Chip
)A small piece of semiconducting material (usually silicon) on which an integrated circuit is embedded. A typical chip is less than ��-square inches and can contain millions of electronic components (transistors). Computers consist of many chips placed on electronic boards called printed circuit boards.
There are different types of chips. For example, CPU chips (also called microprocessors) contain an entire processing unit, whereas memorychips contain blank memory.
Chips come in a variety of packages. The three most common are:
DIPs :Dual in-line packages are the traditional buglike chips that have anywhere from 8 to 40 legs, evenly divided in two rows.
PGAs : Pin-grid arrays are square chips in which the pinsare arranged in concentric squares.
SIPs : Single in-line packages are chips that have just one row of legs in a straight line like a comb.
In addition to these types of chips, there are also single in-line memory modules(SIMMs), which consist of up to nine chips packaged as a single unit.
Read Also:
- chip creep
Mainly referenced to older computer systems. Chip creep refers to the problem of chips that, over time, would work their way out of the socket. Chip creep occurred due to thermal expansion; the contracting and expanding during system heat up and cool down. While chip creep was most common with older memory modules it was […]
- chip multithreading
Abbreviated as CMT, chip multithreading is the capability of a processor to process multiple software threads and supports simultaneous hardware threads of execution. CMT is achieved by having multiple cores on a single chip (to share chip resources such as, the memory controller and the L2 cache) or multiple threads on a single core.
- chips and salsa
Slang term used to mean hardware and software.
- Chipset
A number of integrated circuits designed to perform one or more related functions. For example, one chipset may provide the basic functions of a modem while another provides the CPU functions for a computer. Newer chipsets generally include functions provided by two or more older chipsets. In some cases, older chipsets that required two or […]
- chkdsk
Short for check disk, chkdsk is a command run utility that is used on DOS and Microsoft Windows-based systems to check the file system and status of the system’s hard drives. The chkdsk command lists and corrects errors on the disk. Used without parameters, chkdsk will display the status of the disk in the current […]