GROUP ACTIVITY

Pin Grid Array Processor

PGA the integrated circuit (IC) is mounted in a ceramic slab of which one face is covered, or partially covered, in a square array of metal pins. The pins can then be inserted into the holes in a printed circuit board and soldered in place. They a

re almost always spaced 2.54 mm (a tenth of an inch) apart. For a given number of pins, this type of package oc

cupies less space than older types such as the dual in-line package (DIP).

Example of Pin Grid Array Processor

Motorola 68020

The 68020 (usually just referred to as the '020, pronounced oh-two-oh or oh-twenty) had 32-bit internal and external data and address buses. A lower cost version, the 68EC020, only had a 24-bit address bus. The 68020 was produced at speeds ranging from 12 MHz to 33 MHz.

Improvements over 68010

The 68020 added many improvements to the 68010 including a 32-bit arithmetic logic unit (ALU), external data bus and address bus, and new instructions and addressing modes. The 68020 (and 68030) had a proper three-stage pipeline.

The alignment restriction on word and longword da

ta access present in its predecessors was removed with the 68020.

Usage

The 68020 was used in the Apple Macintosh II and Macintosh LC personal computers, as well as Sun 3 workstations and the Hewlett Packard 8711 Series Network Analyzers. The Commodore Amiga 1200 computer and the Amiga CD32 g

ames console used the cost-reduced 68EC020.

It is also the processor used on board TGV trai

ns to decode signalling information which is sent to the trains through the rails, and is the CPU of the computers in the Eurofighter Typhoon.

For more information on the instructions and architecture see Motorola 68000.

Land Grid Array Processors

The land grid array (LGA) is a type of surface-mount packaging used for integrated circuits. It can be electrically connected to a PCB either by the use of Socket or by soldering directly to the PCB.

Examples of Land Grid Array

Socket F

Socket F, is a CPU socket designed by AMD for its Opteron line of CP

Us. The socket has 1207 pins, and was released on August 15 2006^[1].

Socket F is primarily for use in AMD's server line, and will be considered to be in the same socket generation as Socket AM2, which will be used for the At

hlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2; as well as Socket S1, to be used for Turion 64 and Turion 64 X2 microprocessors. Such socket generations are intended for DDR2 support.

Socket F has been rumoured to support Fully Buffered DIMM. Processors planned for Socket F will also likely support DDR3 and other technologies, like XDR-DRAM. But when such RAM is used on an FB-DIMM, no motherboard or CPU c

hange is necessary to support the new RAM, as all FB-DIMMs use

the same DRAM slots regardless of the RAM employed. This overcomes the old drawback of the Hammer architecture, with its integrated memory controller necessitating the replacement of the (potentially very expensive) CPU to support a new memory type. However, AMD has removed FB-DIMM from its roadmap recently

Socket T

Socket T, also known as LGA775, is Intel's latest desktop CPU socket. LGA stands for Land Grid Array. The word "socket" is now a misnomer, because an LGA775 motherboard has no socket holes, instead it has 775 protruding pins which touch contact points on the underside of the processor (CPU).^[1]

The Prescott and Cedar Mill Pentium 4 cores, as well as t

he Smithfield and Presler Pentium D cores, currently use the LG

A775 socket type. In July 2006, Intel released the desktop version of the Core 2 Duo (codenamed Conroe), which also uses this socket, as does the subsequent Core 2 Quad. Intel changed from Socket 478 to LGA775 because the new pin type offers better power distribution to the processor, allowing the front side bus to be raised to 1333 MT/s. The 'T' in Socket T was derived from the now cancelled Tejas core, which was to replac

e the Prescott core.

As it is now the motherboard which has the pins, rather than the CPU, the risk of pins being bent is transferred from the CPU to the motherboard. The

risk of bent pins is reduced because the pins are spring-loaded and locate onto a surface, rather than into a hole. Also, the CPU is pressed into place by a "load plate", rather than human fingers directly. The installing technician lifts the hinged "load plate", inserts the processor, closes the load plate over the top of the processor, and pushes down a locking lever. The pressure of the locking lever on the load plate clamps the processor's 775 gold con

tact points firmly down onto the m

otherboard's 775 pins, ensuring a good connection. The load plate only covers the edges of the top surface of the CPU; the center is free to make contact with the cooling mechanism placed on top of the CPU.

CASING SYSTEM

Introduction

Thermaltake has long been known for their ability to cool a computer system and for making quality enclosures, but they have recently been making a name for themselves as a premier power supply manufacturer as well. With the growing needs of m odern enthusiast level rigs, power has become a concern, so the folks at Thermaltake have put together a monster of a PSU for your high power needs.

Introducing the W0133RU Toughpower 1200-watt power supply. While big numbers are impressive, we will take a look at the features included with this behemoth and see if it has not only the power we need in our monster machine, but the feature s to allow us to be the king of the hill.

So sit back and relax for a bit as we delve into this big-boy and see if it can handle the stress and also show us that it is something more than "just another power supply".

COOLING SYSTEM

Computer cooling is the practice of relieving heat, a potentially damaging byproduct of operation, from electronic computers. A computer system unit's many components produce large amounts of heat during operation, including, but not limited to integrated circuits such as CPUs, chipset and graphics cards, along with hard drives. This heat must be dissipated in order to keep these components within their safe operating temperatures, and both manufacturing methods and additional parts are used to keep the heat at a safe level. This is done mainly using heat sinks to increase the surface area which dissipates heat, fans to speed up the exchange of air heated by the computer parts for cooler ambient air, and in some cases softcooling, the throttling of computer parts in order to decrease heat generation.

Overheated parts generally exhibit a shorter maximum life-span and may give sporadic problems resulting in system freezes or crashes.

A stock AMD heatsink mounted on to a motherboard.


LATEST BUSES

In computing, the electrical pathway through which a computer processor communicates with some of its parts and/or peripherals. Physically, a bus is a set of parallel tracks that can carry digital signals; it may take the form of copper tracks laid down on the computer's printed circuit boards (PCBs), or of an external cable or connection.

A computer typically has three internal buses laid down on its main circuit board: a data bus, which carries data between the components of the computer; an address bus, which selects the route to be followed by any particular data item travelling along the data bus; and a control bus, which is used to decide whether data is written to or read from the data bus. An external expansion bus is used for linking the computer processor to peripheral devices, such as modems and printers