Tag Archives: CPU

PC Prattle: What is a GPU?

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NVIDIA, I GPU-se you!

A GPU is a Graphics Processing Unit, and like the CPU consists of a single circuit. Highly specialised, the GPU’s job is to manipulate memory quickly and efficiently in order to render computer graphics; essentially it converts the binary data from the CPU into a picture on screen. However, in modern computing GPUs really shine when they are rendering 3D objects, lighting effects and animation. Many PCs (especially laptops) have integrated GPUs, which are far less powerful than those found on dedicated video cards, with the most common GPU brand names being Intel, NVIDIA, AMD and ATI.

If you were to attempt to follow the process of producing 3D graphics step by step (no mean feat considering that the following can happen around 60 times per second), it would go roughly as follows:

  • The GPU receives binary data from the CPU
  • A wire frame model is made out of straight lines
  • The remaining pixels are filled in (this being called rasterising), finished off with colour, texture and lighting
  • The resulting image is displayed on the computer’s monitor

As well as power, graphics cards must also have access to a motherboard, processor and sufficient memory in order to function correctly.

PC Prattle: What is a Chipset?

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In last week’s PC Prattle we looked at the motherboard, which in turn led to mentioning chipsets. But what exactly is a chipset? In a nutshell, a chipset is a collection of integrated circuits – or chips – that are designed to work together, and as such are often sold as a single product (for example as part of a motherboard). Modern motherboards generally require far less chips that their predecessors (which used to use dozens), and it is quite common for the chipset and motherboard manufacturer to differ.

In the case of Intel Pentium microprocessors (one of the most common brands), the chipset encompasses the north bridge and south bridge, which are two specific chips on the motherboard that regulate the high speed devices (such as the main memory and graphics card) and lower speed peripheral buses (this including Ethernet and USB connections) respectively. However, on some motherboards the north and south bridges can be integrated into one big circuit.

The CPU, GPU, north bridge (NB) and south bridge (SB) on a laptop motherboard

PC Prattle: What is a Motherboard?

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A motherboard, sometimes known as a main or system board (or even shortened to “mobo” on occasion), is the central part of most home computers. Indeed, if the CPU is the brain then motherboard is the spine or nervous system (and the CPU does slot directly into it, after all). Typically motherboards feature a variety of sockets and slots into which components such as the processor and RAM are fitted. Components such as graphics cards and CD drives are also plugged into specific slots on the motherboard. Even peripherals such as your mouse, monitor and keyboard are plugged directly into the motherboard, the part of it where these ports are located positioned so that it is accessible once it is installed in a case via a special back plate.

Take care when you purchase new components for your computer. If your motherboard is old (and thus has an outdated chipset) then these newer components may not be compatible with it. In fact, it may even be cheaper to buy a whole new motherboard (and motherboard bundles are often very competitively priced).

PC Prattle: What is a CPU?

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Dual core?

 

A CPU is a Central Processing Unit, and as its name suggests it’s a rather important part of any computer. In fact, it is essentially your PC’s brain. The CPU is responsible for carrying out the instructions of a computer program, and is generally housed in a single chip known as a microprocessor.

CPU performance can be increased by using multi-core processors (the most common of these currently being dual and quad core). The latter are created by plugging multiple processors – or cores – into one integrated circuit. Multi-core processors generally allow your PC to do more at once, and faster.

Moore’s Law

Moore’s law was coined circa 1970 by Carver Andress Mead, a well known and highly accomplished computer scientist. The Law theorises that the number of transistors that can be affordably placed on an integrated circuit (and therefore its performance) doubles roughly every two years. Moore’s Law has thus far proved itself to be fairly and continuingly accurate, which certainly isn’t bad for a theory from all the way back in 1970!

Head Into The Cloud With Google’s Chromebook

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I don’t know about you but if you’re anything like me you’ll buy a new computer every couple of years. If not you’ve certainly bought add-ons and upgrades which you’ve slapped on a bare bones CPU. Answer me this, have you got a couple of laptops hidden about the house which you’re loath to throw away although you’ve not switched them on in years?

Picture courtesy flickr.com/photos/bruceclay/

I’ll admit I’ve got a couple. And what’s wrong with them? Nothing physically. Apart from the odd wobbly key almost all of the money you spend on computer repairs is spent on software. As your computer gets older it slows down until it’s intolerable so you either have to get it fixed or buy a new one. Rubbish analogy but would you stand for having to buy a new car because your gas was getting out of date? Of course not. So why buy a new machine just because the software is old and the memory’s clogged up?

So, with the introduction of Google’s new Chrome OS on the “Chromebook” laptop your next computer might be the last one you ever buy.

Because the machine you take home has nothing on it but a web portal you have very little that can go wrong. It’s also fast. 8 seconds they say, compare that to several minutes for a clunky laptop rolling on Vista and you’ll be in a land of glee!

Because there is nothing to download you won’t clutter up your drives, everything you do is saved on the cloud, everything you use comes from the cloud. Because it’s cloud based it’s not your job to keep your computer updated, your IaaS provider takes care of all that so you’re always using the most up-to-date applications available.

I’m a bit of a hoarder so I think I would find it a bit disappointing not to be able to download pictures, videos and written work to my computer to read off line. You don’t even need a desktop since if the computer is on, it’s on the web, nothing else. Of course you can link to all of those things, keep them in your own secure files or share them to various degrees of availability to the public so you’re not really losing anything. So, you can’t download but on the upside, everything is on demand so you can have access to industry standard software whenever and wherever you need it. Added to that the speed that cloud based computing is offering and you’ll soon be wondering how you ever managed to put up with twentieth century technology!

 

Novatech X90 GTX Pro Gaming Laptop is Something out of the Ordinary

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X90 GTX Pro Laptop recieves a great review in PC Format – 4.5 out of 5 stars (Reviewer Adam Oxford)

A sample of the comments extracted from the review are below. Please see PC Format, Issue 230 for the full review.

“For raw computing power, no other portable packs this much processor performance. It even leaves the mighty Asus W90 in the dust, and that machine is recognised by the Guinness Book of Records, don’t you know.”

“It’s a true desktop replacement in the sense that we haven’t seen since the launch of Core 2 made low power laptop chips capable of running games. In the absence of a specifically designed Intel Nehalem CPU for notebooks, Novatech has gone out and customised a notebook motherboard with an X58 chipset so it can stick a fully fledged Core i7 940 chip inside its portable.”

“The X90 is a powerhouse desktop replacement, offering the sort of CPU performance we’ve yet to see in a mobile platform”.

“There’s a slightly cut-down model, which features a Core i7 920 CPU and a more spacious which beats all the similarly priced competition. So have a play around with Novatech’s customisation options”.