A Typical Personal Computer

 

A Typical Personal Computer.

A typical personal computer comprises:

• a system unit;
• a monitor;
• a keyboard;
• a mouse
• and some peripheral devices.

The system unit contains a power supply unit, a system board (or a main board) with video and sound cards, sometimes a net card, one or several hard disk drives, a floppy disk drive, a CD ROM drive or a CD burner (sometimes a DVD player or burner). In some computers the video and sound cards are integrated into the main board.

The keyboard is an input device. It is used for typing characters of commands and texts. It contains letter keys, number keys and some other specialized keys.

The mouse is an input device used for running programs, entering various commands and manipulating screen elements. It usually has some buttons, one or two scroll wheels and a ball. An optical mouse has no ball at all.

The monitor is a device with a screen that displays characters and graphics. It is usually connected to a video card. The sharpness of the image depends on the number of dots per inch (dpi) or pixels, which is the resolution. The monitor has various controls for adjusting brightness, contrast, size and position of the image.

The floppy disk drive (FDD) is a device for reading data from floppy disks (diskettes) and writing on them. It is usually called drive A.

The hard disk drive (HDD) is a device for reading, writing and storing data. It is usually called drive C. The HDD is able to store a very big amount of information.

The CD ROM drive is a device for working with compact disks. It cannot write but it can read software CDs and playback video, audio and other types of CDs. The CD burner can write various types of data on CDs.

Different peripheral devices can be connected to the computer. Such devices may be: a printer, a scanner, an audio system etc.

Vocabulary

comprise system unit monitor keyboard mouse peripheral device contain power supply (unit) system board (main board) video card sound card net card several hard disk drive (HDD) floppy disk drive (FDD) CD ROM drive CD burner DVD player are integrated into input type character contain key number specialized run programs enter various screen button

scroll wheel at all display graphics is connected to sharpness image depend on number dots per inch (dpi) pixels resolution various controls adjust brightness contrast size position data diskette is called storing is able to store amount software playback
peripheral devices
be connected to such etc. – et cetera