Computer Info Flashcards
LCD (monitor)
Liquid Crystal Display
LED (monitor)
Light Emitting Diode
Pixels
Resolution is represented by the number of pixels (or dots) the screen can display across each line and the number of lines that it can display. A common resolution is 1600×1200.
Dot Matrix (Printer)
Dot matrix printers were among the first “personal printers.” They work by creating individual letters made up of a series of tiny dots by punching a ribbon with the ends of tiny wires. Because they are so adorable they are still used in industry from high-volume computer printing.
Punches a ribbon.
Ink Jet (Printer)
A second type of printer is the ink jet printer. This printer sprays tiny droplets of ink particles on paper. This is the most commonly used type of personal printer with home computers.
Sprays tiny dots of ink.
Laser (Printer)
This uses a beam of light to reproduce the image using a magnetic charge that affects dry toner. The toner is transferred to the paper and sealed with heat. These printers produce the highest quality images, so they are generally the most expensive types of printers.
Uses a beam of light.
USB
Universal Serial Bus
The industry standard for connecting peripherals.
Serial = Ability to send only one bit of data at a time.
Parallel
Port sending multiple bits at a time.
Surge Protector
Protects the computer from power surges and automatically adjusts for variations in voltage.
Hard drive
Also called hard disk; where are you store all your data; stores vast amounts of data
bit
A single piece of information
byte
8 bits
megabyte
about 1M bytes
gigabyte
1,024 magabytes
Optical storage
CDs and DVDs
-information written to a disc, and read with a laser
How much storage can a single CD have?
640 megabytes
How much storage can a DVD have?
Optical disc with storage between 1GB and 16 GB.
ROM
Read Only Memory
Compact flash drive
A storage device used in digital cameras or digital video cameras. They allow information to be easily transferred from the device to the computer or printer.
USB flash drive
A.K.A. as a “thumb drive.”
Simply plug into the USB port, which is now standard on nearly all computers. These are powerful data memory devices that usually have between 1 GB and 64 GB of memory capacity.
Modem
Allows the computer to be connected to the outside world.
It is able to send and receive information and connect to the Internet.
The name modem comes from MO for modulator (converts digital data into a signal)and DEM for demodulator (converts the signal back into data).
How is modem speed measured?
Kb/s or kilobits per second which equals to 1,024 bits of information transmitted per second. 1,000 or 1K
—And—
Mb/s or megabytes per second. 1,000,000 or 1M
Cable Modem
A device that allows your computer to connect to the Internet and send and receive information via cable network instead of a phone line.
Much faster than analog modems (phone lines).
Since one byte = 8 bits, when you’re downloading at a speed of 10 KB/s, it is the same as 80 Kb/s.
DSL Modem
Digital Subscriber Line
It uses copper telephone lines with special hardware attached at both ends and is able to relay data at much higher speeds than dial up. Typical speeds are 1.5 MB for slow DSL and 3-27 MB for standard.