System Unit

Expansion card

Also known as an add-on card, internal card or interface adapter, an expansion card is an electronic board or card added in a desktop computer or other non-portable computer to give that computer a new ability, such as the ability to connect to another computer using a network cable. Such examples of expansion cards are Interface cards, modem and MPEG decoder.

Network Interface Card

A network interface card (NIC) is a computer circuit board or card that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to a network. Personal computers and workstations on a local area network (LAN) typically contain a network interface card specifically designed for the LAN transmission technology, such as Ethernet or Token Ring. Network interface cards provide a dedicated, full-time connection to a network. Most home and portable computers connect to the Internet through as-needed dial-up connection. The modem provides the connection interface to the Internet service provider.

Plug & Play

Plug and Play (PnP) is a capability developed by Microsoft for Windows 95 and later operating systems that which gives the users the ability to plug a device into a computer and have the computer recognize that the device is there. The user doesn't have to tell the computer. In many earlier computer systems, the user was required to explicitly tell the operating system when a new device had been added. Microsoft made Plug and Play a selling point for its Windows operating systems. However, a similar capability had long been built into Macintosh computers.

Sockets

It is a small piece of plastic or metal contacts that are made for each pin in the CPU. The purpose of the socket is to provide physical protection for the CPU. Another purpose of the socket is also to connect all the electrical currents and circuits between the pins and the sockets inside the CPU.

Chips

It is a small electrity-powered circuit, which is also known as the intergrated circuit. It is one of the basic components needed for an electrical device to function, especially the computer. Computer chips are made of semiconductors that are made of silicons and other component such as the transistors. In the current day, a computer chip can contain millions of transistors and is abled to help computers become smaller and more powerful.

Slots

Slots have another name in the computing world, which is the Expansion Slot. These slots are basically the small and thin hole where external devices can be connected to the computer. These devices are more commonly known as expansion boards. Some examples of slots are the USB slot.

Bus Lines

Bus Lines are the communicating electronic lines that connect various parts of the CPU to other parts. It also connects to the computer's system board. Data flows in the form of 'bit' in a bus line. Bus lines are, basically, the electronic pathways that decide the rate of transfer of data. The greater the bus lines, the better the computer's efficiency.

Serial Port

A serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which data can only be transferred out a bit at a time. A standard serial port can be used to connect many different devices such as a modem, printer, mouse, monitor and so on. Through the serial ports, data is transferred to connected devices in the computer.

Parallel Port

A parallel port is a type of interface found on computers which are normally used to connect a printer to a PC. Because of its popular use of connecting printers, it is also known as the printer port. Another name for parallel port is parallel interface. Other than printers, parallel ports can be used to connect devices that needs a higher bandwidth such as joysticks and external hard disks.

Universal Serial Bus

Universal Serias Buses or, more commonly known as USB, is used to set up a communication between the computers and the peripheral devices. USB's sole purpose is actually to replace serial ports and parallel ports. Now, for most external devices, the USB has become the standard connection method. And it has grown from only for personal computers to PDA and other similar electronical devices.

Firewire Port

As a multi-platform serial bus, the firewire port has the capability to communicate with a number of different devices. For example, a firewire connection can provide an ideal way to connect a scanner to a computer system. As the transfer rate of a firewire port can reach up to 400 Mbps, the data transfer is relatively fast and also results in excellent quality.