CGS 1570 Chapter 2 Terms

Sound card

A circuit board that converts sound from analog to digital form and vice versa for recording or playback.

LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor

A common type of flat-panel monitor that contains a light source and a screen of special crystals placed in the monitor between the user and the light source.

Drives

A computer's storage devices.

TV tuner

A device that can capture television signals for viewing on a computer.

Cache

A form of high-speed memory that stores a small, frequently used set of instructions and data. It is located inside modern CPUs.

Bit

A fundamental unit of computing that is represented as an on (1) or off (0) value.

Ergonomic keyboards

A keyboard that is designed to be comfortable and tailored for the human body, with keys that are angled and a palm rest at the base in order to keep your wrists straight.

Pages per minute (ppm)

A measure of printer speed.

Dots per inch (dpi)

A measurement of image quality for printers.

Chipsets

A part of a motherboard that acts as a traffic director for data.

Trackball

A pointing device that works like an upside-down mouse.

Virtual memory

A portion of your hard drive that is being used as RAM.

Dot matrix printers

A printer that creates output by striking an inked ribbon against paper using metal pins.

Dye-sublimation (dye-sub) printers

A printer that uses a process where colored dyes are heated and then diffused on specialty paper or other materials.

Aspect ratio

A set of two numbers that describes the ratio of a monitor's width to its height.

Solid state drives (SSDs)

A small and fast type of hard drive that uses flash memory instead of the more traditional magnetic technology.

Read-only memory (ROM)

A small chip that contains device-specific information and handles a computer's basic functions when it is powered on.

Tape drives

A storage device that uses magnetic tape to back up or archive large amounts of data.

LED monitors

A thinner, lighter, and more energy-efficient type of LCD monitor that is lit by a grid of tiny electronic lights.

RFID tag

A tiny chip or label containing electronically stored data that can be accessed wirelessly.

Document feeder

A tray that allows you to scan several sheets of paper automatically.

Gestures

A type of finger movement that can accomplish various tasks on specialized input devices.

Random access memory (RAM)

A type of memory that temporarily stores the data and programs that a computer is currently using.

Digital versatile discs (DVDs)

A type of optical storage technology that is capable of storing 4.7 or 8.5 GB of data.

Compact discs (CDs)

A type of optical storage technology that is capable of storing 700 MB of data.

Megapixels

A unit of graphic resolution equivalent to one million pixels.

Graphics processing unit (GPU)

A video card's microprocessor.

Expansion cards

Add-on circuit boards that improve the performance of a system's video or sound.

Core

An individual processor inside a chip.

Video card

An intermediary device between the CPU and the monitor that contains a processor, video-dedicated memory, and other circuitry.

Memory

General term for electronic chips that store data and program instructions that can be accessed quickly by the CPU.

Firmware

Instructions placed on a chip that contain device- specific information.

Contrast ratio

Measures how close the monitor can get to the brightest white and the darkest black.

Optical character recognition (OCR)

Technology that can translate a scanned document image into text that can be edited and formatted.

Duplexing

The ability to automatically print to both sides of a piece of paper.

Response time

The amount of time in milliseconds that it takes for a pixel to change from black to white.

Multimedia

The capacity of a computer to input and output sound, music, images, and video.

System unit

The case that houses the computer's critical parts, such as its processing and storage devices.

Haptic feedback

The communication of vibration, motion, or physical resistance to a user.

Clock rate

The frequency or speed at which CPUs process instructions.

Motherboard

The largest circuit board in a personal computer. It contains a variety of slots, connectors, and plugs for hooking up all the other parts of a computer.

Blu-ray disc (BD)

The latest optical storage technology, which typically stores 25 or 50 GB of data.

Central processing unit (CPU)

The main processor of a computer. It is responsible for organizing and carrying out instructions to produce a desired output.

Biometrics

The measurement of patterns or characteristics found in the human body.

Optical mouse

The most common pointing device for desktop computers, it includes a left and right button, a scroll wheel in the middle, and a light-emitting mechanism at the bottom to sense movement.

Media

The physical locations, such as discs, where things are stored.

Byte

The unit of memory or storage that represents eight bits. It is the amount of space required to store a single character, such as a letter or number.

Pixels

Tiny dots on a display screen, each with its own unique address that the computer uses to locate it and control its appearance.