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Which are the major subsystems of a PC?

With my limited knowledge, I recognize the following subsystems:

1) CPU (of course!)
2) video (video card)
3) audio (audio card)
4) input (keyboard, mouse)
5) input/output (floppy/hard disk, cd/dvd drive, network card)
6) other (dma, pci, usb)

Do I need to know anything else to write a basic O/S that is meaningful?

Hi,

axilmar wrote:Which are the major subsystems of a PC?

With my limited knowledge, I recognize the following subsystems:

I looked through your previous posts - your knowledge doesn't seem as limited as it could be...

However, with my limited knowledge, I'm having a hard time figuring out why you're asking this question. Knowing your motive makes it easier to give useful replies.

For example, are you trying to decide what you want your device driver interface/s to look like (e.g. just character devices and block devices; or one interface for storage device drivers, one interface for user input devices, one interface for video, etc)?

1) CPU (of course!)
2) memory devices (RAM, ROM)
3) video (video card)
4) audio (audio card - digitized sound and MIDI output, digitized sound input (microphone))
5) user input (keyboard, mouse, joystick, touch screen)
6) storage (floppy/hard disk, cd/dvd drive, flash memory, backup tape)
7) networking (network card, serial port, modem, fibrechannel)
8) image acquisition (scanners, digital cameras)
9) printers, fax modems
10) power management (temperature sensors, fan speed control, battery state)
12) buses (hypertransport, CSI, pci, usb, I2C, infiniband)
13) chipset (DMA controllers, IRQ controllers)


Cheers,

Brendan