Topic: A+ Core 1 — System Architecture, Power Delivery, Drivers, and OS Runtime Environments

Essential Question:

What must a technician understand about hardware, power, drivers, and operating systems to build, test, and deploy software across real machines?

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STUDENT NOTES (COPY ALL OF THIS)

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1. System Architecture — How a Computer Actually Works

A system is a set of electrical and logical components working together.

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

• Executes instructions
• Clock speed = cycles per second
• Cores = parallel processing lanes
• Cache (L1, L2, L3) = fast internal RAM
• x86 vs ARM architectures → affects compiled software

Intern-level insight:

More cores ≠ faster web apps.

Fast single-thread performance often matters more for dev tools and build pipelines.

2. Power Delivery — The Electrical Foundation (A+ + Engineering)