Computer main parts BY: JUAN DAVID MAYA STUDENT OF SYSTEM CESDE

1.HARDWARE  Hardware is best described as any physical component of a computer system that contains a circuit board, ICs, or other electronics. A perfect example of hardware is the screen on which you are viewing this page. Whether it’s a computer monitor, tablet or smartphone; it's hardware.

1.1Monitor  video display terminal (VDT) and video display unit (VDU), a monitor encompasses a display screen for video images and casing that holds it. In its most common usage, monitor refers only to devices that contain no electronic equipment other than what is essentially needed to display and adjust the characteristics of an image.

1.2 KEYBOARD  A computer keyboard is one of the primary input devices used with a computer that looks similar to those found on electric typewriters, but with some additional keys. Keyboards allow the user to input letters, numbers, and other symbols into a computer that often function as commands. The following image shows a Saitek keyboard with indicators pointing to each of the major key sections of a keyboard.

1.3 MOUSE  Originally referred to as an X- Y Position Indicator for a Display System, a mouse is a hardware input device that was invented by Douglas Engelbart in1963 while working at Xerox PARC. The mouse allows an individual to control a pointer in a graphical user interface (GUI) and manipulate on-screen objects such as icons, files, and folders.

1.4 MICROPHONE  Sometimes abbreviated as mic, a microphone is a hardware peripheral originally invented by Emile Berliner in 1877 that allows computer users to input audio into their computers. The picture is an example of Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone - Silver Edition and an example of what a high quality computer microphone may look like.

1.5 PRINTER  A printer is an external hardware dev ice responsible for taking computer data and generating a hard copy of that data. Printers are one of the most used peripherals on computers and are commonly used to print text, images, and photos. The picture is the Lexmark Z605 Inkjet, an example of a computer printer.

1.6 SCANNER  With hardware a scanner or optical scanner is a hardware input device that allows a user to take an image or text and convert it into a digital file, allowing the computer to read or display the scanned object. A scanner can be connected to a computer using USB, Firewire, Parallel, or a SCSI port. The picture shows an example of a flatbed photo scanner, the EpsonV300.

1.7 SPEAKER  A speaker is a term used to describe the user who is giving vocal commands to a software program.

1.8 USB  Alternatively referred to as a USB flash drive, data stick, pen drive, memory unit, keychain drive and thumb drive, a jump drive is a portable drive that is often the size of your thumb that connects to the computer USB port. Today, flash drives are available in sizes such as 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 5GB, and 16GB and are an easy way to transfer and store information.

2. SOFTWARE  Sometimes abbreviated as SW and S/W, software is a collection of instructions that enable the user to interact with a computer or have it perform specific tasks for them. Without software, computers would be useless.

2.1 SOFTWARE EXAMPLES