Devices that communicate with the CPU but are not located directly on the motherboard, such as the monitor, floppy drive, printer, and mouse.
memory
Physical microchips that can hold data and programming, located on the motherboard or expansion cards.
parallel ATA
An older IDE cabling method that uses a 40–pin flat or round data cable or an 80–conductor cable and a 40–pin IDE connector. See also serial ATA.
monitor
The most commonly used output device for displaying text and graphics on a computer.
motherboard
The main board in the computer, Also called the system board. The CPU, ROM chips, DIMMs, RIMMs, and interface cards are plugged into the motherboard.
parallel port
A female 25–pin port on a computer that can transmit data in parallel, 8 bits at a time, and is usually used with a printer. The names for parallel ports are LPT1 and LPT2.
port
(1) As applied to services running on a computer, a number assigned to a process on a computer so that the process can be found by TCP/IP. Also called a port address or port number. (2) Another name for an I/O address. See also I/O address.
main board
See motherboard.
program
A set of step–by–step instructions to a computer. Some are burned directly into chips, while others are stored as program files. Programs are written in languages such as Visual Basic and C++.
power supply
A box inside the computer case that supplies power to the motherboard and other installed devices. Power supplies provide 3.3, 5, and 12 volts DC. Also called a power supply unit
