CHMA Unit - I

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Computer Hardware, Maintenance and Administration - 20CS32P

Week 01 – I/O devices and Interfaces


Content to be covered :
• Types of I/O devices and ports on a standard PC for connecting I/O devices.
• Function of serial port, parallel port, and brief principle of communication
through these
ports, types of devices that can be connected and interface standards.
• Explain basic cable types, features and their purposes.
• Importance of USB and HDMI interfaces- Types and Features.
• Working of Common Input/output devices- Keyboard, Mouse, display monitor, printer and
speaker.

Input and Output Devices:

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.

Input Devices of Computer

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:

1. Keyboard 7. Graphic Tablet


2. Mouse 8. Microphone
3. Joystick 9. Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)
4. Light pen 10. Optical Character Reader (OCR)
5. Track Ball 11. Barcode Reader
6. Scanner 12. Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

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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Following is the description of the buttons on the keyboard:

• 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.

83 Keys PC-AT Keyboard 84 Keys PC-XT Keyboard

104 keys Windows keyboard Keyboard with touchscreen

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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Engel Bert’s Mouse prototype 2 button mouse with serial connector

Mouse with scroll wheel Inside view of ball mouse

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.

Square shaped Trackball Keyboard with trackball

Trackball Cordless Trackball


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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.

Flatbed scanner (A4 size) High speed scanner

Hight speed scanner Large Document Scanner

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.

Graphics Tablet (Old) Large size Graphics Tablet (Old)


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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.

Microphone Headphone with microphone

Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)

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.

Magnetic Ink Character Reader Magnetic Ink Character Reader


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Optical Character Reader (OCR)

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 Readers

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.

Barcode Handheld Barcode Reader


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Optical Mark Readers (OMR)

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.

OMR Device OMR Device

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.

Web camera Web camera in laptop Web camera

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.

Iris Scanner Fingerprint Scanner Multiple fingers scanner


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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.

Gaming controller Gaming controller with dual joysticks

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.

There are two types of digital screens used for monitors:


• Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT)
• Flat-Panel Display

Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT)


The Cathode-Ray Tube display consists of small picture elements known as pixels. The tinier the pixels, the
greater the image clarity or resolution. It requires a very large number of pixels emitting light to create a
character. A limited number of characters can be arranged on a screen at a time.
The disadvantages of CRT:
1. Large in Size.
2. High power consumption.

Flat-Panel Display Monitor


The flat-panel display is a class of video output devices that have decreased volume, weight, and power
requirement as compared to the CRT. In everyday evolving technology, uses of flat-panel displays include
laptops or computers, calculators, monitors, video games, and graphics displays.

The flat-panel display is categorized into the following two categories:


1. Emissive Displays − Emissive displays panels are output devices that transform electrical energy into
light. For instance, plasma panels and LED (Light-Emitting Diodes).
2. Non-Emissive Displays − Non-emissive displays are based on optical effects to convert sunlight/light
from some other source into graphics patterns. For example, LCD (Liquid-Crystal Device).

CRT monitor Wide screen CRT monitor

Flat panel display Curved flat panel display


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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.

Following are the characteristics of Impact Printers:

• Very low consumable prices.


• Pretty noisy.
• Helpful for bulk printing due to economic costs.

These printers are of two types:

• 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.

Character printers can be categorized into two types:

• Dot Matrix Printer (DMP)


• Daisy Wheel

Dot Matrix Printers

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

• More reliable than the Dot Matrix Printer.


• Quality is better.
• Fonts of character can be effortlessly changed.

Disadvantages

• Slower than a Dot Matrix Printer.


• Noisy
• More expensive than the Dot Matrix Printer.

Line Printers

These types of printers are capable of printing one line at a time.

These are two types of 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

• It is simple to change character fonts.


• Different languages can be managed by replacing chains with the same printer.

Disadvantages

• These types of printers are Noisy.

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.

These printers are of two types:

• Laser Printers
• Inkjet Printers

Characteristics of Non-impact Printers

These types of printers are faster than impact 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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Ports and their working

Serial communication and Serial Port

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.

Common applications for serial ports

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

PS/2 Ports for Keyboard and Mouse 9 pin Serial port

Parallel communication and Parallel Port

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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High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting


uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant
source device, such as a display controller, to a compatible computer monitor, video projector, digital
television, or digital audio device. HDMI is a digital replacement for analog video standards.

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

SATA Cable DVI Cable

Parallel Port cable


(PC to PC)

Parallel Port Cable


(Printer to PC)
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IDE Cable (PATA Cable)

HDMI Cable
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Adapters

DVI to VGA adapter USB to Ethernet adapter

USB to Serial adapter

Serial to Ethernet adapter

SATA to Molex adapter

Centronics Port to USB adapter


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MiniHDMI to HDMI adapter


HDMI to VGA adapter

DVI to HDMI adapter


Ethernet to USB
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Computer Case - Front Panels


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Computer Case – Back Panels


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List of interface bit rate for some popular peripherals


Year of
Technology Bit rate (transfer speed)
standardization
eSATA (SATA 300) 3 Gbit/s 300 MB/s 2004
eSATA SATA 600) 6 Gbit/s 600 MB/s 2011
Parallel (Centronics/IEEE 1284) ECP 20 Mbit/s 2.5 MB/s 1994
PS/2 port 12.0 kbit/s 1.5 kB/s 1987
Serial RS-232 max 230.4 kbit/s 28.8 kB/s 1962
Serial EIA-422 max. 10 Mbit/s 1.25 MB/s 1994
Thunderbolt 2 × 10 Gbit/s 2 × 1.25 GB/s 2011
Thunderbolt 2 20 Gbit/s 2.5 GB/s 2013
Thunderbolt 3 two links 40 Gbit/s 5 GB/s 2015
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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