68000 and Intel 8086 were developed almost simultaneously.

Intel 8088: In 1979, 8088 was released which was used in IBM’s first personal computer.

Intel 80386: In 1985, Intel released first 32-bit microprocessor 80386 that supports the multitasking but it has no on chip cache.

Intel 80486: In 1989, Intel released 80486 which used more than one million transistors with large on-chip cache of 8 KB and integrated floating point unit. Also it has great instruction pipelining with built in math coprocessor.

Pentium On March 22, 1993, Intel released Pentium which is a CISC processor that allows parallel execution of multiple instructions. Also it has 2 on chip L1 caches.

Pentium Pro: In November 1995, Intel released Pentium Pro which used the branch prediction, data flow analysis and speculative execution.

Pentium II: On May 7, 1997, Intel introduced Pentium II that has MMX technology for processing many multimedia operations like video etc. more efficiently.

Pentium III: It has extra floating point instructions that can support 3D graphics software.

Pentium IV: It has the speeds in excess of 2.0 GHz. It has additional floating point instructions and multimedia advancements along with L2 cache. This is a CISC processor with some of the RISC features too and supports the multiprocessor configurations.

There are multimedia and 3D graphics enhancements. The size of the processor is twice that of Pentium III. This is mostly used in games and applications like speech recognition, digital photography and scientific projects.

Itanium: It uses 64-bit organization based on IA-64 architecture and is mainly designed for high end business use. This processor supports the predicated execution and speculative loading which greatly enhances the communication between hardware and the software in a computer.

It is used in applications like security transactions, CAD designing etc. Intel introduced two types of Itanium processors till now. It has an integrated L3 cache.

Original Itanium: Speed 733 MHz and 800 MHz models

Itanium 2:Speed 900 MHz and 1 GHz models.

IA-64 architecture:Intel and Hewlett-Packard (HP) jointly developed IA-64 architecture. It is neither 64 bit PA-RISC architecture of HP nor the extension of Intel’s 32 bit architecture.

It was developed based on the research of the two companies and many scholars. Itanium is the first Intel product of this IA-64 architecture and not compatible with the software designed for x86-based computers.


Celeron Intel designed the Celeron processor for the lower-end computer market.

Celeron uses the main RAM of computer for executing the instructions as there is no L2 cache.

The processor runs at a lower frequency than Pentium processor.

Xeon Intel designed the Xeon processor for the high-end computer users. It has faster and bigger 512 KB L2 cache along with 12 KB L1 cache. Also Intel introduced L3 cache in this processor for first time.

This L3 cache is on the processor for granting wider and faster data path to memory for decreasing the memory latency.

IBM Processors General Knowledge Quiz


IBM used central switched architecture on its 700/7000 and 360 systems

IBM 701: In 1953, IBM released the first electronic stored program computer, 701 for scientific applications.

IBM 702: In 1955, IBM released 702 for the business applications.

IBM 360: IBM 360, the basic architecture of IBM mainframes was not compatible with the older IBM systems. 360 product line was incompatible with older IBM machines.

It was so expensive, like hundreds of thousands of dollars. IBM introduced its family concept with this in 1964.

Family concept: introduced by IBM with its System/360 in 1964 followed shortly thereafter by DEC, with its PDP-8.

Digital equipment corporation’s PDP-8 is small enough that can be kept on a desk. Even though it is cheaper, it is not as powerful as the IBM mainframe

IBM 7094: This has the instruction backup register for buffering the next instruction. Also it has the multiplexor which is the central termination point for CPU, memory and the data channels and schedules access to memory from CPU and data channels so that these devices can act independently.

PowerPC: IBM made an alliance with Apple and Motorola developer of 68000 series of microprocessors resulting in a series of machines implementing PowerPC architecture. The PowerPC architecture is a superscalar RISC system which was used in Apple Macintosh machines and many embedded chip applications.

IBM 601: This was a 32-bit machine whose main aim was to bring PowerPC architecture to marketplace as soon as possible.

IBM 603: This was a 32-bit low cost, well-organized implementation for low end desktop and portable computers. It has a smaller 16 KB cache.

IBM 604: This was also a 32-bit implementation with efficient superscalar design techniques, mainly intended for desktop computers and low end servers and has32 KB cache.

IBM 620: This was a 64 bit architecture intended for high end servers.

IBM 740/750: This is also known as G3 processor and has 2 levels of cache in main processor chip with the L1 cache size same as 620.

G4: Here both the parallelism and internal processor speed are enhanced.