PC - Personal Computer - Best to be considered the
complete computer package including the tower, keyboard, mouse, speakers, microphone, and monitor. Include printer, etc. Tower -
Typically the rectangle box that all other components connect to. This houses the main board (motherboard), memory, disk drives, video and sound cards, modem, power supply, fans, CD Rom, DVD Rom, and typically supplies all necessary connectors for extra devices.
Motherboard -
The main processor board of the computer. Typically contains the CPU, ROM, RAM, BIOS, card slots, printer ports, serial and USB ports, etc. CPU -
Central Processing Unit. The brain. Typical CPUs are Intel (Pentium & Celeron), AMD (Athlon), Cyrex, etc. The speed of the CPU is typically expressed in GHz as in 2.66Giga Hertz. This speed is the internal clock speed and instructions performed by the CPU are typically done each tic of the clock...therefore the faster the clock the faster the speed of the computer...to a point.
ROM -
Read Only Memory. Memory that remains after power is shut off. Computer instructions are read from this memory but no information or data is written here. This is typically your hard-drive and bios. RAM -
Random Access Memory. This memory looses information when the computer powers down and is reloaded and boot-up. The working memory of the computer. The computer uses this memory to run the applications on the PC. This is the memory referenced in most publications and mentioned as megabytes...as 32 Meg, 64 Meg, 128 Meg, 256 Meg, 512 Meg or 1 Gig, etc. Typically the more the better. Prefer 512 Mega bytes of memory in today's units.
BIOS -
Basic Input/Output System. Very low level computer instructions that the PC accesses to control all the devices in the computer and manage memory during operation. Usually accessed by user at boot-up by pressing F8 key or some other key combination. Better to leave this area alone unless your confident in your understanding.
Modem -
Modulator/Demodulator device. Better know as the device to connect your PC to other PCs typically via the WWW or Internet. Typically an installed card in your PC. Best type is V92 standard if dial-up...Cable Modem or DSL Modem if broadband. Typical speed for dial-up is between 40kBaud and 50kBaud...broadband is between 140kBaud to 2.5MegBaud depending on package purchased.
Router -
Device to network PCs together in the same location. Typically used in the house to route the Cable Modem connection to the rest of your computers...even if only just one. This device typically provides a hardware firewall to protect your 'Always On' broadband connection.
Sound Card -
Typically installed card. Comes in many memory and sound processing configurations. Has the connectors to drive your speakers, connection for your microphone, etc. Video Card -
Typically installed card. The more internal memory this card has the better. Start at 32 Meg RAM. Kilo - Metric term for 1 thousand (1,000). kilobyte (1,000 bytes) Meg - Short for mega. Metric term for 1 million (1,000,000). megabyte (1,000,000 bytes) Gig
- Short for giga. Metric term for 1 billion (1,000,000,000). gigabyte (1,000,000,000 bytes) Byte -
Typically the smallest whole amount of information. Typically made up of 8 bits. Each bit is the smallest amount of information the computer uses. A single byte has the ability to represent all the letters of the alphabet, including upper and lower case, the numbers 0 - 9, and a number of special characters like shown on a keyboard. A single byte has the ability to hold 256 different values. Bytes are put together to hold more information.
Bit -
The smallest possible amount of information a computer can deal with. It has two values: On or Off (more specifically to a computer: 1 or 0). All information in a computer is made up of combinations of bits: byte has 8 bits...but you don't typically talk bits...it is usually bytes!
Hard Drive -
Where all the programs installed on your computer resides. Typically in the range of 40Gig to 200Gig for off-the-shelf PC systems. |
