Computer Hardware and Networking Terms List By: Christian Lawrence

Operating Systems Operating System is an interface between software and hardware

CPU A CPU is an electronic circuit that executes programs

RAM RAM is a form of storage for computers

Hard Disk A hard drive is a device that stores digitally encoded data on rapidly spinning platters with magnetic surfaces.

Serial cable A serial cable is a cable that can transfer information between two devices using serial communication Maximum transfer rate of 115 Kbps

Parallel Cable A parallel cable sends several data signals simultaneously over several parallel channels Maximum transfer rate is 150kbps

SCIS SCIS is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and devices.

USB USB is intended to replace many varieties of serial and parallel ports.

FireWire FireWire is is a serial bus interface standard for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. 400 Mb/s

Ethernet Ethernet is a family of frame- based computer networking technologies for local area networks (LANs).

Monitor A monitor displays images generated by devices such as computers, without producing a permanent record. CRT and LCD

Keyboard A keyboard uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches.

Mouse A mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface.

Drawing Tablet A drawing tablet is a computer input device that allows one to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way one draws images with a pencil and paper.

Scanner A scanner is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image.

Digital Camera A digital camera takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor.

Postscript PostScript (PS) is a dynamically typed programming language best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas

Inkjet printer Inkjet printers operate by propelling variably-sized droplets of liquid or molten material (ink) onto almost any sized page.

Laser Printer A printer rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper.

Imagesetter An imagesetter is an ultra-high resolution large-format computer output device

Zip Disk The Zip drive is a medium-capacity removable disk storage system.

Jaz disk The Jaz drive was a removable disk storage system. 250 MB

CD A CD is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible. 700 MB

DVD DVD s an optical disc storage media format. 4.7 GB

Removable Drive A removable disk is storage media which is designed to be removed from the computer without powering the computer off.

Network A computer network is a group of interconnected computers.

LAN A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport.

WAN Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area.

Internet The Internet is a standardized, global system of interconnected computer networks that connects millions of people.

Intranet An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information or operational systems with its employees.

TCP The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite.

Internet Protocal The Internet Protocol (IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite.

Internet Backbone The Internet backbone is made up of a large collection of interconnected commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity data routes and core routers that carry data across the countries, continents and oceans of the world.

Modem Modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information.

Cable Modem A cable modem is a type of modem that provides bi-directional data communication via radio frequency channels on a cable television (CATV) infrastructure.

DSL DSL is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network.

ISDN, T1, & T3 Integrated Services Digital Network is a telephone system network.

Data transfer Data transfer is the physical transfer of data (a digital bit stream) over a point-to- point or point-to-multipoint transmission medium.

Web browser A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web.

Firewall A firewall is a part of a computer system or network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting authorized communications.

ISP An Internet service provider is a company that offers its customers access to the Internet.

NSP A network service provider (NSP) is a business or organization that sells bandwidth or network access by providing direct backbone access to the Internet and usually access to its network access points.

Router A router is a networking device whose software and hardware are usually tailored to the tasks of routing and forwarding information.

WWW The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet.