ICAITS014C Connect hardware peripherals

Glossary

Overview

In general Hardware Peripherals can be classified in either internal/external or input/output/storage. Input devices relate to equipment that allows us to put data into the computer system for processing. After the data has been processed there is an output. This is a classical “input-process-output (IPO)” viewpoint about computers. However, the data may be stored, either prior or subsequent to processing, in a storage device. Of course there are devices, especially multi-function, that blur the distinction between these generalised areas of hardware peripherals.

CDROM

Compact Disk Read Only Memory – An optical 120mm diameter disk with 650megabytes capacity. It is used to store text, graphics, sound and video. The digital data is recorded in a spiral from the centre to the outermost edge

CMOS

Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semi-conductor: A low power using memory chip in personal computers the holds time, date and other critical system startup information

DMA

Direct Memory Access: A method of allowing the peripherals to bypass the processor and send blocks of data to a secured memory location. This can speed up data transfer operations enormously.

driver

Operating systems and applications use a general system call to operate hardware devices. The driver is a software routine that translates it into the specific instructions needed to control the hardware device.

DVD

Digital Versatile Disc: 120mm optical disc with a capacity of 4.7 gigabytes. Expected to replace CDROM.

Firewire

A fast (up to 50megabyes per second) serial bus with support for 63 hot swap, plug and play devices. Has the potential to replace serial, parallel, IDE and SCSI Hard disk type interfaces.

IRQ

Interrupt Request: Hardware devices can gain some processor attention by sending a signal via the interrupt request line. Early devices required some knowledge of interrupts to avoid conflicts. Plug and Play now handles the setup of a new device’s communication channels with the rest of the system including the IRQ.

PS/2

A 6 pin mini DIN socket on most computers used for the mouse and keyboard.

RS232

Recommended Standard 232C: now ratified as the EIA-232 standard, which is used by all dial-up modems. The serial port may be either 25pin or 9pin D shell.

USB

Universal Serial Bus: An external peripheral interface with a 12Mb transfer rate. It supports up to 127 hot swappable, plug and play devices. It is expected to replace the standard serial and parallel ports

Other resources

whatis.techtarget.com/ - General purpose site for Information Technology related definitions
www.webopedia.com/ - General purpose site for Information Technology related definitions
peripherals.about.com/cs/findingdrivers/ - A site for software drivers targeted to peripherals devices
www.windrivers.com/ - A site for Microsoft Windows related software drivers
www.drdriver.com/ - A site for device drivers

Summary of peripherals

Input

Keyboard, mouse, joystick, microphone, trackball, graphics tablet, glidepad, network interface card, barcode reader, scanner, touch screen, sensor, digital camera

Output:

Speakers, monitor, printer, network interface card, force feedback device (mouse, headphones, steering wheel, chair, vest, joystick), actuator

Storage:

Floppy disk drive, hard disk drive, optical based disks (CD, DVD etc..), flash cards, memory stick.

Activity 2

Match the port with the description

The Port	Match	Choice	Description
	Joystick / MIDI	1	Monitor
	Bayonet Network Connector	2	Power in
	“Firewire” IEEE1394	3	RJ45
	Microphone / speakers	4	Voltage selector switch
	RJ45	5	Microphone / speakers
	Power in	6	Bayonet Network Connector
	Universal Serial Bus	7	PS/2 Mouse
	PS/2 Mouse	8	Universal Serial Bus
	Monitor	9	“Firewire” IEEE1394
	Voltage selector switch	10	Joystick / MIDI