Meaning – The word device, refers to a mechanical, electrical, or electronic contrivance with a specific purpose. In the context of computers, a device refers to an internal or external hardware component, that connects to the overall system, with the purpose of sending, receiving and processing data.
Devices that are connected externally to a computer system, are commonly known as peripheral devices.
In the AIX operating system, a device relates to a valuator, button, or the keyboard. Buttons have values of 0 or 1 (up or down); valuators return values in a range, and the keyboard returns ASCII values.
Example of usage – “Some example of peripheral devices include keyboards, mouses, display monitors, hard disk drives, CD-ROM players, printers, audio speakers and microphones, and other hardware units.”
