WGU C393 EXAM STUDY GUIDE
Software - Answers - Part of the computer system that consists of encoded information
or computer instructions.
Hardware - Answers - The physical parts of the computer.
Firmware - Answers - Provides control, monitoring, and data manipulation of engineered
products and systems.
Device Driver - Answers - Operates a particular type of device connected to a computer.
Operating System - Answers - Coordinates interaction between hardware and software.
What does BIOS stand for? - Answers - Basic Input/Output System.
BIOS - Answers - Provides runtime services for programs and performs hardware
initialization upon startup.
Soft Power - Answers - Front power button acts like a relay to initiate various power
system changes depending on how long the button is held.
Overclocking - Answers - Increasing the clock speed beyond what is recommended in
order to get enhanced performance.
What two components need to support hardware based virtualization in order to avoid
software based virtualization? - Answers - BIOS and the CPU.
What is important when flashing a BIOS on a computer? - Answers - An uninterrupted
power supply.
Beep Code - Answers - A series of beeps from the computer's speaker that indicate a
problem. The pattern, duration, and number of beeps can sometimes indicate which
component is causing the issue.
Motherboard - Answers - Computer component that contains all the circuitry that allows
other components to communicate with each other.
ATX - Answers - Advanced technology extended (ATX) motherboards are
motherboards that have the processor and memory slots at right angles to expansion
slots and in line with the fan output of the power supply allowing the processor to run
cooler.
Micro ATX - Answers - Smaller version of the ATX though you can still it into an ATX
ready case. It has fewer expansion slots, memory slots, etc. than ATX.
, ITX - Answers - Motherboards that are developed at low power, small form factor for
specialty uses such as home theater systems. This family of motherboards consists of
Mini, Nano, Pico, and Mobile models.
Chipset - Answers - A collection of chips that perform interface and peripheral functions
for the processor. They can be divided up into two main functional groups: the
northbridge and the southbridge.
Northbridge - Answers - This is the set of circuitry or chips that performs the
management of high speed peripheral communications such as video cars in PCIe slots
and processor to memory (RAM) communications. It contains the frontside bus and it
may contain a backside bus as well.
Frontside Bus - Answers - Is part of the Northbridge and it connects the CPU and the
main memory. If a backside bus isn't present the frontside bus also contains a cache.
Backside Bus - Answers - Is part of the Northbridge and it is a set of signal pathways
that connect the CPU to the level 2 or level 3 cache memory.
Southbridge - Answers - Is connected to the northbridge and is responsible for providing
support to slower on board peripherals such as serial ports, PS/2, USB, etc. Basically if
you are considering part of a computer that isn't CPU, memory, cache, or PCIe then the
_______ is in charge.
Expansion slots - Answers - Used to install various devices on the computer to extend
its capabilities. Some expansions that could be installed are video cards, sound cards,
networking cards, etc.
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slots - Answers - Usually white and around 3
inches in length.
PCI-Extended (or PCI-X) slots - Answers - Are primarily used for servers and while
faster than PCI still lag behind PCIe slots in speed and suffers from the shared bus
issue that PCI suffers from in that it falls back to the speed of the slowest inserted
adapter.
PCI-Express (or PCIe) slots - Answers - This is becoming very common for use
because of how fast it is.
PCIex1 slot - Answers - Really small slot used for wireless cards.
Random Access Memory (RAM) or just memory - Answers - Contains the currently
used data and instructions for the CPU.
Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) - Answers - Typical in modern computers.
Software - Answers - Part of the computer system that consists of encoded information
or computer instructions.
Hardware - Answers - The physical parts of the computer.
Firmware - Answers - Provides control, monitoring, and data manipulation of engineered
products and systems.
Device Driver - Answers - Operates a particular type of device connected to a computer.
Operating System - Answers - Coordinates interaction between hardware and software.
What does BIOS stand for? - Answers - Basic Input/Output System.
BIOS - Answers - Provides runtime services for programs and performs hardware
initialization upon startup.
Soft Power - Answers - Front power button acts like a relay to initiate various power
system changes depending on how long the button is held.
Overclocking - Answers - Increasing the clock speed beyond what is recommended in
order to get enhanced performance.
What two components need to support hardware based virtualization in order to avoid
software based virtualization? - Answers - BIOS and the CPU.
What is important when flashing a BIOS on a computer? - Answers - An uninterrupted
power supply.
Beep Code - Answers - A series of beeps from the computer's speaker that indicate a
problem. The pattern, duration, and number of beeps can sometimes indicate which
component is causing the issue.
Motherboard - Answers - Computer component that contains all the circuitry that allows
other components to communicate with each other.
ATX - Answers - Advanced technology extended (ATX) motherboards are
motherboards that have the processor and memory slots at right angles to expansion
slots and in line with the fan output of the power supply allowing the processor to run
cooler.
Micro ATX - Answers - Smaller version of the ATX though you can still it into an ATX
ready case. It has fewer expansion slots, memory slots, etc. than ATX.
, ITX - Answers - Motherboards that are developed at low power, small form factor for
specialty uses such as home theater systems. This family of motherboards consists of
Mini, Nano, Pico, and Mobile models.
Chipset - Answers - A collection of chips that perform interface and peripheral functions
for the processor. They can be divided up into two main functional groups: the
northbridge and the southbridge.
Northbridge - Answers - This is the set of circuitry or chips that performs the
management of high speed peripheral communications such as video cars in PCIe slots
and processor to memory (RAM) communications. It contains the frontside bus and it
may contain a backside bus as well.
Frontside Bus - Answers - Is part of the Northbridge and it connects the CPU and the
main memory. If a backside bus isn't present the frontside bus also contains a cache.
Backside Bus - Answers - Is part of the Northbridge and it is a set of signal pathways
that connect the CPU to the level 2 or level 3 cache memory.
Southbridge - Answers - Is connected to the northbridge and is responsible for providing
support to slower on board peripherals such as serial ports, PS/2, USB, etc. Basically if
you are considering part of a computer that isn't CPU, memory, cache, or PCIe then the
_______ is in charge.
Expansion slots - Answers - Used to install various devices on the computer to extend
its capabilities. Some expansions that could be installed are video cards, sound cards,
networking cards, etc.
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slots - Answers - Usually white and around 3
inches in length.
PCI-Extended (or PCI-X) slots - Answers - Are primarily used for servers and while
faster than PCI still lag behind PCIe slots in speed and suffers from the shared bus
issue that PCI suffers from in that it falls back to the speed of the slowest inserted
adapter.
PCI-Express (or PCIe) slots - Answers - This is becoming very common for use
because of how fast it is.
PCIex1 slot - Answers - Really small slot used for wireless cards.
Random Access Memory (RAM) or just memory - Answers - Contains the currently
used data and instructions for the CPU.
Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) - Answers - Typical in modern computers.
