http://www.ck12.org Chapter 5. Energy
5.77 Electronic Device
- Identify common electronic devices.
- Outline the parts of a computer and what they do.
If you were born in the last few decades, it’s probably impossible for you to imagine life without the computer. The
computer is just one of many electronic devices that make modern life possible.
What are Electronic Devices?
Many of the devices people commonly use today are electronic devices.Electronic devicesuse electric current to
encode, analyze, or transmit information. In addition to computers, they include mobile phones, TV remotes, DVD
and CD players, and digital cameras, to name just a few.
Q:Can you think of other electronic devices that you use?
A:Other examples include game systems and MP3 players.
Focus on the Computer
Let’s take a close look at the computer as an example of an electronic device. A computer contains integrated
circuits, or microchips, that consist of millions of tiny electronic components. Information is encoded in digital
electronic signals. Rapid pulses of voltage switch electric current on and off, producing long strings of 1’s (current
on) and 0’s (current off). The 1’s and 0’s are the “letters” of the code, and a huge number of them are needed. One
digit (either 0 or 1) is called a bit, which stands for “binary digit.” Each group of eight digits is called a byte, and a
billion bytes is called a gigabyte. Because a computer’s circuits are so tiny and close together, the computer can be
very fast and capable of many complex tasks while remaining small.