Hardware Vocabulary

Short for Basic Input/Output System, A chip located on all computer motherboards that contains instructions and setup for how your system should boot and how it operates
To power on a computer causing it to load the Operating System or other platform. During the boot process the computer will perform a self diagnostics as well as load important data or programs to help in the operation of the computer.
a printed circuit board that adds some feature to a computer
Short for Compact Disc. A flat round storage medium that is read by a laser in a CD-ROM drive. The standard is capable of holding 72 minutes of music or 650 MB of data.
Short for Compact Disc Read Only Memory. These drives are disc players inside of a computer that can range of speeds from 1x and beyond and has the capability of playing audio discs and also computer data discs.
information that has been translated into a form that is more convenient to move or process
the machinery that writes the data from a disk and/or writes data to a disk
Short for either Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc, it is a type of disc drive that allows for large amounts of data on one disc the size of a standard Compact Disc. These drives were first sold in 1997 and today are widely used for storing and viewing movies and other data. To play a disc on a computer a user must have an appropriate disc drive as well as an appropriate disc player, which is a software program designed to play and control a disc.
information fed into a data processing system or computer. Usually a keyboard and mouse, this type of device is the conduit through which data and instructions enter a computer.
One of the main input devices used by computers, a PC's keyboard looks very similar to those of electric typewriters, with some additional keys.4 The primary text input device.
a semiconductor diode that emits light when a voltage is applied to it and that is used in an electronic display (as for a digital watch)
(Modulator demodulator) a device that enables computers to communicate over phone lines
the video display of a computer
the physical arrangement in a computer that contains the computer's basic circuitry and components.8 Also known as the mb, mainboard, mobo, or system board. It is the foundation of a computer and allows the CPU, RAM, and other computer components to function with each other.
Short for Network Interface Card, it is also referred to as a network adapter is a printed circuit board containing the necessary hardware used to connect a computer to a network.
the information produced by a computer. This type of device is a display screen (or monitor), and printer, or other device that lets you see what the computer has accomplished
Peripheral Component Interconnect is an interconnection system between a microprocessor and attached devices in which expansion slots are spaced closely for high speed operation.
a connection socket, or jack1 When referring to a computer or device this resembles a plug-in or connection commonly found on the back of a computer. They allow computers to have access to external devices such as computer printers.
PS for short, or PSU; A PS is the electrical supply used to power the components within the computer. Besides properly supplying power to the computer this also converts the AC electrical current found in most standard wall sockets throughout the United States into a lower DC voltage that the computer components use.
A hardware device that accepts text and graphic output from a computer and transfers the information to paper, usually to standard size sheets of paper.
the logic circuitry that responds to and processes the basic instructions that drive a computer.
This keyboard is the standard typewriter and computer keyboard in countries that use a Latin-based alphabet. It refers to the first six letters on the upper row of the keyboard. The key arrangement was devised by Christopher Latham Sholes whose "Type-Writer," as it was then called, was first mass-produced in 1874. It arrangement was intended to reduce the jamming of typebars as they moved to strike ink on paper. Separating certain letters from each other on the keyboard reduced the amount of jamming.
The command from the Special menu that turns off the computer safely
A hardware device connected to a computers sound card that output's any sound file from the computer.
Housing method where the components of a computer are staked vertically in an upright case. It houses the main components that make up the computer: motherboard, drives, processor, cards, memory, and ports for input and output devices.