A connector through which a computer communicates with a peripheral along parallel wires. Printers are the most common peripheral to use parallel ports, and parallel printers are usually simpler to install and operate than serial printers (which use a serial port). However, a serial port and cable must be used if the connecting cable needs to be longer than 15 feet.
Refers to computer systems with multiple microprocessors working in tandem. Parallel designs are implemented to speed performance and combat heat generation, which can be excessive for stand-alone, high-speed microprocessors. Parallel processing is also known as parallel computing.
A section of a hard disk or memory that is set aside for a specific purpose. Hard disks often are partitioned to separate one operating system from another on the same disk.
A parity bit is often added to bytes for the purpose of parity checking, an error-correction scheme that compares the data sent with the data received.
Originally called PCMCIA Cards, PC Cards house -- or enable connecting to -- peripherals such as additional RAM, hard drives, modems and more. Unlike most other expansion cards, they plug into slots in the computer's case (usually laptop computers) without removing the cover. PC Cards are classified as Types I, II and III, which designate the thickness of the card and slot. (Hard drives are likely to be found in the thicker, Type III cards.) PCMCIA stands for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, the trade association that developed the standard. Recently, people got annoyed with the longer name and started calling them PC Cards. Best alternative name for PCMCIA: People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms. See the article on expansion slots.
"Peripheral Component Interconnect" is a high-speed connection for devices including SCSI cards, video cards, sound cards, modems, video capture cards, etc. This is the primary way of adding devices to your computer. It is faster than ISA, so is preferred for devices such as sound cards and SCSI cards. It is slower than AGP which is for graphics cards only, so AGP graphics cards tend to be better than PCI ones. Default PCI speed is 33 MHz.
PCI Express is the latest interface for connecting a graphics card to a computer system, and it is the successor to AGP in terms of gaming graphics performance. A recent Tech Tip focused on PCIe and detailed the significant performance increases and flexible configurations available with PCI Express graphics cards.
A family of very fast CPU/microprocessors available in IBM-compatible computers. Pentium chips are available in clock speeds starting at 66 MHz, and developers are constantly making them higher. Pentiums are speedy CISC designs with 64-bit internal data buses. A successor to the 486 processor, the Pentium was named as such by Intel because the number 586 could not be trademarked.
A computer component that's separate from the main computer box. The more mundane peripherals include printers and portable data storage drives.
The Peripheral Component Interconnect standard (in practice almost always shortened to PCI) specifies a computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard. These devices can take the form of: integrated circuits fitted on the motherboard itself (called planar devices in the PCI specification); or expansion cards that fit in sockets.
A Web server program designed to run on a personal computer. Personal Web servers are meant to handle small amounts of Web traffic and may be used by people who don’t have advanced Web experience.
The coating on your monitor screen that emits light when hit with an electron beam. Red, blue and green phosphors light up to produce colored pixels.
The illegal duplication of copyrighted software.
Short for "picture element." A pixel is the smallest resolvable dot on a monitor's screen. A grid of thousands of pixels forms screen images.
1: A self-contained software component that modifies (adds or changes) function in a particular software system. When a user adds a plug-in to a software system, the foundation of the original software system remains intact. The development of plug-ins requires well defined application programming interfaces (APIs); 2: A software program that enhances a larger program. Common examples are plug-ins for web browsers that would allow a Webcam to be viewed over a network. A specific browser plug-in is usually required to view streaming media like Windows Media. The idea behind plug-ins is that a small piece of software is loaded into memory by the larger program adding a new feature allowing users to only install the few plug-ins that they need out of a much larger pool of possibilities.
Any device, such as a mouse, trackball, trackpad or joystick, that allows one to move a cursor or arrow about the computer screen. See the articles on pointing devices.
protocol for sending e-mail messages between servers; most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an e-mail client using either POP or IMAP; in addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server; this is why you need to specify both the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server when you configure your e-mail application
Generally taken to mean any secondary storage drive that is not inside the computer's case. Some external drives can be quite large, but the majority of popular types are as such thanks to portability.
A Macintosh computer that employs the PowerPCmicroprocessor.
A RISCmicroprocessor that meets a compatibility standard called PowerOpen, developed by Motorola, Apple and IBM. The design is now used by both IBM and Apple, and it supports many different operating systems.
It seems like it would be an electrical outlet in the wall, but in electronic devices, the power supply is a device that regulates the power received by the component, often converting household alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). The power supply within a desktop computer is of little interest to most users, but the power supply of a laptop computer, external modem or disk drive may be, as it often consists of a separate "adapter" that forms the power plug.
A computer's ROM and volatile RAM comprise its primary storage, while permanent (usually magnetic) media such as disk drives are called secondary storage. It's always best to use the term "memory" for ROM and RAM, and "storage" for secondary storage devices, to avoid confusion and to avoid offending computer techies, who, let's be honest, are much better looking with those six-figure salaries than they were when they ran the projector in high school.
See the articles on printers
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