System Unit

Serial Port
A port, or interface, that can be used for serial communication, in which only 1 bit is transmitted at a time. Most serial ports on personal computers conform to the RS-232C or RS-422 standards. A serial port is a general-purpose interface that can be used for almost any type of device, including modems, mice, and printers (although most printers are connected to a paralle port).

Parallel Port
A parallel interface for connecting an external device such as a printer. Most personal computers have both a parallel port and at least one serial port. On PCs, the parallel port uses a 25-pin connector (type DB-25) and is used to connect printers, computers and other devices that need relatively high bandwidth. It is often called a Centronics interface after the company that designed the original standard for parallel communication between a computer and printer. (The modern parallel interface is based on a design by Epson.)

Universal Serial Bus
A computer interface with a maximum bandwidth of 1.5 Megabytes per second used for connecting computer peripherals such as printers, keyboards and scanners.

Firewire Port
Firewire ports are forms of a serial port that make use of FireWire technology to transfer data rapidly from one electronic device to another. The FireWire port has been in common use since 1995, when Apple, Inc. first began to include the port on a number of digital camcorders. Today, the FireWire port is used on a number of other devices. A FireWire port can reach up to 400 Mbps, the data transfer is relatively fast and also results in excellent quality.

Expansion Card

An integrated circuit card that plugs into an expansion slot on a motherboard to provide access to additional peripherals or features not built into the motherboard. Also known as an add-on card, internal card or interface adapter, an expansion card is an electronic board or card added in a desktop computer or other non-portable computer to give that computer a new ability, such as the ability to connect to another computer using a network cable. Below is a list of expansion cards that could be installed in a an available expansion slot.

Network Interface Card (NIC)

A network interface card is used to connect a computer to an Ethernet network. The card (shown in the figure below) provides an interface to the media. This may be either using an external transceiver (as shown) or through an internal integrated transceiver mounted on the network interface card PCB. The card usually also contains the protocol control firmware and Ethernet Controller needed to support the Medium Access Control (MAC) data link protocol used by Ethernet.


Plug and Play

Plug and Play technology provides a combination of software and hardware support that enables the Windows operating system to detect and configure hardware with little or no user involvement. It framework defines several base components that can be implemented in any environment. Buses, devices, and resources are abstracted from the base components via hardware-specific enumerators, arbitrators, and device drivers. This ensures that the framework is extensible not only to other environments but to future bus and device architectures.

Sockets

A server application normally listens to a specific port waiting for connection requests from a client. When a connection request arrives, the client and the server establish a dedicated connection over which they can communicate. During the connection process, the client is assigned a local port number, and binds a socket to it. The client talks to the server by writing to the socket and gets information from the server by reading from it. Similarly, the server gets a new local port number (it needs a new port number so that it can continue to listen for connection requests on the original port). The server also binds a socket to its local port and communicates with the client by reading from and writing to it.

Chips

Chip" is short for microchip, the incredibly complex yet tiny modules that store computer memory or provide logic circuitry for microprocessors. Perhaps the best known chips are the Pentium microprocessors from Intel. The PowerPC microprocessor, developed by Apple, Motorola, and IBM, is used in Macintosh personal computers and some workstations. AMD and Cyrix also make popular microprocessor chips.
Slots

Buslines

It is a line for bus to transfers data between computer components inside a computer or between computers.

Careers in IT

Webmaster

The webmaster is the person in charge of creating, managing, and maintaining one or more Web site. He or she has the specialized knowledge and skills to maintain the integrity of the site's content and its embedded links (hyperlinks), updates the information as often as required, and attends to the questions and problems of the site's users. The jobs of a webmaster include writing HTML for Web pages, organizing the Web site's structure, responding to e-mails about the Web site, and keeping the site up-to-date. On some Web sites you might see a phrase that says, "send dead links and other Web site problems to webmaster@domainame.com." At times, being a webmaster can be a rather arduous job.

Computer support specialist

Computer support specialists help people with computer problems. Some computer support specialists called help-desk technicians field phone calls or e- mails or make house calls for people who are having difficulty with a particular piece of computer hardware or software.Most of these people who need help have no technical expertis. Other computer support specialists known as technical support specialists provide support to people in the information processing department of a company. In addition to troubleshooting problems, they may be responsible for the operation of the company's computer systems.Still other support specialists specialize in setting up computer systems that are delivered to customers. This includes installing the operating system (the program that tells the computer how to run software programs loaded onto it) and any software the client will need.All computer support positions require strong analytical thinking and problem- solving abilities. Support specialists must write technical reports about the problems they encounter.

Technical writer

A technical writer is often tasked with writing documentation that explains technical issues in ways that non-technical people can understand. A technical writer might be responsible for writing the how-to manual for a software application. Technical writers are often copy writers and vice-versa.

Software engineer

A software engineer is a licensed professional engineer who is schooled and skilled in the application of engineering discipline to the creation of software. A software engineer is often confused with a programmer, but the two are vastly different disciplines. While a programmer creates the codes that make a program run, a software engineer creates the designs the programmer implements. By U.S. law no person may use the title "engineer" (of any type) unless the person holds a professional engineering license from a state licensing board and are in good standing. A software engineer is also held accountable to a specific code of ethics.

Network administrator

A person who manages a local area communications network (LAN) within an organization. Responsibilities include network security, installing new applications, distributing software upgrades, monitoring daily activity, enforcing licensing agreements, developing a storage management program and providing for routine backups.

Database administrator

A database administrator (DBA) is similar to a database developer or designer except that the DBA's key responsibilities is ensuring that a database is available at all to the users and programs that need it. This includes making backups and archiving data. It also includes on-going monitoring to ensure that the database is responding to requests quickly. Sometimes the DBA has some hardware knowledge so that the appropriate servers can be purchased so that the database's performance is not impacted by hardware bottlenecks.

System analyst

A system analyst is the person who selects and configures computer systems for an organization or business. His or her job typically begins with determining the intended purpose of the computers. This means the analyst must understand the general objectives of the business, as well as what each individual user's job requires. Once the system analyst has determined the general and specific needs of the business, he can choose appropriate systems that will help accomplish the goals of the business.

Programmer

Before the Internet became widely used, most custom software development fell in to the category of client/server software. The "client", in this case, was an end-user's computer and the "server" was often a powerful computer located in a computer room either on-site or off-site. The workload would be shared by both the client and the server. This contrasts with most web development in that most of the work is being performed by the server. The client is usually just responsible for displaying the user interface and forwarding an end-user's requests to the server.
Thus, the computer programmer is the one who would write the code that would run on the client as well as the code that would run on the server. Because the client often had Microsoft Windows installed, there was often less graphic design needed for the user interface because many of the screen elements were standardized.