1
Q
What is a USB port?
A
- Universal serial bus (USB) and it is a standard cable interface for personal and consumer electronic devices.
- USB ports allow USB devices to be connected to each other with and transfer digital data over USB cables.
2
Q
Give some USB features?
A
- Maximum 127 peripherals can be connected to a single
- Maximum speed of up to 480 Mbps
- Length of individual USB cable can reach up to 5 metres
3
Q
What is a firewire port?
A
- Similar to USB, it is external connector that provides high speed connection between a computer and peripheral devices.
- Two types of firewire:
Firewire 400: 6 pin connector and supports data transfers up to 400 Mbitsps
Firewire 800: 9 pin connector and supports data transfer up to 800 mbps
4
Q
Give some characteristics of a firewire port?
A
- Supports plug and play, so you can plug in a device and the system will automatically recognise it.
- Supports hot plugging (do not have to restart system for device to be recognise)
- Distributes power
- Considered as a high speed interface so you can use it for connecting peripherals devices that require fast data transfer speeds.
5
Q
What is a network port?
A
- Provides users access to local network and the internet
- Can refer to two things the network access point, such as the home router, and the second refers to the actual location where a network cable plugs into an access point or a computer.
6
Q
Characteristic of a network port?
A
- external devices such as routers are connected to a computer using a cable and ports.
7
Q
What is a sound expansion card?
A
- enables computer to manipulate, record and output sounds
- Necessary for all CD-ROMS and have become common on modern computers
8
Q
Characteristics of a sound expansion card?
A
- Full duplex mode: play and record sound simultaneously whereas half can only do one at a time
- ability to generate multiple simultaneous voices when playing MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
9
Q
What is a network expansion card?
A
- Used to control exchange of data between computers and network.
- Most of them designed for particular type of network, such as Ethernet or token ring.
10
Q
Characteristics of a network expansion card?
A
- Status indicator light
- Network adapter card will have one or more ports
- Physical network address (Mac address) - burned onto the card by the card manufacturer.
11
Q
What is a graphics expansion card?
A
- Used to control and produce videos on the monitor
12
Q
Characteristics of a graphics expansion card?
A
- GPU clock speed measured in megahertz, millions of cycles per second
- Current graphics cards contain RAM memory that is separate from your PC’s RAM. The capacity of modern graphics cards will range from 512MB to 8GB
13
Q
What is a fibre channel expansion card?
A
- enables high speed access for blade servers to connect to a fibre channel storage network (SAN)
14
Q
What is SATA?
A
Serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) allows devices such as optical and hard drive to link to a computer. The port is linked to another on the motherboard wit 7 pin ribbon cable.
