Datasheet
84
Chapter 1
N
Personal Computer System Components
Answers to Review Questions
1. A. The spine of the computer is the system board, otherwise known as the motherboard.
On the motherboard you will find the CPU, underlying circuitry, expansion slots, video
components, RAM slots, and various other chips.
2. C. DDR SDRAM is manufactured on a 184-pin DIMM. DIMMs with 168 pins were used
for SDR SDRAM. The SIMM is the predecessor to the DIMM, on which SDRAM was
never deployed. RIMM is the Rambus proprietary competitor for the DIMM that carries
DRDRAM instead of SDRAM.
3. B. Remember the 8:1 rule. Modules greater than, but not including, SDR SDRAM are named
with a number 8 times larger than the number used to name the chips on the module. The
initials PC are used to describe the module, the initials DDR for the chips, and a number to
represent the level of DDR. The lack of a number represents DDR, as long as the associated
number is greater than 133. Otherwise, you’re dealing with SDR. This means that PC3-16000
modules are DDR3 modules and are populated with chips named DDR3 and a number that is
1
⁄8 of the module’s numeric code: 2000.
4. A. Although all the motherboard design styles listed are in use today, the ATX motherboard
style (and its derivatives) is the most popular design.
5. D. Most Pentium 4 chips use the Socket 478 motherboard CPU socket, although not
exclusively. Nevertheless, no other option listed is used for these processors.
6. B. ZIF sockets are designed with a locking mechanism that, when released, alleviates the
resistance of the socket to receiving the pins of the chip being inserted. Make sure you
know your socket types so that the appearance of a specific model, such as Socket 479,
in a question like this does not distract you from the correct answer. Only LGA would be
another acceptable answer to this question because, with a lack of pin receptacles, there
is no insertion resistance. However, no other pin-layout format, such as SPGA, addresses
issues with inserting chips. LPGA might have evoked an image of LGA, leading you to that
answer, but that term means nothing outside of the golfing community.
7. B. The Northbridge is in control of the local-bus components that share the clock of the
frontside bus. SATA and all other drive interfaces do not share this clock and are controlled
by the Southbridge.
8. A. A hard drive stores data on a magnetic medium, which does not lose its information
after the power is removed, and which can be repeatedly written to and erased.
9. B. The Socket A (remember A for AMD) motherboard socket is used primarily with AMD
processors, including the Athlon XP.
10. D. A PS/2 port is also known as a mini-DIN 6 connector.
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