Page 385 - Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

eobf_H 7/5/06 3:03 PM Page 362

Hardware

RAM functions as the work place for the CPU. It is com-
mon for a computer to have 500 megabytes of RAM.
Input devices: Computers receive information from a
variety of sources. The most common input devices are a
keyboard along with a mouse. Desktop or laptop comput-
ers are the center of a workplace, with input links from
digital cameras, handheld computers, scanners, micro-
phones, and voice commands. Some devices, such as
handheld computers, function as both input and output
devices.
Output devices: An important output device is the
computer monitor, which is increasingly lighter in weight
and flat because of new liquid crystal display units that
also enable laptop computers, cell phones, and PDAs to
have color screens. It is also common for a screen on a cell
phones or a PDA to be both an input and output device.
Computer projectors are commonly used to display
data or information onto a large screen for group viewing,
training, or showing Web sites. Many businesspeople
travel with both a portable computer and a computer pro-
jector to visually display information for training or to aid
in sales at remote sites.
The GUI and general popularity of computers have
also promoted significant changes in the hardware options
for printing. The earliest printers were essentially auto-
Apple President John Sculley, flanked by Apple co-founders, Steve matic typewriters and had little flexibility. Currently, there
Jobs and Steve Wozniak, unveiled the innovative briefcase-size are a wide variety of printers (including ink-jet and laser)
Apple IIc at San Francisco’s Moscone Center April 24, 1984. available and capable of color and black and white. The
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output has improved to near-professional quality prints.
While many people have talked about paperless offices for
decades, the popularity of printing devices and variety of
papers attests to current uses.
Additionally, computers that are “servers” have taken Connection devices: Because of the increasing popular-
on increased importance as the Internet has become so ity and use of the Internet, all desktop and laptop units
integral to commerce. A server can either connect a clus- contain built-in network interface capability. Most newer
ter of computers, or be used to store Web pages that can laptops also come with the ability to use wireless commu-
be retrieved by users. Most such computers are classified nications. The network interface normally uses an Ether-
as minicomputers and can process many connections. net protocol, and these devices offer both input and
They typically use the UNIX operating system. output capability. Wireless technology allows users con-
tinual connectivity while out of the office. This has revo-
COMPUTER COMPONENTS lutionized everything from allowing the police to
Central processing unit (CPU): The CPU is at the heart of immediately trace stolen vehicles to an on-site roofing
all computers. All data pass through it. The CPU is “the salesperson checking stock on particular colors of roofing.
computing part of the computer. Also called the proces- Multimedia: Computers can reproduce both sound
sor.… A complete computer system requires the addition and video. Material can come from standard audio com-
of control units, input, output, and storage devices and an pact disks but increasingly more of it is from the Internet.
operating system” (CMP Net Online Encyclopedia). Micro- Users can also view and/or edit both still and digital pic-
computers/personal computers commonly run at 2 giga- tures or video.
hertz per second. Mainframe computers measure their Storage Devices: All computers use a hard drive to
speed in millions of instructions per second. store programs and files. The size of an average hard drive
Random access memory (RAM): RAM consists of is about 100 gigabytes. That size would have been consid-
microchips that allow for the temporary storage of data. ered enormous as recently as 2000. Further, changes have

362 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE, SECOND EDITION