EXPANSION CARDS WIKI GROUPS

Since the days of the first IBM PC in the early 1980s, it's been possible to improve the capabilities of personal computers by adding expansion cards. Also known as expansion boards or add-in cards, expansion cards, among other things, let you improve your PC's graphics and sound, add a modem to connect to the outside world, and attach a network card to link a PC with others in an office setting. Adding expansion cards to a PC is a bit like adding additions to a house. You start with the basic structure, and then if the need arises, you add a back porch, a garage, or even an extra bedroom. You add expansion cards to a PC by inserting them into expansion slots, which are sockets or receptacles on your computer's motherboard. A motherboard, also called a system board, is an electronic circuit board just like an expansion card; only it's larger and usually lies flat while expansion cards usually sit on their sides. Just as a mother often keeps a family together, a motherboard ties together your expansion cards and other components of your system and enables them to communicate. (Occasionally you may even hear expansion cards referred to as daughter cards.) Internal modems, such as this PM 14400FX model from Practical Peripherals, are a very popular type of expansion crd. -->In the early days of the PC, expansion cards typically allowed personal computers to carry out basic functions. There were expansion cards for adding extra random-access memory, which is a computer's temporary storage area; a hard disk controller, for adding a hard disk with permanent storage capacity; a video controller, which controlled how the computer's monitor functioned; a clock-calendar, for date-and time-stamping the files you create with your system; and serial and parallel ports, which allowed printers, modems, and other devices to be attached to a PC