computer science

TCO Certified

TCO Certified is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand TCO Certified rather than just read about it. In short: The TCO Certified certification was initially created by the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (TCO) to guarantee that computer products purchased by employers maintain ecological standards and were sufficiently ergonomic to prevent long term health issues for users. It became known during the 1990s as a certification for computer displays.

Key takeaways

TCO Certified belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect TCO Certified to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of TCO Certified from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The TCO Certified certification was initially created by the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (TCO) to guarantee that computer products purchased by employers maintain ecological standards and were sufficiently ergonomic to prevent long term health issues for users. It became known during the 1990s as a certification for computer displays. Dating back to 1992, TCO is one of the oldest certifications for end user electronics.

History In the early 1980s, the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (TCO), a worker's union, foresaw that computers would become an important work utility and sought to establish ergonomic and radiation standards for computer displays to protect their members from health issues by daily use. Back then, the increasing use of computers and monitors in white collar work environments caused widespread complaints from employees experiencing visual fatigue and visual stress during after-work hours (also called "VDU sickness") due to extensive use of visual display units. In fact, early generations of computer displays were frequently related to eye strains and headache due to flickering, jitter and radiation. In 1986, TCO published a basic list of requirements and test protocols to verify if a display was fit for continuous daily use as a help for employers to choose the right hardware for work places. The test became an early success and was translated into multiple languages and used also by unions in other countries to push for a more ergonomic work environment. The success of the display checklist resulted in the foundation of TCO Certified, a spin-off by the TCO Union headed by Per Erik Boivie and Peter Magnusson, among others, with the goal of creating an international certification and standards to be implemented directly by manufacturers. Starting with TCO'92 in 1992, the TCO certification minimum standards for emissions, jittering and electronic safety for computer monitors. Later on, the standards into other product categories such as peripherals and the computer itself.

TCO Certified requirements TCO publishes new guidelines every 3 to 4 years. The standards expanded from covering only computer monitors in 1992 to a wide array of devices today.

Product categories TCO Certified is available for the following products: displays, notebooks, tablets, smartphones, desktops, all-in-one PCs, projectors, headsets, and data center products: network equipment, data storage products and servers.

References

Further reading Boivie, Per-Erik (2007). Global standard: how computer displays worldwide got the TCO logo. Stockholm: Premiss. ISBN 978-91-85343-43-0.

External links Official website

Illustrations

TCO’95 logo.

TCO’99 logo.

TCO’03 logo.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with TCO Certified

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what TCO Certified claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to TCO Certified before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about TCO Certified ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of TCO Certified

In research: TCO Certified appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses TCO Certified in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: TCO Certified is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Accreditation, Computers and the environment, Labour movement in Sweden, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for TCO Certified outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study TCO Certified in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what TCO Certified means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain TCO Certified out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is TCO Certified in simple terms?

Why does TCO Certified matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study TCO Certified?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on TCO Certified.