Input & Output
13 years ago
RAM means Random Access Memory, it's a type of comouter memory that can be accessed randomly. Any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes. Ram is one of the most common type of memory found in computers and other devices such as printers. There are two types of of RAM. DRAM means Dynamic Random Access Memory and SRAM is Static Random Access Memory. The difference between both of this is that the techonology they use to hold data, with DRAM being more common type. In terms of speed, SRAM is faster. DRAM needs to be refreshed per second but SRAM does not need to be refreshed which is what makes it faster than DRAM.
CACHE
ROM
A cpu cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations. When the processor neeeds to read from or write a location in main memory, it first checks whether a copy of that data is in the cache . If so, the processor immediately reads from ot writes to the cache, which is much faster than reading from or writting to main memory.
ROM means read only memory, computer memory on which data has been prerocorded. Once data has been written onto a ROM chip, it cannot be removed and can only be read. Unlike main memory, ROM retains its contents even when the computer is turned off. ROM is reffered to be as being nonvolatile, whereas RAM is volatile.
FLASH MEMORY
Flash memory (sometimes called "flash RAM") is a type of constantly-powered non-volatile memory that can be erased and reprogrammed in units of memory called blocks. It is a variation of electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) which, unlike flash memory, is erased and rewritten at the byte level, which is slower than flash memory updating. Flash memory is often used to hold control code such as the basic input/output system (BIOS) in a personal computer. When BIOS needs to be changed (rewritten), the flash memory can be written to in block (rather than byte) sizes, making it easy to update. On the other hand, flash memory is not useful as random access memory (RAM) because RAM needs to be addressable at the byte (not the block) level.
Graphic Card
A video card, video adapter, graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card is an expansion card whose function is to generate output images to a display. Most video cards offer added functions, such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, video capture, TV-tuner adapter, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, FireWire, light pen, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors (multi-monitor). Other modern high performance video cards are used for more graphically demanding purposes, such as PC games.
Sound card
An expansion board that enables a computer to manipulate and output sounds. Sound cards are necessary for nearly all CD-ROMs and have become commonplace on modern personal computers. Sound cards enable the computer to output sound through speakers connected to the board, to record sound input from a microphone connected to the computer, and manipulate sound stored on a disk.
Nearly all sound cards support MIDI, a standard for representing music electronically. In addition, most sound cards are Sound Blaster-compatible, which means that they can process commands written for a Sound Blaster card, the de facto standard for PC sound.
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 And Play
Plug and Play (PnP) is a capability developed by Microsoft for its Windows 95 and later operating that gives 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. A similar capability had long been built into Macintosh computers.
An Asynchronous port on the computer used to connect a serial device to the computer and capable of transmitting one bit at a time. Serial ports are typically identified on IBM compatible computers as COM (communications) ports. For example, a mouse might be connected to COM1 and a modem to COM2. With the introduction of USB, FireWire, and other faster solutions serial ports are rarely used when compared to how often they've been used in the past. To the right is a close up of a DB9serial port on the back of a computer.
A parallel interface for connecting an external device such as a printer. Most personal have both a parallel port and at least one serial port.
On PCs, the parallel port uses a 25-pin connector (type DB-25) and is used to connect printers, computers and other devices that need relatively high bandwidth. It is often called a Centronics interface after the company that designed the original standard for parallel communication between a computer and printer. (The modern parallel interface is based on a design by Epson.)
A USB port is a standard cable connection interface on personal computers and consumer electronics. USB ports allow stand-alone electronic devices to be connected via cables to a computer (or to each other).USB stands for Universal Serial Bus, an industry standard for short-distance digital data communications. USB allows data to be transferred between devices. USB ports can also supply electric power across the cable to devices without their own power source.
Firewire ports are forms of a serial port that make use of FireWire technology to transfer data rapidly from one electronic device to another. The FireWire port has been in common use since 1995, when Apple, Inc. first began to include the port on a number of digital camcorders. Today, the FireWire port is used on a number of other devices.
As a multi-platform serial bus, the FireWire port has the ability to interact with a number of different devices. For example, a FireWire connection can provide an ideal way to connect a scanner to a computer system. Because the transfer rate of a FireWire port can reach up to 400Mbps, the data transfer is relatively fast and also results in excellent quality.
An Ethernet port is an opening on computer network equipment that Ethernet cables plug into. These ports are alternatively called jacks or sockets. Ethernet ports accept cables with RJ-45 connectors.
HDMI
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is an industry standard for creating audio and video connections between high-definition electronic devices. HDMI supports two-way digital communication between the video source and the video display with one cable. The simple cabling scheme has made HDMI popular for home theatre setups.
Graphical User Interface
Short for Graphical User Interface, the GUI was first developed at Xerox PARC by Alan Kay, Douglas Engelbart, and a group of other researchers in 1981. Later Apple introduced the Lisa computer, the first commercially available computer on January 19,1983. A GUI uses windows, icons, and menus to carry out commands such as opening files, deleting files, moving files, etc. and although many GUI Operating Systems are operated by using a mouse, the keyboard can also be used by using keyboard shortcutsor arrow keys.
Unlike a command line operating system like Unix or MS-DOS, GUI Operating Systems are much easier for end-users to learn and use because commands do not need to be known or memorized. Because of their ease of use, GUI Operating Systems have become the dominant operating system used by end-users today.
Word Processor
Using a computer to create, edit, and print documents. Of all computer applications, word processing is the most common. To perform word processing, you need a computer, a special program called a word processor, and a printer. A word processor enables you to create a document, store it electronically on a disk, display it on a screen, modify it by enteringcommands and characters from the keyboard, and print it on a printer.
The great advantage of word processing over using a typewriter is that you can make changes without retyping the entire document. If you make a typing mistake, you simply back up the cursor and correct your mistake. If you want todelete a paragraph, you simply remove it, without leaving a trace. It is equally easy to insert a word, sentence, or paragraph in the middle of a document. Word processors also make it easy to move sections of text from one place to another within a document, or between documents. When you have made all the changes you want, you can send the file to a printer to get a hardcopy
Spreadsheet
A table of values arranged in rows and columns. Each value can have a predefined relationship to the other values. If you change one value, therefore, you may need to change other values as well.
Spreadsheet applications (sometimes referred to simply as spreadsheets) are computer programs that let you create and manipulate spreadsheets electronically. In a spreadsheet application, each value sits in a cell. You can define what type of data is in each cell and how different cells depend on one another. The relationships between cells are called formulas, and the namesof the cells are called labels.
Once you have defined the cells and the formulas for linking them together, you can enter your data. You can then modify selected values to see how all the other values change accordingly. This enables you to study various what-if scenarios.
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DBMS
DBMS or Data Base Management System can be designated as one of the oldest application of the computers. DBMS is actually a software program which is specially designed for managing the databases, which are available on a network or on a system hard drive, at a particular point of time. Many type of database management systems are available, some of them are specially designed to manage the specific databases of a particular purpose. This article provides information about various advantages and applications of the modern DBMS system.
Utility Suites
Utility suites were more appealing when Windows included fewer safety and maintenance features than it does now, but all three currently available suites are worth considering if you want an all-in-one toolkit handy for maintenance and cleanup. All include antivirus as well, but they're not full-blown Internet security suites. As the market for utility suites has waned, vendors have been sluggish in updating them. None supports the Firefox browser, for example, although all include Internet cleanup features.
Web Authoring
A category of software that enables the user to develop a Web site in a desktop publishing format. The software will generate the required HTML coding for the layout of the Web pages based on what the user designs. Typically, the user can toggle back and forth between the graphical design and the HTML code and make changes to the Web page in either the design of the accompanying code.
Audio Editting Software
In Music, Audio editing is the process of taking recorded sound and changing it directly on the recording medium.
Audio editing was a new technology that developed in the middle part of the 20th century with the advent of magnetic tape recording. Originally, editing was done on reel-to-reel tape machines and edits were made with straight razors and special tape to connect pieces of tape that had been cut. Audio editors would listen to recorded tapes at low volumes, and then located specific sounds using a process called scrubbing, which is the slow rocking back and forth of the tape reels across the playback heads of the tape deck.
With the development of microcomputer technology, and specifically the Macintosh, Sound Recordists were able to digitize their recordings and edit them as files on a computer's hard disk. The computer programs responsible for this task are known as digital audio editors.
Bitmap Image
A bitmap is one of many types of file formats for images stored in a computerized form. It carries the extension .BMP. Computers use bits of1 and 0 to store data. A bitmap is literally a map of bits that form a particular picture when rendered to a display like a computer monitor. To understand how a bitmap image displays, it’s important to understand the computer display screen. The display is made up of rows and columns of tiny blocks, or pixels. In a bitmap image, each pixel is assigned at least one bit to indicate whether the pixel should reflect the background color, the foreground color, or some other color. In the case of a page of black and white text, let’s consider a single letter. The many pixels that make up that letter only require one bit of data each. Either the pixel will be black or white: 1 or 0. When a bitmap displays a colored image, such as a lake scene, there are several shades of gradation in colors and lighting. In this case, each pixel in the bitmap might have 16, 24, or 48 bits of information associated with it. The more bits, the greater the resolution of the bitmap– and the larger the file.
Desktop Publishing Programme Using a personal computer or workstation to produce high-quality printeddocuments. A desktop publishing system allows you to use different typefaces, specify various margins and justifications, and embed illustrations and graphs directly into the text. The most powerful desktop publishing systems enable you to create illustrations, while less powerful systems let you insert illustrations created by other programs. As word-processing programs become more and more powerful, the line separating such programs from desktop publishing systems is becoming blurred. In general, though, desktop publishing applications give you more control over typographical characteristics, such as kerning, and provide moresupport for full-color output. A particularly important feature of desktop publishing systems is that they enable you to see on the display screen exactly how the document will appear when printed. Systems that support this feature are called WYSIWYGs (what you see is what you get). Until recently, hardware costs made desktop publishing systems impractical for most uses. But as the prices of personal computers and printers have fallen, desktop publishing systems have become increasingly popular for producing newsletters, brochures, books, and other documents that formerly required a typesetter.
HTML Editor Also called an authoring tool, an HTML editor is a software program that inserts HTML code as you create a HTML file. Some editors will provide a word processing GUI enabling users to create HTML documents without knowing any HTML code. For example, many HTML editors work not only with HTML, but also with related technologies such as CSS, XML and JavaScript or ECMAScript. In some cases they also manage communication with remote web servers via FTP and WebDAV, and version management systems such as CVS or Subversion.
Image Editor A graphics program that provides a variety of special features for altering bit-mapped images. The difference between image editors and paint programsis not always clear-cut, but in general image editors are specialized formodifying bit-mapped images, such as scanned photographs, whereas paint programs are specialized for creating images. In addition to offering a host of filters and image transformation algorithms, image editors also enable you to create and superimpose layers.
Multimedia The use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way. Long touted as the future revolution in computing, multimedia applications were, until the mid-90s, uncommon due to the expensive hardware required. With increases in performance and decreases in price, however, multimedia is now commonplace. Nearly all PCs are capable of displaying video, though the resolution available depends on the power of the computer's video adapter and CPU. Vector Image Vector graphics is the creation of digital images through a sequence of commands or mathematical statements that place lines and shapes in a given two-dimensional or three-dimensional space. In physics, a vector is a representation of both a quantity and a direction at the same time. In vector graphics, the file that results from a graphic artist's work is created and saved as a sequence of vector statements. For example, instead of containing a bit in the file for each bit of a line drawing, a vector graphic file describes a series of At some point, a vector image is converted into a raster graphics image, which maps bits directly to a display space (and is sometimes called a bitmap). The vector image can be converted to a raster image file prior to its display so that it can be ported between systems. |
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