IBM Compatible The personal computer market in the early 1980’s consisted primarily of Apple and IBM computers. Apple’s systems ran a proprietary operating system developed by Apple, while IBM machines primarily ran PC-DOS. As the demand for personal computers began to grow, IBM decided to license the DOS operating system to other manufacturers. These companies …
Impact Printer An impact printer is a type of printer that operates by striking a metal or plastic head against an ink ribbon. The ink ribbon is pressed against the paper, marking the page with the appropriate character, dot, line, or symbol. Common examples of impact printers include dot matrix, daisy-wheel printers, and ball printers. …
Inkjet Inkjet printers are the most common type of consumer printers. The inkjet technology works by spraying very fine drops of ink on a sheet of paper. These droplets are “ionized” which allows them to be directed by magnetic plates in the ink’s path. As the paper is fed through the printer, the print head …
Input Device An input device is any device that provides input to a computer. There are dozens of possible input devices, but the two most common ones are a keyboard and mouse. Every key you press on the keyboard and every movement or click you make with the mouse sends a specific input signal to …
Integrated Circuit An integrated circuit, or IC, is small chip that can function as an amplifier, oscillator, timer, microprocessor, or even computer memory. An IC is a small wafer, usually made of silicon, that can hold anywhere from hundreds to millions of transistors, resistors, and capacitors. These extremely small electronics can perform calculations and store …
Interface The term “interface” can refer to either a hardware connection or a user interface. It can also be used as a verb, describing how two devices connect to each other. A hardware interface is used to connect two or more electronic devices together. For example, a printer typically connects to a computer via a …
Internal Hard Drive An internal hard drive is a hard drive that resides inside the computer. Most computers come with a single internal hard drive, which includes the operating system and pre-installed applications. While laptop computers only have room for one internal hard drive, some desktop computers have multiple hard drive bays, which allows for …
iPad The iPad is a tablet computer developed by Apple. It is smaller than a typical laptop, but significantly larger than the average smartphone. The iPad does not include a keyboard or a trackpad, but instead has a touchscreen interface, which is used to control the device. Like the iPhone, the iPad runs Apple’s iOS …
iPhone The iPhone is a smartphone developed by Apple. The first iPhone was released in June, 2007 and an updated version has been released roughly every year since then. While the iPhone was originally only available to AT&T customers, the iPhone 4 was released on the Verizon network in February, 2010. The iPhone has a …
iPod The iPod was a series of portable media players made by Apple. It came in multiple form factors over five separate product lines. An iPod synced music from a person’s iTunes music library, allowing them to carry part of their music collection anywhere. The iPod could play a variety of audio formats like MP3 …