How Computer Hardware and Software Work Together Essay Example

you ask? The motherboard is a printed circuit board (PCB) that contains and controls the components that are responsible for processing data. The motherboard contains the CPU, memory, and basic controllers for the system.Motherboards are often sold with a CPU.

The motherboard has a Real-time clock (RTC), ROM BIOS, CMOS RAM, RAM sockets, bus slots for attaching devices to a bus, CPU socket or slot, cache RAM slot or sockets, jumpers, keyboard controller, interrupts, internal connectors, and external connectors. The bus architecture and type of components on it determine a computers performance. The motherboard with its ribbon cables, power supply, CPU, and RAM is designated as a "bare bones" system. The motherboard contains a systems clock to synchronize the operation of the bus and other components.Jumpers on the motherboard allow a user to set different clock rates to work with the CPU.

Other jumpers control other components on the motherboard. 386 motherboards have an extra slot to add a math coprocessor (ALU - arithmetic and logic unit). 486's and Pentiums have a math coprocessor (ALU) already built into the chip. Operating systems offer a number of services to application programs and users. Applications access these services through application programming interfaces.

or system calls.By invoking these interfaces, the application can request a service from the operating system, pass parameters, and receive the results of the operation. Users may also interact with the operating system with some kind a software user interface like typing commands by using command line interface or using a graphical user interface. For hand-held and desktop computers, the user interface is generally considered part of the operating system. On large multi-user systems like

Unix and Unix-like systems, the user interface is generally implemented as an application program that runs outside the operating system.