This book was created and published on StoryJumper™

©2010 StoryJumper, Inc.   All rights reserved.

Publish your own children's book: 

www.storyjumper.com

Microprocessor-A silicon chip that contains a CPU. In 

the world of personal computers, the terms 

microprocessor and CPU are used interchangeably. At 

the heart of all personal computers and most 

workstations sits a microprocessor. Microprocessors 

also control the logic of almost all digital devices, from 

clock radios to fuel-injection systems for automobiles. 

Drive Bays-An area of reserved space in a personal 

computer where hard or floppy disk drives (or tape 

drives) can be installed. The number of drive bays in a 

computer determines the total number of internal mass 

storage devices it can handle.

Motherboard-The main circuit board of a 

microcomputer. The motherboard contains the 

connectors for attaching additional boards.

Modem-A modem (modulator-demodulator) is a device 

or program that enables a computer to transmit data 

over, for example, telephone or cable lines.

Power Supply-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.

Sound Card-An expansion board that enables a 

computer to manipulate and output sounds. Sound 

cards are necessary for nearly all CD-ROMs and have 

become commonplace on modern personal computers.

Video Card-Converting analog video signals, such as 

those generated by a video camera, into a digital format 

and then storing the digital video on a computer's   mass 

storage device. Video capture from analog devices 

requires a special video capture card that converts the 

analog signals into digital form and compresses the data.

Power Cables-A power cable is an assembly of one or 

more electrical conductors, usually held together with an 

overall sheath. The assembly is used for transmission of 

electrical power.

Expansion Slots-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.

3.5 Drive Bay-It is important to note that the name 

does not refer to the width of the bay itself, but rather to 

the width of the disks used by the floppy drives which 

mounted in these bays. Often represented as 5.25-inch.

5.25 Drive Bay-Of course, most of today's 

computers—especially laptops—don't come with floppy 

drives at all since CD/DVD-RW drives are very common. 

There are adapters, sometimes called a "sled", which can 

be used to mount a 3.5″ device in a 5.25″ bay. Often 

represented as 3½-inch.

IDE Cables-Parallel ATA (PATA), originally AT 

Attachment, is an interface standard for the connection 

of storage devices such as hard disks, floppy drives, and 

optical disc drives in computers. The standard is 

maintained by X3/INCITS committee.

AGP Slot -Short for Accelerated Graphics Port, an 

interface specification developed by Intel Corporation. 

AGP is based on PCI, but is designed especially for the 

throughput demands of 3-D graphics.

I/O Ports-Short for input/output (pronounced "eye-

oh"). The term I/O is used to describe any program, 

operation or device that transfers data to or from a 

computer and to or from a peripheral device.

RAM-RAM (pronounced ramm) is an acronym for 

random access memory and is the most common type of 

memory found in computers and other devices, such as 

printers.

PCI Slot-An I/O interconnect bus standard (which 

includes a protocol and a layered architecture) that 

expands on and doubles the data transfer rates of 

original PCI. PCI Express is a two-way, serial connection 

that carries data in packets along two pairs of point-to-

point data lanes, compared to the single parallel data 

bus of traditional PCI that routes data at a set rate.

ISA Slot-PCI slots were the first physically incompatible 

expansion ports to directly squeeze ISA off the 

motherboard. At first, motherboards were largely ISA, 

including a few PCI slots.

Case Speakers-An electro-acoustic transducer that 

converts electrical signals into sounds loud enough to be 

heard at a distance. Synonymous with loudspeaker.

Case Fan-A computer fan is any fan inside, or attached 

to, a computer case used for active cooling, and may 

refer to fans that draw cooler air into the case from the 

outside, expel warm air from inside, or move air across a 

heat sink to cool a particular component.

Memory Sockets-Internal storage areas in the 

computer. The term memory identifies data storage that 

comes in the form of chips, and the word storage is used 

for memory that exists on tapes or disks.

Front Panel Connector Cable-Alternatively referred to 

as the fpanel or front panel connector, the system panel 

connector is what controls the computer's power button, 

reset button and LED's found on the front bezel of a 

computer using the system panel cables.

Case-Short for Computer Aided Software Engineering, a 

category of software that provides a development 

environment for programming teams. CASE systems 

offer tools to automate, manage and simplify the 

development process.

Memory-Refers to physical memory that is internal to 

the computer. The word main is used to distinguish it 

from external mass storage devices such as disk drives

BIOS- 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

DIMM Sockets-Short for dual in-line memory module, a 

small circuit board that holds memory chips. A single in-

line memory module (SIMM) has a 32-bit path to the 

memory chips whereas a DIMM has 64-bit path.

You've previewed 10 of 16 pages.

To read more: