| |
| |
| Introduction | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Glass Box | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Desktop PC | |
| |
| |
| The Three Main Parts | |
| |
| |
| The System Unit | |
| |
| |
| The Display | |
| |
| |
| Input Devices | |
| |
| |
| Inside the PC | |
| |
| |
| |
| Portable PCs | |
| |
| |
| From Luggables to Laptops and Beyond | |
| |
| |
| Hardware That Is Almost Unique to Mobile PCs | |
| |
| |
| Lessons Learned from Portable PCs | |
| |
| |
| Extending Your Battery's Life | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| PDAs and Handheld PCs | |
| |
| |
| Put a PC in Your Pocket | |
| |
| |
| Ancient History | |
| |
| |
| The PalmPilot | |
| |
| |
| Linux By the Handful--Agenda | |
| |
| |
| Windows-Centered Devices | |
| |
| |
| Comparisons | |
| |
| |
| |
| Understanding Bits and Bytes | |
| |
| |
| What Are Information and Data? | |
| |
| |
| How Bits and Bytes Cast a Hex on ASCII | |
| |
| |
| Reducing Bits, Bytes, and Real Life | |
| |
| |
| Summary and Looking Ahead | |
| |
| |
| |
| Inside the PC: A Closer Look at Components | |
| |
| |
| |
| A First Look at Motherboards and Processors | |
| |
| |
| Safe System Unit "Surgery" | |
| |
| |
| A Platform to Build Upon: The Motherboard | |
| |
| |
| Understanding PC Processors | |
| |
| |
| Major and Minor Improvements | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Video and Monitors | |
| |
| |
| It's Just No Good if You Can't Get the Information Out | |
| |
| |
| Basic Characteristics of Video | |
| |
| |
| How Images Are Painted on the Screen (Overview) | |
| |
| |
| Getting the Colors Right | |
| |
| |
| How to Talk to a Video Display | |
| |
| |
| Understanding Display Technologies | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Disks and PC Data Storage | |
| |
| |
| Traditional PC Disk Drives | |
| |
| |
| The Origin of IDE, EIDE, ATA, ATAPI, and More | |
| |
| |
| The Really Good Bus with the Really Bad Name (SCSI) | |
| |
| |
| Mixing IDE and SCSI Disk Drives | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Removable Storage | |
| |
| |
| Variations on the Theme of PC Storage | |
| |
| |
| The Multiple Dimensions of PC Storage Technologies | |
| |
| |
| Removable Magnetic PC Data Storage Devices | |
| |
| |
| Removable Optical PC Data Storage Devices | |
| |
| |
| Magneto-Optical PC Data Storage Devices | |
| |
| |
| Electronic PC Data Storage Devices | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Serial Ports | |
| |
| |
| Talking Through a Tiny Pipe: Serial Ports | |
| |
| |
| A Series of Serial Ports | |
| |
| |
| IEEE 1394 FireWire | |
| |
| |
| What if You Need Lots of Serial Ports? | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Parallel Ports | |
| |
| |
| The Faster Path | |
| |
| |
| "Printer" Ports Aren't Just for Printers | |
| |
| |
| Printer Ports Aren't Even for Printers Anymore | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Networking--Wired and Wireless | |
| |
| |
| What Is Networking? | |
| |
| |
| Why Network? | |
| |
| |
| Types of Networks | |
| |
| |
| The Parts of a Network | |
| |
| |
| Ethernet--The Everywhere Network | |
| |
| |
| Alternative Small Networks | |
| |
| |
| Wireless Networking | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Modems and Broadband | |
| |
| |
| Reaching Out | |
| |
| |
| "Yodeling" PCs | |
| |
| |
| Cable Modems | |
| |
| |
| Keeping It Purely Digital | |
| |
| |
| Which Way Should You Go? | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Input Devices | |
| |
| |
| The Keyboard Is "Key" | |
| |
| |
| Alternatives to Typing: Voice Recognition | |
| |
| |
| The Point Is Pointing (Mousing Around) | |
| |
| |
| Some Other PC Input Devices | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Printers | |
| |
| |
| The Purpose and Power of PC Printers | |
| |
| |
| Page Description Languages | |
| |
| |
| Printing Technologies | |
| |
| |
| Getting the Color (Almost) Right | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Inside the Black Boxes Inside the Glass Box | |
| |
| |
| |
| Motherboard Magic | |
| |
| |
| Processor Architecture | |
| |
| |
| The "Intel-Compatible" Chips | |
| |
| |
| The Architecture That Goes Around the CPU | |
| |
| |
| Interrupts: The Driving Force | |
| |
| |
| What Is a DMA Channel? | |
| |
| |
| Keeping Up with the Clock | |
| |
| |
| System Buses: ISA, PCI and AGP | |
| |
| |
| Measuring Performance via Benchmarks | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Kick Starting--The Boot Process | |
| |
| |
| What Is the BIOS? | |
| |
| |
| CMOS and Other Programs | |
| |
| |
| POST (Power-On Self-Test) | |
| |
| |
| Device Drivers and Firmware | |
| |
| |
| BIOS Fault Tolerance | |
| |
| |
| How Your PC Wakes Up and Prepares Itself for Work | |
| |
| |
| Speeding Up Your PC's Boot Process | |
| |
| |
| Common BIOS Tuning Options | |
| |
| |
| CMOS Security | |
| |
| |
| The Current BIOS Industry | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Understanding PC Memory | |
| |
| |
| The CPU's Essential Playground | |
| |
| |
| Various Flavors of RAM | |
| |
| |
| Various Flavors of ROM and NVRAM | |
| |
| |
| Addressing Memory: Intel's Segments | |
| |
| |
| Not All Memory Is Equal | |
| |
| |
| Your PC's Memory Needs Managing | |
| |
| |
| Understanding Windows Memory Use | |
| |
| |
| Memory Management Software | |
| |
| |
| So How Much RAM Do You Need, Really? | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Storage: How Does Data Get There? | |
| |
| |
| Hard Disks | |
| |
| |
| Hard Disks are Different from Floppies | |
| |
| |
| Making Sense out of Chaos | |
| |
| |
| RAID Systems--Sense and Sensibility | |
| |
| |
| Optical Discs | |
| |
| |
| Learning About File Formats | |
| |
| |
| Data Compression | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Advanced Networking | |
| |
| |
| Layers in the Network Strategy | |
| |
| |
| The NIC Needs a NOS | |
| |
| |
| TCP/IP: The Internet's Babelfish | |
| |
| |
| What Is the Internet? | |
| |
| |
| Assuring a Quality of Service--Tomorrow's Internet | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Video Acceleration | |
| |
| |
| Vector Versus Bitmapped Images: Rasterizing and Rendering | |
| |
| |
| How PCs Create Compelling Visual Images | |
| |
| |
| The RAMDAC | |
| |
| |
| More About AGP: Is it Really Faster? | |
| |
| |
| The World of 3D | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Inside Tomorrow's PC | |
| |
| |
| A Changed World | |
| |
| |
| Sure Bets | |
| |
| |
| Your Own Glass Box | |
| |
| |
| |
| Appendixes | |
| |
| |
| |
| Operating Systems: The Middleman Between You and Your PC | |
| |
| |
| What Is an Operating System and Why Do You Need One? | |
| |
| |
| DOS Is Dead! Long Live Windows! | |
| |
| |
| Understanding Your Choices for Your PC's Operating System | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Understanding How Humans Instruct PCs | |
| |
| |
| Harnessing the PC's Power to Help Mere Humans | |
| |
| |
| Dividing Up the Work | |
| |
| |
| How Not to Keep On Reinventing the Wheel | |
| |
| |
| Helping Ordinary People "Program" Their PCs Easily | |
| |
| |
| Summary | |
| |
| |
| Glossary | |
| |
| |
| Index | |