How can you tell what computer chips are for?

Answer 1

When you look inside a typical desktop computer or personal computer, you can see many integrated circuits ("chips").

Every chip has something written on it.
This chip labeling includes the manufacturer's name or logo, the part number, and a code indicating when it was manufactured.

Typically you can go to the manufacturer's web site, look up the part number, and get a data sheet that has everything you ever wanted to know about that chip, and then some.

With a little experience, the function of many chips can be recognized from their shape and position in the computer, even without reading the part chip labeling.
In a typical desktop or laptop computer, it's pretty easy to pick out the CPU chip, DRAM, a northbridge chip, a southbridge chip, a video controller chip, an audio chip, a Flash chip to hold the BIOS -- there may be a few other miscellaneous chips that are more difficult to figure out their function.