Hardware

 

The second module in this course was hardware and the learning objectives were:

• To describe the main components that make up a computer and how they work together
• To understand how the CPU takes instructions & executes them
• To describe how binary data physically travels through a computer

In this module I learnt about the hardware components that make up a computer, including the CPU, RAM, motherboard, hard drive and the power supply. I learnt how programs utilise the RAM and how the CPU gets information from the RAM, as well as storing data in caches.

I discovered that CPU's work in clock cycles by connecting to a clock wire to keep operations in sync. I also learnt how binary data travels around a computer using wires and voltages. I got a more in depth understanding of each component, as well as some information on other hardware such as mobiles and peripherals and their ports.

As part of this module I learnt how to assemble a computer from the ground up and have since bought all the components & built my own, which I am now writing this blog post on! This was very fun and I enjoyed being hands on, I definitely learn more efficiently by being practical...

Whilst building my computer I also had my first encounter with a BIOS, learning its purpose in initialising hardware and getting operating systems up and running!

Overall, I found the information in this module very useful in expanding my knowledge surrounding hardware and how it works, + I can now build a computer which is not something I could do last week so 🙌.

Dave