A desktop computer is a personal computer that is intended for regular use at a single location. And it has many advanced features that provide much functionality like computing, desktop publishing, multimedia, entertainment, games, etc. It has become the most essential electronic device of today’s fast world. And here follows some of the glossary items that are related to desktop personal computer.

Apple:

Apple Mac Pro is a desktop computer from the leading consumer electronics manufacturer Apple, Inc. It was introduced in 2006 and it replaced the Power Macintosh computers.

CRT Monitor:

Monitor is an output unit. All of the CRT monitors uses the electronic gun as its main component. The smallest number of dots that the electronic gun can focus on is called as pixel.

Ethernet:

Ethernet is a family of frame based computer networking technologies for Local Area Networks (LAN). And, it is the most wide spread wired LAN technology.

Floppy Drive:

Floppy drive is used for reading and writing data from a floppy disk. Floppy is a piece of a plastic that we can put in to floppy drive to store information. It is a small plastic magnetic disk enclosed in a stiff envelop with a radial shift, used to store data from a computer.

Graphics Card:

Graphics card is nothing but an expansion card that is used to generate and output images to a display unit.

Hard Disk:

Hard disk is a permanent storage, where we can store a lot of information. Capacity of hard disk is measured in terms of Gigabytes (GB) and they come in various different sizes. Even external hard drives are more common now a day.

Headphone:

Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, with a way of holding them close to a user’s ears and a means of connecting them to a signal source such as an audio jack.

Intel:

Intel Corporation is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers.

Joystick:

Joystick is used to control the movement of the cursor and it moves in all directions. Digital, guide and direct are the control handled by the joystick.

Keyboard:

Keyboard is a device used for issuing directions to the computer and it is used to send information or data to the computer. A computer keyboard is quite similar to the keyboard of a typewriter.

Monitor:

Computer monitor is an output device that is used as an electronic visual display for a computer.

Mother Board:

A motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, while providing connectors for other peripherals.

Mouse:

A mouse is a hand held pointing device that allows us to control our computer without having to type instructions from the keyboard.

Multimedia Keyboard:

It is a normal keyboard with some additional functionality for controlling multimedia. Addition keys include next, previous, pause, play, volume control, etc.

Operating Systems:

A collection of programs that are used to control and co-ordinate the computer system is called operating system. Operating system manages and coordinates the functions performed by the computer system hardware, I/O devices, secondary storage devices, etc.

Optical Drive:

Optical drive is used to read and write data or information from and to the optical disks like CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Blu Ray Disks, etc. An optical disk is a flat, circular, plastic disk coated with a thin layer of metal (Silver or Aluminum) that acts as a reflective surface and laser beam which is used as a read/write head for recording data on to the disk.

Printer:

A printer is a device that produces written images on paper. After a document has been created on a computer, we can send it to a printer for a “Hard Copy”, generally known as printout. There are many different types of printers such as Dot Matrix printers, Ink Jet printers, Laser printers, etc.

Processor:

The processor or Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the computer’s most important component. It carries out all the operations inside the computer. Its operation includes arithmetic and logic operations, memory operations, etc.

RAM:

It is the main memory for the computer where the operating system and applications are loaded. It is the part of computer’s local memory, where the computer stores all the data and instructions it receives from input and the results as it works through its calculations. RAM is short term memory or volatile memory that is when the computer is switched off, all the information disappears.

Scanner:

A scanner is a device than can transfer an image of a photograph or written information to the computer. Scanners can transfer typed text, graphs, diagrams and photographs to the computer.

SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply):

All the components in a PC need electric power supply. The SMPS converts the normal household electric AC supply to ± 5V and ± 12V DC supply.

Software:

Software is a collection of programs to perform a particular task. There are so many different types of software available for different purposes. They are categorized as system software and application software. Without the software we can not do any task using the computer.

Sound Card:

A sound card is a computer expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under control of computer programs.

Speakers:

Speaker is also an output device that is used to give out the audio output of the computer.

TFT-LCD Monitor:

A TFT-LCD monitor is an advancement of LCD monitor that uses TFT (thin-film transistor) active matrix technology to improve the quality of the output.

TV Tuner Card:

A TV tuner card is a computer component that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk.

USB:

Universal Serial Bus is a specification to establish communication between devices. USB can be used to connect computer peripherals such as mouse, keyboard, printer, speakers, etc.