peripheral

peripheral (pəˈrɪfərəl)
—adj
1.	not relating to the most important part of something; incidental, minor, or superficial
2.	of, relating to, or of the nature of a periphery
3.	anatomy of, relating to, or situated near the surface of the body: a peripheral nerve
pe'ripherally
—adv

peripheral

peripheral pe·riph·er·al (pə-rĭf'ər-əl)
adj.

1. Related to, located in, or constituting an outer boundary or periphery.

2. Perceived or perceiving near the outer edges of the retina.

3. Of or relating to the surface or outer part of a body or organ; external.

4. Of, relating to, or being part of the peripheral nervous system.

peripheral   (pə-rĭf'ər-əl)  Pronunciation Key  Adjective   Anatomy Relating to or being the surface or outer part of a body or organ. Relating to or being part of the peripheral nervous system. Noun   Computer Science An auxiliary device, such as a printer or modem, distinct from a computer's central processing unit and working memory, and often connected externally.

peripheral definition

Any part that is separate from a computer's CPU, such as a printer, a keyboard, or a monitor.

peripheral definition

hardware
(Or "peripheral device", "device") Any part of a computer other than the CPU or working memory, i.e. disks, keyboards, monitors, mice, printers, scanners, tape drives, microphones, speakers, cameras, to list just the less exotic ones.
High speed working memory, such as RAM, ROM or, in the old days, core would not normally be referred to as peripherals. The more modern term "device" is also more general in that it is used for things such as a pseudo-tty, a RAM drive, or a network adaptor.
Some argue that, since the advent of the personal computer, the motherboard, hard disk, keyboard, mouse, and monitor are all parts of the base system, and only use the term "peripheral" for optional additional components.
(2002-09-03)