fix(guide): simplify directory structure

guide/english/computer-hardware/cooling/index.md

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+---
+title: Cooling Systems
+---
+Your computer contains many parts that generate heat. Excessive heat can cause your computer to behave erratically or its hardware to fail prematurely. The more you overclock the graphics or the CPU, the hotter the computer will run. Cooling systems assure that your computer is stable and you extend the life of your investment.
+
+## Case Cooling
+Case cooling can be a combination of a well ventilated case and the use of fans to circulate air within the case. Most cases come with at least one fan. This is the minimum configuration. For best results, there be at least two fans in the case. One is as an intake to draw in cold air while the other is an exhaust to expel hot air. There are many different types of fans and configurations. Cable management also plays a huge part in cooling the system. Bad cable management and tangled wires disrupt airflow and cause dust to accumulate inside the case.
+
+## Components Cooling
+Cooling devices are available for individual parts on the computer. The two most common are coolers for CPU's and graphics cards. There are generally two types of component cooling systems, active and passive.
+
+* Passive Systems - Usually consist of a heat sink or a heat conductive metal attached to the component. Passive cooling works by providing a larger surface to adsorb and dissipate the heat.
+* Active Systems - Add a fan to the heat sink and you are actively removing heat. The cooling fan can be dynamically adjusted to the load of the CPU or graphics card on most motherboards.
+* Liquid Cooling - High performance computers can benefit from a liquid cooled system. These types of systems circulate a liquid between the hot components and a cooling radiator.
+
+## Environmental Considerations
+
+* Keep it clean - Dust can clog up fans, heat sinks and act an an insulating layer trapping heat. Use compressed air to keep the dust out of the internal cavity. Maintenance of liquid cooling systems should be considered as well. Many forms of liquid cooling require incremental flushings to keep the tubes clean.
+* Case Covers - Contrary to what you read on the internet, keeping the case covers on the computer aids cooling. Absence of the case covers disrupts air flow and can actually increase the heat inside the case.
+Room ventilation - Locate the computer where it is neutral to the rooms environmental registers. Keep the computer away from room heaters or vents at all times.
+* Room placement - Locate the computer away from windows or areas of strong sunlight exposure. Placement in closets can also provide challenges to cooling. It is recommended to keep the computer away from any carpet-like material, which can easily bring dust into the computer.
+* Placement next to other computers - Locating the computer away from other equipment allows air to flow in and out of the computer. Placement close to other equipment can constrict air flow and increase heat.
+* Cable Management = Having a rat's nest of cables can block airflow and make your computer hotter. It is reccomended to take some time to cable manage after building a computer, because it can increase the lifespan of your computer in the future.
+
+[Wikipedia - Article on computer cooling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cooling)

guide/english/computer-hardware/cpu/index.md

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+---
+title: CPU
+---
+## CPU
+
+The Central Processing Unit (CPU) serves as the "brain" of a computer, allowing it to perform essential computational tasks.
+
+CPUs are integrated circuits, which are complex circuits embedded on a single chip. They include registers, which store single values, and input/output pins. These pins allow them to talk to the rest of the computer. Due to the continued advancement of CPU technology, many computers today utilize a multi-processing unit. Multi-processors are single chips that contain two or more CPUs or "Cores" that allow for increased processing capabilities.    
+
+CPU speeds are measured in gigahertz (GHz). For every gigahertz of speed, a CPU can perform one billion instructions in a second. These instructions are very simple, such as "add two numbers" or "move this variable to this location." To see this in action, read about <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language'>assembly language</a>.
+
+Gigahertz is not the only determining factor in the actual speed of a processor, as different processors with the same gigahertz speed (also known as clock speed) may perform real-world tasks at different speeds due to using different sets of instructions to perform these tasks. These instruction sets are called CPU architectures.
+
+Most modern CPUs use a 64-bit architecture, which means they use 64 bit long memory adresses. Older CPUs used 32-bit, 16-bit, and even 8-bit architectures. The largest number a 64-bit CPU can store is 18,446,744,073,709,552,000. A CPPU need memory adresses to get specified values from the RAM. If we call the length of the memory adresses n, 2^n is the amount of memory cells a CPU can adress.
+
+An instruction cycle for a CPU is called the fetch-decode-execute cycle - where the computer retrieves a instruction from its memory, deetermines which instruction it fetched and what it does, and then carries out said instrucitons.
+
+Perhaps the most common issue affecting the CPU is inadequate cooling. CPUs are the main generators of heat in computer systems. Due to their nature, they are typically located under the computer fan. There are various ways of reducing heat in a computer with the two main systems being air fans or liquid cooling systems. Proper heat maintenance and additional hardware can allow a properly configured CPU to perform better than rated by the chip manufacturer (aka "Overclocking"). Note that chips must be unlocked in order to have the ablility to be overclocked.
+
+<!-- The article goes here, in GitHub-flavored Markdown. Feel free to add YouTube videos, images, and CodePen/JSBin embeds  -->
+
+<b>Function</b>
+
+A microprocessor is a silicon chip containing millions of microscopic transistors. This chip functions as the computer's brain. It processes the instructions or operations contained within executable computer programs. Instead of taking instructions directly off of the hard drive, the processor takes its instructions from memory. This greatly increases the computer's speed.
+
+
+<b> Manufacturers of computer microprocessors </b>
+  
+There are two primary manufacturers of computer microprocessors. Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) lead the market in terms of speed and quality. Intel's desktop CPUs include Celeron, Pentium and Core. AMD's desktop processors include Sempron, Athlon and Phenom. Intel makes Celeron M, Pentium M and Core mobile processors for notebooks. AMD makes mobile versions of its Sempron and Athlon, as well as the Turion mobile processor which comes in Ultra and Dual-Core versions. Both companies make both single-core and multi-core processors.
+
+
+<b> Manufacturers of mobile microprocessors </b>
+
+The improvements in microprocessor technology have also led to signficant technology advances in cpus designed specifically for the mobile space. Processors based on designs from ARM, Qualcomm, and others have resulted in new mobile devices with capabilities that are unheard of in past generations. These modern mobile cpus power popular consumer devices from the latest iteration of Apple iPhones and Android based Phones to IOT(Internet of Things) devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home with capabilities such as HD Video recording/video conferencing, stereo audio, 3D gaming, and applications that are dependent on mobile cpu performance. This is one of the factors contributing to the growth and adoption of mobile devices which in turn has generated demand and provided opportunity for the creation of new applications with greater capabilities.
+
+
+#### More Information:
+<a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Wikipedia</a>
+

guide/english/computer-hardware/expansion-cards/index.md

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+---
+title: Expansion Cards
+---
+## Expansion Cards
+
+The primary purpose of an expansion card is to provide or expand on features not offered by the motherboard. For example, the original IBM PC did not have on-board graphics or hard drive capability. In that case, a graphics card and an ST-506 hard disk controller card provided graphics capability and hard drive interface respectively. Some single-board computers made no provision for expansion cards, and may only have provided integrated circuit (IC) sockets on the board for limited changes or customization. Since reliable multi-pin connectors are relatively costly, some mass-market systems such as home computers had no expansion slots and instead used a card-edge connector at the edge of the main board, putting the costly matching socket into the cost of the peripheral device.
+
+In the case of expansion of on-board capability, a motherboard may provide a single serial RS232 port or Ethernet port. An expansion card can be installed to offer multiple RS232 ports or multiple and higher bandwidth Ethernet ports. In this case, the motherboard provides basic functionality but the expansion card offers additional or enhanced ports. The most common expansion card used today is the grapics card. 
+
+### Modern example use cases for Expansion Cards
+* Graphics Card - (mentioned above) provides additonal graphics capabilities for programs that utilize graphics intensive workloads such as 3D rendered games and business applications.  Note that many modern graphics cards support running in tandem with other graphics cards in the same machine, enabling significant gains in graphics performance.
+* USB Card - provides additional USB ports of varying connector type sizes and versions (USB2.0. USB3.0, USB-C) to accomodate plug in peripherals and devices to a computer
+* RAID Controller Card - provides the ability to utilize RAID configurations with your hard drives, enabling complex disk configurations to meet specific user needs (RAID-1 for redundancy for example)
+* Sound Card - if the motherboard doesn't include basic sound capabilities (less common), a sound card can be purchased to add audio capabilities.  Another reason for using a Sound Card are more audio input options (SPDIF & Multichannel Connectors) or additional audio fidelity options that go above and beyond what basic sound capabiitlies are provided by the motherboard.
+
+#### More Information:
+<!-- Please add any articles you think might be helpful to read before writing the article -->
+* <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_card' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Expansion Cards</a>

guide/english/computer-hardware/gpu/index.md

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+---
+title: GPU
+---
+## GPU
+
+GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit. The majority of computers use these to render videos or play video games.
+
+A GPU is like a CPU but has different strengths and weaknesses. CPUs are very good at running a couple of tasks very quickly. GPUs are much better at running many tasks at the same time, but slower. A typical GPU can have more than 10,000 tasks running, but to run so many tasks at the same time they must share memory and other resources. GPUs usually run very repetitive tasks over and over to save the CPU from wasting time. Some CPUs have built-in GPUs, but having a separate GPU is almost always more powerful.
+
+GPUs can be used for computation as well as video rendering. Common ways to do this include OpenACC, CUDA, OpenCL, and OpenGL. Some applications include GPU implementations to reduce the amount of time the application takes to run.
+
+The GPU was originally used mainly for 3D game rendering to improve your resolution and framerate. But now these capabilities are being harnessed more broadly to improve computational workloads in many areas; for example financial modeling, cutting-edge scientific research and oil and gas exploration. GPU's are also used as a resource for bitcoin mining, since they are able to run repetitive tasks easily without straining the resources of the CPU, which allows you run an Operating System on the computer with a low end CPU while still being able to bitcoin mine using the GPU
+
+There are two major brands producing GPUs: NVidia and AMD. They are often referred as the "green team" and "red team" which indicate the major color of their logo. 
+
+Notable makers of GPU's include: Nvidia and AMD/ATI.
+
+## Origin of GPU
+
+Most primitive background of GPU can be mapped to the era of VGA (Virtual Graphics Array) controllers. But these were not actually a whole processing unit, but acted as supporting units for display functions. A VGA controller is a simple memory controller connected to Dynamic RAM and a display generator. The main function of a VGA is to receive image data, arrange it properly, and send it to a video device, which was mainly a computer monitor or a TV screen connected to a gaming console for display.
+
+The first ever full-fledged processing unit for graphic acceleration was developed and marketed by NVIDIA in 1999, "GeForce 256". Older 3D accelerators had to rely on CPU to execute graphic calculations. With the new "GeForce 256" as a co-processor for CPU, improved frame rate by more than 50% and lowered the total cost, thereby expanding itself in the consumer market.
+
+
+## GPU vs CPU
+
+A CPU is optimized for minimum latency, i.e., "to be able to execute as many instructions as possible belonging to a single serial thread, in a given window of time". The processor must be able to switch quickly between operations. In order to get lots of latency on the CPU, there is a lot of infrastructure in the CPU like large caches for data to be readily available for execution, lots of Control Units for out-of-order executions, and a few ALU cores. The ISA of CPU is designed in a more generalized manner and can perform a wide-range of operations.
+While the CPU was designed for general purpose computations and instructions, GPU evolved for graphic computations. Same computation needs to be performed on hundreds and thousands of pixels for 2D/3D rendering of graphics. Thus, GPUs were primarily optimized for maximum throughput. This is implemented using tons of ALUs in a single architecture. The L2 cache is shrunk because till the data is fetched from DRAM, GPU cores have a lot of computations to perform, thereby overlapping the CPU stall time with massive parallelism. This is known as latency hiding.
+
+
+
+## Evolution of GPU Architecture
+
+GPUs were originally modeled on the concept of graphics pipeline. Graphics pipeline is a theoretical model, comprising of levels how the graphics data is to be sent through and executed using GPU and software(like OpenGL, DirectX). The pipeline basically converts 3D spatial coordinates into 2D pixelated data for the device to display. The following is an illustration of "Traditional Fixed-function Graphics Pipeline", commonly accepted pipeline till today.
+
+### 0th Generation
+"Reality Engine" board by Silicon Graphics Inc.(SGI) marked the onset of GPU hardware and the graphics pipeline. But the technology was still dependent upon CPU for the first half. Also, the speed was limited to one pixel execution per clock cycle. The engine use OpenGL, a widely used 2D/3D application programming.
+### 1stGeneration
+The "3dfx Voodoo" (1996) evolved as one of the first true 3D-accelerator for games. It handled texture mapping, rasterization, and z-buffering but the CPU still had to do vertex transformations.
+### 2ndGeneration
+This is the point when the first-ever true GPU, NVIDIA's "GeForce 256" was released in the common market. The GPUs of this generation's used Accelerated Graphics Port(AGP), offered new functions like multi-texturing, hardware geometry transform, light maps, and lighting. The traditional pipelines were known as a "fixed function" pipeline, because once the developer sent graphics data into the GPU's pipeline, the data could not be changed.
+### 3rd Generation
+With this generation of CPUs, programmable pipelining came into existence. Now the previously non-programmable parts could be programmed by programmers. In 2001, NVIDIA released the GeForce3.
+### 4th Generation
+With the beginning of 21st century, the first "fully programmable graphics cards" had reached the consumers. NVIDIA GeForce FX, ATI Radeon 9700 were among the first. These GPUs could do per-pixel operations along with pixel shaders and programmable vertex. But, separate dedicated hardwares were needed for vertex shader and pixel shader processing.
+### 5th Generation
+GPUs were evolving and advancing at it's peak rate and this generation GPUs were the first to utilize PCI-express bus. Multiple rendering buffers, 64-bit support, texture access etc. were introduced, along with increase in GPU memory.
+### 6th Generation
+In 2006, the release of NVIDIA's GeForce 8 series GPU revolutionized the GPU industry and reach, by introducing the GPU as massively parallel processors. It was the first to have "unified" and "programmable" shaders or, in other words, programmable unified processor. Unified means all the processes of graphics pipeline were executed on a single processor and no external unit is required for any stage. Basic Unified GPU architecture components are discussed below.
+
+Since the release of the 9XX series NVidia GPUs, the performance increase between generations only got better. From the 980Ti to the 1080Ti and the newly launched 208Tis, performance has more than doubled. AMD also started to produce better GPUs like the RX 580 and Vega 64, although this is still nowhere near Nvidia's level.
+Just recently, Nvidia launched a new line of GPUs titled RTX which includes the higher-end cards like 2080Ti, 2080, and 2070. RTX stands for "Ray Tracing", which is a rendering technique used in generating images though tracing the path of light in a scene. The more "Rays" or light created, the more accurate the graphic image quality will be, as it is more optimized to enhance lighting effects and shadows.
+
+
+## Basic Unified GPU Architecture Components
+
+Unified GPU architectures are based on a parallel array of many programmable processors, wherein all the stages of graphics pipeline, viz., vertex, geometry, rasterization, and pixel shader processing and parallel computations on the same core, in contrast with earlier GPUs. The processor array is highly integrated with fixed function processors for compression and decompression, rasterization, raster operations, texture filtering, anti-aliasing, video decoding, and HD video processing.
+
+The following discussed architecture is focused on executing many parallel threads efficiently on many processor cores.
+
+### Processor Array
+A processor array consists of many processing cores. A unified GPU processor array has a typical organized structure of multi-threaded multi-processors. For execution of each thread, a multiprocessor is involved, and in each GPUs multi-processor, also known as Streaming Multiprocessors (SM), there are numerous Streaming processors, arranged in a queue. All the processors connect to DRAM partitions via interconnection network.
+### Multi-Threading
+As discussed earlier, GPU is optimized for high throughput and latency hiding. High scale multithreading shrinks the latency of memory loads from DRAM. While a thread is at stall because of a load or fetch instruction to complete, the processor can execute another thread. Also, because of high scale multithreading, GPU supports fine-grained parallel graphics shader programming models and fine-grained parallel computer programming models.
+### Multi-Processor Architecture
+Besides multiple processor cores in a SM, there are Special Functional Units, a multithreaded instruction unit, instruction and constant caches, and a shared memory. Also, each core consists of large multi-threaded register file (RF).Each streaming processor core consists of both integer and floating point arithmetic units, which together can handle most of the operations.
+
+### SIMT
+The streaming multi-processor use a "single-instruction multiple-thread (SIMT)" architecture. The instructions are executed in group of parallel threads known as warps. Each parallel thread is of the same type and start together at the same program address. SIMT processor architecture is quite similar to SIMD architecture. In SIMT, a particular instruction is executed in multiple parallel threads independently, while in SIMD, same instruction is executed in multiple data lanes in synchronous groups.
+### Streaming Processor
+It executes all the fundamental FP operations as well as arithmetic, comparison, conversion, and logical PTX instructions.
+Special Functional Unit
+Some of the thread instructions are executed on SFUs simultaneously with other thread instruction being executed on the SPs.
+
+
+#### More Information:
+<!-- Please add any articles you think might be helpful to read before writing the article -->
+
+- <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Wikipedia</a>
+- <a href='https://www.openacc.org/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>OpenACC</a>
+- <a href='https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-zone' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>CUDA</a>
+- <a href='https://www.khronos.org/opencl/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>OpenCL</a>
+- <a href='https://www.opengl.org/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>OpenGL</a>
+- <a href='https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2009/12/16/whats-the-difference-between-a-cpu-and-a-gpu/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>nVidia Blog</a>
+- <a href='https://www.nvidia.com/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>NVidia</a>
+- <a href='http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>AMD</a>

guide/english/computer-hardware/hard-drives/index.md

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+---
+title: Storage Drives
+---
+
+## Hard Disk Drives (HDD)
+
+Hard drives are permanent storage devices for computers. There are several types of hard drives: traditional magnetic disks, new-generation, solid-state disks or hybrid disks which contain both SSD and magnetic storage.
+
+Traditional hard disks use magnetic needles and rotating magnetized platters to store data. Due to these moving parts, hard drives are easily damaged by drops and/or shocks. The motor that rotates the platters also consumes a lot of power, and yet no other storage method is as affordable for large volumes of storage.
+
+Hard drives come in various storage capacities, with some even storing 10TB (10 trillion bytes). Typical computers come with 256GB (256 million bytes) to 1TB of storage space. Laptops usually use Solid State Drives (SSDs) because they are faster, lighter, and contain no moving parts, making them less likely to fail due to impact. For the same amount of storage, SSDs are generally more expensive than hard drives. Recently, some SSDs have been released that interface with the motherboard through the PCIe (PCI Express) bus slot using a system called NVMe. These SSDs have proven to be even faster at read/write times than traditional SATA SSDs.
+
+Magnetic heads are responsible for reading and writing data, which is physically stored on a set of magnetically coated discs stacked above one another--referred to as a platter. The heads are located at the end of an armature. The interior discs of the platter have two heads on a single arm. This allows data to be accessed from both the discs, beneath and above the arm. The top and bottom discs of the platter only have one head at the end of an arm. On the opposite end of the arm is an actuator. It provides movement of the arm to travel from the center of the platter, the spindle, to the outermost regions of the platter. The amount of time it takes to place the head in the correct concentric location is referred to as the seek time. Once the head is in the correct concentric spatial location more time is spent waiting for the disc to rotate such that the sector with the requested data is beneath the head. This amount of time is referred to as latency.
+
+The heads are positioned only a few nanometers away from the rotating discs. The heads are said to "fly" above the platter and as such the distance between head and platter is referred to as the 'flying height'. The heads are designed to never touch the locations of the platters that store data and are magnetically coated. Should the head 'touch down' on a platter, both the head and sectors of the platters may be destroyed resulting in data loss (hence the phrase "a hard drive crash" or "head crash").
+
+Hard drives retrieve and store data from applications at the request of the CPU. This is referred to as input/output operations--IO for short. When a running program requires a certain piece of data, the CPU dispatches an instruction for the data to be fetched from the hard drive. Reading this piece of data is an input operation (from the CPU's perspective). The program may then perform a computation which changes the data and the results need to be stored back out to the hard drive. The CPU requests the data be written back out to the drive. This would be an example of an output operation (again, from the CPU's perspective). 
+
+Hard drive performance is measured primarily by two key metrics 1) response time, which is how long it takes a read or write operation to complete and 2) IOPS which is an acronym for 'Input / Output Operations per Second'. As the name would suggest, IOPS is a measurement of the maximum IO operations in one second. The primary factor in achieving maximum IOPS at the lowest response time is the hard drive's rotational speed measured in revolutions per minute (RPM). Common rotational speeds are 5,400 RPM, 7,200 RPM, 10,000 RPM and 15,000 RPM (commonly notated as 5.4K, 7.2K, 10K and 15K). Hard drives with higher rotational rates RPM's) will have more platter real estate pass beneath the heads for IO operations (reads and writes). Hard drives with lower RPM rotational rates will have much higher mechanical latencies, as less real estate passes beneath the heads.
+
+One simple tool for measuring hard drive performance metrics is called IOMeter (see link below).  The program is very lightweight and easy to install.  Once it is up and running, several different variations of workloads can be run to simulate data reads & writes to the disk.  This data is analyzed and outputs metrics for read/write times, IOPS, as well as other useful metrics.  Tests can be saved for consistent checks, and the data can easily be parsed in a table or graph form.
+
+Hard drives tend to be categorized by use case (capacity or performance). Home PC's and general use office workstations tend to use slower rotating hard drives (5.4K and 7.2K) which is fine for storing pictures and office files.  However large databases that support online banking transactions for instance, use the faster 10K and 15K RPM hard drives as they'll be components in an enterprise server or storage array. There's a tradeoff between a hard drive's performance and capacity, however.  For instance, the largest capacity 15K hard drive available today is only 600 GB, whereas the largest capacity hard drive for the both 5.4K and 7.2K RPM is 10 TB. The 600 GB 15K drive is capable of 250 IOPS @ 3 ms response time (averages).  Whereas the 10 TB 7.2K TB drive does not measure IOPS at a given response time, as it's not optimized nor intended for IOPS centric performance use cases. There are also other tradeoffs in price per GB, energy consumed and size (2.5" vs 3.5" inches).
+
+Computers store data and files on hard drives for later use. Because hard drives have moving parts, it takes much longer to read a file from a hard drive than from RAM or cache memory on the CPU. You can think of a hard drive as a filing cabinet: a place to store things that we aren't using right now, but need later. You don't have enough room on your desk for all your papers, so you store things you aren't using right now in the filing cabinet. A computer does just this. It keeps files it is using right now in RAM, and files it might need later stay on the hard drive. Though RAM has access and response times that are two orders of magnitude faster when compared to hard drives, their typical capacity is 1-2 orders of magnitude less that a typical hard drive. You can fit reams of paper in the filing cabinet, but only a few on your desk.
+
+Data stored in RAM is said to be fleeting whereas data written out to a hard drive is persistent. Meaning if the power suddenly goes out, any data that was in RAM is lost and will not be there after power is restored and the computer is booted back up. However data that was written to the hard drive will be there when power is restored. For this reason, modern operating systems and applications will periodically write session and application related data that's currently in RAM out to the hard drive. This way if the power goes out, only 10 minutes of data entered in a newly created spreadsheet that was being worked on for 3 hours preceding the power outage and not yet saved to the hard drive. These files are usually denoted with a tilde~ and can be found in a temporary or temp directory or possibly located in a 'blind directory' whose contents are referred to as hidden files.
+
+## Solid State Drives (SSD)
+Solid State Drives uses integrated circuits to store data. Therefore, an SSD has no moving parts like the HDD. This makes them less prone to physical shocks, run silently, and have faster read/write times thanks to not needing to locate the data physically.
+
+SSDs are commonly used as boot drives or storage for the most used applications and files on a system. This is because even though prices have dropped in recent years, SSDs are still more expensive than a traditional hard drive when considering cost per unit of storage. Thus, HDDs are still used for bulk data such as entertainment media (pictures, videos, music) and in data centers or server farms. Though here it is common for the Hard Drives to be accelerated with an SSD.
+
+While most Hard Drives use either a SATA or SAS connector Solid State Drives often use other connections that can handle higher bandwidth and lower latencies, with the most notable being PCI Express (PCI-e) where form factors such as M.2 or U.2 dominate. Though other form factors are available, such as Intel's 'Yard stick' form factor or PCI-e cards that look quite similar to a low end graphics card.
+
+## Solid State Hard Drives (SSHD) a.k.a Hybrid Drives
+Solid State Hard Drives fill a specific gap inbetween Solid State Drives and traditional hard drives.  It combines the relative affordable cost of cheap magnetic storage in traditional drives and pairs it with a smaller capacity Solid State Drive with the intent of using the SSD portion to cache frequently used data to increase performance over a plain traditional hard drive at a marginal cost. Hence the combination of the two technologies creates a "hybrid device" that is cost effectively but still is able to benenfit from the high performance of SSD drives primarily for low intensity workloads that mostly utilize read requests from the drive.
+
+#### More Information:
+
+* [Wikipedia - Hard Disk Drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive)
+* [Wikipedia - Flying height](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_height)
+* [Wikipedia - Computer data storage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_data_storage)
+* [PCMag - SSD vs. HDD: What's the Difference?](https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404258,00.asp)
+* [Digital Trends - SSD vs. HDD](https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/solid-state-drives-vs-hard-disk-drives)
+* [IOMeter Project](http://www.iometer.org)

guide/english/computer-hardware/index.md

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+---
+title: Computer Hardware
+---
+## Computer Hardware
+
+In this section, we explore the various hardware components of modern computers. 
+
+## Parts of a Personal Computer
+
+### Central Processing Unit (CPU)
+A Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the electronic circuitry within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetic, logical, control and input/output (I/O) operations specified by the instructions.
+  
+![Intel Core i7](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MOTjmtg2L.jpg)
+
+### Expansion Cards (eg. GPU)
+A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device.
+  
+![Nvidia Titan XP](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/nvidia-titan-x.jpg)  
+  
+### Storage (SSD or HDD)
+The Solid State Drive (SSD) or Hard Disk Drive (HDD) are used to store information on the computer. It retains the memory even after loss of power.
+  
+![SSD](https://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImage/20-147-373-09.jpg)  
+  
+### Memory (RAM)
+Random-access memory (RAM) is a form of computer data storage which stores data and machine code currently being used. A random-access memory device allows data items to be read or written in almost the same amount of time irrespective of the physical location of data inside the memory.
+  
+![Ram](https://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImage/20-232-476-S01.jpg)  
+
+### Case
+A case is used to house all the components of a computer.
+  
+![Case](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Wq97Jk20L._SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg)  
+  
+### Power Supply
+A power supply is an electronic device that supplies electric energy to an electrical load.
+ 
+ ![Power Supply](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/SFX_PC-PSU_Delta_IMG_9760.JPG/620px-SFX_PC-PSU_Delta_IMG_9760.JPG)
+ 
+### Motherboard
+Motherboard holds and allows communication between many of the crucial electronic components of a system, such as the central processing unit (CPU) and memory, and provides connectors for other peripherals.
+  
+![Motherboard](https://fthmb.tqn.com/mmTUdCN6UBGIKlkEggGq4fpV-3k=/768x0/filters:no_upscale()/gig-57c732ed3df78c71b60e7aa5.jpg)  
+  
+### Input and Output devices (eg. Keyboard and Mouse)
+Input/Output device is any hardware used by a human operator or other systems to communicate with a computer.
+
+![I/O Devices](https://www.clasohlson.com/medias/sys_master/9225929949214.jpg)
+
+### Monitor
+A computer monitor is an output device which displays information in pictorial form.
+  
+![Monitor](https://assets.pcmag.com/media/images/523934-dell-ultrasharp-34-curved-monitor-u3417w.jpg?thumb=y)

guide/english/computer-hardware/motherboard/index.md

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+---
+title: Motherboard
+---
+## Motherboard
+
+The motherboard is the connecting layer that allows a computer's components to interact with each other. The motherboard typically has connections for random access memory (RAM), a hard drive, a graphics processing unit (GPU), and a central processing unit (CPU). In desktops, the motherboard is a physical board to which all of these components are connected. However, in laptops, the motherboard typically has some of these components integrated due to the space constraints of laptops. As a result, laptops parts are often more difficult to replace and service while on a desktop, it is possible to install expansion cards and upgrade parts since they are not intergrated onto the motherboard.
+
+A motherboard provides power and connectivity to the computer's components, and acts as the switchboard for all inter-component communications. If the CPU needs to process information that is stored in RAM, for example, the motherboard provides a connection between the CPU and RAM, called the memory bus, to allow for data access. A motherboard includes buses for expansion cards (including the GPU), RAM, and hard drives.
+
+Top manufacturers of motherboards are INTEL, ASUS, ACER, GIGABYTE, IBM, SIMMTRONICS and many more.
+
+## Parts of a Motherboard
+
+If you were to open up your computer and take out the motherboard, you would probably get pretty confused about all the different parts. Depending on the make and model of your computer, it might look something like this.
+
+![Motherboard](https://fthmb.tqn.com/mmTUdCN6UBGIKlkEggGq4fpV-3k=/768x0/filters:no_upscale()/gig-57c732ed3df78c71b60e7aa5.jpg)
+
+To understand how computers work, you don't need to know every single part of the motherboard. However, it is good to know some of the more important parts and how the motherboard connects the various parts of a computer system together. Here are some of the typical parts:
+
+- A CPU socket - the actual CPU is directly soldered onto the socket. Since high speed CPUs generate a lot of heat, there are heat sinks and mounting points for fans right next to the CPU socket.
+  Take note that CPUs only support a single socket type so it mus match with the motherboards socket to work. Socket types usually change every few generations and it also varies per label(consumer-grade CPUs, HEDT, server CPUs)
+- A power connector to distribute power to the CPU and other components.
+- Slots for the system's main memory, typically in the form of DRAM chips.
+- A chip forms an interface between the CPU, the main memory and other components. On many types of motherboards, this is referred to as the Northbridge. This chip also contains a large heat sink. In recent years, features of the Northbridge have been increasingly integrated into the CPU itself.
+- A second chip controls the input and output (I/O) functions. It is not connected directly to the CPU but to the Northbridge. This I/O controller is referred to as the Southbridge. The Northbridge and Southbridge combined are referred to as the chipset.
+- Several connectors, which provide the physical interface between input and output devices and the motherboard. The Southbridge handles these connections.
+- Slots for one or more hard drives to store files. The most common types of connections are Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA).
+- A read-only memory (ROM) chip, which contains the firmware, or startup instructions for the computer system. This is also called the BIOS.
+- A slot for a video or graphics card. There are a number of different types of slots, including the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) and Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe).
+Additional slots to connect hardware in the form of Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slots.
+
+## Types of Motherboards
+
+Motherboards come in different sizes, known as form factors. The most common motherboard form factor is ATX. The different types of ATX are known as micro-ATX (sometimes shown as µATX, mini-ATX, FlexATX, EATX, WATX, nano-ATX, pico-ATX, and mobileATX).
+
+#### More Information:
+<!-- Please add any articles you think might be helpful to read before writing the article -->
+* <a href='https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/mothboar.htm' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Motherboard</a>
+* <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipset' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Chipset (wikipedia)</a>

guide/english/computer-hardware/power-supply/index.md

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+---
+title: Power Supply
+---
+## Power Supply
+
+A Power Supply Unit (PSU) supplies power to a computer. It converts AC power into steady low-voltage DC power for the internal components. 
+
+
+A PSU is usually not user serviceable. For your safety, it is wise to never open a power supply unit.
+#### More Information:
+<!-- Please add any articles you think might be helpful to read before writing the article -->
+* <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_unit_(computer)' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Power Supply</a>

guide/english/computer-hardware/ram/index.md

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+---
+title: RAM
+---
+## RAM
+
+RAM stands for random-access memory, alternatively referred to as **main memory**, **primary memory**, or **system memory**. It is a piece of computer hardware where the data that your computer is currently working on is stored.<br>
+Unlike hard drives, RAM is a volatile memory and requires power to keep the data accessible. If the computer is turned off, all data contained in RAM is lost. New users often confuse RAM with disk drive space. See [memory definition](https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/memory.htm) for a comparison between memory and storage.<br>
+
+#### Types of RAM:
+
+There are two main types of RAM: static (SRAM) and dynamic (DRAM). Static RAM is constructed using flip-flops, is very fast, but is difficult to make in large sizes. Dynamic RAM is constructed using capacitors, is fairly fast, but needs 'refreshed' periodically to keep charge on the capacitors. SRAM is often used closer to the CPU due to its speed and space constraints whereas DRAM is used as main memory.
+
+Some examples of packaging RAM are: DIMM, RIMM, SIMM, SO-DIMM, and SOO-RIMM. Below is an example image of a 512 MB DIMM computer memory module, a typical piece of RAM found in desktop computers. This memory module would be installed into one of the memory slots on a motherboard.
+
+![RAM](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41kVnWQebtL._SL256_.jpg)
+
+#### RAM speeds:
+
+The speed rating of your RAM module is an expression of its data transfer rate, and it's almost always expressed in megahertz (Mhz). The faster the number, the faster your computer can store and retrieve the data stored in local memory. The formula for the exact speed rating changes slightly based on the version of DDR memory your computer is using. It’s no longer simply an expression of clock speed, like a processor, but a combination of hardware factors. But in general, faster is better. Like the GPU and CPU, RAM can also be overclocked. To achieve the faster speed, a user has to enable an XMP (Intel) or AMP (AMD) profile in the BIOS.
+
+The standard which dictates the rough speed for RAM in most computers has been DDR3, which is still widely adopted and supports a limit fo 2133MHz or greater when run outside of its specification by overclocking. A new standard, DDR4, has been released in recent years and promises a wider range of clock speeds and reduced power consumption and latencies, and increases the maximum DIMM size from 16 GB to 64 GB.
+
+The clock speed of the RAM module is not all that matters though. System memory is also affected by the [CAS latency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency) or timings. This can commonly be seen on a RAM module's specifications as a list of numbers separated by dashes such as 15-15-15-35 . Unlike the clock speed the lower these numbers the better the performance. Typically an increase in clock speed requires an increase in latency, and this even apparent across the DDR generations as with each new versions higher clock speeds and higher latencies are seen.
+
+#### ECC RAM:
+
+Servers typically use ECC or Error-Correcting Code RAM. This RAM features a few changes which make it less prone to soft errors in memory. The most notable of these changes is the inclusion of an extra physical memory 'chip' on the module. This added memory serves partly to check if any memory has become corrupted. This does bring with it a bit of overhead though, which includes the necessity for ECC RAM to run on a 72-bit bus as opposed to the typical 64-bit bus that would match the processor (as most computers today run on 64bit x86-64 CPUS)
+
+Not all motherboards or CPUs can handle ECC memory; however, it also is rarely a relevant feature to most consumers, instead being mostly used in servers, data centers, and high end business workstations where the added 'insurance' against any down time is worth the added cost.
+
+
+#### More Information:
+
+* [Random-access Memory - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-access_memory)
+* [RAM - Webopedia](http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAM.html)
+* [Static RAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_random-access_memory)
+* [Dynamic RAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory)
+* [DDR3 SDRAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR3_SDRAM)
+* [DDR4 SDRAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR4_SDRAM)
+* [Types of RAM](http://www.computermemoryupgrade.net/types-of-computer-memory-common-uses.html)
+* [Laptop Memory Buyer's Guide](https://www.lifewire.com/laptop-memory-buyers-guide-833024)

guide/english/computer-hardware/rom/index.md

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+---
+title: ROM
+---
+## Read Only Memory
+
+Read-only Memory (ROM) is a self descriptive type of memory that references the idea that a computer and its appliations can only read data from it. This is in direct contrast to other memory types, where it is possibe to read and write data and store it in memory.
+
+### Examples of ROM 
+
+#### BIOS ROM
+In the early days of modern computers, one of the most common ROM chips used was the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) ROM.  The chip would hold specific instructions that a computer needed in order to start up and it was critical that the information could not be accidentally modified. Once the BIOS ROM chip was installed (generally soldered to the motherboard), it could not be modified. Fast forward to the 2000's and BIOS technology had improved to where a BIOS could now use EPROM (An erasable type of ROM) where the instructions could be updated in a controlled fashion by the manufacturer, but the operation of the chip would still have the same behavior in being read-only. The act of "updating the BIOS" for a computer is infact updating the programmaing of the EPROM Bios.
+
+#### CD-ROM
+The CD-ROM is a type of compact disc storage object that requires the use of an optical laser to read the data off the disc. The devices used to read the data house the lasers and are called CD-ROM Drives. The disc itself is generally created in a factory and once made, is read only. This is in contrast to the CD-R (compact disc recordables) medium which has the additional ability to hold new data.
+
+<!-- The article goes here, in GitHub-flavored Markdown. Feel free to add YouTube videos, images, and CodePen/JSBin embeds  -->
+
+#### More Information:
+<!-- Please add any articles you think might be helpful to read before writing the article -->
+- [Read-only memory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read-only_memory)
+- [BIOS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS)
+- [CD-ROM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-ROM)