'Back' to the Basics Trivia Quiz

Answer: Central Processing Unit

The central processing unit is the brains of the computer and affects the speed and performance of the computer. They vary greatly in price depending on what you are doing with your computer. Since I wasn't into gaming and didn't need a high performance CPU, I was able to get a reasonably priced CPU to operate my system.

Answer: The computer case

Remember the old days when computers came in boxes that sat underneath the monitor? Towers came next and have remained popular. They can sit on the desk or underneath it. Cube or small-form-factor computer cases are also popular; they're smaller than towers but are roomy enough to hold the necessary components.

Answer: Monitor

Monitors have come a long way since the early days of personal computing. They used to be bulky boxes which used cathode ray tubes (CRT) and could take up half your desk space. In the 1990s, liquid-crystal display (LCD) monitors became popular; they were thinner and lighter than CRT monitors.

Answer: Input

Input devices allow users to enter data or control the signals given to the computer. Keyboards look familiar to those of us who used typewriters, but they now come in a variety of shapes and sizes, some of which are specifically designed for ergonomic purposes.

They can even be wireless, allowing the user to type a distance away from the computer. The mouse, so named in "Computer-Aided Display Control", written by Bill English in 1965, is a pointing device that controls the cursor on the monitor and allows the user to select displayed items. Like keyboards, they are also available in wireless models.

Answer: Sound card

Most computers have integrated sound devices or sound chips, but buyers who want higher quality sound often purchase a sound card as an additional component. They are particularly popular for multimedia activities, such as video editing or creating presentations, and of course, they are popular with gamers.

Answer: RAM

Random Access Memory (RAM) improves a computer's performance by reducing the number of times a CPU reads data from a hard drive. The data stored in RAM are only there temporarily, as opposed to the data on the hard drive which are permanent until removed.

Answer: Floppy disks

Back in the early days of personal computers, floppy disks truly were somewhat floppy - eight square inches of magnetic film with a soft plastic cover. More rigid diskettes in 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch sizes came later but the "floppy" name stuck.

Answer: Software

While computer hardware refers to the devices that operate the machine and store the data, software refers to the applications that are run on the computer, such as word processing, databases and games. While pre-built computer packages usually include some software, most software applications are purchased separately to suit the user.

Answer: Output

Output devices allow data on the computer to be retrieved. Printers are an obvious output device, but the monitor and speakers are also output devices. Back in the early 1990s, most printers were dot-matrix which meant that the print consisted of many little dots. Laser printers became more common in the latter part of the decade.

Answer: Video card

Pre-built computers usually come with a graphics chipset which is suitable for basic purposes such as seeing images on the Internet or in files. For gaming, however, a separate video or graphics card can be purchased and installed in the computer to increase the quality of the images.