Question | Answer |
One of two technologies used by hard drives where data is stored as magnetic spots on disks that rotate at a high speed. The other technology is solid state drive (SSD). | magnetic hard drive |
The main board in the computer, Also called the system board. The CPU, ROM chips, DIMMs, RIMMs, and interface cards are plugged into the motherboard. | main board |
A pointing and input device that allows the user to move a cursor around a screen and select items with the click of a button. | mouse |
nonvolatile – Refers to a kind of RAM that is stable and can hold data as long as electricity is powering the memory. | non–volatile memory |
An older IDE cabling method that uses a 40–pin flat or round data cable or an 80–conductor cable and a 40–pin IDE connector. See also serial ATA. | parallel ATA (PATA) |
A female 25–pin port on a computer that can transmit data in parallel, 8 bits at a time, and is usually used with a printer. The names for parallel ports are LPT1 and LPT2. | parallel port |
Devices that communicate with the CPU but are not located directly on the motherboard, such as the monitor, floppy drive, printer, and mouse. | peripheral device |
As applied to services running on a computer, a number assigned to a process on a computer so that the process can be found by TCP/IP. Also called a port address or port number. | port |
A box inside the computer case that supplies power to the motherboard and other installed devices. Power supplies provide 3.3, 5, and 12 volts DC. Also called a power supply unit (PSU). | power supply |
Temporary storage on the motherboard used by the CPU to process data and instructions. Memory is considered primary storage. | primary storage |
A peripheral output device that produces printed output to paper. Different types include dot matrix, ink–jet, and laser printers. | printer |
Also called a microprocessor or processor. The heart and brain of the computer, which receives data input, processes information, and executes instructions. | processor |
A set of step–by–step instructions to a computer. Some are burned directly into chips, while others are stored as program files. Programs are written in languages such as Visual Basic and C++. | program |
A set of rules and standards that two entities use for communication. | protocol |