Computer Peripheral devices

Computer peripheral devices are those hardware types which are added to a host computer. The purpose of adding these devices is to enhance the capabilities of the computer. Another description would be that peripheral devices are those devices which are optional in the running of a computer unlike the basic devices like the motherboard, microprocessor, RAM and Hard disk which are totally essential. Peripheral devices can be added to the computer internally with direct connections to the motherboard via cables, or externally where they are connected to the motherboard via a BUS like a USB or a Universal Serial Bus. Some common external peripheral devices include printers and scanners.

Before the personal computer came into vogue, any device other than the bare essential components such as the motherboard, RAM and CPU were considered to be peripheral devices. In the later stages Keyboards and floppy drives were considered as essentials as well when usage of computers at homes increased. Certain peripheral devices like CD ROM drives can be placed within the casing and are connected directly to the motherboard through Parallel ATA cables. The motherboards also have certain special slots like the AGP port, PCI ports and PCI express slots. These slots are used for additional peripheral devices like Video cards or sound cards. The Video cards fit in the AGP port and certain recent versions fit only into the PCI express slot as this port is much faster and efficient with video processing. Sound cards fit into the PCI slot. The PCI slot also serves many other peripheral devices like the Ethernet card, internal modem or the TV Tuner card.

The P/S 2 Port is another external connectivity port that is used to connect keyboards or the mouse. The mouse is considered a peripheral device as well. Some new port connectivity options that have been given on the motherboard include the SATA or Serial ATA port. This port is a high speed connectivity port with transfer rates of up to 1.5 gigabytes per second and is used mainly with the new hard disks. Another external connectivity method is via the USB port. It also allows high speed file transfers. There are many externally connectable peripheral devices available for use. They include CD ROM drives, DVD ROM drives, Printers, Scanners, joysticks and other gaming devices.

Peripheral devices in a computer are classified based on the purpose that they serve. The three types of peripheral devices are input devices which are used for data input, output devices for data output and storage devices which are meant for the long term storage of information. Some of the common input devices are the mouse, CD ROM, DVD ROM, USB flash drives which are nano type flash memory storage devices. Some common output devices include printers, plotters and monitor screens.

Peripheral devices for computers were very few in numbers a long time back. Today technology has changed things so fast that computer parts are sold at very low prices. Peripheral devices have also changed our ways a lot in terms of how we carry information around.

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Jeffrey Frasco is the author of this article on Computer. Find more information about CPU here.

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