Processor and MemoryThe processor and memory chips are the brain of the computer
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
- The part of a computer that "thinks"
- Processor speed is now measured in "gigahertz" (ghz)
- On a Pentium 4 laptop, be sure the processor is the P4m "mobile" processor and not just a regular P4
Chip Set
- This term refers to the CPU and several associated processors
- Vendors sometimes produce new "chip sets" without increasing the processor speed
Random Access Memory (RAM)
- The memory of the computer
- Recommended: 128 mb (consider an upgrade to 256 mb)
- Adding more memory is usually a good investment – but only up to a certain point
- An increase from 128 to 256 megabytes gives a 37 percent performance improvement
- A further increase from 256 to 512 megabytes only gives an additional 9% improvement
- SDRAM: Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
- DDR-SDRAM: Double Data Rate, faster than SDRAM
- ECC: Error Correcting Code RAM (used mainly in servers)
Read Only Memory (ROM)
- This type of memory is what the runs the computer when it is first started
- The start-up program is sometimes referred to as the BIOS
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