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Sat 22 Jan, 2005 01:54 pm
Hey, I'm trying to learn everything I can about computers, I've taken mine apart and put various upgrades in it... but I don't know what some of the things I have in my computer... First, of all, there are these two chips labelled "MSI" and "SIS"... The "MSI" (in my computer) is orange and has a piece that goes out in the lop right and bottom left corner... The "SIS" (again, in my computer, not sure if these are different in others) has a black background and a small green square in the middle... the "BIOS" is this little tiny chip, and the "IDE" is that connection for the hardrive and cd rom I guess, but what do they all stand for? and what are they for? Does anyone know? Thanks!
MSI
This is a company, "Micro-Star International".
They make a lot of things, however it is more than likely from your description that they made your motherboard.
SIS
Another company: Silicon Integrated Systems. (http://www.sis.com/)
They make a range of chips which are used in the motherboard to provide functionality. Integrated graphics cards are one of their main areas of business, as well as memory controllers and PCI bus etc..
BIOS
Basic Input/Output System.
The BIOS is a set of procedures that are stored in this chip you have found, which control access to the keyboard, screen and disk drives. When you first turn on your computer you will see a black screen with lots of text before Windows starts to load. This is your BIOS loading. It first tests all components are installed (Processor! Graphics card, hard disk etc) then starts to load the operating system off the Had-Disk.
IDE
Intergrated Drive Electronics
This is indeed a connection for Hard-Disks and CD-Drives.
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