Basic Parts of System Unit | CPU and Main Memory

Beside many computer components, system unit is the one which contains those major electronic parts of computer system that play important role in processing. "System unit is basically a case i.e. a cover possessing the hardware components used for processing". All other computer components are also attached to the system unit. For the hardware components (such as input devices, output devices and storage devices) to work properly, it is necessary to plug them into the system unit. For that purpose, system unit has various connectors and ports on the motherboard (also known as circuit board or main board) through which the external devices (including peripheral devices like mouse, keyboard, speaker etc) can be connected to the computer. Thus it won't be wrong to say that the whole computer system is dependent upon the efficient working of basic parts of system unit.

Many important task performing components are contained by the system unit. However, two most important and basic parts of system unit are CPU and main memory.

CPU

 

It is assumed to be one of the major computer system unit components.

The presence of CPU inside the system unit enlightens its importance in the computer system. CPU (Central Processing Unit) is most often considered as "the brain of computer system". It is a small chip that is connected to the mother board inside the system unit. CPU (also known as the processor) controls all of the working of a computer system; it manages input/output operations as well as the instructions given to a computer. Main function of CPU is to process the input data and provide the user useful related results. CPU is further consisted of ALU and CU.

ALU abbreviated as Arithmetic Logical Unit is a component of CPU involved in processing simple arithmetic and logical operations. On the other hand, CU abbreviated as Control Unit is quite important one. Behaving like a supervisor, it manages and controls various computer components.

Inside CPU, there is a cache memory. The cache memory facilitates the user and speeds up computer processing by storing the data and information that is most frequently used by CPU. It means the data that is processed many times by a processor is stored inside cache memory so that the processor can access it from there except accessing it from main memory.

Memory

Inside system unit, memory is also one of the major electronic components of computer used for processing. The memory (also known by the names of main memory, volatile memory etc) is used to store the data before processing and the data that has been processed.

RAM

Random Access Memory (RAM) stores the data temporarily into the computer system. As described earlier, it is also known as volatile memory. Now you must be waiting for the description of volatile. Volatile means that the data stored into the memory would be lost as soon as the computer system is turned off or the system has got failed due to some problem.

The required data or any relative information can be accessed directly from RAM instead of waiting for accessing the desired stuff through sequential file access method. That's why RAM is also named as "Direct Access Memory".

RAM has further two types known as DRAM and SRAM. 

DRAM needs to be recharged and refreshed frequently so that the data stored inside the memory is maintained otherwise there is a fear of loss of data inside the DRAM. Moreover, there is one more tragedy about DRAM that the data inside the memory cannot be accessed until the DRAM gets charged completely.

On the other side, there is no need for SRAM to get recharged and refreshed again and again to preserve the data inside it. One more thing that makes SRAM faster than DRAM is that we don't need to wait for accessing the data during its charging time.

hence, among all the components of computer system, system unit plays a vital role in processing the data and other information provided by the user and it won't be wrong to say that a computer system cannot exist without it as the basic parts of system unit i.e. CPU and main memory are the key components of a computer.