Computer hardware

Hardware is a comprehensive term for all of the physical parts of a
computer, as distinguished from the data it contains or operates on, and the
software that provides instructions for the hardware to acoomplish tasks.
The boundary between hardware and software is slightly blurry - firmware is
software that is "built-in" to the hardware, but such firmware is usually
the province of computer programmers and computer engineers in any case and
not an issue that computer users need to concern themselves with.

A typical computer (Personal Computer, PC) contains in a desktop or tower
case the following parts:

   * Motherboard which holds the CPU, main memory and other parts, and has
     slots for expansion cards
   * power supply - a case that holds a transformer, voltage control and fan
   * storage controllers, of IDE, SCSI or other type, that control hard disk
     , floppy disk, CD-ROM and other drives; the controllers sit directly on
     the motherboard (on-board) or on expansion cards
   * graphics controller that produces the output for the monitor
   * the hard disk, floppy disk and other drives for mass storage
   * interface controllers (parallel, serial, USB, Firewire) to connect the
     computer to external peripheral devices such as printers or scanners

   * Computer architecture
        o Central Processing Unit - CPU
        o Motherboard
             + PCI Bus
             + ISA Bus
             + USB
             + AGP
   * Storage
        o Compact disc
        o What is a disk versus what is a disc
        o DVD
        o Floppy disk
        o Hard disk
        o Punch card
        o RAM
        o Tape Drive
   * Input/Output
        o Braille Embosser
        o CD-ROM
        o Keyboard
        o Monitor
        o Mouse
        o Computer Speech Recognition
        o Computer Speech Synthesis
        o DVD-ROM
        o Digitizing Tablet
        o Graphics card
        o Joystick
        o Joypad
        o Modem
        o Network card
        o Plotter
        o Printer
        o Refreshable Braille Display
        o Scanner
        o Sound card
        o Touch screen
        o Trackball
        o Webcam
        o Pointing devices

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