Computer Hardware:

1. System Unit- The main part of a personal computer. The system unit includes the chassis,
microprocessor, main memory, bus, and ports, but does not include the keyboard or monitor,
or any peripheral devices.

2. Keyboard-An input device similar to a typewriter, for the entry of text, numbers and
punctuation.

3. Mouse-A device that controls the movement of the cursor or pointer on a display screen.

There are three basic types of mice:

mechanical: Has a rubber or metal ball on its underside that can roll in all
directions. Mechanical sensors within the mouse detect the direction the ball is
rolling and move the screen pointer accordingly.

Optomechanical: Same as a mechanical mouse, but uses optical sensors to detect

motion of the ball.

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 optical: Uses a laser to detect the mouse's movement. You must move the mouse
along a special mat with a grid so that the optical mechanism has a frame
of reference. Optical mice have no mechanical moving parts. They
respond more quickly and precisely than mechanical and optomechanical
mice, but they are also more expensive.

Mice connect to PCs in one of several ways:

Serial mice connect directly to an RS-232C serial port or a PS/2 port. This is the
simplest type of connection.

PS/2 mice connect to a PS/2 port.

USB mice: Cordless mice aren't physically connected at all. Instead they rely on
infrared or radio waves to communicate with the computer. Cordless mice are
more expensive than both serial and bus mice, but they do eliminate the cord,
which can sometimes get in the way.

4. Monitor - Another term for display screen. The term monitor, however, usually refers to the
entire box, whereas display screen can mean just the screen. In addition, the term
monitor often implies graphics capabilities.

There are many ways to classify monitors. The most basic is in terms of color capabilities, which
separates monitors into three classes:

A. Monochrome Monitor: Monochrome monitors actually display two colors, one for the
background and one for the foreground. The colors can be black and white, green and
black, or amber and black.

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 B. Gray-Scale Monitor: A gray-scale monitor is a special type of monochrome monitor
capable of displaying different shades of gray.

C. Color Monitors: can display anywhere from 16 to over 1 million different colors. Color
monitors are sometimes called RGB monitors because they accept three separate signals
-- red, green, and blue.

a: Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor

b: Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Monitor

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5. Printer-A device that prints text or illustrations on paper. There are many different types of
printers. In terms of the technology utilized, printers fall into the following
categories:

a. dot-Matrix Printer: Creates characters by striking pins against an ink ribbon. Each pin
makes a dot, and combinations of dots form characters and illustrations.

b. Ink-Jet Printer: Sprays ink at a sheet of paper. Ink-jet printers produce high-quality text
and graphics.

c. Laser Printer: Uses the same technology as copy machines. Laser printers produce very
high quality text and graphics.

d. Line Printer: Contains a chain of characters or pins that print an entire line at one time.
Line printers are very fast, but produce low-quality print.

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 e. Thermal Printer: An inexpensive printer that works by pushing heated pins against
heat-sensitive paper. Thermal printers are widely used in calculators and fax machines.

Printers are also classified by the following characteristics:

1. Impact or Non-Impact: Impact printers include all printers that work by striking an ink
ribbon. Daisy-wheel, dot-matrix, and line printers are impact printers. Non-impact
printers include laser printers and ink-jet printers. The important difference between
impact and non-impact printers is that impact printers are much noisier.
2. Graphics: Some printers (daisy-wheel and line printers) can print only text. Other
printers can print both text and graphics.

3. fonts : Some printers, notably dot-matrix printers, are limited to one or a few fonts. In
contrast, laser and ink-jet printers are capable of printing an almost unlimited variety of
fonts. Daisy-wheel printers can also print different fonts, but you need to change the
daisy wheel, making it difficult to mix fonts in the same document.

6. PC Camera/webcam - A webcam is a video camera which feeds its images in real time to a
computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet or Wi-Fi.

Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers
to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a camera
for the web gives the webcam its name. Other popular uses include security
surveillance and computer vision.

Webcams are known for their low manufacturing costs and flexibility, making
them the lowest cost form of videotelephony. They have also become the source
of security and privacy issues, as some inbuilt webcams can be remotely activated
via spyware.

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7. Headset - A headset is a headphone combined with a microphone. Headsets provide the
equivalent functionality of a telephone handset with hands-free operation.
Headsets typically have only one speaker like a telephone, but also come with
speakers for both ears. They have many uses including in call centers and other
telephone-intensive jobs and for personal use at the computer to facilitate
comfortable simultaneous conversation and typing.

8. Image Scanner - In computing, an image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner— is a

device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and
converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of
the desktop (or flatbed) scanner where the document is placed on a glass window
for scanning. Hand-held scanners, where the device is moved by hand, have
evolved from text scanning "wands" to 3D scanners used for industrial design,
reverse engineering, test and measurement, orthotics, gaming and other
applications. Mechanically driven scanners that move the document are typically
used for large-format documents, where a flatbed design would be impractical.

9. Computer Speakers or Multimedia Speakers - are speakers external to a computer, that

disable the lower fidelity built-in speaker. They often have a low-power internal
amplifier. The standard audio connection is a 3.175mm (1/8 inch) stereo jack plug
often colour-coded lime green (following the PC 99 standard) for computer sound
cards. A plug and socket for a two-wire (signal and ground) coaxial cable that is
widely used to connect analog audio and video components. Also called a "phono
connector," rows of RCA sockets are found on the backs of stereo amplifier and
numerous A/V products. The prong is 1/8" thick by 5/16" long. A few use an
RCA connector for input. There are also USB speakers which are powered from
the 5 volts at 500 milliamps provided by the USB port, allowing about 2.5 watts
of output power.

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10. Other External Devices - A piece of equipment that operates in conjunction with and under
the control of a central system, such as a computer or control system, but is not
part of the system itself.

A peripheral is a device attached to a host computer, but not part of it, and is
more or less dependent on the host. It expands the host's capabilities, but does not
form part of the core computer architecture.

Examples are:

1. Hard Disk Drive - is a type of hard disk drive which is connected to a computer by a
USB cable or other means. Modern entries into the market consist of standard SATA,
IDE, or SCSI hard drives in portable disk enclosures with USB, eSATAp, eSATA, SCSI,
IEEE 1394 Firewire client interfaces to connect to the host computer.

2. DVD-ROM Drive or Optical Disc Drive (ODD) - is a disk drive that uses laser light or
electromagnetic waves near the light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing
data to or from optical discs. Some drives can only read from discs, but recent drives are
commonly both readers and recorders. Recorders are sometimes called burners or
writers. Compact discs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs are common types of optical media
which can be read and recorded by such drives.

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 3. Tape Drive - is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. It is
typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit
cost and long archival stability.

4. Jaz Drive - A Jaz drive is a small, portable hard disk drive used primarily for backing up
and archiving personal computer files. The Jaz drive is sold by Iomega Corporation, the
same company that developed the Zip drive. Both the Jaz drive and the disks come in two
sizes, 1 GB and 2 GB. The two sizes look similar, but a 2 GB disk is not compatible with
a 1 GB Jaz drive. The 2 GB Jaz drive can use both disk sizes. Internal and external Jaz
drives are available. The Jaz drive uses the Small Computer System Interface (Small
Computer System Interface) and requires a SCSI controller.

5. Zip Drive - is a medium-capacity removable disk storage system, introduced by Iomega

in late 1994. Originally, Zip disks launched with capacities of 100 MB, but later versions
increased this to first 250 MB and then 750 MB.

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 6. Digital Camera - is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by
recording images via an electronic image sensor.

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