Introduction to IT

Expansion card is an electronic circuit board or card that adds more functionality to a desktop computer or other non-portable computer to give that computer a new ability, such as the ability to connect to another computer using a network cable.

It also known as an add-on card, internal card or interface adapter. Expansion cards are installed into the expansion slot of a computer motherboard. Video cards and sound cards are common examples of PC expansion cards. A new video card added will enhance the three dimensional graphics processing power of a computer while a new sound card may improve a computer’s audio input. Laptops do not use standard cards due to their small form factor. A laptop expansion card can be in the form of a removable PCMCIA card that offers additional functionalities to it.



Network Interface Card (NIC) is a computer circuit board or card that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to an Ethernet network. The card provides an interface to the media.
This may be either using an external transceiver or through an internal intergrated transceiver mounted in the network interface card PCB. 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 & Play is a capability developed by Microsoft for its Windows 95 and later operating systems that gives users the ability to plug a device into a computer and have the computer recognize that the device is there. It is a term used to describe the characteristic of a computer bus, or device specification, which facilitates the discovery of a hardware component in a system, without the need for physical device configuration, or user intervention in resolving resource conflicts.


Sockets or slot is an electrical component that attaches to a printed circuit board (PCB) and is designed to house a CPU. It is a special type of integrated circuit socket designed for very high pin counts.
A CPU socket provides many functions, including providing a physical structure to support the CPU, providing support for a heatsink, facilitating replacement and most importantly forming an electrical interface both with the CPU and the PCB. CPU sockets can most often be found in most desktop and server computers, particularly those based on the Intel x86 architecture on the motherboard.



Chips is a small piece of semiconducting material on which an integrated circuit is embedded. A typical chip is less than quarter square inches and can contain millions of electronic components, for example transistors. Computers consist of many chips placed on electronic boards called printed circuit boards. There are different types of chips. For example, CPU chips contain an entire processing unit, whereas memory chips contain blank memory. Chips come in a variety of packages. The three most common are DIPs, PGAs and SIPs.



Slots is an opening in a computer where a circuit board can be inserted to add new capabilities to the computer. Nearly all personal computers except portables contain expansion slots for adding more memory, graphics capabilities, and support for special devices. The boards inserted into the expansion slots are called expansion boards, expansion cards , cards , add-ins , and add-ons. Expansion slots for PCs come in two basic sizes: half- and full-size. Half-size slots are also called 8-bit slots because they can transfer 8 bits at a time. Full-size slots are sometimes called 16-bit slots. In addition, modern PCs include PCI slots for expansion boards that connect directly to the PCI bus.



Bus lines is a set of parallel wires in a computer to which the central processing unit and all input-output units are connected. Each separate wire carries the electric current representing 1 bit. Buses interconnect the parts of the computer that communicate with each other, such as a video card or modem.



The Serial Port is a type of connection on PCs that is used for peripherals such as mice, gaming controllers, modems, and older printers. It is sometimes called a COM port or an RS-232 port, which is its technical name. If that's not enough to confuse you, there are two types of serial ports which is DB9 and DB25. DB9 is a 9-pin connection, and DB25 is, you guessed it, a 25-pin connection. A serial port can only transmit one bit of data at a time.



Parallel Ports is an interface is found on the back of older PCs and is used for connecting external devices such as printers or a scanners. It uses a 25-pin connector (DB-25) and is rather large compared to most new interfaces. The parallel port is sometimes called a Centronics interface, since Centronics was the company that designed the original parallel port standard. It is sometimes also referred to as a printer port because the printer is the device most commonly attached to the parallel port. The latest parallel port standard, which supports the same connectors as the Centronics interface, is called the Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP). This standard supports bi-directional communication and can transfer data up to ten times faster than the original Centronics port. However, since the parallel port is a rather dated technology, don't be surprised to see USB or Firewire interfaces completely replace parallel ports in the future.



Universal Serial Bus Port is a place on the computer where you can attach a cable for connecting a printer, keyboard or moderm. USB is a widely used hardware interface for attaching a maximum of 127 peripheral devices to a computer. There are usually at least two USB ports on laptops and four USB ports on desktop computers. After appearing on PCs in 1997, USB quickly became popular for connecting keyboards, mice, printers and external drives and eventually replaced the PC's serial and parallel ports.


Firewire Ports is a serial bus interface standard for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer, frequently used by personal computers, as well as in digital audio, digital video, automotive, and aeronautics applications. The interface is also known by the brand names of FireWire (Apple), i.LINK (Sony), and Lynx (Texas Instruments). IEEE 1394 replaced parallel SCSI in many applications, because of lower implementation costs and a simplified, more adaptable cabling system. The 1394 standard also defines a backplane interface, though this is not as widely used.