Periphery Equipment Concepts

"Periphery equipment" is electronic equipment that can be plugged into a computer using one of its input/output interfaces (serial port, parallel port, USB bus, FireWire bus, SCSI interface, etc.), most often by using a connector. Periphery equipment is therefore external computer components.

Periphery equipment is generally grouped into the following categories:

• display periphery equipment: output periphery equipment that provides a visual representation to the user, such as a monitor;
• storage periphery equipment: input/output periphery equipment that can permanently store data (hard disk, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc.);
• capture periphery equipment: allows the computer to receive specific data such as video data, referred to as video capture or scanned images (scanner);
• input periphery equipment: periphery equipment only capable of sending information to a computer, for example pointing devices (mouse) or the keyoard.

Expansion cards

An "expansion card" is electronic hardware in card form that can be plugged into a computer using an expansion connector (ISA, PCI, AGP, PCI Express, etc.).

Expansion cards are components that are connected directly to the motherboard and are located in the main unit, giving the computer new input-output functions.

The main types of expansion cards are:

• graphic cards;
• sound cards;
• network cards;