Sound Card A sound card is a hardware component in a computer that provides an interface for audio input and output. A typical sound card includes at least two 3.5mm audio jacks — one for analog stereo output and one for line-in or microphone input. It uses a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to convert digital audio …
Southbridge The southbridge is a chip that connects the northbridge to other components inside the computer, including hard drives, network connections, USB and Firewire devices, the system clock, and standard PCI cards. The southbridge sends and receives data from the CPU through the northbridge chip, which is connected directly to the computer’s processor. Since the …
Speakers Speakers are one of the most common output devices used with computer systems. Some speakers are designed to work specifically with computers, while others can be hooked up to any type of sound system. Regardless of their design, the purpose of speakers is to produce audio output that can be heard by the listener. …
Storage Device A computer storage device is any type of hardware that stores data. The most common type of storage device, which nearly all computers have, is a hard drive. The computer’s primary hard drive stores the operating system, applications, and files and folders for users of the computer. While the hard drive is the …
Stylus A stylus is an input device that looks and acts like a pen. Instead of drawing with ink, it sends a digital signal to a compatible touchscreen, which interprets the pressure as drawing on the screen. A basic stylus is a thin plastic rod tapered on the end like a pen. Early PDAs such …
Supercomputer As the name implies, a supercomputer is no ordinary computer. It is a high performance computing machine designed to have extremely fast processing speeds. Supercomputers have various applications, such as performing complex scientific calculations, modeling simulations, and rendering large amounts of 3D graphics. They may also be built to simply showcase the leading edge …
Superscalar A superscalar CPU can execute more than one instruction per clock cycle. Because processing speeds are measured in clock cycles per second (megahertz), a superscalar processor will be faster than a scalar processor rated at the same megahertz. A superscalar architecture includes parallel execution units, which can execute instructions simultaneously. This parallel architecture was …
Surface Surface is a tablet PC developed by Microsoft. The first Surface model was released on October 26, 2012, the same day as Windows 8 and Windows RT. The Surface is a hybrid device that combines the features of a tablet and a laptop. It does not require any external input devices and can be …
Surge Protector The surge protector is an important, yet often overlooked part of a computer setup. It allows multiple devices to plugged in to it at one time and protects each connected device from power surges. For example, a home office may have a computer, monitor, printer, cable modem, and powered speakers all plugged into …
Switch A switch is a piece of networking hardware that links multiple devices together on a network. Switches are typically small, flat boxes that contain a group of Ethernet ports — as few as 4 on a small home office switch that sits on a desk, or up to several dozen on a rack-mounted enterprise …