Quiz : What’s inside a computer?

Well done! It can even have more than one brain. The brain is in the processor.
If it has only one brain (like you and me), it will be able to do only one calculation at a time (again like you and me). But if it has several brains, it could make as many calculations as the number of its brains.

As you and I, it has a « fast » memory and a more sustainable memory.
The fast memory is the one you use to remember practical information such as : « I have to send my homework today ». Once you’ve sent the homework, you don’t need to remember this detail. The fast memory of your computer is named RAM. The RAM is the place where the computer stores it’s data to complete calculations faster.
You also have a more sustainable memory, it’s the memory that helps you learn (and not forget what you’ve learned). The sustainable memory of your computer is the hard drive where you can store your pictures or videos for example.

It’s weird but your device does have a heart, it’s named the mother board. You heart makes your blood circulate in your body. The « heart » of your device does the same, it enables data (eg electricity) to circulate in the circuits.

Your heart can beat faster if your body needs it. The heart of your device always beats at the same tempo, it’s called the frequency. It gives a rythm of work to the brain (the processor).

Your blood circulates in blood vessels. The data of your device circulates in buses, they are simply electric wires that transports the data from one component to another. Theses buses are on the mother board, they are the lines engraved on the plastic.

It’s a probably a bit exaggerated to call them lungs since it’s the fan of your computer or the surface of your phone or tablet. You need to evacuate the used gaz from your body (scientifically called CO2 or carbon dioxide). Your device needs to evacuate the heat produced by it’s brain and heart(s). The fan or the air around the device will help it cool down. That’s why when you use your device for a long time it becomes very hot. And when it’s too hot,  your device stops working to prevent the circuits from melting!

The camera or the scanner of your device is it’s eye. With this « eye » it can capture an image. But your device can’t analyse what it sees yet. For the moment, it can’t say if what it sees is a tree or a rainbow… But research is moving very fast and it will soon be able to use better it’s eye.

It would be fun but for the moment regular devices don’t have the sens of smell. But who knows what the future will be like?

Your device can create sounds through it’s speakers and even understand an order that you give through the microphone. But to communicate with you, it will use something more visual : the screen. It’s on the screen that you can see what the device did from your orders.

It’s microphone enables it to capture sounds. But, as for the eyes, it doesn’t understand very well yet (not like a human being) what we are saying. Here again, research moves fast, and we can already give orders to our devices. But no need to moan on your device when it’s not working like you would want it to, it doesn’t understand what you’re saying! 😉

It can feel your finger on the touch screen for the device that have them or with the mouse for the other computers. When you put your finger (or the pointer of the mouse) somewhere on the screen, it reacts according to it. But no need to hug it, it wouldn’t care!!

Your device doesn’t have any but some robots do. And robots are not more than computers with legs and arms. A lot of industrial machines have an automated arm with which they can manipulate things or wheels that enables it to move. But our devices don’t have these features yet. But we never know, maybe one day your tablet will fly towards you when you call it!