This report’s explanations count as both task due to topics overlapping.
Introduction
In this edition of Imitation Gamers Fanzine, I will be exploring the hardware and software that our gaming platforms
use to perform; from the internal hardware, such as the processor and graphics card to the controllers that players
use to interact with the interfaces, as well as the software like operating systems and drivers that allow the
components to work together. The various platforms that we use to play games – dedicated consoles, PCs, Hand-
held, and mobile phones – have one thing in common, the fact that they are all computers and are mostly made up
of the same elements which we I will be briefly explaining, with examples throughout.
Processor (CPU)
The central processing unit, otherwise known as the CPU or processor, is the chip on
the motherboard of a computer which controls everything that the computer
processes as the heart of a computer. The circuitry inside a CPU processes the
instructions that software and programs send it by interpreting the instructions into
movements of data within a computer’s memory. The popular Intel i7 processor
It does this through four functions, first of all –Fetch, this is when the CPU first receives the instructions from a
program, each instruction has a particular, unique address and it is kept track of by a CPU’s program counter when
accessed. Secondly is the Decode function - the language that the instructions are written in, is broken
down/translated to Assembly language which it can understand to then use an assembler to translate the Assembly
code into binary code. The CPU can now use the code to execute the program’s instructions. It then executes the
code by carrying out the necessary procedure of either using its ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) to calculate incredibly
difficult mathematical functions, move data around within the memory, or jump to various data addresses within the
program itself. The final phase is Writeback, where it writes the output into the computer’s memory to create the
change in data that the program/user requested.
The performance of a CPU is typically the speed at which it processes data, called the clock speed. The clock speed is
measured in Gigahertz (GHz); one gigahertz is one billion calculations per second. Other aspects of processor include
a higher memory capacity, a lower required voltage to prevent the processor from getting hot, and the capabilities
to process new types of instructions. The CPU contains a memory store called the cache, which may be built in or
near the CPU; the cache stores functions that are used regularly which is what creates a computer’s history and
allows the system to reload pages through the back/forward buttons. Most modern CPUs do have more than one
cache for different roles which work together to process information as fast and efficient as possible.
Obviously, every computer requires a CPU – PCs have different processors depending on the model or what the
owner chose to use if it was custom made. Meanwhile, other gaming platforms of the same model will use the same
processor – for example all PlayStation 4’s have an 8-core AMD x86-64 Jaguar processor that runs at 1.6 GHz.
Motherboard
The motherboard is a PCB (printed Circuit board) which is the most important component in a computer system
because it houses most of the hardware that essential for a computer to run such as the CPU, graphics card, RAM,
and network cards, as well as connections to peripherals. Differing motherboards are known by their ‘form factor’,
,the main and most common form factors are: Mini-ITX, which
is the smallest so requires advanced manufacturing
techniques, the Micro-ATX which is the cheapest as the middle
standard board while the standard-ATX is larger and contains
more components.
It includes the north and south bridges that connected the
processor to the rest of the system, the north bridge is directly
connected to the CPU via the front side bus so it controls high
performance task such as the RAM and graphics card. On the
other hand, the south bridge controls slower functions like
peripherals and the BIOS from the ROM. Motherboards can
have different amount of connections, ports, and expansion
slots as there is no set limit and has dozens of complex
components that make up the board, allowing hardware to
receive power and communicate with each other.
Both sides of a Nintendo 3DS’ motherboard
Graphics Card
The graphics card, also called a video card, is the hardware that displays 2D and 3D graphics on a connected screen –
this is done by taking the binary data from the CPU to turn pixels into a picture. Most modern motherboards feature
integrated graphics built onto the board which can easily handle the creation of 2D images, but using a separate
graphics card will override the integrated graphics and should be much more powerful for 3D graphics. The graphics
card is similar to a motherboard as it is also a PCB with its own BIOS, RAM, and processor – the graphical processing
unit (GPU), which is like a CPU but it is designed to complete complex calculations to render graphics. A graphics card
is usually located near a heatsink or fan, or has its own individual heatsink/fan built on.
After taking the binary data from the CPU, the GPU decides what to with each
pixel while the RAM holds the data for the colour and its location it will be on
the screen, and temporarily stores created pictures; the RAM can be written
to and read from simultaneously to support very high processing speeds and
is connected to a digital-to-analogue converter, shortened to DAC/RAMDAC.
For 3D-imaging, a wireframe is created with straight lines then rasterized
(filled with pixels), the processor then creates the colour, texture, and lighting
as it is stored in the memory. It then sends this data to the screen/monitor
with a cable. Components of a graphics card are measure by their clock speed,
including the GPU, memory, and RAMDAC speed, which are all measure in
MHz or GHz (megahertz or gigahertz)– this is the operating speed of the hardware, the cycles per second.
The overall performance of a graphics card is determined by its frame rate, which is the vertices/triangles per second
and the pixel fill rate; these speeds measure how fast it can build a wireframe and how many pixels are processed
per second. When it comes to video games, they require this process every second and most games are expected to
run at 60fps (frames per second). The majority of the graphics card market is dominated by AMD and NVidia, for
example, the PS4 Pro uses a custom AMD Radeon GPU that runs at 2.13 GHz, with 4.12 Teraflops (floating-point
operations per second), and the graphics card RAM is the GDDR5 with 8GB of memory running at 218 GB/s.
, Memory (RAM & ROM)
RAM (random access memory) is the memory that the computer can use ‘randomly’, this is the memory that is kept
available for programs to use – the memory available is measured in gigabytes (GB) and speed is measured in
megahertz. This means the more RAM a computer has, the faster it will operate and will be able to operate more
software at the same time, this memory is known as volatile memory as it is lost when the system is powered off,
which is why we save our games/work and they go to storage – the hard drive. Unlike ROM (read only memory),
which cannot be lost or altered. ROM does basic, necessary functions such as booting up a computer system as it
contains the BIOS. The BIOS on the ROM chip is a collection of software utilities that boots up the system every time
it is turned on while checking the hardware configuration against the configuration data called the POST process
(power-on self-test).
There are a number of different types of RAM; dynamic RAM (DRAM) is memory that stores bits of data in cells
consisting of capacitors and transistors, which millions of the cells make up the RAM – the memory must be
repeatedly refreshed or it will forget the data it was holding, this process takes more time and slows down the
memory. On the other hand, static RAM (SRAM) is made up of 4/6 transistors plus wiring and retains its data in its
memory as long as the computer has power so it does not need to be refreshed, which makes it faster than DRAM
but also more expensive.
Rambus dynamic RAM uses a RAM controller and bus connected directly to the processor and other devices that
require it and provides a consistent 1.6 GB per second of memory bandwidth that runs at 800 MHz; this type of
memory was useful in earlier gaming platforms like the N64. However, modern memory has used variations of these
types to create faster, more efficient forms of RAM. Synchronous dynamic RAM SDRAM was a variation in the 1990s
that allowed the memory’s responses to be synchronised to controls inputs in the data buses – this meant it could
queue processes up whilst a process is being completed.
Double date rate (DDR) was introduced in 2000 which allowed the memory to
transfer data on the falling as well as the rising edges of the clock signal so that it
was continuous and doubled the transfer rate and allowed RAM to run at a lower
clock rates to use less volts but still keep up higher transfer speeds. The DDR
versions of RAM have been upgraded into their fourth version today by expanding
on the existing idea, the DDR4 RAM allows up to twice as much GB (4-16 GB), doubled data 2x 8GB DDR4 RAM
rates, and a lower voltage required to run. For examples of different RAM usage, the Samsung
Galaxy S7 uses 4 GB of DDR4 RAM, and Nintendo 3DS XL uses 128 MB of FCRAM (type of SDRAM developed by
Fujitsu and Toshiba). While the PS4 Pro uses GDDR5 8 GB RAM which is type of RAM that only works for graphics
cards, and desktop PCs can have as much RAM as the motherboard and OS can support but adding more than
necessary does not make a computer faster.
Sound Cards
All computers include a sound card, it may integrated on the motherboard or a sound card in an expansion slot,
before their creation PCs could only make a beep sound. The minimum that a sound card will have is four
components which are the analog-to-digital converters (ADC), digital-to-analog converters (DAC), ISA or PCI interface
to connect the sound to the motherboard, and input and output connections for speakers and microphone. While
some sound cards use a coder/decoder chip known as CODEC that performs as a ADC and DAC in one.
When a user speaks or plays sound into a microphone, an ADC works by
translating the analog waves into digital data by taking measurements of the
sounds waves at recurrent intervals. The speed and frequency of these
measurements is called the sampling rate which is measure in kHz and the more
kHz, the more accurate reconstructed sounds will be. The DAC works the
opposite way by reconstructing the original sound, with a high sampling rate the
playback can be almost identical to the original. To transport sound waves
through wires causes distortion, which reduces the sound quality – this
An ASUS Sound Card
reduction is measure by two factors, the total harmonic distortion (THD) viewed with 8 channels.
