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A chip?
A chip is VERY tiny piece of silicon containing
transistors and bus lines like
those pictured above on the chips. Bus lines are the electronic pathways
along which data, instructions and information travel on the chip. Chips are mounted
on or inserted into the motherboard which contains many bus lines as well.
Motherboard
The system also includes MEMORY chips as
well, known as RAM or random access memory. This is the temporary storage
area for data, instructions and information waiting to be used by the processor chip
or other devices.
Another type of chip is the BIOS chip or
the Basic Input and Output System chip. This chip contain information
about the type of input and output devices the computer can use such as the
maximum size of the hard drive that the system can accommodate. It actually
contains permanently stored software (instructions), which perform the power-on
test when a computer is turned on and load the basics of the operating system
which then takes over control of the computer.
from computer.howstuffworks.com
A good online tutorial on processors and
chips can be found at computer.howstuffworks.com
and at the Gateway
Tutorial Service
Other
interesting links
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