Performance of a Computer

There are a number of factors involved that are related to the CPU and have an effect on the overall speed and performance of the computer. Some of the factors that affect the performance of the computer include—

• Registers The size of the register (word size) indicates the amount of data with which the computer can work at any given time. The bigger the size, the more quickly it can process data. A 32-bit CPU is one in which each register is 32 bits wide.
• RAM It is used to store data and instructions during execution of the instructions. Anything you do on your computer requires RAM. When the computer is switched on, the operating system, device drivers, the active files and running programs are loaded into RAM. If RAM is less, then the CPU waits each time the new information is swapped into memory from the slower devices. Larger the RAM size, the better it is. PCs nowadays usually have 1 GB to 4 GB of RAM.
• System Clock The clock speed of a CPU is defined as the frequency with which a processor executes instructions or the data is processed. Higher clock frequencies mean more clock ticks per second. The computer’s operating speed is linked to the speed of the system clock. The clock frequency is measured in millions of cycles per second or megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz) which is billions of cycles per second. A CPU’s performance is measured by the number of instructions it executes in a second, i.e., MIPS or BIPS. PCs nowadays come with a clock speed of more than 1 GHz. In Windows OS, you can select the System Properties dialog box to see the processor name and clock frequency.
• Bus Data bus is used for transfering data between CPU and memory. The data bus width affects the speed of computer. In a 16-bit processor, 16-bit wire bus can carry 16 bits of data. The bus speed is measured in MHz. Higher the bus speed the better it is. Address bus connects CPU and RAM with a set of wires similar to data bus. The address bus width determines the maximum number of memory locations the computer can address. Pentium Pro, II, III, IV have 36-bit address bus that can address 2³⁶ bytes or 64 GB of memory. PCs nowadays have a bus speed varying from 100 MHz to 400 MHz.
• Cache Memory Two of the main factors that affect a cache’s performance are its size (amount of cache memory) and level L1, L2 and L3. Larger the size of cache, the better it is. PCs nowadays have a L1 cache of 256KB and L2 cache of 1MB.
  
  

  Inside a Computer Cabinet

  The computer cabinet encloses the components that are required for the running of the computer. The components inside a computer cabinet include the power supply, motherboard, memory chips, expansion slots, ports and interface, processor, cables and storage devices.

   Motherboard

  The computer is built up around a motherboard. The motherboard is the most important component in the PC. It is a large Printed Circuit Board (PCB), having many chips, connectors and other electronics mounted on it. The motherboard is the hub, which is used to connect all the essential components of a computer. The RAM, hard drive, disk drives and optical drives are all plugged into interfaces on the motherboard. The motherboard contains the processor, memory chips, interfaces and sockets, etc.