CHMA Unit - I
CHMA Unit - I
CHMA Unit - I
The main functioning of a computer system is based on the combined usage of both input and output devices.
Utilizing an input device, a user can give directions to the computer to run and the device reverts to the user’s
action through an output device.
Input Unit
This part of the computer encapsulates devices with the help of which the user feeds data to the computer.
It creates an interface between the user and the computer. The input devices transform the information into
a form acceptable by the computer.
Output Unit
This part of the computer encapsulates devices with the help of which the user receives the information from
the computer. Output devices transform the output from the computer into a form understandable by the
users.
A piece of hardware/equipment that enables the user to enter data into a computer is called an input device.
Some of the commonly used input units used in a computer system are as follows:
Keyboard
The keyboard is the most basic and very commonly used input device which helps to input data to the
computer. The layout of the buttons in a normally used keyboard is similar to the traditional typewriter, but
there are a few additional keys provided by different manufacturers for performing additional functions.
Normally available keyboards in the market were of two sizes 84 keys and 101/102 keys, but now keyboards
with 104 keys or 108 keys are also possible for Windows and Internet.
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• Typing Keys : These buttons include the letter keys (A-Z) and digit keys (09) which normally give the
same arrangement as typewriters.
• Numeric Keypad : These buttons are used to input the numeric data or cursor movement. Normally,
it consists of a set of 17 keys that are placed out in a similar configuration practiced by most additional
machines and calculators.
• Function Keys : The 12 function keys are provided on the keyboard which is arranged in a row at the
top of the keyboard. Each of these keys has a different function and is applied for some specific task.
• Control keys : These buttons are used for cursor and screen control. It also adds four directional
arrow keys. Following are also included in control keys: Home, End, Delete, Insert, Page Up, Page
Down, Control (Ctrl), Escape (Esc), Alternate (Alt).
• Special Purpose Keys : A regular keyboard also contains some special purpose buttons like Enter,
Caps Lock, Shift, Num Lock, Spacebar, Print Screen, and Tab.
Mouse
It is the most commonly used pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-control device and the earlier
versions of it were built over a small palm-size box with a round ball at its base, which tracks the movement
of the mouse and feeds digital signals to the CPU when the mouse buttons are pressed. Currently, the mouse
has a sensor at the bottom to detect cursor position.
Basic versions if it has two buttons called the left and the right-click button and a wheel is present between
the buttons to provide a scroll function. The movement of the mouse on a surface is used to control the
position of the cursor on the display, but it cannot be used to feed text into the system directly.
Advantages
1. Easy to use
2. Not very expensive
3. The cursor movement is faster than the arrow keys of the keyboard.
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Joystick
Just like a mouse, a Joystick is also a pointing device, which is used to travel the cursor position on a display.
It is a perpendicular stick having a spherical ball at both lower and upper ends. The spherical ball connected
at the circuit having sensors moves in a socket. The joystick controller can be traversed in all directions. The
functionality of the joystick is just like a mouse. Its applications are generally in Computer-Aided Designing
(CAD) and playing computer games.
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Light Pen
Just like a pen, a light pen is a digital pointing device. This device is used to select an item displayed in the
menu or to draw anything on the display. It contains a photocell and an optical sensor placed in a small tube
at the tip. When the light pen tip is travelled on the display, its photocell sensing element calculates the
screen location and sends the digital signal to the CPU.
Track Ball
The trackball is another type of input device similar to the mouse. It is most helpful with a notebook or laptop
computer, instead of a mouse. It consists of a ball on the top which is half inserted and connected to the
sensors. By moving finger on the ball, the cursor can be moved. Because the whole device is not moved to
move the cursor, a trackball requires less space as compared to the mouse. This device comes in different
shapes like a ball, a square, or a button.
Scanner
A scanner is another input device, which works very much like a photocopy machine. It can be used when
some information on paper is to be transferred to the hard disk of the computer in digital format for further
manipulation. The scanner captures high-resolution images from the source which are then converted into a
digital format that can be saved on the disk and shared digitally. These digital images can be edited before
they are printed.
Digitizer
A digitizer is also an input device that is used to convert analog information into digital form. Using a digitizer,
the signal from the television or camera can be transformed into a series of numbers that could be saved in
a computer hard drive. They can be helpful with the computer to create a picture of whatever the camera
has been pointed at.
Digitizer is also called Tablet or Graphics Tablet because it transforms graphics and pictorial data into binary
inputs to the system.
Microphone
A microphone or mic is a very common input device used to input sound that is then stored in a digital form.
Nowadays microphones are used in almost every industry and devices related to sound recording or
transmission. The microphone is used for different applications like adding sound to a multimedia
presentation or for mixing music, voice calling and recording, video conferencing, and more.
The MICR input device is commonly seen in banks as there are a huge amount of cheques to be processed
every day. The important details like the bank’s code number and cheque number are printed on the cheques
with specially designed ink based on the particles of magnetic material that is readable by the sensors of the
machine. This method of reading is recognized as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR). The main
benefits of using MICR are that it is comparatively fast and less prone to errors.
It is an input device that is used to read a printed text similar to the scanner, but the method of reading and
the type of output generated is different. The format to be fed to the OCR is predefined and can’t be used as
an ordinary scanner. OCR, unlike a scanner, scans the text optically, character by character, converts them
into a machine-readable digital code instead of creating high-resolution images, and stores the text on the
system memory.
Bar Code Reader is an input device used to read special format barcoded data (data in the form of light and
dark lines). Barcoded data is commonly used to create price tags, in labelling goods, numbering the books,
etc. It can be a handheld scanner or can be embedded in a stationary scanner on the table top. The light from
the device strikes the surface of the object and reflects back to the sensors present behind the source of light
to collect the input. Bar Code Reader can only scan a bar code image, converts it into an alphanumeric value,
which is then transferred to the computer that the bar code reader is connected to.
OMR is a special type of input machine. This sort of optical scanner is used to identify the type of mark made
by pen or pencil. It is used where one out of a predefined alternative is to be selected and marked. The format
to be fed to the OMR is predefined and can’t be used as an ordinary scanner. It is specially used for
automation of the answer sheet analysis of examinations having multiple-choice questions.
Webcam
A Webcam is a camera that is combined with a computer. Unlike a digital camera, they cannot function
independently and should be connected to the computer/laptop for operation. It functions as an input device
that can take pictures and is mostly used for video streaming and video conferencing or chatting.
Biometric Devices
Biometrics relates to a method in which a person is identified through his/her biological features such as
fingerprints, facial structure, eye cornea, etc. It is done by using biometric devices, which can be of different
types based on their scanning features and abilities, such as Face Scanner, Hand Scanner, Fingerprint Scanner,
Retina or Iris Scanner, Voice Scanner, etc.
Gaming controller
A game controller, gaming controller, or simply controller, is an input device used with video games or
entertainment systems to provide input to a video game, typically to control an object or character in the
game. Before the seventh generation of video game consoles, plugging in a controller into one of a console's
controller ports were the primary means of using a game controller. USB game controllers could also be
connected to a computer with a USB port. Special purpose devices, such as steering wheels for driving games
and light guns for shooting games, are also game controllers.
Controller gun for games Steering wheel and pedals for gaming
Touchpad
A touchpad or track-pad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate
the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on the operating system that is made output
to the screen. Touchpads are a common feature of laptop computers as opposed to using a mouse on a
desktop, and are also used as a substitute for a mouse where desk space is scarce. Because they vary in size,
they can also be found on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some portable media players. Wireless
touchpads are also available as detached accessories.
Touchpad in a laptop
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Output Devices
A piece of hardware/equipment that presents the result of the entered input, once it is processed, is called
an output device. Several output devices display output in various ways such as images, text, hard copies,
and audio/video. Following are some of the commonly used output devices used in a computer system:
Monitors
Monitors or Visual Display Unit (VDU), are the primary output devices of a computer system. It generates
images from tiny dots, termed pixels that are arranged in a well-defined rectangular form. The depth and
sharpness of the image depend upon the number and size of the pixels.
Printers
A printer is a very commonly practiced output device, which is used to print information on paper. There are
two types of printers:
• Impact Printers
• Non-Impact Printers
Impact Printers
Impact printers print by hitting the characters on the ribbon containing ink, which is then pressed on the
paper.
• Character printers
• Line printers
Character Printers
Character printers are the type of printers that are capable of printing only one character at a time. This
states that it does not print one line at a time.
In the earlier days, one of the most commonly practiced printers was the Dot Matrix Printer. These printers
were used commonly because of their ease of usage, printing, and affordable printing price. Every character
to be printed on paper is created by rearranging a matrix of metallic pins of size (5×7, 7×9, 9×7, or 9×9) at a
very fast speed which comes out to create a character which is why it is known as the Dot Matrix Printer.
Advantages
• Low-priced.
• Extensively Used.
• Other language letters can be printed.
Disadvantages
• Slow Speed.
• Too much heat generation takes place.
• Poor Quality.
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Daisy Wheel
In this type of printer the Head is fitted on a wheel and pins creating characters are like petals of Daisy (flower)
that is why it is identified as Daisy Wheel Printer. These printers are generally used for word processing tasks
in offices that demand a very low number of letters to be sent here and there with very nice quality.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Line Printers
• Drum Printer
• Chain Printer
Drum Printers
The head of this printer is in the form of a drum, which is why it is identified as a drum printer. The printing
drum surface is divided into several tracks which are equivalent to the size of the paper. For instance, if a
paper is of the width of 200 characters, then the drum will have 200 tracks. A character set is embossed on
the track which cannot be altered by any means.
To use a different character set, a different drum needs to be purchased like the one with the 48 character
set, or the 64 and 96 characters set. A single rotation of the drum containing permanent characters prints a
single line. These printers offer fast printing speed and can print 300 to 2000 lines per minute.
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Advantages
• Tremendous speed
Disadvantages
• Expensive
• Character fonts cannot be modified.
Chain Printers
In this type of printer, a chain consisting of the character set is used, that is why it is identied as a Chain
Printer, or in other words a Chain printer is a line printer that applies a rotating chain to print characters. The
predened-standard character set can have 48, 64, or 96 characters.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Non-Impact Printers
Non-impact printers do not hit the paper with any embossed character-containing instrument. These printers
can print a complete page all at once, this is the reason why they are also known as Page Printers.
• Laser Printers
• Inkjet Printers
• Not noisy
• High quality
• Supports multiple fonts and various character sizes.
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Laser Printers
These are very commonly used these days and are a type of non-impact page printer. They use laser lights to
charge the metallic drum in the shape of characters or objects to be printed, which attracts powdered ink.
Inkjet Printers
Inkjet printers are also very commonly used printers these days. They use ink cartridges to print characters
by spraying small drops of ink in a very precise manner onto the paper. Inkjet printers are very versatile and
can produce relatively high-quality output with presentable features.
They make very little noise as compared to other printers because no hammering is done and these have
many different modes of printing. Using these printers, colour printing is also possible. Some advanced and
newer models of Inkjet printers are capable enough to produce multiple number copies of printing also.
Projector
A projector is an optical output device that can take images produced by a computer and project or present
them onto a screen or surface called a projector. In the older version of projectors, images were created by
shining the light through a small transparent lens on the projector; however, the new version of projectors
uses laser technology for the same. Projectors are most commonly used in oces, classrooms, auditoriums,
theatres to watch presentations, videos, or pictures generated from a computer or laptop.
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Speakers
Computer speakers are the most popular output devices used with a computer to listen to sound. These
speakers receive audio as input either in analog or digital form and generate sound as an output. With the
advancement of technology, speakers are now available with wireless and Bluetooth facilities as well.
Headphones
The headphones or earphones or headsets are hardware output tools that are either plugged into the
computer or can be wireless. They offer the same function as a speaker, the only difference is the frequency
of sound. With speakers, the sound can be detected over a larger distance while utilizing headphones, the
sound is only audible to the individual using them. Headphones are available in multiple shapes and sizes.
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In serial communication, the data from source to destination is transferred sequentially bit by bit. In this type
of communication one cable is sufficient for data transfer.
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out
sequentially one bit at a time. Throughout most of the history of personal computers, data has been
transferred through serial ports to devices such as modems, terminals, various peripherals, and directly
between computers.
While interfaces such as Ethernet, FireWire, and USB also send data as a serial stream, the term serial port
usually denotes hardware compliant with RS-232 or a related standard, such as RS-485 or RS-422.
The RS-232 standard is used by many specialized and custom-built devices. This list includes some of the
more common devices that are connected to the serial port on a PC. Serial ports are very common on most
types of microcontroller, where they can be used to communicate with a PC or other serial devices.
• Serial mouse
• Bar code scanners and other point of sale devices
• LED and LCD text displays
• Test and measuring equipment such as digital multimeters and weighing systems
• CNC controllers
• Uninterruptible power supply
• Stenography or Stenotype machines
• Software debuggers that run on a second computer
In parallel communication, more than one bit is transferred simultaneously from source to destination. In
this type of communication more than one cable is required for data transfer and it depends on the number
bits transferred at a time.
A parallel port is a type of interface found on early computers for connecting peripherals. The name refers
to the way the data is sent; parallel ports send multiple bits of data at once (parallel communication). To do
this, parallel ports require multiple data lines in their cables and port.
Today, the parallel port interface is virtually non-existent because of the rise of Universal Serial Bus (USB)
devices, along with network printing using Ethernet and Wi-Fi connected printers.
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Several versions of HDMI have been developed and deployed since the initial release of the technology, but
all use the same cable and connector. Other than improved audio and video capacity, performance,
resolution and colour spaces, newer versions have optional advanced features such as 3D, Ethernet data
connection, and CEC extensions.
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USB: Universal Serial Bus, is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables,
connectors and communications protocols used in a bus for connection, communication, and power supply
between computers and electronic devices.
USB was designed to standardize the connection of computer peripherals (including keyboards, pointing
devices, digital cameras, printers, portable media players, disk drives and network adapters) to personal
computers, both to communicate and to supply electric power. It has become commonplace on other
devices, such as smartphones, PDAs and video game consoles.
USB has effectively replaced a variety of earlier interfaces, such as parallel ports, as well as separate power
chargers for portable devices.
USB standards:
Year of
USB standards Bit rate (transfer speed)
standardization
USB 1.0 low speed 1.536 Mbit/s 192 kB/s 1996
USB 1.0 full speed 12 Mbit/s 1.5 MB/s 1996
USB 2.0 high speed 480 Mbit/s 60 MB/s 2000
USB 3.0 SuperSpeed (aka USB 3.1 Gen 1) 5 Gbit/s 500 MB/s 2010
USB 3.1 SuperSpeed+ (aka USB 3.1 Gen 2) 10 Gbit/s 1.212 GB/s 2013
USB 3.2 SuperSpeed+ (aka USB 3.2 Gen 2×2) 20 Gbit/s 2.424 GB/s 2017
USB 4 40 Gbit/s 5 GB/s 2019
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VGA connector
The Video Graphics Array (VGA) connector is a standard connector used for computer video output.
Originating with the 1987 IBM PS/2 and its VGA graphics system, the 15-pin connector went on to become
ubiquitous on PCs, as well as many monitors, projectors and high definition television sets.
Devices continue to be manufactured with VGA connectors, although newer digital interfaces such as DVI,
HDMI and DisplayPort are increasingly displacing VGA, and many modern computers and other devices do
not include it.
VGA Cable
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Cables:
Serial Cable
VGA Cable
HDMI Cable
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Adapters