Keyboards - An Essential Part of Your Computer System

The keyboard is an essential part to your computer. It is necessary to input data or commands into your system. There are several different types of keyboards available today such as: Multimedia, for easier music listening / Gaming, to play computer games with ease / Virtual , a keyboard that is projected on a surface that response to touch. This is also sometimes called a projection keyboard.

The most common, is the one that comes with our computer purchases. This looks very similar to the typewriter that was used many years ago. The only difference is that the computer board has a few extra keys. There is usually anywhere from 80 to 110 keys. Manufacturers have classified these keys into categories, Alphabet and Typing Keys, Numeric Keys, Control Keys, and Function Keys.

Computer Alphabet keyboard layouts contain all 26 letters and is called QWERTY, because that is the first six letters on the keyboard. There are other layouts such as Dvorak, ABCDE, XPeRT, QWERTZ, and AZERTY, but are not as common. The numeric keys are set up like a calculator with 17 keys available. The control keys help to move the cursor around with out using the mouse. These are arrow keys, Home key, End key, Insert key, Delete key, Page up or Down key, Control (Ctrl), Alternate (Alt), and Escape (Esc). The function key are there to create shortcuts to menu functions such as Help, Refresh, Save and Find . The placement of the extra keys like control and function keys depend on the manufacturer.

The way these work are by having a rubber dome located under each key. When you push on the key the dome is compressed with the center touching conductive lines on the circuit beneath it. This then sends electric signals to the processor. The processor then identifies the source by using the location character map found in the ROM (Read only Memory). After the source is found the pressed key will appear on the monitor.

This is not the way they have always worked. Processing used to be very slow. Most keyboards were based on teletype machines or keypunches. They did not contain many of the extra keys we have today either. It wasn't until video display terminals or (VDT) was invented using cathode ray tube technology that keyboard advancements were made. After this users could see what they were typing, making the editing process very simple.

There are several manufacturers today. Some of the more prominent are : Aopen, Creative, DCT Factory, Focus enhancements, Gefen Systems, Kensington, Logitech, Microsoft, Nortech Engineering, Inc., Redmond Cable Corporation, Saitek, Shenzhen Lucallan Electronics CO. Ltd., and TelePrint Systems Inc.

Nanette_Aniston

Enter Your Email Address For Update :

Delivered by FeedBurner

May be You Want Read This :