Peripheral

From , the free encyclopedia

A peripheral is a device attached to a host computer but not part of it whose primary functionality is dependent upon the host, and can therefore be considered as expanding the host's capabilities, while not forming part of the system's core architecture.

Examples are printers, scanners, tape drives, microphones, speakers, webcams, and cameras.

[edit] Overview

Whether something is a peripheral or part of a computer is not always clearly demarcated; a video capture card inside a computer case is not part of the core computer but is contained in the case. However, whether something can be considered a peripheral or not is a trivial matter of nomenclature, and is not a significant issue.

[edit] Common peripherals

• Storage
• Input
  • Input device
• Output
  • Output device
  • Display device
  • Graphical output device
  • Computer display

[edit] See also

• Computer hardware
• Controller
• Expansion card

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Wiktionary definition of peripheral