Computer Devices

Input, Output, I/O, Storage Devices

INPUT DEVICES
 The phrase is easy to define because a
device is an instrument that performs a
simple task. Input is also easy - it is
something put into a system. So in the
technology world, an input device is any
tool that feeds data into a computer.
EXAMPLES OF INPUT
DEVICES
 KEYBOARD
The keyboard has the distinction of being the standard
input device.
The variety of keyboards is almost staggering. No one
has to stick with the standard keyboard that comes with
the computer. Ergonomically designed keyboards often
have unusual sculpted or contoured shapes and a space
age look. These keyboards are designed to help avoid
repetitive stress injury to the wrists. Some of these
keyboards come with foot pedals to spread the work to
other limbs. Some keyboards are even designed to take
advantage of the strength in the thumbs.
 MICE
The mouse is recognized as one of the great
breakthroughs in computer ergonomics because it frees
the user from having to exclusively use the keyboard. If
you think the variety of keyboards is staggering, then you
will think the variety of mice has reached the epidemic
stage. This clever little device that controls the
movement of the cursor or pointer on a display screen
was named for its shape, which looks a bit like a mouse.
The connecting wire can be viewed as the mouse's tail,
and mice certainly scurry along a surface, dont they?
Mice contain at least one button and sometimes as many
as three, which can be programmed for different
functions. A popular type of mouse has a wheel between
two of the buttons that can be used to easily scroll
through long documents. This wheel can add ease of
use to your computing as well as Web browsing.
 Mice come in three basic types: mechanical, optomechanical,
and optical. The basic design is the mechanical mouse with a
rubber or metal ball on its underside that rolls in all directions.
The cursor on the screen is moved as the mechanical sensors
within the mouse detect the rolling balls direction. The
optomechanical mouse uses optical sensors to detect motion
of the ball. The fully optical mouse uses lasers to detect the
mouse's movement. Optical mice have no mechanical moving
parts, and no mouse pads are required. Optical models are
the fastest and most precise mice. Most have a wonderful red
glow on the bottom giving the mouse a subtle high tech look.
Another design breakthrough in mice is the cordless mouse,
which no longer has to be physically connected to the
computer. Infrared or radio waves allow this little rodent to
communicate with the computer. Both optical and cordless
mice are more expensive than other mice, but you may find
them a worthy investment.
 Mouse Substitutes

Computer mice are wonderful little

creatures, but there are also many mouse
substitutes. These devices perform the
same functions of the mouse, but in
different ways. Here are a few examples:
 TRACKBALL
a mouse variation, essentially a mouse lying on
its back. Because the device is stationary, it
does not require as much space on your
desktop. The ball moves as you rotate it with
your thumb, your fingers, or the palm of your
hand; this saves wrist fatigue and reduces hand
and arm movement. Trackballs are especially
popular with those experiencing problems with
arthritic hands. Trackballs come in various sizes
and shapes.
 LIGHT PEN
let you move the pointer and select items
on the display screen by directly pointing
to the objects on the screen with the pen.
 MICROPHONE
Believe it or not, a Microphone can also serve as an
input device. Using the microphone along with speech
recognition software can offer a completely new
approach to inputting information into your computer.
Speech recognition programs, although not yet
completely exact, have made great strides in accuracy
as well as ease of use. The voice-in or speech
recognition approach can almost fully replace the
keyboard and mouse. Speech recognition can now open
the computer world to those who may have been
restricted due to a physical handicap. It can also be a
boon for those who have never learned to type.
 JOYSTICK
A lever that moves in all directions and controls
the movement of a pointer is called a Joystick.
With a joystick, the pointer continues to move in
the direction the stick is pointing. Return the
joystick to its upright position and the movement
stops. Most joysticks have two buttons or
triggers that come in handy for computer games,
the most popular use of joysticks. Joysticks are
not mouse substitutes but rather add gaming
functionality to the computer.
 SCANNER
Scanners are peripheral products that
input information in your computer. When
you think of it, even the grocery store bar
code scanners read imprinted code and
transfer it to the stores computerized cash
registers.
 DIGITAL CAMERA
Another product exploding in popularity is really
an input device. Do you think of your Digital
Camera as an input device? Well, it is. A digital
camera stores images digitally rather than
recording them on film. Once a picture has been
taken, it can be input or downloaded to your
computer where it is stored for later use. The
concept is the same whether you take a film
photo and then use your scanner as an input
device or take a photo with your digital camera
and use the camera itself as an input device. In
both cases, the image is input into the computer.
 DIGITIZING TABLET
A Digitizing Tablet is a pointing device that
facilitates the accurate input of drawings
and designs.
A drawing can be placed directly on the
tablet, and the user traces outlines or
inputs coordinate positions with a hand-
held stylus.
 SPACE MOUSE
TheSpace mouse is different from a
normal mouse as it has an X axis, a Y axis
and a Z axis. It can be used for developing
and moving around 3-D environments.
 MICR
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
A computer can read numbers and letters
printed with ink containing magnetic
material.
MICR is used by banks to process
cheques. The account details at the
bottom of the cheque can be accurately
read in this manner since MICR is not
affected by dirt.
 OMR
Optical Mark Reader
The Optical Mark Reader (OMR) can read
information in the form of numbers or
letters and put it into the computer.
The marks have to be precisely located as
in multiple choice test papers.
 BARCODE READER
You might have seen bar codes on goods
in supermarkets, in libraries and on
magazines. Bar codes provide a quick
method of recording the sale of items.
A bar code is a pattern printed in lines of
differing thickness. The system gives fast
and error-free entry of information into the
computer.
 MAGNETIC READER
This input device reads a magnetic strip
on a card. Handy for security reasons, it
provides quick identification of the card's
owner.
This method is used to run bank cash
points or to provide quick identification of
people entering buildings.
 SMART CARD READER
This input device stores data in a
microprocessor embedded in the card.
This allows information, which can be
updated, to be stored on the card.
This method is used in store cards which
accumulate points for the purchaser, and
to store phone numbers for cellular
phones.
 CAPTURE CARD
Witha video capture board in one of your
computer's expansion slots you can
capture video (photographic) images
through a video camera. The video
capture board digitises the image.
OUTPUT DEVICES
 Thesedevices display information that
has been held or generated within a
computer.
 EXAMPLES OF
OUTPUT DEVICES
 VDU / MONITOR
Visual Display Units (VDU) or monitors are used
to visually interface with the computer and are
similar in appearance to a television.
Visual Display Units display images and text
which are made up of small blocks of coloured
light called pixels. The resolution of the screen
improves as the number of pixels is increased.
Most monitors have a 4:3 width to height ratio.
 PRINTER
You can print out information that is in the
computer onto paper. By printing you
create what is known as a 'hard copy'.
There are different kinds of printers which
vary in their speed and print quality. The
two main types of printer are impact and
non-impact.
 IMPACT PRINTERS
Impact Printers use a print head
containing a number of metal pins which
strike an inked ribbon placed between the
print head and the paper.

Some print heads have only 9 pins to

make the dots to build up a character;
some have 24 pins which produce a better
resolution.
 DOT MATRIX PRINTER
Characters are formed from a matrix of
dots.
The speed is usually 30 - 550 characters
per second (cps). This is the cheapest and
noisiest of the printer family. The standard
of print obtained is poor.
These printers are cheap to run and
relatively fast. They are useful for low
quality carbon copy printing.
 DAISYWHEEL PRINTER
Molded metal characters like those in a
typewriter are mounted on extensions attached
to a rotating wheel and are printed onto the
paper by means of a hammer and print ribbon.
This results in a great deal of movement and
noise during the printing of documents, so
printing is slow (less than 90 cps).
The standard of print is similar to that produced
by an electric typewriter. As the characters on
the wheel are fixed, the size and font can only
be changed by using a different wheel.
However, this is very rarely done.
 NON-IMPACT PRINTER
Non-impact printers are much quieter than
impact printers as their printing heads do not
strike the paper.
Most non-impact printers produce dot-matrix
patterns.
Several different technologies have been
used to provide a variety of printers.
The main types of non-impact printer are:
Thermal Printer
Laser Printer
Ink Jet Printer
 THERMAL PRINTERS
Characters are formed by heated elements
being placed in contact with special heat
sensitive paper forming darkened dots when the
elements reach a critical temperature.
Thermal printer paper tends to darken over time
due to exposure to sunlight and heat. The
standard of print produced is poor.
Thermal printers are widely used in battery
powered equipment such as portable
calculators.
 LASER PRINTER
Laser Printers use a laser beam and dry
powdered ink to produce a fine dot matrix
pattern. This method of printing can
generate about 4 pages of A4 paper per
minute.
The standard of print is very good and
laser printers can also produce very good
quality printed graphic images too.
 INKJET PRINTER
Characters are formed as a result of electrically
charged or heated ink being sprayed in fine jets
onto the paper. Individual nozzles in the printing
head produce high resolution (up to 400 dots per
inch or 400 dpi) dot matrix characters.
Inkjet printers use colour cartridges which
combine magenta, yellow and cyan inks to
create colour tones. A black cartridge is also
used for crisp monochrome output.
This method of printing can generate up to 200
cps and allows for good quality, cheap colour
printing.
 PLOTTER
Plottersare used to produce graphs or
diagrams.
Plotters can be of two types:
Pen plotters
Electrostatic plotters
Penplotters have an ink pen attached to
draw the images, and electrostatic plotters
work similarly to a laser printer.
 FLATBED PLOTTER
Thisis a plotter where the paper is fixed
on a flat surface and pens are moved to
draw the image. This plotter can use
several different colour pens to draw with.
The size of the plot is limited only by the
size of the plotter's bed.
 DRUM PLOTTER
In drum plotters the pen is moved in a
single axis track and the paper itself
moves on a cylindrical drum to add the
other axis or dimension.
The size of the graph is therefore limited
only by the width of the drum and can be
of any length.
 ELECTROSTATIC PLOTTER
An Electrostatic Plotter produces a raster
image by charging the paper with a high
voltage. This voltage attracts toner which
is then melted into the paper with heat.
This type of plotter is fast, but the quality is
generally considered to be poor when
compared to pen plotters.
 VIDEO CARD
Thiscomponent is used to transfer data to
your monitor so that it can be displayed.
Today's video cards have a variety of "3D"
capabilities. 3D video cards are only
needed for playing games though. When
playing 3D games, the video card is the
most important component. See my Video
Card section for a more in-depth
discussion of this.
 SOUND CARD
A board placed in an IBM-compatible
computer expansion slot which typically
adds a MIDI interface, an internal tone
generator, and the ability to record and
play back samples of digital audio signal.
STORAGE DEVICES
 Inmany cases the information that has
been processed is stored in machine-
readable format so that it may be
accessed at a later time by a computer.
This data is stored in binary form in 'bits'.
This practice requires the use of storage
devices.
 EXAMPLES OF
STORAGE DEVICES
 HARDDISK
The hard disk is a direct-access storage medium with a rigid
magnetic disk.
The data is stored as magnetised spots arranged in
concentric circles (tracks) on the disk.
Each track is divided into sectors.
The number of tracks and sectors on a disk is known as its
'format'.
High data rates demand that the disk rotates at a high speed
(about 3,600 rpm). As the disk rotates read/write heads move
to the correct track.
The disk is sealed and lubricated and the head hovers on a
cushion of air just above the disk to avoid damage. These are
therefore called floating heads.
The storage capacity of a hard disk can be Gigabytes (Gb),
i.e. thousands of Megabytes (1000Mb), of information.
 MAGNETIC TAPE
A recording medium consisting of a thin tape with a
coating of a fine magnetic material, used for recording
analogue or digital data. Data is stored in frames across
the width of the tape. The frames are grouped into
blocks or records which are separated from other blocks
by gaps. Magnetic tape is a serial access medium,
similar to an audio cassette, and so data (like the songs
on a music tape) cannot be quickly located.
However large amounts of information can be stored
within magnetic tape. This characteristic has prompted
its use in the regular backing up of hard disks.
 DISKETTE
A floppy disk is a thin magnetic-coated disk contained in
a flexible or semi-rigid protective jacket.
Data is stored in tracks and sectors.
The floppy disks are usually 3.5" in size. However, older
floppy disks may be in use; these would be 5.25" in size.
Double sided high density 3.5" disks can hold 1.44 Mb of
data.

Once data is stored on a floppy disk it can be 'write

protected' by clicking a tab on the disk. This prevents
any new data being stored or any old data being erased.
 OPTICAL DISK
An optical disk is impressed with a series of spiral pits in
a flat surface.
A master disk is burnt by high-intensity laser beams in
bit-patterns from which subsequent copies are formed
which can be read optically by laser.
The optical disk is a random access storage medium;
information can be easily read from any point on the
disk. A standard CD-ROM can store up to 650Mb of
data, with 14,500 tracks per inch (tpi).
CD-ROM stands for Compact Disk - Read Only Memory.
It is now possible to have CD-ROMs where extra tracks
of information can be written onto them by the user.
These are called read/writable CD-ROMs and these are
becoming a popular and cheap method for storage.
 FLASH DISK
a small removable data storage device
that uses flash memory and a USB
connector. Keydrives are also known as
keychain drive, micro hard drive, pen
drive, pocket drive, thumb drive, jump
drive, USB flash drive, USB flash memory
drive, USB key, USB memory key, USB
stick, Piripicho (primarily in Spanish), and
Kikinou (primarily in French)
MULTIMEDIA CARD
XD CARD
SECURE DIGITAL CARD
MEMORY STICK
COMPACT FLASH