Secondary Storage

File Compression

File compression is when the volume or size of a file is decreased or compressed to a smaller volume. Thus, the file occupies a smaller space on your removable storage device. This process is usually done for example, to send a file through the web or online. This makes the sending and receiving process easier as the process is faster the smaller the file is.







Head Crash

A head crash is a serious disk drive malfunction. It is the term given when the 'head' (something that reads the data on the disk) that usually hovers over the disk is misaligned and scratches or even touches the disk. When this happens, a lot of the data and information stored on the disk will be lost.



Internet Hard Drive

It is basically like a storage space but online. Sites engineered for this will allow the user a certain amount or storage space and the user can store pictures, texts and any type of computer file into this storage space on the site. Therefore, the user can be anywhere in the world with an internet connection and will be able to access the files saved on the site.




Optical Disc Drive

An optical disc drive is a driver that stores or retrieves data from an optical disc (CD/DVD). An optical disc is a disc that can store large amounts of information or data.





Solid-state storage

This term means that the storage device does not have movable parts as part of its mechanism. This means that devices like these are more stable and durable than storage devices with movable mechanisms like the external hard drive which can malfunction if it is dropped. Solid-state storage devices would include the infamous USB or pendrive or flash drives or memory cards.

Input and Output

Erganomic Keyboard



It is a specially designed keyboard that allows the end-users to type more comfortably and reduce muscle strain due to its unique design. The keyboard was seperated into 2 halves right in the middle. This was done because our hands are simply designed to be more comfortable in a certain position that this keyboard encourages.






Ink-jet printer

This printer is specifically designed to produce high-quality images on paper. It places extremely small droplets of ink very precisely according to their position, colour and shade. The printer provides a very high resolution as well. The combination of all these qualities will then provide the user with a good quality print.

Laser Printer

The laser printer works similarly to how a photocopier works. The laser beam within this machine scans the image or the text onto the paper instead of printing or placing ink on the paper the way an ink-jet does. Compared to the ink-jet, the laser printer can produce better quality black text documents and runs at a much lower cost per page than the ink-jet printer.




Magnetic-ink character recognition (MICR)

It is a font capable of recognition using magnetically charged ink. Computers equipped with the right hardware and software can print or read the character printed in such ink. It is widely used by backs to print cheque serial numbers, deposit slips and so on.









Optical-character recognition (OCR)

An OCR is used to scan texts or graphics in a physical form onto the computer. It operates such that it scans the page as a bitmap or a page of dots. The scanner detects the white space background against the black print of the text and identifies each letter accordingly. This makes the transfer of texts or information form a physical form to an electronic form efficiently.



Optical-mark recognition

System Unit

Flash Memory



Flash memories are inserted into USBs

 A flash memory device is a chip that can retain its data without power supply. It means to say that once the computer is off, it is possible to store information and data in the flash memory even after the computer is switched off.







Graphic cards

Graphic cards are cards that allow to generate output images to a display. They are normally used to enhance the quality of the images on the computer used. For example, graphic cards are used to enhance the image quality while playing video games.





Sound cards

Sound cards facilitate the input and output of audio signals to and from the computer under the control of particular programs. It is usually used to add or provide the music component to music composition softwares, games and etc.






Network Interface Cards (NIC)

An NIC allows computers to communicate over a computer network. It serves as an interface between the networked devices and the connecting wires. It is basically a computer circuit board or card that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to a network.






Plug and Play

Plug and Play is a term which was created by Microsoft to mean the capability to plug a device into a computer and have the computer recognize that the device is there. Therefore, unlike in the past, a device can be installed and used as part of a computer with ease.








Bus Line

The bus lines are the communicating electronic lines that connect different parts of the CPU to various other parts. In addition, the bus lines also link the CPU to different parts on the system board of your computer. The bus lines are like multilane pathway which means that the more bus lines there are on the system the greater is the rate of transfer of data along the bus, which means that the computer can run efficiently and will perform operations at a faster rate.

HDMI

HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. It is a digital video and audio connection system used to connect a variety of audio/video components, particularly high-definition video (HDTV). It is structured such that both HD video and digital audio can run through one HDMI cable without any loss in quality.




Cache Memory

It is a cache that is used by the CPU 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. For instance, because the end user frequently opens a certain software or application, the window pops up immediately upon the switching on of the computer (MSN).