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CENTRAL PROCESSING
UNIT
REGISTERS
INPUT OUTPUT
UNIT ARITHMETIC UNIT
UNIT
LOGIC UNIT
CONROL UNIT
(1) Input / Output (I/O) Unit: The computer user interacts with the computer via the I/O
unit. The purpose of I/O unit is to provide data and instructions as input to computer
and to present relevant information as output from the computer.
(2) Central Processing Unit (CPU): The CPU or the processor is also often called the
brain of computer. The main operations of the CPU include four phases.
Fetching instruction from the memory.
Decoding the instructions to decide what operations to be performed.
Executing the instructions.
Storing the results back in the memory.
(a) Arithmetic Unit (AU): AU is a part of the CPU that performs arithmetic operations
on that data. The operations can be addition, subtraction, multiplication or
division. The multiplication and division operations are usually implemented by
the AU as the repetitive process of addition and subtraction operations
respectively. AU takes the input in the form of an instruction that contains an
opcode, operands and the format code.
(b) Logic Unit (LU): LU is a part of the CPU that performs logical operations on the
data. It performs different types of logical operations. The various logical
operations include greater than (>), less than (<), equal to (=), not equal to () shift
left, shift right, etc. LU makes use of various logical gates such as AND, OR,
NOR, etc. for performing the logical operations on the data.
(c) Control Unit CU): CU is an important component of CPU that controls the flow of
data and information. It maintains the sequence of operations being performed by
the CPU. CU guides AU and LU about the operations that are to be performed and
also suggests the I/O devices to which the data it to be communicated. It uses a
program counter register for retrieving the next instruction that is to be executed. It
also uses a status register for handling conditions such as overflow of data.
(d) Registers: CPU contains a few special purpose, temporary storage units known as
registers. They are high-speed memory locations used for holding instructions,
data and intermediate results that are currently being processed. A processor can
have different types of registers to hold different types of information. They
include, among others:
Program Counter (PC) to keep track of the next instruction to be executed.
Instruction Register (IR) to hold instructions to be decoded by the control
unit.
Memory Address Register (MAR) to hold the address of the next location in the
memory to be accessed.
Memory Buffer Register (MBR) for storing data received from or sent to CPU.
Memory Data Register (MDR) for storing operands and data.
Accumulator (ACC) for storing the results produced by arithmetic and logic
units.
(3) Main Memory Unit: The main memory is referred to as the internal memory or
primary memory of the computer. It is also known as Random Access Memory
(RAM). It is a temporary storage medium that holds the data only for a short period of
time. Once the computer is switched off, the data stored in RAM gets erased. The
main memory is also responsible for holding intermediate data transferred between
CPU and I/O devices.
Most common and very popular input device is keyboard. The keyboard helps in inputting the
data to the computer. The layout of the keyboard is like that of traditional typewriter, although
there are some additional keys provided for performing some additional functions.
Keyboards are of two sizes 84 keys or 101/102 keys, but now 104 keys or 108 keys keyboard
is also available for Windows and Internet.
These keys include the letter keys (A-Z) and digits keys (0-9) which are
1 Typing Keys
generally give same layout as that of typewriters.
The twelve functions keys are present on the keyboard. These are
3 Function Keys arranged in a row along the top of the keyboard. Each function key has
unique meaning and is used for some specific purpose.
Special Purpose Keyboard also contains some special purpose keys such as Enter, Shift,
5
Keys Caps Lock, Num Lock, Space bar, Tab, and Print Screen.
(b) Mouse
Mouse is most popular Pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-control device. It is a small
palm size box with a round ball at its base which senses the movement of mouse and sends
corresponding signals to CPU on pressing the buttons.
Generally it has two buttons called left and right button and scroll bar is present at the mid.
Mouse can be used to control the position of cursor on screen, but it cannot be used to enter
text into the computer.
(c ) Joystick
Joystick is also a pointing device which is used to move cursor position on a monitor screen.
It is a stick having a spherical ball at its both lower and upper ends. The lower spherical ball
moves in a socket. The Joystick can be moved in all four directions.
The function of joystick is similar to that of a mouse. It is mainly used in Computer Aided
Designing (CAD) and playing computer games.
Light pen is a pointing device which is similar to a pen. It is used to select a displayed menu
item or draw pictures on the monitor screen. It consists of a photocell and an optical system
placed in a small tube.
When light pen's tip is moved over the monitor screen and pen button is pressed, its photocell
sensing element detects the screen location and sends the corresponding signal to the CPU.
(e) Scanner
Scanner is an input device which works more like a photocopy machine. It is used when some
information is available on a paper and it is to be transferred to the hard disc of the computer
for further manipulation. Scanner captures images from the source which are then converted
into the digital form that can be stored on the disc. These images can be edited before they are
printed.
(f) Microphone
Microphone is an input device to input sound that is then stored in digital form. The
microphone is used for various applications like adding sound to a multimedia presentation or
for mixing music.
MICR input device is generally used in banks because of a large number of cheques to be
processed every day. The bank's code number and cheque number are printed on the cheques
with a special type of ink that contains particles of magnetic material that are machine
readable.
This reading process is called Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR). The main
advantage of MICR is that it is fast and less error prone.
OCR is an input device used to read a printed text. OCR scans text optically character by
character, converts them into a machine readable code and stores the text on the system
memory.
(i) Bar Code Readers
Bar Code Reader is a device used for reading bar coded data (data in form of light and dark
lines). Bar coded data is generally used in labeling goods, numbering the books etc. It may be
a hand held scanner or may be embedded in a stationary scanner.
Bar Code Reader scans a bar code image, converts it into an alphanumeric value which is then
fed to the computer to which bar code reader is connected.
OMR is a special type of optical scanner used to recognize the type of mark made by pen or
pencil. It is used where one out of a few alternatives is to be selected and marked. It is
specially used for checking the answer sheets of examinations having multiple choice
questions.
Output devices are used to transfer the information stored in the computer of the result of any
processing done by the computer to the outside world. Through it computer conveys the result
to user. There are many output devices available in market. Commonly of them are:
Monitor or VDU (Video Display Unit)
Printer
Projector
Speaker / Head Phone / Ear Phone
Plotter
(a) Monitor or VDU (Video Display Unit)
Monitor is very similar to a television, shows all the processed result and program of CPU. It
is very important output device, without it user of computer is almost blind. It gives easy
interface to machine. It comes in many sizes 9, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 29
and many more.
(b) Printer
Printer is the most important output device, which is used to print information on paper.
There are two types of printers
A. Impact Printers
B. Non-Impact Printers
A. Impact Printers
The printers that print the characters by striking against the ribbon and onto the paper, are
called impact printers.
These printers are of two types
I. Character printers
II. Line printers
I. Character Printers:
Character Printers are printers which print one character at a time.
These are of further two types
i. Dot Matrix Printer(DMP)
ii. Daisy Wheel
I. Laser Printers
These are non-impact page printers. They use laser lights to produces the dots needed to form
the characters to be printed on a page.
Advantages:
Very high speed.
Very high quality output.
Give good graphics quality.
Support many fonts and different character size.
Disadvantages:
Expensive.
Cannot be used to produce multiple copies of a document in a single printing.
Inkjet printers are non-impact character printers based on a relatively new technology. They
print characters by spraying small drops of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers produce high
quality output with presentable features.
They make less noise because no hammering is done and these have many styles of printing
modes available. Colour printing is also possible. Some models of Inkjet printers can produce
multiple copies of printing also.
Advantages:
High quality printing
More reliable
Disadvantages:
Expensive as cost per page is high
Slow as compare to laser printer
(c) Projector
Projector is an output device which used to produce projection of computer output on screen.
It is used for giving presentation.
This is sound device which produce sound output like music, tone and speech.
(e) Plotter
Plotter is an important output device in computer system used for plotting processed data or
maps.
1.1.3 Memory
A memory is just like a human brain. It is used to store data and instruction. Computer
memory is the storage space in computer where data is to be processed and instructions
required for processing are stored.
The memory is divided into large number of small parts. Each part is called cell. Each
location or cell has a unique address.
Memory is primarily of three types:
I. Cache Memory
II. Primary Memory/Main Memory
III. Secondary Memory
I. Cache Memory
Cache memory is a very high speed semiconductor memory which can speed up CPU. It acts
as a buffer between the CPU and main memory.
It is used to hold those parts of data and program which are most frequently used by CPU.
The parts of data and programs are transferred from disk to cache memory by operating
system, from where CPU can access them.
Advantages:
Cache memory is faster than main memory.
It consumes less access time as compared to main memory.
It stores the program that can be executed within a short period of time.
It stores data for temporary use.
Disadvantages:
Cache memory has limited capacity.
It is very expensive.
Primary memory holds only those data and instructions on which computer is currently
working. It has limited capacity and data get lost when power is switched off.
It is generally made up of semiconductor device. These memories are not as fast as registers.
The data and instruction required to be processed earlier reside in main memory. It is divided
into two subcategories RAM and ROM.
a. RAM:
A RAM constitutes the internal memory of the CPU for storing data, program and program
result. It is read/write memory. It is called random access memory (RAM).
Since access time in RAM is independent of the address to the word that is, each storage
location inside the memory is as easy to reach as other location & takes the same amount of
time. We can reach into the memory at random & extremely fast but can also be quite
expensive.
RAM is volatile, i.e. data stored in it is lost when we switch off the computer or if there is a
power failure. Hence a backup uninterruptible power system (UPS) is often used with
computers. RAM is small, both in terms of its physical size and in the amount of data it can
hold.
RAM is of two types
i. Static RAM (SRAM)
ii. Dynamic RAM (DRAM)
b. ROM
ROM stands for Read Only Memory. This type of memory is non-volatile. The information is
stored permanently in such memories during manufacture.
A ROM, stores such instruction as are required to start computer when electricity is first
turned on, this operation is referred to as bootstrap. ROM chip are not only used in the
computer but also in other electronic items like washing machine and microwave oven.
Following are the various types of ROM.
MROM (Masked ROM), PROM (Programmable Read only Memory), EPROM (Erasable
and Programmable Read Only Memory), and EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and
Programmable Read Only Memory).
I. Magnetic Tape:
Magnetic tape is a plastic tape with magnetic coating. It is a storage medium on a large an
open reel or in a smaller cartridge or cassette. Magnetic tapes are cheaper, durable and
can be written, erased and re-written. They are sequential access devices, which mean
that the tape needs to rewind or move forward to the location where the requested data is
positioned in the tape. Due to their sequential nature, magnetic tapes are not suitable for
data files that need to be revised or updated often. They are generally used to store back-
up data that is not frequently used or to transfer data from one system to other. Magnetic
tape is mounted on a magnetic tape drive for access.
II. Magnetic Disk:
Magnetic Disk is a direct access secondary storage device. It is a thin plastic or metallic
circular plate coated with magnetic oxide and encased in a protective cover. Data is
stored on magnetic disks as magnetized spots. The presence of a magnetic spot represents
the bit 1 and its absence represents the bit 0.The different types of magnetic disks are
Floppy disk, Hard disk and Zip disk.
Floppy Disks
Hard Disks
A hard disk is fixed inside the cabinet of CPU (Central Processing Unit). It is made up of
many rigid metal platters coated to store data magnetically. The hard disk rotates while
recording data. This rotation speed is measured in the unit of revolutions per minute
(rpm). The normal speed of hard disks is 3600 revolutions per second. The read/write
head of the hard disks moves across its surface. The storage capacity of the hard disks is
many times more than the floppy disks.
The normal storage capacity of hard disks installed inside the Pentium-IV machines now
a day is 40 Gigabytes. The data stored in the hard disks are retrieved faster as compared
to the floppy disks as they are installed inside the computers.
Zip Disks
They are high capacity removable disk and drive that have the speed and capacity of hard
disk and portability of floppy disk. Zip disk are of the same size as a 31/2 inch floppy disk
but their storage capacity ranges from 100 MB to 750 MB. They can be used to store
large files, audio and video data.