| What is a home computer? Part 4 |
 Another hardware component that you will find in tour computer, is the sound card. The sound card is a device that translates the information coming from the processor into information that can be read by the speakers.
In the early days, a computer was not equipped with a sound card. A little speaker on the motherboard produced the sound (more beeps than sound) of a computer. It's only in the late 80's that the sound card found his way into a computer.
A sound card can do more than just translate information coming from the processor. Here are some other functions of a sound card:
• Translation of sound coming into the sound card, through a micro connected to the computer, into information that the processor can use, so you can communicate with other people on the internet for example.
• A game port to connect a game pad
• A MIDI (musical instrumental digital interface) interface to connect digital music devices, such as a synthesizer. With MIDI you can connect up to 16 devices to a sound card. Usually the game port is used as MIDI port.
A normal sound card will process the music on an analogue way. More powerful cards process the sound digitally. This means there is no degradation in sound quality.
More computer hardware will be explained in the next articles. See part 5 for …
|
|
|
|
|
|
