what are computer peripherals.

*this is a guide that was created from lecture videos and is used to help you gain an understanding of what are computer peripherals.

CD Optical Media

CDDA- stored everything on lans and pits, designed to store music, 74 minutes, most data is on label side. Problem is there would be tracks, or chunks, and isn’t good for data

ISO 9660- took CCDA, but you were able to store files on them

CD-ROM- first gen stored 650mb of data. 700mb is common for today. Bad side is that they are read only memory

CD-R- burned once typed optical media, can read CD-ROM’s. Read speed and write speed

CD-RW- read, burned, and erased over and over again. Read, write, re-write speeds.

First CD’s read at 1x and so forth, today’s speed is 52x.

DVD Media

Instead of minutes of music they are bytes of storage.
There are single or dual sided or dual layer.
DVD types
DVD-ROM- specially mastered,
DVD+/-R- write once, read as many times media
DVD+/-RW-
DVD-RAM- weird and unique that it comes in a cartridge

Region codes- different regions and countries have specific code
DVD Speeds- they have read, write and rewrite speeds
DVD Capacity- DVD’s start at 4.7gb but once double sided and double layered, they can get bigger.

Blu-ray media- low resolution problem of 480 lines from DVD, blu-ray has 25gb or 50gb, can be singler-layer or dual-layer. Blu ray had high bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) to prevent piracy.

BD-R- required UDF format, not unique to blu-ray though. UDF is more concise and is a must for blu-ray. Stores 25gb

BD-RE- blu-ray read and write

There is BD video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE

USB

Been around for 15 years, USB is permanently connected to controller on one end. There are A, which is the standard and downstream and B connectors are the smaller one and are upstream.
USB B, USB B mini, USB B micro. Speeds do not matter. USB 3, has a connector USB 3.0 B connector

USB Standards
USB 1.0- 1.5 mbps for keyboards and mice, 12 mbps
USB 2.0- 480 mbps
USB 3.0- 5 gbps

Flash media
Compact flash- invented by sandisk, seen in cameras
Smart media card- 1995, by toshiba, in cameras
XD- popular flash media in cameras, SD replaced it
SD- 1999 by panasonic, most popular flash media, in camera, video recording equipment and computers, compact flash and SD are the only flash media you will now most likely see
miniSD- short reign because microSD was made
microSD- replaced mini, can be used for raspberryPI

Configuring USB Devices
Always install the device driver first, before the device
The motherboard also needs its drivers installed as well.
Go to device manager -> universal serial bus controllers

Windows Pop-up errors to watch out for
“You’re running out of power”
“This device can work faster”

Firewire and Other Connections

Early 2000, support for video camera although most have moved on to higher speed USB
Firewire acts like USB, 2 speeds of firewire at 400 or 800 megabytes
6-conductor firewire 400- official connector for firewire
4-conductor firewire 400- for camcorders
9-pin firewire 800 connector- 800mbps connector
Standard cable length for firewire is 4.5 meters maximum cable length
Firewire you will see used on standard definition video cameras, sony or old Apple machines

Serial ports
Oldest connection with PC, has 9 pins, DB-9 connection
First PC’s used these for input/output connections, often still used for scanners, POS, and a port on a Cisco router
Need to assign value known as comport in order to talk through the serial port
Use device manager to make sure you have a serial port -> look for COM & LPT -> fire up putty to talk with the router

Parallel ports
These are actually the oldest connectors (DB-25, centronics connections- used for old printers)

Keyboards and Mice

Without using drivers properly installed, it will default to HDI drivers which do not utilize the mice and keyboard full potential

If you work with a mouse, you should configure it. Go into your control panel to find mouse properties, on Windows machines.

If mouse is not moving- go to device manager to ensure that your computer recognizes it first and update the device drivers. If it works but is sporadic, it may be dirt, so use a can or air or mild detergent

Configure keyboard -> Go into control panel -> find keyboard properties

Accessibility options -> you can make keyboard to use, you can find sticky, toggle and filter keys adjustments here!

Cleaning a keyboard -> use a can of air

Other input devices
Digitizer- acts like a really powerful mouse
Barcode scanner- almost never need a special driver as they act like keyboards
Game controller- to configure, go to devices and printers, right click on properties

KVM Switches
A way for you to take 1 keyboard, 1 video and 1 mouse and use it for multiple systems/computers
You can get switches that support many systems, and you can switch between two systems by using a button on the KVM or a key on your keyboard for advanced KVM’s.

Cameras and Camcorders
Plug directly into USB port although some use an hdmi port, appear on your PC as an external drive

Webcams
Install the drivers, and ensure you have applications that know how to use it such as Skype, every different application has a different setup

Computer Examples

Thick client- moderate cpu, ram, single hard drive, optical media, connections in front and back
Virtualization workstation- take a thick client and add as much RAM as you can
Thin client- small devices, minimum hardware for their operating system
Graphics/CAD/CAM- high end graphics, RAM, CPU, WACOM tablet
Audio/video editing workstation- higher end sound equipment, multiple bigger monitors
Gaming PC- 2 cards working in unison to get crossfire or SLI for better graphics
Homer server PC- 10GB network card to store everything from photos to videos and music, throw in 3 hard drives and a RAID 5 with a hardware controller
Home theater PC- HDMI connections, home theater case, surround sound, television tuner, big TV screen monitor