Page 6 - November_Newsletter_2017

Over the years, display connections have changed to suit the type of moni-

tor used. Some of the connections you may come across are shown above.

Keyboard & Mouse

Early models of both would usually connect to the computer with either a

serial or PS2 connections which were colour coded for the keyboard or
mouse. Now you will find that the keyboard or mouse is usually connected
via a USB port. There are also wireless varieties for both available. The

keyboards too, may be multi-function and include the mouse built in, es-

pecially on Laptops.

Backup Devices

In the early days of computing, backup devices could have been punched
cards or tape or magnetic tape recording devices. Some more sophisticated
units use magnet core storage. Floppy discs became available to the mass

market and ran through a range from 8” and 5¼” floppy discs holding up

to about 360Kb of data to the more substantial 3” floppy disc cassettes
with 720KB – 1.44MB capacity. On the way we saw the Iomega Zip disc
which offered much higher memory capacity namely 100MB to 250Mb and only

slightly larger than its 3” cousin. CD’s then came along and we were able to save
around 750Mb of data per disc.

Of course these pale into insignificance with the introduction of the hard
drive which can now offer well in excess of 4TB of storage capacity.
These too have seen a marked change in design and design. The latest
models are now solid state and have the advantage of no moving parts. If
you have one of the latest motherboards, you can now invest in the M2
hard drive, blisteringly fast and very small. External drives too have
changed their connections and from the early parallel or even serial con-