FDD
A floppy disk drive, also called FDD or FD for short, is a computer disk drive that enables a user to save data to removable diskettes. Although 8" disk drives were first made available in 1971,…
Storage device
media, or storage medium, a storage device is any hardwarecapable of holding information either temporarily or permanently. The picture shows an example of a Drobo, an external secondary storage device. There are two types of…
What is a Circuit?
Welcome to circuits 101! One of the first things you'll encounter when learning about electronics is the concept of a circuit. This tutorial will explain what a circuit is, as well…
What Is a Breadboard and How Does It Work?
The breadboard is the bread-and-butter of DIY electronics. Breadboards allow beginners to get acquainted with circuits without the need for soldering, and even seasoned tinkerers use breadboards as starting points…
PCB
Sometimes abbreviated as a board, a PCB is short for printed circuit board and was invented by Paul Eisler while working on a radio in 1936. A PCB is made of plastic or fiberglass that holds ICsand other components.…
DRAM Technologies
As microprocessors and chipsets evolve, so do memory technologies. Since DRAM is still the primary type of memory used in the PC, it has had to adapt to keep pace.…
Parity Memory
DRAM memory can include a mechanism used to verify and maintain the integrity of the data it holds. The two methods used most often are parity and error-correcting code (ECC).…
Matching Memory to the Motherboard
The memory added to a system, whatever its packaging, must be matched to the width of the data bus of the motherboard. Any data transferred to the CPU, to cache…
Bits, Bytes, and Words
Nearly everything the PC connects to is measured in bits these days, especially modems and Internet connections, but RAM is still measured in bytes—actually, kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes. Table 7-1…
