AMD
A processor chip manufactured by Amdek CorporationBus
Electronic pathway which allows devices both internal and external to the system unit to communicateCeleron
A less expensive processing chip. Good for basic personal computersChip
A small semiconductor device into which integrated circuits are etched. Data and instructions travel these circuits via electric current. Examples of chips are central processing unit chip, memory chip, coprocessor chip, ROM chipComputer
An electronic device which follows instructions to process data. The data and instructions as well as results of processing are stored in the devices memory area temporarily but can be stored long term on storage devices such as disks of various typesCommunications Device
A piece of hardware which sends and receives data and information, involved in telecommunicationsDSL
Digital Subscriber Line - a high speed Internet access for home and business offered by Internet Service Providers and Verizon
Fire Wire
A type of port which connects devices requiring faster data transmission speeds such as cameras and scannersGiga
1 billion for example 1 billion bytes (characters) or 1 billion Hertz (electric cycles per second or instructions carried out per second)Hardware
A device which can be literally touched such as a printer, a monitor, a chip, a cord, a motherboard, etcInformation
The result of data which has been processed by the central processing unitInput Device
A hardware unit which sends data or instructions into the memory of the computer for processingInstructions
Commands carried out by the computer, written by people, called programsMemory
A volatile, temporary storage area, often called primary storage, for instructions carried out by the computer, data used to carry out the instructions and information which is the result of the processing of instructions. Is a type of chip which resides on the motherboard or in an expansion slot inside the system unit.Modem
A communications device which converts electronic signals from one kind to another for transmission over circuits such as telephone lines, cable lines, microwave, satellite, etc.Motherboard
Known as the main circuit board within the system unit. Usually has the CPU, ROM, RAM, and other chips attached to it. Buses connect the parts of the motherboardOutput Device
A hardware unit which provides a user with the information resulting from processing by the computer such as a monitor, a speaker, a printer, etcPentium
High performance INTEL processing chipPort
An area on the system unit into which devices are plugged such as speakers, printers, modems, camerasRAM
Random Access Memory or volatile, temporary memory or primary memory. Stores data, instructions and information used by the CPU, input devices, and output devices.ROM (contains BIOS)
Read Only Memory. Non volatile-actually a memory chip from which data and instructions can be read. Contains only those stored there at manufacturing time. Some ROM can now be "reprogrammed" by professionalsSystem Unit
A case or box-like housing for the internal hardware devices such as various chips, buses, cards, power supply, fan, etc.
