John

Front 1

basic input/output system (BIOS)

Back 1

Acronym for basic input/output system, the built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk. On PCs, the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications, and a number of miscellaneous functions.

Front 2

battery

Back 2

A rechargeable battery used in portable computer devices, such as notebook computers. The most common substances used in computer battery packs are nickel cadmium (Nicad), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), and Lithium Ion.

Front 3

central processing unit (CPU)

Back 3

CPU is the abbreviation for central processing unit. The CPU is the brains of the computer where most calculations take place.

Front 4

expansion card

Back 4

A printed circuit board that you can insert into a computer to give it added capabilities. For example, all of the following are expansion boards:
video adapters
graphics accelerators
sound cards
accelerator boards
internal modems
Expansion boards for PCs can be half-size (also half-length) or full-size (also full-length).

Front 5

expansion card slot

Back 5

An opening in a computer where a circuit board can be inserted to add new capabilities to the computer. Nearly all personal computers except portables contain expansion slots for adding more memory, graphics capabilities, and support for special devices.

Front 6

hard drive

Back 6

The mechanism that reads and writes data on a hard disk. Hard disk drives (HDDs) for PCs generally have seek times of about 12 milliseconds or less.

Front 7

heat sink with cooling fan

Back 7

A component designed to lower the temperature of an electronic device by dissipating heat into the surrounding air. All modern CPUs require a heat sink.

Front 8

motherboard

Back 8

The main circuit board of a microcomputer. The motherboard contains the connectors for attaching additional boards.

Front 9

power supply

Back 9

(n.) Also called a power supply unit or PSU, the component that supplies power to a computer. Most personal computers can be plugged into standard electrical outlets.

Front 10

RAM

Back 10

Refers to RAM that has been configured to simulate a disk drive. You can access files on a RAM disk as you would access files on a real disk.

Front 11

audio out

Back 11

A box that contains both connectors and ports that are used for attaching video and audio peripherals. A break-out box is part of a video digitizing systems.

Front 12

FireWire

Back 12

A very fast external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of up to 400Mbps (in 1394a) and 800Mbps (in 1394b). Products supporting the 1394 standard go under different names, depending on the company.

Front 13

headphones

Back 13

something you can listen with.

Front 14

Keyboard

Back 14

The set of typewriter-like keys that enables you to enter data into a computer. Computer keyboards are similar to electric-typewriter keyboards but contain additional keys.

Front 15

microphone

Back 15

something to talk on it.

Front 16

monitor (HD-15)

Back 16

it is the place that you can put on it the monitor cable.

Front 17

mouse

Back 17

A device that controls the movement of the cursor or pointer on a display screen. A mouse is a small object you can roll along a hard, flat surface.

Front 18

parralel

Back 18

The simultaneous use of more than one CPU to execute a program. Ideally, parallel processing makes a program run faster because there are more engines (CPUs) running it. In practice, it is often difficult to divide a program in such a way that separate CPUs can execute different portions without interfering with each other.

Front 19

RJ-11

Back 19

Short for Registered Jack-11, a four- or six-wire connector used primarily to connect telephone equipment in the United States. RJ-11 connectors are also used to connect some types of local-area networks (LANs), although RJ-45 connectors are more common.

Front 20

RJ-45

Back 20

Short for Registered Jack-45, an eight-wire connector used commonly to connect computers onto a local-area networks (LAN), especially Ethernets. RJ-45 connectors look similar to the ubiquitous RJ-11 connectors used for connecting telephone equipment, but they are somewhat wider.

Front 21

serial

Back 21

One by one. Serial data transfer refers to transmitting data one bit at a time.

Front 22

USB

Back 22

Short for Universal Serial Bus, an external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps. A single USB port can be used to connect up to 127 peripheral devices, such as mice, modems, and keyboards.