Computer Hardware

According to Wikipedia:

"Soldering is a process in which two or more metal items are joined together by melting and flowing a filler metal (solder) into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the workpiece. Soldering differs from welding in that soldering does not involve melting the work pieces. In brazing, the filler metal melts at a higher temperature, but the workpiece metal does not melt. Formerly nearly all solders contained lead, but environmental concerns have increasingly dictated use of lead-free alloys for electronics and plumbing purposes."
Soldering is a process whereby two or more metal parts (wires, component leads, pipes, etc.) are joined by the melting of a metal between them. The melting metal is known as solder. Traditionally, it was usually composed of an alloy of primarily tin and lead, but due to current environmental regulations, the use of lead in solder is becoming rare. In common useage, the phrases "solder joint" and "solder connection" mean the same thing (see below), and are used interchangeably. The word "connection" by itself can refer to either a "solder connection" or to the metal parts before they have been soldered. Confused? It's gets easier when you look at how the word or phrase is used in a sentence... as follows. The soldering process requires the heating of the parts of the connection to "wetting" temperature, the temperature at which the solder will chemicaly alloy with the metal parts being soldered. This temperature is dependant upon the alloy of solder that is being used; with " traditional" alloys, it is approximately 500 degrees F. Current no-lead solders require considerably higher wetting temperatures. In either case, if "wetting" temperature is not reached, when the solder is applied to the connection, it will melt and flow onto the metal parts, but will not alloy with them, thereby causing a "cold solder joint". By the way, cold solder joints are NOT usually dull and grainey. Dull and grainey solder joints are overheated. Cold solder joints appear uneven and lumpy, and lay on the surface of the connection like water on a waxed car hood - the solder does not flow out smoothly. Depending on the application, the heat required to make the solder connection can be provided by a soldering iron, a solder gun, a torch, or a hot-air gun. Other methods exist, but are usually used only in automated processes. When a solder connection has been made properly, the connection is solid metal; there is no barrier or space between the parts of the connection. Essentially, the solder has blended with the parts of the connection, forming what is called an "interrmetallic alloy". The intermetallic alloy forms where the space between the parts was before the soldering was perforrmed. Without the formation of the intermetalic alloy, a true solder connection has not been created; what would exist would be "encapsulation" or simple "adhesion", but not a solder connection. This type of metal-to-metal connection is mechanically weak when comaperd to a solder joint, and will not provide the long term reliability and low electrical resistance that a true solder joint will provide.
Soldering is a process whereby two or more metal parts (wires, component leads, pipes, etc.) are joined by the melting of a metal between them. The melting metal is known as solder. Traditionally, it was usually composed of an alloy of primarily tin and lead, but due to current environmental regulations, the use of lead in solder is becoming rare. In common useage, the phrases "solder joint" and "solder connection" mean the same thing (see below), and are used interchangeably. The word "connection" by itself can refer to either a "solder connection" or to the metal parts before they have been soldered. Confused? It's gets easier when you look at how the word or phrase is used in a sentence... as follows. The soldering process requires the heating of the parts of the connection to "wetting" temperature, the temperature at which the solder will chemicaly alloy with the metal parts being soldered. This temperature is dependant upon the alloy of solder that is being used; with " traditional" alloys, it is approximately 500 degrees F. Current no-lead solders require considerably higher wetting temperatures. In either case, if "wetting" temperature is not reached, when the solder is applied to the connection, it will melt and flow onto the metal parts, but will not alloy with them, thereby causing a "cold solder joint". By the way, cold solder joints are NOT usually dull and grainey. Dull and grainey solder joints are overheated. Cold solder joints appear uneven and lumpy, and lay on the surface of the connection like water on a waxed car hood - the solder does not flow out smoothly. Depending on the application, the heat required to make the solder connection can be provided by a soldering iron, a solder gun, a torch, or a hot-air gun. Other methods exist, but are usually used only in automated processes. When a solder connection has been made properly, the connection is solid metal; there is no barrier or space between the parts of the connection. Essentially, the solder has blended with the parts of the connection, forming what is called an "interrmetallic alloy". The intermetallic alloy forms where the space between the parts was before the soldering was perforrmed. Without the formation of the intermetalic alloy, a true solder connection has not been created; what would exist would be "encapsulation" or simple "adhesion", but not a solder connection. This type of metal-to-metal connection is mechanically weak when comaperd to a solder joint, and will not provide the long term reliability and low electrical resistance that a true solder joint will provide.

The IBM 5150 Personal Computer was first released in September of 1981. The Macintosh 128k was first released on May 3, 1984. Thus the "PC" predates the "Mac" by almost three years.

Even so factually correct regarding the Macintosh and IBM PC, the first PC or the one you could consider as that was likely the HP-9830A running Basic out of ROM in 1973. While IBM had an even earlier release of the 5100 Series in 1975 the Apple I came out in 1976, while the Apple II came out in 1977 followed by the Apple III in 1981 the same year the 5150 IBM the first Intel 86 based PC from IBM came out. While the first truly affordable "personal computers" where the Commodore Pet ~$800 and yes the Radio Shack TRS-80 at ~$600 in 1976, while both the Apple and 5100 IBM series where almost double the price... anyhow the two platform truly evolved out the of the same technology and I would take issue with the predate statement, but considering the Macintosh 128K point I have to say the answer is correct in its own context, while the is the full context.

Almost all PC component and software vendors make two versions of the same product based on a difference in the distribution channels. Retail ("distribution") is the main consumer channel, whilst OEM (to various systems manufacturers) is another.

The retail channel typically uses colourful retail boxed products, with installation manuals, software CDs etc. Of course the cost of making the nice-looking packages is passed on to you, the customer. Retail packages are also more voluminous, and therefore cost more to ship. The OEM channel distributes products mainly to system builders and integrators, for example Dell, HP and Sun (the OEMs) and many small ones such as the mom-and-pop shop on the corner and embedded systems designers. These bulk-pack products do not have fancy packaging materials and are often produced in much higher volume, both of which result in much lower prices that are not generally available to the public. The OEM products are of the same quality as their retails counterparts. However sometimes the manufacturer warranty is different, shorter or non existent. They also tend not to include supporting materials such as manuals and drivers when applicable, however these are available for download (which tend to be more current versions anyway). Where ever possible DiscounTechnology.com distributes and sells the OEM versions of products (e.g. SCSI hard drives). This allows our customers to benefit from substantially reduced capital costs and much improved return on investment (R.O.I.). Besides the packaging and prices, there are sometimes other subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the retail and OEM versions of a product. Here are a few examples.

Warranty: Many types of OEM hardware components come with the same warranty as retail boxed ones. One well-known exception is hard drives. Retail boxed hard drives often come with a three or five year warranty, while the warranty of OEM drives is the responsibility of the reseller. Please check the product page for Limited Warranty information where applicable. We believe the substantial price savings of OEM hard drives easily justifies the difference in the warranty. Some of our OEM drives are 50% the price of a retail drive. That means you'd have to have more than two drives fail after the end of our warranty, but before the end of the retail warranty before the retail warranty would save you any money. That assumes that the replacement drives are the same price in the future. However as we all know, technology price continually drop. So in 5 years when your drive is likely to fail, how much will a replacement be? Will you want the same "small" capacity in five years anyway?

N.B. Many computer systems manufacturers (e.g. IBM, Dell, HP) will ONLY warranty drives installed in their systems if the drives have their OEM part numbers. So if your server or system has an active warranty, it may cover our OEM drives, if you select a part with a OEM part number from that same manufacturer (meaning Dell OEM for Dell servers etc.).

Bundled Software: Sometimes the retailed version comes with bundled applications software, whereas the OEM version may not. This is especially true for high-end video and audio cards. How useful such bundled software is to you needs to be carefully weighed against the price difference.

Manual and Support: The hard-copy manual for the OEM version may be limited to one per shipping box. However, the vast majority of information is on the manufacturer's web site. Some manufacturers claim that they do not support their own OEM products. The OEMs are supposed to do the support. In such cases, discountechnology.com will provide the technical guidance to help you install the product.

More Information:

1. OEM (Original equipment manufacturer) is typically a company that uses a component made by a second company in its own product, or sells the product of the second company under its own brand.

Generally, dealers of OEM products add something of value before reselling the merchandise. An OEM vendor that does this is known as a "value added reseller" (VAR). A VAR might build components, sub-systems, or systems from quality OEM parts. OEM goods allow VARs a wide range of creative marketing choices, which permits smaller dealers to be competitive in the marketplace.

The major phases of building a rig could be split into the following:

* Planning * ** This usually takes the most time. Could take as long as months or just a few hours if you're comfortable with buying new parts.

** Research into the parts you want to buy. Check for possible incompatibilities. * Buying & Shipping * ** Depending on the source and availability, may take from a few days to around a week. * Unpacking and Assembling * ** Once all the parts have arrived, should take an hour to a few hours.

* Initial Installation * ** An hour, give or take. Another half hour or so for hardware drivers. * Troubleshooting * ** Variable times. Ranges from zero (everything works from the get-go) to a week or so (parts arrived dead on arrival, sending for a replacement, incompatible, etc.). In the end, the entireprocess would have a varied time. However, the actual assembling of the computer itself is usually only a fraction of the time taken.

clock.

normally made of a material with a crystalline structure such as quartz.

Nope, the clock only provides timing. Also there have been several computers designed that have no clock at all; these are called "asynchronous computers" in these computers each unit has additional circuitry that determines when it has completed its function and generates a done pulse which is sent to the next unit to tell it to start.

It is the Instruction Decoder and Sequencer part of the Control unit that directs and coordinates all the operations in a computer. (synchronous or asynchronous)