Buses and cards

The main circuit board inside your system is called the motherboard and contains the processor, the memory chips, expansion slots, and controllers so for peripherals, connected by buses - electrical channels which allow devices inside the computer to communicate with each other. For example, the front side bus carries all data that passes from the CPU to other devices. The size of a bus, called bus width, determines how much data can be transmitted. It can be compared to the number of lanes on a motorway - the larger the width, the more data can travel along the bus. For example, a 64-bit bus can transmit 64 bits of data.

Expansion slots allow users to install expansion cards, adding features like sound, memory and network capabilities.

(from Infotech English for Computer Users)

7. Answer the questions:

1. What are the main parts of the CPU?
2. What does ALU stand for? What does it do?
3. What is the function of the system clock?
4. How much is one gigahertz?
5. What type of memory is temporary?
6. What type of memory is permanent and includes instructions needed by the CPU?
7. How can RAM be increased?
8. What term is used to refer to the main printed circuit board?
9. What is a bus?
10. What is the benefit of having expansion slots?

(from Infotech English for Computer Users)

8. Find in the text the English equivalents:

1) слот розширення; 2) інтерпретувати кожну команду; 3) відстежувати наступну команду; 4) потужність та робота комп’ютера; 5) для вимірювання та синхронізації потоку даних; 6) впоратися з найбільш вимогливими програмами; 7) дані мають бути завантажені в головну пам’ять; 8) оперативна пам'ять; 9) не зберігаючий інформацію при вимкненні електроживлення; 10) пам'ять постійного зберігання.

9. Complete the sentences from your memory:

1. The nerve centre of a PC is…
2. The central processing unit executes…
3. The chip itself is a small piece…
4. The control unit examines…
5. The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) performs…
6. The registers are used to…
7. A system clock sends out signals to…
8. The power and performance of a computer is partly determined by…
9. RAM capacity can be expanded by…
10. The size of a bus determines…

10. Insert the words in bold type into appropriate places: