Computer
It will be no surprise to read that all these peculiar looking photographs are of computers parts. But most of us haven’t the remotest idea what these items are called and even less of an idea what they do or how they do it. The names of computer components include adapter, AUIs, auxiliary device, bus mouse, buffer, cable modem, chip, central processing unit, disk drive, graphic card, hard drive, hub, motherboard, printed circuit board, router, serial port, flash drive and even ZIF socket.
Collectively all these bits and pieces are called computers hardware; the actual physical components of a computer.
A chip for example is a small piece of semiconductor (usually silicon) on which an integrated circuit is embedded. Computers have many of them placed on an electronic board called a printed circuit board.
A hard drive, or hard disk, is a magnetic disk for storing computer data.
A motherboard, or mobo in computer jargon, is the central or main circuit board which makes up an electronic system such as a computer, and houses all chips required to control such things as the monitor, keyboard, latex printer etc.
The list is almost endless and surfing the web will find them all with respective explanations. However, electronics is so complex that most of us will remain just as clueless in the end.
Perhaps one of the strangest of terms is vampire tap. Actually its not as sinister as it sounds. It helps administrators make connections without interrupting communications. A bit like sinking teeth into a data-carrying cable!