| A | B |
|---|
| Transistor | Device that amplifies a signal or opens and closes a circuit. |
| Integrated circuit | Device made of semiconductor material that contains many transistors and performs a specific task. |
| Resistor | An electrical component that limits or regulates the flow of electrical current in an electronic circuit. |
| Capacitor | Electronic component that stores energy in the form of an electrostatic field that consists of two conducting metal plates separated by an insulating material. |
| Connector | The part of a cable that plugs into a port or interface. |
| Light emitting diode (LED) | Semiconductor device that emits light when a current passes through it. |
| Printed circuit board (PCB) | A circuit board which has conducting tracks superimposed |
| CD-ROM drive | A device that can read information from a CD-ROM. |
| Central processing unit (CPU) | The part of a computer that controls the operation of all the other parts. It gets instructions from memory and decodes them. It performs math and logic operations |
| Floppy disk drive | A computer drive that reads and writes data to a 3.5-inch |
| Hard disk drive | A computer storage device that uses a set of rotating |
| Microprocessor | A microprocessor is a processor which consists of a purpose-designed silicon chip and is physically very small. The microprocessor utilizes Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) circuit technology to integrate computer memory |
| Motherboard | The main printed circuit board in a computer. The motherboard contains the bus |
| Bus | A collection of wires on the motherboard through which data and timing signals are transmitted from one part of a computer to another. |
| Random-access memory (RAM) | Also known as read-write memory because new data can be written to it and stored data can be read from it. RAM requires electrical power to maintain data storage. If a computer is turned off or loses power all data stored in RAM is lost. |
| Read-only memory (ROM) | Computer memory on which data has been prerecorded. Once data has been written onto a ROM chip |
| System unit | The main part of a PC |
| Expansion slot | A socket on the motherboard where a circuit board can be inserted to add new capabilities to the computer. Figure shows Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) expansion slots. PCI is a fast connection for boards such as NICs |
| Power supply | The component that supplies power to a computer. |
| Backplane | A backplane is an electronic circuit board containing circuitry and sockets into which additional electronic devices on other circuit boards or cards can be plugged; in a computer |
| Network interface card (NIC) | An expansion board inserted into a computer so that the computer can be connected to a network. |
| Video card | A board that plugs into a PC to give it display capabilities. |
| Audio card | An expansion board that enables a computer to manipulate and output sounds. |
| Parallel port | An interface capable of transferring more than one bit simultaneously that is used to connect external devices such as printers. |
| Serial port | An interface that can be used for serial communication in which only one bit is transmitted at a time. |
| Mouse port | A port used to connect a mouse to a PC. |
| USB port | A Universal Serial Bus connector. A USB port connects devices such as a mouse or printer to the computer quickly and easily. |
| Firewire | A serial bus interface standard offering high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data services. |
| Power cord | A cord used to connect an electrical device to an electrical outlet that provides power to the device. |
