Unit 11: Vocabulary

A computer's built-in firmware program, which initializes various system components during bootup, and prepares them for later use by the OS.

The technician needed to upgrade the BIOS before installing a faster processor in the workstation.

A collection of integrated circuits on the motherboard designed to perform certain tasks such as controlling components and system buses.

Speccing a low-end chipset is not a good way to save money when building a new PC.

Any computer processor or portion of the CPU which assists the main processor with a highly specialized task.

Many older microprocessors included a coprocessor to speed up floating-point calculations.

A component of a computer which is designed to convert a binary image stored in memory to a display medium.

The latest and greatest games normally require the latest and greatest graphics cards.

A specialized coprocessor designed to handle graphical calculations such as 3D modeling and games.

Most computers come specced with a weak GPU embedded into the motherboard and designed for business applications and simple 2D games.

An electronic device constructed from microscopic transistors on a single integrated circuit.

The microprocessor is often thought to be the central brain of a computer because it performs most of the calculations.

The main circuit board in a computer that carries the system buses, sockets for processors, memory modules, etc.

The processor, RAM, and PCI cards plug directly into the motherboard.

A wired or increasingly wireless PCI or USB device that connects a computer to a network.

Almost every computer that ships today has some sort of NIC, so it can attach to a network.

A standard 32-bit bus running at 132 MB/s.

The network card used a PCI bus connector which snapped into the motherboard.

A newer bus type used mainly for graphic cards and running at speeds up to 16,000 MB/s.

The boy grinned ear-to-ear when he received a new PCI Express graphics card for Christmas.

A separate unit or part of a circuit that supplies the correct amount of electrical current to a computer system.

Nick upgraded to a 600 watt power supply when he added a new graphics card and two more hard drives.

A widely used bus for connecting hard disk drives and similar devices to the motherboard.

The SSD storage device came with a SATA connection running at 6 Gbit/s.

A hardware component which allows a computer to play and record audio.

The musician installed a dedicated sound card to replace the cheap one that came with his computer.

A clear set of technical or quantitative requirements.

The lead technician became angry when his assistant bought equipment outside the specification.

A fast and convenient computer technology allowing the connection of common peripherals, such as digital cameras, scanners, external hard drives, etc.

USB technology is so fast and easy to use, it is hard to even remember what similar connection types existed before it.