What is a Peripheral?
A peripheral is any item (or “device”) that is outside of the main computer box, but attached to it. Your monitor (except for iMacs) is actually a peripheral device, and so are your mouse, keyboard, and printer. Scanners, many CD writers, and external hard disks are peripherals. Devices that are internal (built in) on some machines might be external devices, or peripherals, on another. For instance, I have a little, lightweight PowerBook that has no built-in CD drive, but I bought an external CD drive that I can attach when I need it, so that CD drive is a peripheral. Many computers have built-in modems, others use modems as peripheral devices.
The main computer box is often called a CPU, although the CPU itself is actually ...
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