文档介绍：puter Keyboards Work
by Jeff Tyson
The part of puter that e into most contact with is probably the piece that we think
about the least. But the keyboard is an amazing piece of technology. For instance, did you know
that the keyboard on a puter system is actually puter itself?
Your basic Windows keyboard
At its essence, a keyboard is a series of switches connected to a microprocessor that monitors
the state of each switch and initiates a specific response to a change in that state. In this edition
of How Stuff Works, you will learn more about this switching action, and about the different types
of keyboards, how they connect and talk to puter, and what ponents of a
keyboard are.
Types of Keyboards
Keyboards have changed very little in layout since their introduction. In fact, the mon
change has simply been the natural evolution of adding more keys that provide additional
functionality.
The mon keyboards are:
• 101-key Enhanced keyboard
• 104-key Windows keyboard
• 82-key Apple standard keyboard
• 108-key Apple Extended keyboard
puters such as laptops quite often have custom keyboards that have slightly
different key arrangements than a standard keyboard. Also, many system manufacturers add
specialty buttons to the standard layout. A typical keyboard has four basic types of keys:
• Typing keys
• Numeric keypad
• Function