Students' Guide to Information Technology, 2nd Edition

Computer

peripherals

and

applications

Using

a

computer

A

peripheral

is a device which is outside the central processing unit

of a computer but controlled by it. There are four main types of

peripheral, namely input devices such as keyboards, storage devices

such as magnetic disks, output devices such as monitors and

printers, and communication devices such as modems.

The previous chapter dealt with computers in general and

covered the work of the CPU. This chapter covers the peripheral

devices that might be connected to it. Modems and other

telecommunications devices are covered in Chapter 6.

By way of introduction, let's look at how a compute ...