Prepare peripheral
devices and hardware for use
Underpinning knowledge
The candidate will be able to
1. identify the functions of input
devices e.g. keyboard, mouse, track ball, joystick, touch pad, touch screen, scanner, light pen, graphics
tablet, microphone, digital/video cameras, disk drives
2. identify the functions of output
devices, e.g. VDU, printer (including large format), speakers including speech synthesis),
projection devices and disk drives
3. identify the features and monitor
settings of colour depth, size/resolution and refresh rate
4. identify the differences between
local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN), workstation, server, universal resource
locator (URL) and internet service provider (ISP), intranet and internet
5. identify the protocols used for LAN,
WAN, workstation, server, URL and ISP, intranet and internet, including client server and
peer to peer
6. identify how hardware affects the
efficiency of the computer, e.g. processor speed, RAM (volatile memory), hard drive size
7. identify the main types of storage
devices and give comparisons in terms of speed, cost and capacity e.g. internal/external hard
drive, CD ROM, DVD, memory sticks, floppy disk drive
8. identify precautions when
handling and storing storage media
