Course Content and Outcome Guide for EET 178
- Date:
- 03-DEC-2007
- Posted by:
- Sanda Nedelcu
- Course Number:
- EET 178
- Course Title:
- PC Architecture for Technician
- Credit Hours:
- 4
- Lecture hours:
- 30
- Lecture/Lab hours:
- 0
- Lab hours:
- 30
- Special Fee:
- $12
Course Description
Covers the architecture, assembly, and disassembly of IBM PC compatible computers. Includes basic operational concepts and identification, removal/installation, and configuration of motherboards, microprocessors, memory, power supplies, disk drives, video adapter boards, I/O boards and modems. Servicing hardware, software, and documentation will be reviewed. Includes a 3-hour per week laboratory. Prerequisite: EET 111.Intended Outcomes for the course
1. To be able to describe the purpose of, and physically locate, all the major components
within a PC
2. To be able to remove and replace all removable modules with in a PC
3. To be able to describe the functional characteristics of all the major components within a PC and describe how a PC functions internally
4. To be able to describe the basic operation of computer networks including commonly used transmission media, network topologies, media access control (MAC) protocols, and packet broadcasting in general
5. To be able to construct a simple computer network (e.g., LAN)
Outcome Assessment Strategies
Assessment methods will be defined by the instructor during the first week
of class. Typically, in-class quizzes, exams, and homework assignments
will be used. laboratory assessment will be by reports and/or practical
skills testing.
Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)
COURSE CONTENT:
1. Brief history of the microcomputer
2. Overview of von Neuman architecture (CPU, memory, I/0)
3. Overview of PC subassemblies including the motherboard and its
main components, buses (internal and expansion), adapter boards,
disk drives, and power supply.
4. Memory concepts (addressable locations each of which stores information)
5. Buses (address, data, and control)
6. Execution cycle (fetch/decode/execute)
7. Boot-up process (POST, execute initialization instructions on adapter
boards, find boot disk, load OS into memory (RAM) from boot disk,
execute OS)
8. Number systems (decimal, binary, hex)
9. PC clocks (CPU clock, bus clocks, timer-tick clock, video clock)
10. Digital circuitry basics
11. Memory interfacing concepts (address decode logic)
12. CPU basics
13. IBM PC memory map
14. Expansion buses (ISA, PCI, AGP, serial port, parallel port, USB,
IEEE 1394, SCSI, and PC Card)
15. Video display systems ("graphics" mode vs. "character" mode
16. Interrupts (IRQs)
17. memory (use of memory, RAM, ROM, "organization" of a memory IC)
18. Ports and port addressing (Memory mapped I/O vs. Direct I/O) (assembly
language: IN and OUT; QBASIC: INP and OUT)
19. Direct memory access (DMA) (DRQs)
20. Adapter card issues (IRQx, DRQx, and/or base port address;
jumpers vs. PnP (Plug and Play))
21. X86 memory "segmentation"
22. Memory expansion (SIMMs/DIMMs)
23. Cache memory
24. CMOS memory and CMOS Setup
25. X86 "protected mode"
26. Virtual memory
27. Disks, disk drives, and file storage (FAT)
28. File and disk compression
29. X86 processor performance comparisons
30. X86 assembly language/machine language
31. Local area networks (LANs)
32. Modems
33. Computer viruses
COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS:
The student will be able to:
1. Describe the purpose of, and physically locate, all the major
components on a PCs motherboard
2. Remove and replace all removable modules within a PC and then
test the PC
3. Describe the functional characteristics of all the major components
within a PC including the processor, ROM BIOS, CMOS memory, the
various expansion buses, the various ports, the memory SIMMs/DIMMs,
cache memory, the disk drives, display system, modem, etc.
4. Describe the sequence of events that occur during boot-up of a PC,
interrupt response, direct memory access (DMA), and virtual memory
page (or segment) faults
5. Describe the basic operation of computer networks including common
transmission media and media access control (MAC) protocols