The computer system

A computer can be viewed as a system, which consists of a number of interrelated entities that
work together with the aim of converting data into information. In a computer system, processing
is carried out electronically, usually with little or no human intervention. The computer is made
up of four main parts namely

 The system unit (CPU)

 Monitor
 Mouse
 Keyboard

Figure 1: Main parts of a computer

Any piece of external equipment that is attached to a PC rather than built into it is termed as a
peripheral device. In other words, a peripheral device is any device e.g. printer, scanner etc. that
enhances the capabilities functionalities of computer systems.

A computer has a variety of applications, the computer deals with everything as electronic
signals. Electronics, signals come in two types, analog and digital. Analog signals are
continuous wave forms in which variations in frequency and amplitude can be used to represent
information from sound and numerical data. Computers use digital signals where everything is
described into two states: The circuit is either on or off. Generally, the ON state is expressed or
represented by the number 1 and the OFF state by the number 0.

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Figure 2: The computer system and peripheral devices

Description of a computer system

A computer system is a collection of three components namely hardware, software and live
ware that work together to receive, process, manage and present information in a meaningful
format.

Hardware

Hardware consists of the mechanical parts that make up the computer as a machine. These are
the tangible parts of a computer or the physical that make up a computer system. The devices are
required for input, output, processing and storage of data. Keyboard, monitor, hard disk drive,
floppy disk drive, printer, processor and motherboard are some of the hardware devices. They
are classified into four categories namely input devices, central processing unit, output devices
and storage devices.

Software

A set of programs and documents are collectively called software. Programs are a set of
instructions written in a language understood by the computer, to perform a specific task. They
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are a set of instructions that tells, the computer about the tasks to be performed and how they will
be performed.

Programs are mainly classified into two categories

 System software
 Application software

Live ware

Live ware is an informal term that refers to the human beings’ attachment to computers. Other
terms used are wetware, gray ware and orgware. These may include users, people who make
computer programs (programmers) and computer engineers. This term refers to the user who
commands a computer to perform a certain task.

The hardware of the computer system cannot perform any task on its own. The hardware needs
to be instructed on the task to be performed. Software instructs the computer about the task to be
performed. The hardware carriers out these tasks. Different software can be loaded on the same
hardware to perform different kinds of talks.

Computer hardware

The physical parts of a computer (the parts you can touch) are collectively known as hardware.
Hardware components can be internal (located inside the system unit of the computer) or
external (located outside system unit) External hardware components typically plug into
connectors called ports located on the exterior of the system unit. There are hardware devices
associated with each of the five computer operations previously discussed (input, processing,
output, storage and communication).

Input devices

An input device is any piece of equipment that is used to input data into the computer. The most
common input devices today are the keyboard and mouse. Other possibilities include scanners,
touch screens, digital cameras, electronic pens, touch pads, fingerprints readers, joysticks and
microphones. Input devices can connect via a wired or wireless connection.

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Processing devices

The main processing device for a computer is the central processing unit (CPU). The CPU is the
central chip located inside the system unit that performs the calculations and comparisons needed
for processing; It also controls the computer’s operations. For these reasons, the CPU is often
considered the “brain” of the computer. Also, involved in processing are various types of
memory, additional chips located inside the system unit that the computer uses to temporarily
store data and instructions while it is working with them.

Output devices

An output device accepts processed data from the computer and presents the results to the user,
most of the time on the computer screen (monitor), on paper (via a printer), or through a speaker.
Other possible output devices include headphones and headsets (used to deliver audio output to a
single user) and data projectors (used to project computer images onto a projection screen).
Output devices can connect via a wired or wireless connection.

Storage devices

Storage devices are used to store data on or access data from storage media, such as floppy disks,
CD discs, DVD discs, or flash memory cards. The storage hardware includes, a hard dive, a
DVD drive, a flash memory card reader, a USB flash drive, CD discs, DVD discs and flash
memory cards. Storage devices are used to save data, programs or output for future use and can
either be installed inside the computer, attached to the computer as an external device, or
accessed remotely through a network or wireless connection.

Communication devices

Communication devices allow users to communicate electronically with others and to access
remote information via the internet or a home, school or company network. Communication
hardware includes modems (used to connect a computer to the internet) and network adapters
(used to connect a computer a computer network). A variety of modems and network adapters
are available because there are different ways to connect to the internet and computer networks

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Basic computer functional organization
There are several computer systems in the market with a wide variety of makes, models and
peripherals. All computer systems perform the following five operations for converting raw input
data into information, which is useful to their users:

Inputting

The process of entering data and instructions into the computer system.

Processing

Performing arithmetic operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide etc.) on data, to convert them
into useful information.

Outputting

The process of producing useful information or results for the user, such as a printed report or
visual display.

Controlling

Directing the manner and sequence in which all of the above operations are performed.

The internal architecture of computers differs from one system model to another. However, the
basic organisations remains the same for all computer systems. A block diagram of the basic
computer organization is shown below.

In this figure, the solid lines indicate the flow of instruction and data and the dotted lines
represent command and signal flow or the control exercised by the control unit. It displays the
five major building blocks (functional units) of a digital computer system.

These five units correspond to the five major building blocks (functional units) of a digital
computer system. These five units correspond to the five basic operations, performed by all
computer systems.

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 C.P.U

Control unit

A.L.U

Output unit
Input unit Primary storage

Secondary storage
Storage unit

Key
Data/ Instructions
Commands /signal flow
Figure 3: Interaction of various computer components
In general, a computer system comprises the following components

 Input unit
 Output unit
 Storage unit
 Central Processing Unit (CPU)

Input unit

Data and instructions must enter the computer system, before any computation can be performed
on the supplied data. This task is performed by the input unit, which links the external
environment with the computer system. Data and instructions enter input units in forms, which
depend upon the particular device used. For example, data are entered from a key board in a
manner similar to typing and this differs from the way in which data are entered through a
scanner, which is another type on input device.

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However, regardless of the form in which they receive their inputs, all input devices must
transform the input data into the binary codes, which the primary memory of the computer is
designed to accept. This transformation is accomplished by units called input interfaces. Input
interfaces are designed to match the unique physical or electrical characteristics of input devices,
to requirements of the computer system. The following functions are performed by an input unit:

 It accepts (or reads) the instructions and data from the outside world.
 It converts these instructions and data in computer acceptable form.
 It supplies the converted instructions and data to the computer system for further
processing.

Output unit

The job of an output unit is just the reverse of that of an input unit. It supplies the information
obtained from data processing, to the outside world. Hence, before supplying the results to the
outside world, they must be converted into a human readable form. This task is accomplished by
units called output interfaces.

Output interfaces are designed to match the unique physical or electrical characteristics of output
devices (terminals, printers etc.) to the requirements of the external environment. The following
functions are performed by an output unit:

 It accepts the results produced by the computer, which are in coded form and hence,
cannot be easily understood by us.
 It converts these coded results to human readable form.
 It supplies the converted results to the outside world.

Storage unit
The data and instruction, which are entered into the computer system through input units, have to
be stored inside the computer, before the actual processing starts, similarly, the results produced
by the computer after processing, must also be kept somewhere inside the computer system
before being passed on to the output units.

Moreover, the intermediate results produced by the computer, must also be preserved for
ongoing processing. The storage unit of a computer system is designed to cater to all these needs.

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It provides space for storing data and instructions, space for intermediate results and space for
the final results. The specific functions of the storage unit are to hold (store):

 The data and instruction required for processing (received from input devices)
 Intermediate results of processing.
 Final results of processing, before these results are released to an output device.

The storage unit of all computers is comprised of the following two types of storage, primary and
secondary storage discussed later.

Inside the computer (system unit)

The system unit is the main case of a computer, usually a metal and plastic upright box (the
tower) or inside the laptop (note book) shell. It houses the processor, RAM and a variety of other
electronic components for that computer, as well as a few other devices, such as storage devices,
the power supply, and cooling fans.

In general, the system unit contains one or more CPUs, several types of memory, interfaces to
connect external peripheral devices (such as printers), and other components all interconnected
through sets of wires called buses on the motherboard. As components get smaller, the system
unit is being redefined with the integration of system unit components and the monitor into a
single unit.

The mother board

The mother board or system board is a single circuit board, a circuit board is a thin board
containing computer chips and other electronic components. Computer chips are very small
pieces of silicon or other semiconducting material.

Computer chips contain integrated circuits (ICs), which are a collection of electronic circuits
that contain microscopic pathways along which electrical current can travel, as well as
transistors, which are switches controlling the flow of electrons along the pathways.

The mother board has a variety of chips and boards attached to it; in fact, all devices used with a
computer need to be connected in one way or another to the motherboard since it provides
pathways through which memory components and peripheral devices.

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Think of the processor as the brain of the computer and the motherboard as the computer’s
central nervous system. Continuing the analogy, think of the motherboard’s chipset (An
electronic circuit whose job is to coordinate data transfers between the various components of the
computer. It is a set of chips on the motherboard that collectively controls the memory, buses on
the motherboard, and some peripherals) as the heart of the computer system, controlling the flow Commented [PM1]:

of information between system components connected to the board. The chipset is important
because it determines what features are supported on the system (including types of processor
and memory).

The basic purpose of the motherboard is to provide electrical and logical connections by which
the other components of the computer system communicate. Typically, the motherboard contains
the CPU (Central Processing Unit), BIOS (Basic Input Output System), Complementary Metal
Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) configurable chip, memory (RAM and ROM), real time clock,
jumpers, mass storage interface, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots and all the controllers
required to control standard peripherals devices, such as the display screen, keyboard and disk
driver.

Figure 4: Ariel view of the motherboard

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Figure 5: 3D view of the motherboard

Buses

The various chips have standard sized pin connectors that allow them to be attached to the
motherboard and therefore to a common electrical bus that permits data flow between the various
system components. Just as big cities mass transit systems that move large numbers of people,
the computer has a similar system that moves billions of bits a second.

Both transit systems use buses, although the one in the computer does not have wheels. All
electrical signals travel on a common electrical bus. The term bus was derived from its wheeled
cousin because passengers on both buses (people and bits) can get off any stop.

In a computer, bus stops are the processor’s control unit and its arithmetic and logic unit, RAM
and other type of internal memory and device controllers that control the operation of the
peripherals devices. Ultimately, the type of processor and the amount of RAM placed on the
motherboard defines the computer’s speed and capacity.

A computer bus is a communication medium within the computer that allows different elements
of the computer to communicate with one another. It is an electronic path over which data can
travel. It consists of a number of wires connecting a processor to another device.

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 CPU Device

Figure 6: 8 wire bus

You can picture a bus as a highway with several lanes; each wire in the bus acts as a separate
lane, transmitting one bit at a time. The number of bits being transmitted at a time is dependent
on the bus width - the number of wires in the bus over which data can travel.

Just as a wider highway allows more cars to travel at a time, a wider bus allows more data to be
transferred at a time. The bus speed is also a very important factor, since the bus width and bus
speed together determine the bus’s throughput or bandwidth; i.e. the amount of data that can be
transferred via the bus in a given period of time.

A variety of buses are used to tie the CPU to memory and to peripheral devices. The entire bus
that moves data back and forth back and forth between the CPU and memory is called the
system bus. The microprocessor communicates with the external memory and all I/O devices
via the buses. Generally faster buses result in a faster computer.

Types of buses
1. Expansion buses: These are buses used to connect peripheral (typically input and output)
devices. They are etched onto the motherboard and vary in width and speed. They either
connect directly to ports on the system unit case or to expansion slots on the
motherboard. Examples include PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus, AGP
(Accelerated Graphics Port) bus, Hyper Transport bus, Universal Serial Bus (USB) and
FireWire bus.
2. Address bus: These are unidirectional pathways from the microprocessor to the external
devices. The address bus usually contains the address of the memory location or device to
be acted on by the microprocessor. The bus is usually as wide as possible to enable it to
address as many devices as possible.
3. Data bus: These are bi-directional pathways that carry information and data to and from
the microprocessor. The data bus determines the width of the microprocessor. The data
bus determines the width of the microprocessor. They are created by the microprocessor

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 registers. The size of the data bus is an indication of the information moving capability of
the chip, while the size of the address bus tells you how much memory the chip can
handle.
4. Control bus: These are unidirectional pathways that carry commands signals from the
microprocessor. The direction of the transfer on the data bus is indicated by the control
signals from the control bus. The command for the printer to prepare to receive data is a
control signal from the processor. Buses are implemented as actual communicated wires.
They may be laid down as a circuit on the chip itself (internal) buses or they may be
cables (external buses). External buses may be expanded to facilitate connection of
devices.

Cooling components

One by product of packing an increasing amount of technology in a smaller system unit is heat.
Since heat can damage components and cooler chips can run faster, virtually all computers today
employ fans, heat sinks or other methods to cool the CPU and system units. Computers today
typically include several fans, such as one fan on the power supply that can be seen on the back
of the system unit and one fan and a heat sink on top of the CPU.

One of the newest cooling methods being used with computers consists of liquid filled tubes that
act as radiators to draw heat away from processors. Although initially expensive, difficult to
install and complicate to use, these water cooling systems are now available in simpler and less
expensive formats. An added bonus of water cooled computers is that they are quieter than
conventional systems.

Expansion slots

Most desktop computers have expansion slots located on the motherboard into which expansion
cards (also called add in boards, interface cards and adapter boards) can be inserted. Expansion
cards are used to give the computer additional capabilities, such as to add network or internet
connectivity, to add a USB port or express card slot or to connect a monitor or set of speakers to
the computer.

The motherboard contains several slots to plug expansion cards into. These slots are referred to
as:

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 1. Industry Standard Architecture (ISA): Expansion cards used on older PC’s, except to
support “legacy” cards when upgrading.
2. Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI): Standard expansions cards used in new
PC’s
3. Accelerated Graphic Port (AGP): High performance graphics cards.

Today, many basic capabilities are being integrated directly into the motherboard. When this
occurs such as with integrated sound or integrated graphics an expansion card is not needed.
Most new computers come with few empty expansions on the mother board so that new
capabilities can be added, when needed.

Ports and Connectors

Typically, external devices (such as monitors, keyboards, mice and printers) connect to the
motherboard by plugging into a port, a special connector through the exterior of the system unit
case. The port is either built directly into the motherboard or it is created via an expansion card
inserted into an expansion slot on the mother board. A wireless device typically has a
transceiver that plugs into a port to transmit data between the device and the motherboard.

Ports are connectors located on the exterior of the system unit that are used to connect external
hardware devices. Each port is attached to the appropriate bus on the motherboard so that when a
device is plugged into a port, the device can communicate with the CPU.

There are unique connectors for each type of port on a computer system. When connecting
cables to the system unit, it is important to pay attention to the gender of the port, in addition to
the shape, pin count and pin configuration. Male connectors have the pins extended and connect
to the female connectors with matching holes.

If a port is of the proper type (such as serial) but has the wrong number of pins, then adapters or
special cables can sometimes be used to convert the connector to the desired configuration. If
you want to add a new device to your computer and there is an available port for the device you
want to add, then you just need to plug it in.

Most computers today support the plug and play standard, in which the computer automatically
configures new devices as soon as they are installed and the computer is powered up. If the

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appropriate port is not available, you need to either install the appropriate expansion card to
create one or use a USB or FireWire version of the device, if you have one of those two ports
available on your computer.

Since a wide variety of hardware is available in USB format today, newer computers come with
at least two a USB ports. USB and FireWire devices are hot swappable meaning they can be
plugged into their respective ports while the computer is powered up. Hot swappable devices
along with some removable storage media, such as flash memory cards are recognized by the
computer as soon as they are connected to it and can be used right away.

Some of the most common ports are discussed below; of these, serial and parallel ports are
increasingly being referred to as legacy ports and are not typically included on newer computers

1. Serial ports: These are ports that can transmit data only a single bit at a time. However,
they use very inexpensive cables and they can send data over long distances reliably.
Serial connectors typically have 9 or 25 pins and are referred to as DB-9 or DB-25
connectors, respectively.
2. Parallel ports: These are ports that use a 25-pin connector and can transmit data one
byte (8 bits) at a time, making data transfer several times faster than those through serial
ports but they require more expensive cables and cannot send data reliably across
distances greater than 50 feet. Parallel ports are most often used to connect a nearby
printer to a computer.
3. Keyboard and Mouse ports: The keyboard and mouse ports use a PS/2 connector and
can be used to connect the keyboard and mouse to the system unit. Many mice and
keyboards today connect via a USB port instead of a keyboard and mouse port. Key
board and mouse ports are sometimes referred to as PS/2 ports.
4. Monitor ports: These are ports used to connect a monitor to a computer. Traditionally,
monitors connect via a VGA connector, today’s flat- panel monitors can also connect via
a Digital Video Interface (DVI) connector. Some computers also come with an S-video
port that can be used to connect the computer to a television or another S-video device.
In addition, newer computers may come with an HDMI (High Definition Multimedia
Interface) connector designed to connect the computer to a high definition monitor or
TV.

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 5. Modem and phone ports: These are ports used to connect the computer to a phone
outlet and then connect a telephone, respectively, via telephone connectors (similar to but
smaller than an RJ 45 network connector).
6. USB ports: These are ports used to connect USB devices (such as keyboards, mice
printers, hard drives and digital cameras) to the computer via a USB connector. Most new
computers come with at least two USB ports, but a USB hub – a device that plugs into
the computer’s USB ports to convert one port into several USB ports, can be used to
connect multiple USB devices to a single ort. FireWire are most often used with digital
video cameras and other multimedia peripherals.
7. FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports: These are ports used to connect FireWire devices to the
computer via a FireWire connector. Similar to USB, a FireWire hub can be used to
connect multiple devices to a single port. FireWire connections are most often used with
digital video cameras and other multimedia peripherals.
8. Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) ports: These are high speed parallel ports
sometimes used to attach printers, scanners and hard drives.
9. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI): This is a port used to connect a MIDI
device to the computer. MIDI devices include music keyboards and other instruments
that can be connected to the computer to compose music that will be stored
electronically. A MIDI port and connector most often look similar to a PS/2 port and
connector.
10. IrDA (Infrared Data Association) port and a Bluetooth port: These ports are used to
receive wireless transmissions from devices such as wireless keyboards, wireless mice
and portable devices. Since the transmission is wireless, these ports do not use a plug.
With infrared transmission, there cannot be anything blocking the infrared light waves, so
newer wireless mice and keyboards tend to use radio wave transmissions (such as
Bluetooth) that are not line of sight. However, IrDA ports are commonly used to “beam”
data from a handheld computer or another portable device to another computer.

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Figure 7: Computer ports

11. Game port: This is a port used to connect a joystick, game pad, steering wheel, or
another device commonly used with computer gaming programs.
12. external SATA(eSATA): These ports are used to connect external SATA devices (most
commonly, an external hard drive). eSATA external hard drives are much faster than
external hard drives connected via a USB or FireWire connection. An eSATA port is
often created by installing an eSATA expansion card inside the computer system unit.
Note book computes have ports similar to desktop similar to desktop computers but
usually they do not have as man. One type of port found on some note book and not on
desktop computer is a port used to connect to a port replicator – a hardware device
containing additional ports (such as serial, parallel, PS/2, USB, monitor and networking
ports) that can be used with the notebook computer whenever the port replicator is
connected to it. Most handheld computers and mobile devices have a limited amount of

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 expandability, but usually come at least one built in expansion slot that can be used to
attach one peripheral devices, such as modems, networking adapters, digital cameras,
fingerprints readers, barcode scanners and GPS receivers. Most often the expansion slot
is an SD slot, which can be used with both the postage stamp size Secure Digital (SD)
flash memory as well as with peripheral devices adhering to the Secure Digital
Input/Output(SDIO) standard.

Figure 8: Computer ports symbols

Storing configuration information/settings on a motherboard

The most common method of configuring components on the mother board is CMOS set up.
Some motherboards also use jumpers or DIP switches to adjust configuration settings.

Figure 9: Methods of configuring components on the motherboard

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Setup data stored by Dual Inline Package (DIP) Switches: Many old computers and a few
new ones, store setup data using DIP switches on the motherboard. A DIP switches has an ON
and an OFF position. ON represents binary 1 and OFF represents binary 0. When an equipment
is added, or removed, communication to the computer is done by changing a DIP switch setting.

The microprocessor (Processor/C.P. U)

The processor, sometimes called the Central Processing Unit or CPU, is the core of any
computer system. It consists of a variety of circuitry and components which are packaged
together and connected directly to the motherboard. The CPU is the brain of a computer system.
In a human body, all major decisions are made by the brain and the other parts of the body
function as directed by the brain.

Similarly, in a computer system, all major calculations and comparisons are made inside the
CPU and the CPU is responsible for activating and controlling the operations of other units of the
computer system. It controls, coordinates and supervises the operations of the computer. It is
responsible for processing of input data.

Until recently, most CPUs designed for desktop computers had only a single core and a common
way to increase the amount of processing done by the CPU was to increase the speed of the
CPU. Since heat constraints are making it progressively more difficult to continue to increase the
speed of a CPU, the trend today is to include multiple cores in a CPU to increase the amount of
processing the CPU can do.

These multi-core CPUs allow computers to work simultaneously on more than one task at a
time, such as burning a DVD while surfing the web. Another benefit of multiple core CPUs is
that they typically experience fewer heat problems than single core CPUs because each core
typically runs slower than a single core CPU, although the total processing power of the multi
core CPU is greater.

While dual core and quad core are the most common options, other configurations exist e.g.
Hexa Core, Octo Core, Deca Core. In addition to computers, CPUs are incorporated into a
number of other devices such as mob, gaming iPhones, digital media players, consumer
appliances, cars, gaming console and more.

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The CPU for these devices are typically different than the ones used in PCs and increasingly
include other components such as graphics capabilities. Memory and input/output components
along with a processor, this type of CPU is sometimes referred to as a System- On-a-Chip (SoC).

All work that is done on a computer is performed directly or indirectly by the processor. It is one
of the most important components of the computer. The processor plays a significant role in the
following important aspects of the computer system:

Performance: The processor is probably the most important single determinant of system
performance in the computer. While other capabilities dictate the maximum performance of a
system. The other devices only allow the processor to reach its full potential.

Software support: Newer, faster processors enable the use of the latest software. In addition,
new processors, e.g. Pentium with MMX technology, enable the use of the specialized software
not usable on earlier machines.

Motherboard support: The processor used on a computer system will be a major determinant
of what type of chipset to use and hence what mother board to buy. The mother board in turn
dictates many facets of the system’s capabilities and performance.

Reliability and stability: The quality of the processor is one factor that determines how reliably
the computer system will run. While most processors are very dependable, some are not. This
also depends to some extent on the age of the processor and how much energy it consumes.

Energy consumption and cooling: Originally processors consumed restively little power
compared to other system devices. Newer processors can consume a great deal of power. Power
consumption has an impact on everything from cooling method selection to overall system
reliability.

The CPU is the component of a computer system with the circuitry to control the interpretation
and execution of instructions. It performs the process part of the information life cycle.

Regardless of the complexity of a processor, it has only two fundamental sections: The control
unit and The Arithmetic Logical Unit. These units work together with Random Access
Memory (RAM) and other internal memories to make the processor and the computer system
function.

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The control unit

How does the input device know that it is time for it to feed data into the storage unit? How does
the ALU know what should be done with the data once they are received? Moreover, how is it
that only the final results are sent to the output devices and not the intermediate results? All this
is possible due to the control unit of the computer system.

The control unit of a computer does not do any actual processing of data. It acts as a central
nervous system, for the other components of the computer system. It organizes the processing of
data and instructions. It acts as a supervisor and controls, coordinates the activity of other
computer units.

It manages and coordinates the entire computer systems. It obtains (fetches) instructions from the
program stored in main memory, interprets (decodes) the instructions and issues signals which
cause other units of the system to execute them. The control unit determines the instructions to
be executed, the operation to be performed by the instructions, where the results are to be stored
and where the next instructions are to be stored.

In summary, the control unit is the command center of the processor. It has three primary
functions:

1. To read and interpret programs instructions.

2. To direct the operation of internal processor components
3. To control the flow of programs and data in and out of RAM

During program execution, the first in a sequence of program instructions is moved from RAM
to the control unit, where it is decoded and interpreted by the decoder. The control unit then
directs other processor components to carry out the operations necessary to execute the
instruction. The processor contains high speed working storage areas called registers.

Since registers reside on the processor chip, they handle instructions and data at very high speeds
and are used for a variety processing functions. Registers facilitate the processing and movement
of data and instructions between RAM, the control unit, the arithmetic and logic unit.

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Registers

A register is a high-speed memory built into the CPU and used to temporarily store data and
intermediary results during processing. Registers are the fastest type of memory used by the
CPU.

As the instructions are interpreted and executed by the CPU, there is a movement of information
between various units of the computer system. In order to handle this process satisfactorily and
to speed up the rate of information transfer the computer uses a number of registers. These
registers are used to hold information on a temporary basis and are part of the CPU.

Generally, the more data a register can contain at one time, the faster the CPU performs, i.e. the
length of a register equals the number of bits it can store. Register size often matches word size
and so it is either 32 bits or 64 bits today; Some specialty registers are larger. Most CPU contain
many registers.

Types of registers
Although, the number of registers varies from computer to computer, there are some registers,
which are common to all computers. The functions of these registers are described below.

Memory Address Register (MAR): This is a register that holds the address of the active
memory location.

Memory Buffer Register (MBR): This is a register that holds the contents of the memory word
read from, or written in memory. An instruction word placed in this register is transferred to the
instruction register. A data word placed in this register is accessible for operation with the
accumulator register, or for transfer to the I/O register. A word to be stored in a memory location
must first be transferred to the MBR from where it is written in memory.

Program Control Register (PC): This is a register that holds the address of the next instruction
to be executed. Normally, the instructions of a program are stored in consecutive memory
locations and read and executed in sequence, unless a branch instruction is encountered. A
branch instruction is an operation, which calls for a transfer to a non-consecutive instruction.
The address part of a branch instruction is transferred to the PC register to become the address of
the next instruction.

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Accumulation (ACC): This is a register that holds the data to be operated upon, the intermediate
results and the results of processing. It is used during the execution of most instructions. The
results of the arithmetic operations are returned to the accumulator register, for transfer to main
memory, through the memory buffer register. In many computers, there are more than one
accumulator registers.

Instruction register (IR): This is a register that holds the current instruction, which is being
executed. As soon as the instruction is stored in this register, the operation part and the address
part of the instruction are separated. The address part of the instruction is sent to the MAR, while
its operational part is sent to the control unit, where it is decoded and interpreted, and ultimately
command signals are generated to carry out the task specified by the instruction.

Input/output register (I/O): This is a register that is used to communicate with the input/output
devices. All input information, such as instructions and data, are transferred to this register by an
input device. Similarly, all output information output information, to be transferred to an output
device, are found in this register.

Figure 10:some processor registers

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Program Counter (PC)/Program register: This is a register that contains the address of next
instruction to be executed. It contains the location in RAM of the next instruction to be executed.

Stack pointer (SP): It contains the address of the top of the stack within the memory stack. The
stack is that portion of registers used to temporary hold information. This allows the use of
instructions that contain no address field.

Index registers: Indexing is used to access blocks of data in the memory using a single
instruction the index register contains a quality that can be added to or subtracted from an
address prior to or during the execution of an instruction. They permit automatic modification
without permanently altering the instruction in memory.

Data Register (DR): Store the operand and any other data.

Note: Registers are not part of memory; rather they are special additional storage locations that
offer the advantage of speed.

The Arithmetic Logical Unit (ALU)

The ALU consists of two units namely, arithmetic unit and logic unit. The arithmetic unit
performs arithmetic operations on the data that is made available to it. Some of the arithmetic
operations supported by the unit are, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The logic
unit of ALU is responsible for performing logic operations. Logic unit performs comparisons of
numbers, letters and special characters.

Logic operations include testing for greater than, less than or equal to conditions. ALU performs
arithmetic and logic operations and uses registers to hold the data that is being processed. The
arithmetic and logic unit performs all computations and all logic operations. The results are
placed in a register called the accumulator.

Instruction cycle

Computer users communicate with computers by telling them what to do in their native tongue.
Dozens of these languages are in common usage, but all need to be translated into the only
language that a computer understands, its own machine language. Typically, each instruction in
a human oriented language is translated into several machine language instructions.

23
Figure 11:Instruction cycle
As you might expect, machine language instructions are represented inside the computer as
strings of binary digits. These instructions are executed within the framework of an instruction
cycle. The speed of a processor is sometimes measured by how long it takes to complete an
instruction cycle. The timed interval that comprises the instruction cycle is the total of the
instruction time or I- time, and the execution or E-time. The actions that take place during the
instruction cycle are shown below

Most modern processors are capable of pipelining; that is, they can begin executing another
instruction before the current instruction is completed. In fact, several instructions can be
pipelined simultaneously, each at a different part of the instruction cycle. Pipelining improves
system throughput significantly.

Primary storage/ main memory

The main memory is used for holding data and instructions required immediately by the CPU. It
is characterized by fast access to information, low capacity and high costs. The primary storage
unit is used for four activities, input/output operations, manipulation of text and calculation
operations. Logic/comparison operations, storage and retrieval operations.

24
Data are held into an input storage area; intermediate processing results are held in working
storage area; Final processing results are held in output storage area, and a program storage area
1contains the processing instructions. The separate storage locations used for these four tasks do
not have built in physical boundaries. A specific storage location can hold input data in one
application and output results or programs instructions in another.

The primary storage unit of a computer has many small storage areas. Each storage area is
assigned an address, an identification (e.g., a label, name or number) that designates a particular
location in storage or any other data source. There are 65,536 or more storage locations in the
primary storage section of most of computers.

The address in one such computer maybe numbered from 00000 to 65,536 (or more). In a
storage location, each character is represented by a string of adjacent binary number (0s and 1s)
that are treated as a unit. This unit or set of binary digits or bits is called a byte. A typical byte
consists of a grouping of 8 bits. Primary storage may take one of three forms, magnetic core
memory, semiconductor memory and bubble memory.

Types of primary memories

Magnetic core memory: Magnetic core memory consists of small magnetic cores with wires
running through them. Electric current flows through the wires and depending on the direction of
the current flow, electricity magnetizes the core in different directions. The direction of
magnetization indicates certain data representation to the CPU. Since this form of memory is
bulky, it has given way to newer technologies, such as semiconductor memories.

Semiconductor memory: All computers made today use semiconductor elements in their
primary storage units. This type of memory is made by etching electronic circuits onto a silicon
chip. The two most common forms of semiconductor memory are, Random Access Memory
(RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM).

Random Access Memory (RAM)

This is that part of primary storage where data and program instructions are held temporarily
while being manipulated or executed. It is called Random Access Memory (RAM) because any
of the locations on a chip can be randomly selected and used to directly store and retrieve data

25
and instructions. data in any area of the RAM can be reached or accessed in the same amount of
time or its contents are readily available for retrieval in direct mode. RAM is volatile, i.e. it
depends on a steady supply of electricity and when the power is shut off, everything stored is
lost.

Figure 12: Random Access Memory

RAM is the place where the computer stores it operating system, application programs and
current data so that the computer’s processor can reach them quickly and easily. RAM is the
memory used in large quantities in main memory and every computer must specify its size.

Functions of RAM
1. It stores data and instructions awaiting processing
2. It holds the instructions which are being obeyed or whose parts have been obeyed by the
computer.
3. It stores the intermediate results, the results of computer working/ calculations, before
they are communicated to their recipients (computer users) through the output unit.

Types of RAM
There three types of RAM memories namely: Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Static RAM (SRAM),
Non- volatile RAM.

Dynamic RAM (DRAM)

These are random access memories that store a bit of information as charge. Due to the way in
which the information is stored in DRAM the packing density is much higher than for SRAM.
However, the disadvantage of DRAM is the need for continued refreshing to store information.

26
Like any charge, the charge stored in the capacitor leaks and within a few milliseconds most of
the charge is lost thus its name. To preserve the information, the charge must be refreshed every
1 or milliseconds. This involves reading out of and then writing it back into the memory, thus
restoring a full charge.

Static RAM(SRAM)
These are fast type of Random Access Memories mostly located inside microprocessors. They
store a bit of information within a flip-flop. They do not need constant refreshing and thus faster
than DRAM. It stores information as long as it is supplied with power.

Non- volatile RAM

These are random access memories that retain information when power is turned off (non-
volatile). This is in contrast to dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and static random
access memory (SRAM), which both maintain data only for as long as power is applied.

The memory chips are available on a separate Printed Circuit Board (PCB) that is plugged into a
special connector on the motherboard. Memory chips are generally available as part of a card
called a memory module; there are generally two types of RAM modules

1. Single –In-Line Memory Module (SIMM)

2. Dual-In-Line Memory Module (DIMM)

SIMM
These are memory modules that have a memory chip on one side of the PCB and which can store
8 bits to 32 bits’ data simultaneously.

Figure 7: Single –In-Line Memory Module

27
DIMM
These are Memory modules that have memory chips on both sides of the PCB and have 32-bit
memory.

Figure 8: Dual-In-Line Memory Module

Note: The instructions stored in RAM are computer user developed for solving specific tasks
hence are described as application programs. The data stored in this memory also are user data,
to be manipulated by the computer using the user input application programs. The RAM can be
described in short to be serving the user.

RAM provides the processor only temporary storage for programs and data. All programs and
data must be transferred to RAM from an input device (such as a keyboard) or from disk before
programs can be executed and data can be processed. Once a program is no longer in use, the
storage space it occupied is assigned to another program awaiting execution.

Programs and data are loaded to RAM from disk storage because the time required to access a
program instruction or piece of datum from RAM is significantly less than from disk storage.
RAM is essentially a high speed holding area for data and programs. In fact, nothing really
happens in a computer system until the program instructions and data are moved from RAM to
the processor.

The processor, according to program instructions, manipulates the data in RAM. A program
instruction or a piece of datum is stored in a specific RAM location called an address. RAM is
analogous to the rows of boxes seen in post offices. Just as each post office box has a number,
each byte in RAM has an address. Addresses permit program instructions and data to be located,
accessed and processed. The content of each address, changes frequently as different programs
are executed and new data are processed.

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Read Only Memory (ROM)
ROM provides permanent or semi-permanent storage only. Its contents can be read out but not
rewritten during normal computer operations. The content cannot also be altered. ROM is non-
volatile i.e. its content remains available even when the power is switched off. The ROM
contains the boot firmware called BIOS. It holds enough information to enable the computer to
check its hardware and load it operating system into RAM at the time of system booting. ROMs
are used in computer for permanent storage of instructions; e.g. those that the computer uses
while booting (starting).

Figure 13: Read Only Memory

Function of ROM
1. It stores the data and instructions that are necessary for the normal functioning of the
computer system hardware. In other words, ROM stores system data and instructions.
2. It stores the control programs that are necessary for the initial activation of the hardware
on power switch.

Types of ROM
Read only memories can be categorized as

Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM): These are read only memories that can be
programmed directly by the user using a special PROM programmer. They come as blanks
having nothing programmed or recorded in them.

Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM): These are user modifiable read only
memories that can be erased and reprogrammed (written to) repeatedly through the application of
higher than normal electrical voltage.

Masked Read Only Memory (MROM): These are read only memories whose contents are
programmed by the integrated circuit manufacturer (rather than by the user). The information is
permanently recorded by the masking and metallization process.

29
 Erasable and alterable ROM (EAROM): These are read only memories whose contents are
electrically alterable and can be read and written to.

Comparison of RAM and ROM

RAM ROM
Data can be read (retrieved) and written (stored) in One can only read its content but you cannot write
it. on it unless it is a special type of ROM
RAM is Volatile ROM is non-volatile
Its content is user defined i.e. the user dictates what Stores permanents or semi-permanent instructions
is to be contained in the RAM from the manufacturer called firmware.

Table 1: Comparison of RAM and ROM

Special Purpose memories

Data and programs are being continually moved in and out of RAM at the electronic speeds. But
that is not fast enough. To achieve even faster transfer of instructions and data to the processor,
some minute types of memories are included inside a microprocessor or input/output devices, in
order to enhance its performance. These memories include cache memory, buffers, flash memory
and registers which were discussed earlier.

Cache memory
Cache memory (pronounced as cash) is a high-speed memory placed in between RAM and CPU.
Cache memory increases the speed of processing. It is a storage buffer that stores the data that is
used more often, temporarily and makes them available to CPU at a fast rate. During processing,
CPU first checks cache for the required data and instructions thereby reducing the number of
access to the slower RAM. If data is not found in cache, then it looks in the RAM for data cache
memory is built into the processor and may be located next to it on a separate chip between the
CPU and RAM. There three types of cache namely

1. Level 1 or Primary cache: This is a high-speed memory located inside the

microprocessor.
2. Level 2 or External cache: This is a high-speed memory located inside the
microprocessor or mounted on the motherboard.

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 3. Level 3: This is a high-speed memory that works with L2 cache to optimize system
performance.

Computer designers use cache memory to increase computer system throughput. Throughput
refers to the rate at which work can be performed by a computer system. Like RAM, cache is a
high speed holding area for program instructions and data. However; the cache memory uses
internal storage technologies that are much faster (and much more expensive) than conventional
RAM.

Buffers

These are special purpose temporary memory locations used during input/output or processing to
hold data and/ or instructions temporarily between communicating elements. They are used to
counter balance the speed differences between the communicating elements since the buffers
accept data instructions or information at the speed of the sending element and remit them at the
speed of the receiving element. The CPU operates at a very high speed as compared to the speed
of peripherals, the buffer is therefore, used to control the communication speed. If the buffer is
used between the input unit and the CPU, it is described as an input buffer.

The input buffer accepts data and or instructions at the speed of the input device which is
comparatively very low and remits them at a higher speed of the CPU to go as computer input.
The buffer used between the output unit and the CPU, it is described as an output buffer, which
accepts data, instructions or information at the high speed of the CPU and remits them at the low
speed of the output devices, to go as computer output.

The concept of using a buffer to control the speed of communication between computer
elements is known as buffering. For example, computer printers have buffers where they can
store massive documents sent by the CPU for printing hence freeing the CPU to perform other
urgent tasks as the printer continues to print in the background.

Flash memory

Flash memory is a type of PROM that can be altered easily by the user. Flash memory can be
found on all new processors, I/O devices and storage devices. It is a non-volatile memory i.e. it
retains its content after an electrical interruption. They are being used in many consumer

31
products, such as digital cameras and MP3 players. They can be inserted directly into some
computers.

The logic capabilities of these devices can be upgraded by simply downloading new software
from the internet or a vendor supplied disk to flash memory. Upgrades to early processors and
peripheral devices required the user to replace the old circuit board or chip with new one. The
emergence of flash memory has eliminated this time -consuming and costly method of upgrade
and makes it a most suitable to replacement of the ROM.

Flash memory chips have begun to replace ROM for storing system information, such as a
computer’s BIOS or Basic Input/Output System - the sequence of instructions the computer
during the boot process. One of the computer’s first activities when its turned on the power is to
perform a Power- On -Self or POST. The POST takes an inventory of system components,
checks each component for proper functioning and initializes system settings, which produces
the beeps heard as the computer boots.

Traditionally, the instructions for the POST have been stored in ROM. By storing this
information in the flash memory instead of ROM, the BIOS information can be updated as
needed. Similarly, firmware for computers and other devices (such as mobile phones, networking
hardware and more) are now typically stored in flash memory embedded in the device so the
firmware can be updated over the life of the product.

In addition to built-in flash memory chips designed to be used only by the computer, computers
and other devices can include built-in flash memory chips designed to be used by the user for
storage purposes. Flash memory chips used storage are either built directly into a device or
incorporated into removable flash memory cards or USB flash drives.

Criteria of memory classification

Different memories can be classified in the basis of the following

1. Access mode: How easily accessible they are.

2. Access time: The average time required to reach a storage location and obtain its
contents.
3. Transfer rate: The number of characters or words that a device can transfer per second
after it has been positioned at the beginning of the record.

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 4. Capacity: The amount or volume of content the storage may hold. It is dependent on the
requirements and budget
5. Cost: The value of the storage in terms of money. It is also dependent on the
requirements and budget.

The boot process

The computer starts using the memory from the moment the computer is switched on, until the
time it is switched off. The following is the boot process.

1. Turn on the computer

2. The computer receives and distributes electrical power to its circuits so the system
components can run.
3. The ROM chip receives power and starts a utility program called BIOS (Basic Input
Output System). The BIOS contain instructions for starting the system before the
operating system is loaded. BIOS provide the processor with the information required to
boot the system. It provides the system with the settings and resources available.
4. The BIOS, a special firmware, performs the Power-On-Self- Test (POST) to check
critical system components and make sure they are running properly. During this step, the
computer beep and flash messages on the screen. POST is a program that runs
automatically when the system is booted. A bootstrap loader is a program whose purpose
is to start the computer software for operation when the power is turned on. It loads the
operating system into RAM and Launches. It generally seeks the operating system on the
hard disk. The boot strap loader resides in the ROM, the BIOS initiates the bootstrap
sequence.
5. If the system components are running properly, the BIOS looks for devices connected to
the computer and checks their settings. If the BIOS has found an error, the computer
beeps again and display error messages describing the problem.
6. After POST, the computer reads some instructions such as the current time and date from
a special memory known as the Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS).
CMOS is powered by a dry cell that mostly resembles that of a digital watch. If the cell is
down, the computer requires the user to enter the current date and time.
7. If steps 4-5-6 are successful and error free, the BIOS searches for the bootstrap loader,
which is a program whose purpose is to start the computer software for operation when
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 the power is turned on as while as files the computer needs to run the operating system
and then loads them into the Random-Access Memory (RAM) initiating the boot strap
sequence. Next, the BIOS load the kernel, or core, of the operating system into RAM.
The kernel takes over control of the computer from the BIOS.
8. The operating system completes setup tasks, such as requesting your username and
password, starts and runs utility software and other programs in the background and then
display the main user interface.

Note: After the power is on the computer automatically goes through a process called
booting - starting or restarting a computer. It is booting because the computer must go
through the boot process before you can use the operating system. A cold boot refers to
starting a computer that is turned off. A warm boot also called a soft boot refers to restarting
a computer that is already turned on.

Input-output devices

A computer system can be useful, only when it is able to communicate with its external (its
users). A device can be referred to as a unit of hardware, which is capable of providing input to
the computer or receive output or both. The input/output devices (abbreviated I/O) provides the
means of communication between the computer and the outer world.

Input devices are used to enter data from the outside world into primary storage and output
devices supply the results of processing from the primary storage to the users. A wide variety of
I/O devices are now available. For a particular application, one type may be more desirable than
another.

There are some devices, which are used for both input and output functions. It is important to
note that even the fastest of the I/O devices very slow, when compared to the speed of primary
storage and CPU.

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The main reason for this is that the speed of I/O devices in most cases depends upon mechanical
movement and the potential for improvement of such devices is limited. It has been difficult to
produce I/O devices, which can match the processor and memory speeds and there is a constant
demand for faster and faster I/O devices.

Input devices

Input devices can be defined as

1. Hardware that facilitate feeding of information into a computer system, as well as provide
a means of communication between the computer system and the outside world.
2. Hardware that captures information and translates it into a form that can be processed and
used by other parts of the computer.
3. Hardware that converts user input which is in human readable form to machine language
that a computer can process.
4. Electromechanical device that allows the user to feed data into the computer for analysis
and storage, as well give commands to the computer.

The input device has to tasks to perform

1. Read data from the medium on which it is stored.

2. Code data into a form that can be understood by the computer.

Types of input devices

The computer accepts inputs in two ways,

1. Manually
2. Directly

In the case of manual data entry, the user enters data into the computer by hand, e.g. using the
keyboard and the mouse. A user can also enter the data directly by transferring information
automatically from a source document like a Cheque using the MICR into the computer.

Direct data entry on the other hand, is accomplished by using special devices like barcode
readers. The data and instructions are entered into the main memory at the computer through an
input device. These devices can be classified according to the methods that they use to enter data,

35
namely: Keying devices, pointing devices, scanning devices and other technologies used to
capture data.

Input devices are classified according to the methods they use to enter data

1. Keying devices
2. Point and draw devices
3. Document readers
4. Speech recognition devices
5. Touch screen
6. Scanning devices/ Digitizers
7. Digital cameras

Keying devices

These are devices that convert typed numbers, letters and special characters into machine
readable form before processing takes place.

Types of keying devices

1. Keyboard
2. Keypad

Keypad

A keypad is a miniature keyboard used on portable devices such as laptop, mobile phones, PDA
etc.

Keyboard

A computer keyboard is a computer input device by which data and instructions are typed into
the computer memory. It is used to enter characters, numbers, text and functions into the
computer system by pressing buttons, or keys. Each key on a keyboard is simply a switch which
when pressed results into a digital chord being sent into a computer.

The keyboard is the primary device used to enter data. It typically contains keys for individual
letters, numbers and special characters, as well as keys for specific functions. It is connected to a
computer system using a cable or a wireless connection.

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Keyboard layout

Most keyboards have a very similar layout. The individual keys for letters, numbers and special
characters are collectively called the character keys. The layout of these keys is derived from
the original layout of keys on a typewriter. The most widely used layout in the English language
is called QWERTY, named after the sequence of the first six letters from the top left.

Below is a typical keyboard layout. Keep in mind that there are many different variations on this
layout, although most manufacturers follow this general pattern:

Figure 14: Standard layout of keyboard keys

Common types of keyboards
1. Traditional keyboard layout: It is a full sized rigid keyboard commonly used to type
data and instruction. Its layout is QWERTY which are the first six letters. When working
on a traditional keyboard the posture that a user takes causes strain and the continuous
extending of hands and wrists also becomes painful. The stress on muscles causes pains
in the hands, arms, neck and shoulders of the users since it does not give the user the
speed of work hence causing a lot of strain for the user. This lead to the development of
an ergonomic keyboard.
2. Ergonomic keyboard: Ergonomic at the first place means the application of science to
design objects, systems and environment in such a way that it facilitates better human
use. Similarly, ergonomic keyboard is that kind which is designed to minimize the strains
on the muscles of the user and all the other problems that a user faced till date due to the

37
 usage of a traditional keyboard. The traditional keyboard went through a number of
changes and designs so that these keyboards are easy and safe to use. Due to increased
use of keyboard some users have suffered from repetitive stress injuries. To deal with
this, ergonomic keyboards have been designed which are designed in such a way that the
user’s hands are in a more natural position while typing. This prevents the user from
injuries. The simplest of ergonomic keyboards seemingly look like traditional keyboards
that have been divided in the middle so that a person’s hand are further apart and the
wrists remain aligned with the forearms. Some are upgraded a little more and the two
halves of the keyboard are placed on the armrests of the chair. The two halves of the
keyboard may further be put perpendicular to the desk. Various models of ergonomic
keyboards actually create a contoured design which is much more comfortable than the
standard keyboard. Some ergonomic keyboards slant down the middle so that two halves
are spaced a few inches apart and some others have either a rounded base or palm rest.
3. Flexible keyboard: Flexible keyboards are a junction between normal type and laptop
type keyboards, normal from the full arrangement of keys, and laptop from the sort key
distance, additionally the flexibility it allows the user to fold/roll the keyboard for better
storage / transfer, however for typing, the keyboard must be resting on a hard surface. In
others words it is a more portable type of keyboard that can be folded and packed into s
bag.
4. Braille keyboard: Braille is a writing system for blind and visually impaired people. It is
made up of raised dots that can be 'read' by touch. A Braille keyboard is a specialist input
device that allows the user to type and enter text or instructions for the computer in
Braille.

Sections of the keyboard

Most keyboards have a total of 101 keys which are divided into five different sections or groups:

Alphanumeric keys

This section consists of alphabetic and numeric keys which are mostly used for typing of text. It
has twenty-six alphabetic keys (A-Z) and numeric keys (0-9). Along with these keys are
punctuation marks. At the bottom of the keys is the spacebar used for creating space between
character or text.

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Function/Command keys

These are keys located along the top of the keyboard marked F1 to F12. They are used to issue
commands into the computer. Each of these keys is used to perform a special function in various
application packages e.g. F1 is used in most applications for help. Function keys are used
differently by different applications i.e. their function vary with different programs and therefore
sometimes called programmable keys.

Numeric keypad

These are keys located on the right most part of the keyboard. It has keys with digits (0-9)
marked on them with rows from the bottom upwards. The numeric keypad also has some
mathematical symbols marked on its keys e.g. division (/), (+), (=), (*), (.) etc. Num lock key is
turned on.

Directional /Cursor positioning keys

These keys are used to move the cursor (insertion point) within the window of an application.
They include four directional keys that are arranged in an inverted T formation between the
alphanumeric keys and the numeric keypad. They allow the user to move the cursor one space at
a time in left or right direction and one line at a time in up or down direction. They include:

1. Arrow keys: Pressing the right or left arrow key moves the cursor one character to the
right or left respectively. Pressing the upward or downward arrow key moves the next
cursor one line up or down respectively.
2. Page up and page down keys: Pressing page up key moves the cursor up one page in
case the document has many pages. Pressing page down key moves the cursor down the
one page in case the document has many pages.
3. Home and end keys: Pressing home key moves the cursor to the beginning of the current
line. Pressing end key moves the cursor to the end of the current line.

Editing keys

Editing keys are used to delete or insert characters in a document. They include: -

1. Insert key: This key helps the user to insert or replace a character at the cursor position.

39
 2. Delete (Del) key: This key deletes characters at the cursor position from the left to the
right.
3. The back-space key: This key deletes characters from right to left on the same line

Special keys
These keys are used in combination with other keys or on their own to perform special functions
or tasks or to give special instructions to the computer. They include:

1. Tab key: This key is used to move the text cursor at set intervals on the same line e.g.
10mm, 20 mm
2. CAPS lock: This key is used to switch between uppercase (capital) letters and lowercase
(small) letters. When it is on a green light indicator appears at the top right hand of the
keyboard. When on a computer user can type in uppercase. When off a user can type
lowercase.
3. Shift key: This key works in combination with other keys e.g. it can be used to get single
capita letter when pressed together with an alphabet key. It is used to get punctuation
marks on number keys or the symbols on top of certain keys in the alphanumeric section.
4. Enter key – Return key: Pressing this key forces, the text cursor to move to the
beginning of the next line or allows one to start a new paragraph. A cursor is a blinking
underscore (_) or a vertical beam (I) that shows where the next character to be typed will
appear. The enter key is also used to instruct the computer to execute a command that has
been selected on the screen
5. Escape (ESC) Key: It generates special code for the computer. In some programs, it is
used to quit doing some task i.e. escape / cancel a task.
6. Control (CTRL) Keys: It controls various functions in combination with other keys.
This combination forms the keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard Shortcuts

A shortcut is a fast and simple way of completing a task using the keyboard rather than using the
mouse. For example, a quick way to make selected text bold is to simply press the Ctrl key and
the B key at the same time (Ctrl+B). The below list some of the most commonly used keyboard
short cuts and their functions.

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 Key board short cut Function
Editing shortcuts
Ctrl+C Copy
Ctrl+X Cut selected text
Shift + F3 Change text case
F7 Check Spelling & Grammar
Ctrl+ Delete Delete word to the right of cursor
Ctrl+ Backspace Delete word to the left of cursor
F5 Find and replace text
Ctrl+V Paste previously cut or copies text
F4, Ctrl+Y Redo the last action
Ctrl+H Replace
Ctrl+A Select all text
Shift + F7 Thesaurus
Ctrl+Z Undo last action
File Management Shortcuts
Ctrl+ F4 Close a document
Ctrl+W Close Window
Ctrl+N New Document
F1 Office Assistant/Help
Ctrl+O Open a document
Ctrl+P Print
Ctrl+S Save

Formatting shortcuts
AutoText F3
Ctrl+B Bold
Ctrl+E Centre
Ctrl + Shift + M Decrease indent
Ctrl+2 Double spaced paragraph
Ctrl+D Font dialog box
Ctrl + Shift + P Font size
Ctrl+T Hanging indent
Ctrl+M Increase indent
Ctrl+I Italic
Ctrl+J Justify
Ctrl+L Left align
Ctrl + spacebar Remove character formatting
Ctrl+Q Remove paragraph formatting
Ctrl+R Right align
Ctrl+1 Single spaced paragraph
Ctrl+U Underline
Ctrl + Shift + D Double underline
Ctrl+5 1.5-line spaced paragraph
Navigation keys
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 Ctrl + home 3 Beginning of a document
Ctrl + End End of a document
Ctrl + Shift + Enter Column break
Ctrl+F Find
Ctrl+G Go to
Line break Shift + Enter
Table 2: Keyboard short cuts

Advantages of using a keyboard

1. Keyboards are very reliable compared to other methods of text input such as voice input
or optical character recognition which are prone to errors.
2. The keyboard is very cost effective, since every computer comes with a keyboard and
there is no additional infrastructure required for it use or implementation.

Disadvantages of using a keyboard

1. It is easy to make mistakes when typing in data.

2. If one cannot touch type, it can be time consuming to enter data.
3. Keyboards are not suitable for creating diagrams
4. Disabled people often find keyboard difficult to use.
5. Excessive use can lead health problems such as Repetitive Strenuous Injury (RSI)

Point and draw devices

Interaction with computers was initially restricted mainly to text mode via the command line
interface. However, it was soon realized that interacting with computers in text mode is
cumbersome and time consuming. Hence, a new type of a new type of interface called graphical
user interface (GUI), was devised for interacting with computers.

A GUI provides a screen full graphic icons (small images on the screen) or menus to the user and
allows the user to make a rapid selection from the displayed icons or menus to give instruction to
the computer. With such a user interface, the basic requirement is to have an input device, which
can be used to rapidly point to and select particular graphic icon or menu item from the multiple
options displayed on the screen.

The keyboard was found to be very inconvenient and unsuitable for this requirement. Hence,
research efforts to find a suitable device to this requirement, gave birth to several input devices
like mouse, track ball, joystick, light pen and touch screen. Later it was realized that many of
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these devices, like mouse and light pen, could also be very effectively used to create graphic
elements on the screen, such as lines, curves and freehand shapes.

With this new ability, these devices came to be known as point-and-draw devices. These input
devices have made computers a much more easily usable tool and have established the computer
as a versatile tool.

Mouse
The mouse is another input device used as an alternative to a keyboard, to provide direct on line
input. The mouse is becoming increasingly more popular, especially with the use of Graphical
user interfaces (GUIs) which provide a user-friendly environment.

The mouse is the most popular point and draw device. It has become a must have input device on
personal computers and workstations, which have a GUI based user interface. A mouse is a small
handheld device, which can comfortably fit in a user’s palm two or three buttons on the upper
side. In addition to the buttons, the traditional mouse also has a small wheel between the buttons.
The wheel is used for up and down movement e.g. scrolling a long a document. This wheel is
replaced by a light ray in modern mouse.

Standard mouse, traditional or physical mouse

This type of mouse has a rubber ball on the bottom side that protrudes. It requires a smooth dust
free surface, such as a mouse pad, on which to roll for it to function effectively.

Figure 15: Traditional mouse

Optical Mouse

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This type of mouse uses a light emitting diode (LED) and sensor to detect mouse movement. It
requires an opaque flat surface underneath it to function effectively. Optical mouse is better than
physical mouse as there no moving part that can cause wear and tear and dirt cannot get inside it.

Figure 16: Optical mouse

Cordless mouse
Cordless or wireless mouse is a battery powered mouse that uses radio or infrared waves instead
of being physically connected to the system unit.

Figure 17: Cordless mouse

Mouse techniques
The mouse can be used in five different ways namely: -

1. Point: Move the mouse until the mouse pointer on the screen points to the item of choice
2. Left click or click: Position tip of mouse pointer over specified element, then pressing
then press the left mouse button once and releasing it. Clicking is used to select a button,
icons, and files in a list, windows and dialogue box options on the screen.
3. Right click: This is pressing the right mouse button once and releasing it. Right clicking
often produces a ‘pop menu’ depending upon the object selected, offers options that can
lead the user to open a program, cut or copy, create a short cut or display the properties of
the selected file.

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 4. Double clicking: This is pressing the left mouse button twice successively, without
moving the mouse and then releasing the mouse. It is used to start applications, open a
folder and choosing items from a list.
5. Drag and drop: This means pointing an item or object on the screen long pressing the
left mouse button and moving the mouse towards a new location along with the mouse.
When button is released, the object is dropped at the new location. Drag and drop is used
for moving folders, files, windows and icons to new locations on the screen as well as
resizing windows.
6. Triple clicking: This is pressing the left mouse button thrice successively, without
moving the mouse and then releasing the mouse. It is used to select an entire paragraph or
a sentence on a web page.
7. Scrolling: This is moving displayed text or graphics up, down, or across on a computer
screen in order to view different parts of them.

Buttons on the mouse enable selections to be made from menus, enables movement of objects
around the screen and painting or drawing. A click of either button is the equivalent of pressing
key on the keyboard.

Advantages of using a mouse

1. The mouse is easy and convenient to use
2. It is inexpensive
3. Most modern software includes an option to use it
4. It selects a position on screen much more quickly than a keyboard

Disadvantages of using a mouse

1. The mouse cannot be used to input text easily you will need a mouse to do that.
2. It is relatively slow for selecting menu options. A user who is familiar with the
keyboard commands can select the options more quickly.
3. It is not very accurate for drawing purposes
4. The mouse requires a flat surface to operate

Track ball

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Trackball is a device that is a variant of the mouse but has the functionality of a mouse. It is easy
to use and takes less space than a mouse. it is generally built in laptops since there is no space for
the mouse to move on the lap. Track balls come in various sizes small and big. A trackball looks
like an upside-down mouse instead of moving the whole device to move the cursor on the
computer screen; trackball requires the ball to be rotated manually with a finger.

The trackball device remains stationary and translates the direction of the ball direction and
speed of rotation into a digital signal, used to control the cursor. The cursor on the computer
screen moves in the direction in which the ball is moved. The button on the trackball works in
the same way as a physical mouse.

A track ball is like a mouse that has been turned upside down. The ball is on top and user moves
the ball without moving the mouse. The tracker ball does not require a flat surface to operate.

Figure 18: The track ball

Joystick
A joystick is a hand-held input device that look like a lever used to control a pointer on the
screen. It is purposely used for playing computer games. The user controls game actions by
varying the pressure, speed and direction of the joystick. It is mainly used to control the speed of
the cursor and popular in games involving speed like racing and flying games. Command buttons
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and triggers are used to issue commands or actions in the software being controlled by the
joystick user.

Figure 19: Joy stick

Light pen

The light pen is a pen like device, which contains a photocell placed in a small tube, a light
sensitive cell at its end. The pen is used to select a point on the screen and is sensitive to the
presence and absence of light.

Figure 20: Light pen

Light pens are useful for graphic work, especially for Computer Aided Design (CAD) purposes.
Uses of light pens

1. The light pens are usually used as design aids. The light pen is used to indicate which
shapes to draw, where they should be drawn on screen and the size.
2. Light pens are also used to read bar codes and to indicate a point on screen or pad,
e.g. for selecting options for drawing. (An alternative to this is a touch screen, where
finger is used to point instead of a pen

Advantages

1. Light pens provide a direct mode of input

2. They are more precise than using a mouse

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Disadvantages

1. They can only detect the presence and absence of light

2. The light pen can only be used in conjunction with a graphic visual Video Display
Unit (VDU), which is able to sense light shining on the screen using special
hardware and software.

Stylus
A stylus on the other hand, are pointing and drawing device used in digitizing tablets, PDAs, or
touch screen and other devices which recognize commands or hand written data. They help in
entering drawings and sketches into a computer.

Figure 21: The stylus

Touch Sensitive panels or touch screens
This is another form of a direct input method to replace the use of a light pen i.e. the touch
sensitive panels are an alternative to the light pen. The finger is used to select the options instead
of the light pen. This method is usually in conjunction to the VDU, which is able to sense the
touched points on the screen.

The operator touches the surface of the screen (touch sensitive screen). The touch impact is
sensed by the VDU and conveyed to go as computer input in terms of electronic signals.

Figure 22: Touch sensitive panels/Touch Screen

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Uses of Touch Sensitive panels or touch screens

Touch screens are used in places where keyboards would be prone to damage due to the
environment, or there is little space for the keyboard e.g. bars and fast foods places would use
touch screens. The screens can be positioned so that they are out of the way of spillage but easily
accessible to the person serving.

The touch would be linked to a microcomputer in an office nearby, which would record the sales
and update stock. The touch screen can display a series of menus and displays through which
options can be selected. When the items are sold, the computer adds up the bill and updates the
accounts stocks.

Advantages

No extra peripherals are needed except the monitor although the monitor although the monitor
must be adapted to respond to touch.

The system is very effective in situations where a keyboard or mouse would become wet or dirty.
The screen can be positioned above and out of the way of the work area. It is useful for people
whose jobs involve standing and moving about.

Disadvantages

1. It is not useful for office use, because it is tiring to keep reaching to touch screen.
2. It is unsuitable for inputting large quantities of data since selecting screens
options can only input data.

Track pad
A track pad (also referred to as touchpad) is a stationary 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 outputted to the screen. Touchpad are a common
feature of laptop computers and 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.

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Figure 23: Track pad
Document readers

A document reader is an input device, which can read data directly from source documents such
as bank cheques, electricity meter reading form, etc. and convey it to the computer as electronic
signals. Types of codes on documents are

1. Marks: Short lines made by hand, usually in pencil on a document.

2. Characters: Hand written e.g. on the meter-reading, printed e.g. in magnetic ink on
cheques.
3. Printed lines: The most common of this is the bar code.

Document readers can be classified into two

1. Optical readers
2. Magnetic readers.

The optical readers use the principles of light to sense the document contents. There are currently
two types of optical readers namely

1. Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

2. Optical Character Reader (OCR)

The magnetic reader uses the principles of magnetism to sense the document characters that have
been written using magnetized ink. The magnetic reader is known as Magnetic Ink Character
Reader (MICR).

Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

Optical mark reading is a system of reading marks or lines which have been made in exactly the
light positions on a card or document. The documents are pre-printed with predefined data

50
positions. These positions can then be marked by e.g. pencil shade. A device called an optical
mark reader converts the marks into computer readable data. The reader detects the presence or
absence of a mark on a form by passing an infrared beam over them.

Figure 24: Optical Mark Reader

Application of OMR

OMRs are used to

1. Mark multiple choice questions

2. Analyze responses to structured questionnaires
3. Select correct number combinations from lottery tickets
4. Collection insurance premium
5. Supermarkets for stock recording
6. Traffic surveys
7. Voters registration process

Advantages

1. Fewer mistakes are made by machines reading marks than are made when reading
hand written characters.
2. Data can be prepared without any special equipment.
3. Data can be prepared where it is collected e.g. students
4. Sitting for a multiple-choice exam, mark the answers themselves on the answer sheet
provided or market researchers can mark questionnaires while asking people
questions on the street.

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Disadvantages

1. It is difficult for a computer to check marked data, i.e. verification of the data is
difficult.
2. Documents may be difficult to understand and fill in or impractical to design, e.g. if a
document has several values, then the format as to have a different box to mark for
each possible value.
3. The person putting the marks on the document has to follow the instructions precisely
4. The document reader will have to be re programmed for each new document design.

Optical Character Reader (OCR)

As with OMR, light is reflected from the paper and the reader then has to work out what the
characters are. Scanners were originally designed to scan pictures but they can also be used to
read text. Interpretation of the characters relies on sophisticated OCR software in the computer.
The following types of characters can be recognized by scanners and OCR readers

Handwritten character: The documents are usually pre-printed, with spaces provided. The
characters have to be written carefully in the right places.

Printed characters: Character in fonts specifically designed for OCR readers (a font is a
character of a particular size and style). Most OCR document reader recognizes at least one of
two fonts, namely OCR A and OCRB.

Figure 25: Optical character reader

Application of OCR

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 1. These readers are popularly used are popularly used to process turnaround documents
produced as output and reused as input by the computer, e.g. an electricity bill is printed
with all the information required for a re- input on a rear-off section. If the precise
amount stated is paid by the customer, the returned portion is used for direct input to the
computer.
2. Sales order forms: These can be printed by the computer with standard data e.g. stock
codes, account codes. The sales man then enters details of the form and returns it for
OCR processing.
3. Stock taking sheets: The computer can printout stock sheets in OCR characters and the
stock checkers enter actual stock quantities on the form in careful hand writing. The sheet
can then be optically read into the computer for amending the stock records.

Advantages

1. No typing or transcription requirements and therefore not prone to transcription errors.

2. The documents are turned around thus saving on stationery
3. The contents of the documents are both human and machine sensible and can therefore be
read and checked by people.
4. Provides a faster input as compared to typing
5. The documents do not have to be designed so precisely for OCR as compared to OMR

Disadvantages

1. Expensive method of input because specialized techniques and equipment required.

2. Handling precaution necessary e.g. the document should not be folded or creased for
accurate reading. Good paper quality is therefore crucial to minimize creasing.
3. Document size and type may be limited for accurate reading.

Special typing and character formation are important, since OCR systems often fail to recognize
characters, particularly hand written or in unusual fonts.

Magnetic Ink Character Reader (MICR)

A MICR reader recognizes characters formed from magnetic ink. The document characters are
typed or printed in ink containing Iron II oxide that gives them magnetic property. As the

53
document passes into the reader the ink is magnetized and the characters are recognized by the
strength of the magnetism. The magnetized characters cause current to flow through the read
head depending on the magnetized surface area occupied by individual characters. The MICR
recognizes these patterns and conveys them to go as computer input in terms of electrical signals.

Figure 23: Magnetic Ink Character Reader

Applications of MICR

The main applications of MICRS are in the banking industry for cheques and some local
authorities for payment of rates by instalment. Bank cheques use MICR to encode the cheque
number, branch number of the bank and the customer’s account number along the bottom of the
cheque.

This information is printed on the cheque to pay someone, the cheque is paid into a bank and it is
then sent to a clearing house. At the clearing house the amount of money is added to the bottom
of the cheque in magnetic ink using a MICR encoder. The cheque can then be sorted
automatically and sent back to the bank of the original customer, where the amount is deducted
from his or her account.

Advantages of MICR

1. MICR is difficult to forge

2. The documents can still be read when folded, written-on that is MICR is more “robust”

Disadvantages of MICR

1. MICR readers and encoders are very expensive

2. The system can only accept a few different characters.

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Magnetic strip (or stripe) reader
Magnetic stripes are built into many plastic cards such as cheque guarantee cards, cash point
cards and personal details of the card owner and, with the necessary PIN, will allow access to
secure information e.g. bank account details. Data store on the strip is scanned and input into a
computer system by a magnetic stripe reader.

Figure 26: Magnetic strip reader

Point of Sale (POS) terminals

Computerized wholesale or retail organisations, such as super markets, serve the customer
through a point of sale terminal. The POS terminal consists of a numeric keypad and a few
control or function keys. The item code, quality and the price of the goods purchased by the
customer are entered into the POS terminal directly by the operator. The terminal produces the
customer receipt.

Further, the details of the sales are entered directly into a backing storage device and the stock
level is also automatically decreased. A wand or bar code reader or credit card or a Kimball tag
reader could be attached to a POS terminal to reduce data entry. These devices are discussed
below:

Bar code reader

Each item in the store is labelled with a Universal Product Code (UPC), identifying the item. The
code is a set of bars and spaces of varying widths representing a number code. A space
represents a “0” while a bar represents a “1”. The figure below shows a bar code as found on
products sold in shops/ supermarkets

70 0026982 5637645

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 70 Country of origin
0026982 Manufacturer
5637645 Products
6 Check digit
Table 3: Barcode
Barcodes appear on products as shown below

Figure 27: Bar codes as they appear on products

The cashier moves a wand or bar code reader across the bars. The bars are scanned by a laser
beam, which generates electrical pulse are compared with standard codes stored in the computer
and details of the price and description are printed out on a receipt. The store inventory may also
be updated at the same time.

Figure 28: Barcode reader

Kimball tags
Some manufacturers use Kimball tags, which are small paper punched cards attached to clothes
and other merchandise on sale. An optical scanning method is used to read the Kimball tag and
extract the product code and the prince from it. The above devices speed up customer service and
also ensure accuracy and may be used to manage inventory, accounts and maintain up-to-date
sales information.

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Figure 29: Kimball tags

Cards
These are small rectangular cards made of plastic that incorporate data in both machine sensible
and human sensible form, e.g. credit cards. Ways of coding data into cards or badges include: -

1. Magnetized marks e.g. a short strip of magnetic scaled into the card’s surface.
2. Optical Marks
3. Punched holes

Smart cards
A smart card is a special type of badge whose data can be changed by a special badge reader.
Hence a “smart card” may be used as some form of electronic money. As the customer purchases
an item, the reader can deduct so many units form the card. This process continues until the card
has no more currency units left.

Figure 30: Smart card

Credit Card
A credit card has a strip of magnetic tape fixed on it, containing coded information, which is
usually the owner’s code. The card is inserted into a slot where magnetic data may be picked.
Details of the transaction are then recorded against the credit card number and the owner’s
account is credited with the transactions.

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Figure 31: Credit card
Uses of cards or badges
1. Car parks: Badges are used to raise car barriers, allowing entry to or exit from a car
park.
2. Banks: Credit and service cards i.e. Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) dispense cash
automatically when customer inserts a plastic card and follow the instructions issued.
3. Access control: Access control card are used for security reasons in many offices to
control access to building or rooms.
4. Production control: Punched cards can be used to hold data in a factory such as
employee’s details etc. which is used for production scheduling, stock control and job
costing.

Picture input devices

Pictures can be input to a computer using the following methods

1. Drawing them using a mouse or a graphics tablet with Computer Aided Design (CAD) or
drawing package.
2. Using a graphics tablet to digitize an existing image by drawing one feature at a time.
3. Using a scanner to digitize every point of a picture automatically.

To digitize data means to convert it from an analogue form to a digital form.

Graphic tablets
A graphics tablet or digitizing tablet is a board that can detect the position of a pointing device
on its surface. The flat surface (tablet) has a touch sensitive pad and pressure from a stylus is
translated into digital signals giving its corresponding position on the screen. A stylus is a
pointing device for a graphics tablet in the shape of a pen. The signals from the stylus are
transmitted via a cable attached to the tablet, or by radio signals (no cable required).

58
Figure 32: Graphic tablets
The tablet can be used to:

1. Hold a drawing while the user copies it on to the screen with the stylus.
2. Hold a sheet of menus, icons or shapes that the user can point to select options. This
leaves the user with the whole screen for drawing and allows for a wide range of options.

The graphics tablet is mostly used in computer Aided Design (CAD) work as diagrams and maps
can be traced or drawn and transferred into computer memory for further work using graphics
programs.

Scanners (Digitizers)
Scanners are used to capture existing document into an electronic form for further processing or
incorporating into other documents. Text and graphics can be scanned and the images can be
manipulated by changing the colours, the sharpness and contrast and so on.

Types of scanners
Scanners are of two main types:

Hand held scanners

These are scanners which are moved across the picture being scanned. They are cheap and
portable.

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Figure 33: Hand held scanners
Flatbed scanners

These are scanners where the picture is laid flat and the scanner remains stationary on a table
while the picture is scanned. In addition to scanning pictures and text, scanner (digitizers). A
signature written on a pad is compared against one formerly stored in the computer.

Figure 34: Flatbed scanners

Digital camera: Instead of film, a digital camera uses a light sensitive screen at the back of the
camera. A small computer inside the camera converts the pattern on the screen into a standard
graphics file, which can then be transferred to a computer.

Figure 35: Digital camera

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Speech input (voice recognition)
Special systems can now recognize a limited, standard vocabulary of spoken words via a
microphone linked into a computer system. The system processes the speech input into binary
form

Microphone Filters Pattern analysis Converts to digits

Adjust volume etc.

Figure 36: Process of speech recognition

A user must train the system to recognize his or her voice by repeating each word in the
vocabulary several times. Each word in the vocabulary several times. Each word is analyzed and
filed (stored in a database) for later matching and identification. The main problem of voice input
is that it can only recognize a limited vocabulary of words.

Applications of speech input

Security and access control: Each person has a unique “voice print” that can be used for
identification. This approach could be used in:

1. Electronic funds transfer

2. House or car security using voice activated locks
3. Office securities for room access.
4. Voice activated toys and games.

Quality control and automation in factories: A checker whose hands are busy does not have to
stop work to make entries in log books i.e. he or she can simply give a running commentary on
the goods they are examining. In Japan, speech input is used to order robots about.

Automated materials handling: In airports, handlers’ spoken commands direct luggage to the
appropriate conveyor belt.

Computer aided design (CAD): A designer, e.g. of building working at the terminal can call up
design patterns which are frequently used, instead of having to punch catalogue numbers into a
keyboard.

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Limitations of speech input

1. Homophones: Some words sound the same

2. Word separation: Connected speech has to be segmented. At present input has to be
“clipped” with distinct pauses between words.
3. Speaker variability: The speed, pitch, range, rhythm, intonation, loudness and
pronunciation of an individual speaker can vary.
4. Still at the early stages of development: It is a long way behind speech output.
5. Recognition is slow
6. Limited vocabularies: Most systems are still limited to words in isolation: connected
speech is much harder to get right.

Audio input devices

Microphones
Microphones convert spoken words to digital signals that can be processed by a computer.
Modern speech recognition software is able to translate this into either commands or data. This
enables users to use a microphone as an alternative to the keyboard.

Figure 37: Computer Microphones

Digitized audio signals
MIDI (Musical Instrumental Digital Interface) devices allow direct input from musical
instruments capable of electrical input output.

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Figure 38: Digitized audio signals

Video Input Devices

Digital video cameras
Digital Video Cameras can store sequence of digital images magnetic tapes, memory stick,
DVD or HDD inbuilt in the camera. They are similar to camcorders but camcorders store the
video in analogue form. Digital video cameras can be imported in the system using the necessary
software and hardware.

Figure 39: Digital video camera

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Web cam
Web cams are small video cameras designed to sit on the top of the monitor. It directly feeds in
the video input to the computer through USB port. Web Cams are generally used for the purpose
of video conferencing over the internet or recording small video lectures. The video quality of
web cams is not as good as that of digital camcorders. Many laptops are now coming with inbuilt
web cams

Figure 40: Web cam

Punch tags
The punched tag is a small card that incorporates data in terms of small punched holes. The holes
alternate with spaces to represent data in special coding system of binary notation. Some tags
however can be read by sensing device known as a wand. The tag reader senses the hole on the
cards and conveys them to go as computer input. Features like stock number, type size branch
number and such like are incorporated on the card tag either by means of holes or optical codes
punched tags are mostly applied.

Figure 41: Punch tags

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Advantages

1. Data is already coded hence ease processing

2. No transcription requirements

Disadvantages

1. Difficult to handle because they are small.

2. Store small volume of data.

Badge readers
These are devices that are used to read data from rectangular plastic cards, incorporating data in
both machine sensible and human form and pass them to go as computer input. The data recorder
machine records data on these badges automatically, one manually inserted, using magnetized
marks, optical marks or punched holes.

For reading, the badge is slotted into the reading unit where the converter machine (the reader),
accepts the contents of the badge and convey them to go as computer input directly or converts
them into a computer sensible medium e.g. the magnetic tape, from where the computer can
process the data to produce necessary information.

The badges may be applied in banks as credit and service cards to provide all round clock
service. A teller machine produces money (Cash) when the customer inserts his card into the
reader slot and keys in his identification code, through a small keyboard usually attached to the
unit.

Figure 42: Badge reader

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Other input devices
Video digitizers
These consists of special hardware and software which converts video signals frames by frame
into a digital representation in computer memory which can be saved on disk if necessary. A
sequence of frames can have graphics, cartoons, text added etc.

Direct input instruments

Sensors are devices that can be linked computers and are used to record physical quantities like
temperature, light, and humidity etc. Examples of direct input instruments include:

1. Sensors to record temperature, light, humidity in a given house, to ensure the best
conditions for plant growth.
2. Thermostats connected to a computer controlled central heating system to monitor
temperature and to help save electricity
3. Pressure pads on a road connected to computer controlled traffic lights to speed traffic
flow.

Automatic data capture for use in such processes is usually known as data logging, as in the
continuous logging of temperature data in order to monitor and subsequently control a chemical
process.

Input devices selection criteria

Choosing the most optimum input facility is usually not an easy task to be undertaken by the user
because of the involved costs and the associated operational draw backs. The following factors
are to be considered when selecting an input facility for a computer system:

1. Cost: The initial and recurrent cost to be weighed against the expected benefits and or
operational characteristics of the facility. The cost involved in acquiring the machinery,
space, environmental requirements, media operation etc. should be considered.
2. Input speed: This is a crucial factor because if quicker response is required then a fast
method of data collection input, e.g. the document reader may be suitable through
expensive. Note that the response required is directly proportional to the cost of the
facility.
3. Volume: The facility selected should cope with the data volume to be input with
appropriate timing.
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 4. Accuracy: The data being input should be accurate and give confidence and
appropriateness in the intended application.
5. Reliability: It is important that the facility selected is known to have a success record in
the market on the application; it is to be acquired for.
6. Mode of operation: The choice of input medium depends much on the nature of the
system (data processing system) e.g. Key to disk systems are more appropriate in
providing fast bulk input medium (data collection method or media) in an online system.
7. Appropriateness: The most appropriate input (data collection) facility is arrived at by
weighing out the merits and demerits of concerned facility in the light of where it is to be
applied (used) e.g. the document reader may be considered to be very fast input devices
suitable for (MICR banking, OCR billing) applications but they required standardized
document appropriate for the reader.

Output devices
An output device is any device that allows the results of computer processing activity to be seen
or heard. The processed data, presented to the user via the output could be text, graphics, audio
or video. An output device receives data in the form of electrical pulses from the CPU and
converts this data.

If the data is output as information, it can be read, looked at or listened to. If the output device
converts the data into other data, this may be stored or used to control other devices. Output can
be classified as hardcopy output and softcopy output. Hardcopy refers to information recorded
on physical medium such as paper or films in tangible form while softcopy refers to output
displayed, on screen or listened to i.e. is information which is in an intangible form as audio,
video and electric form. These devices can be classified into two categories namely

1. Hardcopy output devices

2. Softcopy output devices

Hardcopy output devices

Output devices such as printers, plotters and computer output on microfilm which all give out
hardcopy are known as hardcopy output devices.

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 Printers
Printers are primarily used to produce information on a piece of paper. While monitors suffice
for many interactive applications a permanent record of the output known as hardcopy may be
needed on paper. The quality of hardcopy depends on the printer’s printing mechanism. To fulfil
this need, many kinds of printers have been devised. What is a printer? A printer is a hardcopy
output device used for producing output on paper.
Classification of printers

Printers can be classified by

1. Speed
2. How they produce the document prints (character, line or page)
3. How they provide the prints onto the stationery (impact or non-impact printers)

Printers

Low speed High speed

Character printer

Line printers Page printers

Non-impact e.g.
laser, electrostatic,
xerographic
Impact e.g. Non-impact e.g.
Drum chain electrostatic

Impact e.g. dot Non-impact e.g.

matrix, daisy wheel, thermal, inkjet
golf ball

Figure 43: Classification of printers

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Character printers

The character printers provide one character at the time and are hence comparatively slow and
less costly than line or page printers. They are mainly used in connection to slow communication
terminals or stand alone. Systems, which serve single users at a time where speed is not critical.

Line printers

Line printers provide one whole line of print at a time, hence they are faster and more expensive
than the character printers. Line printers are usually used in network environments where several
users share the printer and high speed of printing is required.

Page printers

Page printers provide one whole page of print at a time hence faster than both line and character
printers. They are also relatively more expensive page printers are non-impact printers that
provide high quality outputs.

Impact vs. Non-impact printers

Impact printers provide prints by the printing head element coming into actual contact with the
stationary through the inked ribbon. The inked ribbon is found between the stationary and the
printing head element so that the ribbon ink is used to pass the character images on the print head
elements onto the stationary during the print head hit impact.

The non-impact printers provide prints by the print head element not coming into actual contact
with the stationery, but by other means such as thermal or electrostatic. A comparison of impact
and non-impact printers is given below

Impact Non-Impact
Slow Faster
Use inked ribbons Use thermal or electrostatic principles
Multiple copy production Multiple copy production almost impossible
Cheaper Costly due to technology involved
Noisy Quiet because there is no print head element
hitting against the stationary
Figure 44: Comparison of Impact and non-impact printers

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Lower speed printers

The different types of low speed printers are daisy wheel, dot matrix, thermal and inkjet

Dot matrix printers

These are impact character printers that provide character prints in terms of dots. The printing
head element is made up of a set of arranged needles, (matrix of typically 7x5, 7x7,9x7 and 9x9),
which are activated depending on the character to be formed for printing.

Better print quality is by more dot prints, which is influenced by the version of the printing head
and the element matrix arrangement of the needles. When the print head strikes against the
stationery through an inked ribbon only the activated needles pass the image of the character
onto the stationery using the inked ribbon ink. The dot matrix printers are slow hence only up to
about 200 characters per second (cps) is possible.

Figure 45: Dot matrix printer

Daisy wheel printer

The oldest kind of printer, which is an impact printer, works like type writer where a piece of
metal or plastic with a raised letter strikes inked ribbon against a sheet of paper, leaving an image
of the letter on the paper. On modern PCs, this form of printing is used in daisy wheel printers,
so called because they contain a spooked wheel like a daisy with the characters on the petals.

The printing head is incorporated onto a protruding structure known as spoke mounted over a
wheel like structure which rotates for an appropriate character spoke to hit against the stationery
through the inked ribbon, to pass the character image on the print head element onto the
stationery.

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Figure 46: Daisy wheel printers
The daisy wheel printers provide comparatively better print quality as compared to dot matrix
printer though slower hence only up 5 cps possible. It has the same capabilities in terms of page,
size and the multiple copies production as the dot matrix.

Thermal printer

This is a non-impact character printer that provides character prints using the principles of heat.
They use special print papers that senses the heated head character images, which are then passed
onto the papers as character prints, at a speed of about 160 cps

Figure 47: Thermal printer

Inkjet and Bubble jet printer

These printers use the concept of spraying ink onto the paper. For this reason, inkjet printers
need a special type of paper. The ink is sprayed from tiny holes on the ink cartridges onto the
paper. Magnetized plates in the ink’s path direct the ink onto the paper in the desired shapes. The
print quality is much better than that of dot matrix printers, however not as good as laser
printing. A typical ink jet printer provides a resolution of 300 dots per inch, although new models
offer higher resolutions.

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Figure 48: Ink jet and bubble jet printer
In general, the price of ink-jet printers is lower than that of laser printers. However, they are
especially popular as portable printers. In addition, colour ink jet printers provide an inexpensive
way to print full colour documents.

Golf ball printer

This is another form of impact character printer that provides shaped character prints. The
character images are incorporated on the surface of a golf ball like print head which is either
rotating or pivoted.

Figure 49: Golf ball printer

High speed printers

High speed printers are broadly classified into line printers and page printers and the various
types are discussed below.

Line printers

There are three types of line printers namely drum printers, chain printers and electrostatic
printers.

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Drum printer

The drum printer is an impact printer that provides one whole line print at a time. The characters
are incorporated on circular bands that move round the surface of the drum surface. Each band
contains all the possible character sets. The number of bands over the drum surface corresponds
to the number of print positions along a given line width typically 80,120.132 or 160 print
positions.

Figure 50: Drum printers

To provide a line print, the bands align to form the line and the drum presses the stationery
between the inked ribbon and the hammer set, which acts as a pressing base. The inked ribbon is
used to pass the image of the aligned line on the drum surface onto the stationery

Chain printer

The chain printer is also an impact line printer that incorporates engraved character printing slugs
on a moving chain or belt. The chain moves the character printing slugs at high constant speed
past printing positions.

The hammers that are controlled by the principles of magnetism press the stationery against
appropriate print slugs, for the slug’s character image to be passed onto the stationery through
the inked ribbon. The chain printers required no alignment as in drum printers during the line
print. They are faster than the drum printers, produce higher print quality and hence are more
expensive. Typical speed is about 20 lines per second (lps) though up to about 50 lps can be
possible.

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Figure 51: Chain printer
Electrostatic printer

This is a non-impact printer that uses electrostatic charges to form characters in a line on a
special paper. It operates at typical speed of 3000 Imp and above.

Figure 52: Electrostatic printer

Page printers

There are three types of pages’ printers, namely laser printers, electrostatic printers and
xerographic printers.

Laser printer

Laser printers use the same technology as photocopying machines. It is a high-quality printer,
which operates at a high speed. It is a non-impact printer that converts data into a beam of laser
light that encodes an organic photo conductor with the data forming the images to be printed.
The photo conductor then attracts particles to the toner (ink).

When then toner is brought into contact with the paper, an image is produced on the paper. The
toner is fused onto the paper by the heat and the pressure. In addition to the standard
monochrome laser printer, which uses a single toner, there also exist colours laser printers tend
to be about five to ten times as expensive as their monochrome siblings.

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Figure 53: Laser printer
Xerographic printer

This is a page printer that is similar in many respects to the photocopiers machines but has got in
built processing power and the production of multiple copies is possible.

Figure 54: Xerographic printer

Factors to consider when purchasing a printer

The choice of purchasing a printer depends on a number of factors which include:

1. Print quality: Dot matrix printers are good for bulk printing of draft documents; laser is
good for printing official documents while thermal printers are good for checkout counter
receipts.
2. Initial cost: Though the prices of printers have come down, laser and thermal printers are
still expensive compared to inkjet printers.
3. Running cost: The cost of maintaining an inkjet printer is higher than that of maintaining
laser printers.
4. Speed: The speed of a printer is measured in Pages per minute.

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 5. Colour printing: Most printers support black and Colour printing. However, Colour
printers, especially lasers are relatively more expensive.
6. Range of capacity: The multiple copy facility, print styles, page width for the selected
printer.

Use of printers
Precautions
1. Different printers have different sensitivity to printing papers. Using the wrong quality
paper in a particular printer can make the paper get stuck i.e. paper jam.
2. Printers are very specific to manufacturers cartridges and ribbons. Use of clones or
imitations i.e. wrong make or model can damage the printer’s mechanism.
3. Avoid refilling of cartridges or re-inking of the ribbons. This can spoil the printer due to
leakage or use of poor quality materials.

Plotters
These are output devices that mainly produce graphical output e.g. diagrams, maps and such like
outputs. The commonly commercially available graph plotters are the flatbed plotter and the
drum plotter. These plotter’s names or descriptions are derived from the type of the base onto
which the stationery is placed for the graphical output to be base onto which the stationery is
placed for the graphical output to be possible onto the stationery, by pens under the direct or
indirect influence of the computer. Different types of pens of varying thickness or different
colours can be used.

The flat bed plotters

It has a flat surface (“bed”) onto which the stationery is placed for the pen to be moving over it in
all directions to produce graphical output. The drum plotter has got the drum onto which the
stationery is placed for drawing to be possible.

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Figure 55: Flatbed plotters
The drum plotter

It has got the drum onto which the stationery is placed for drawing to be possible. The drum rolls
the stationery, forwards or backwards, as the pen moves over it to produce graphical output.

Figure 56: Drum plotter

Plotters are applied basically in Computer Aided Design (CAD) and architectural designs. They
are mainly used for printing large architectural or engineering drawings. In both cases the
computer is used to form the graphical design and output it through any of the graph plotters, i.e.
through the plotter (s) installed. The graph plotters operate at low speeds hence are normally
connected in an off-line mode to avoid wasting the computer time.

Computer Output on Microform (COM)

COM can also be described as computer originated microform. This method of output provides
photographed type of computer output into the microform. The microforms are photographically
reduced documents on films (magnetic media peruse photo negative for more insight). There are
two forms of the microform, the microfilm, which is a film reel of 16mm roll and the microfiche
which is rectangular shaped measuring about 105 by 148 mm sheet.

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Figure 57: Computer Microfilm

Both the microfilm and microfiche are small and store several pages of A4 sized information,
about 3000 and 98, A4 pages respectively. The computer displays the results onto the screen
contents are then photographed onto the microform, an online operation.

Alternatively, the computer outputs the results into a storage medium e.g. the magnetic tapes,
whose contents are read by transcribers’ machine and displayed them onto the screen connected
to the machine. The contents being displayed on the screen are then photographed onto the
microform. The transcribers machines are not under direct influence of the computer hence this
gives an off-line operation.

Advantages

1. Saves on stationery and space

2. Faster than printing
3. Non-bulky hence conveniently transportable
4. The microform contents are not easily read using naked eyes, hence guaranteeing the
security of the reports.
5. Have got longer life span as compared to e.g. paper medium output

Disadvantage

1. They are expensive

2. Cause eye strain if an attempt is made to read microform contents
3. Additional equipment for viewing the contents of the microform and for producing full
sized copies is required.

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Application of COM

The COM is conveniently used where the application generates voluminous output and use or
update is not frequently necessary. COM is used for example in

1. Libraries for books, catalogues, references

2. To retain towns plans, maps, statistics etc. in government authorities
3. In bank, insurance companies etc. to store personnel or customers records and so on.

Ancillary devices

The ancillary devices are the facilities that are used to support the printers and in handling
printed documents. Advanced models of printers will have some of them inbuilt to assist in the
production of the desirable documents. The ancillary equipment includes: -

1. Decollators: They are used to remove the inter leaved carbon and separating the multiple
copy continuous stationery.
2. Bursfers: They are used for pulling apart continuous stationery into single sheets at the
perforations.
3. Guillotine: They used for cutting and trimming continuous stationery.
4. Recollators: They are used for recombining the continuous stationery after interleaved
carbon is removed.
5. Others: They are used for folding the stationery to fit an envelope, inserting of the folded
document into an envelope, reproduction of multiple copies of the printed documents
containing the output etc.

Softcopy output devices

Soft copy refers to intangible output that can be seen or heard, such as screen display and sound.
Examples of such devices include, monitor, speakers, LCD projectors and light emitting devices.

Visual Display Unit

The Visual Display Unit (VDU) commonly referred to as a monitor or screen is used to display
information in the form of text, pictures and video, enabling the user to monitor what is going on
in the computer. There are three common types of monitors namely

1. Cathode Ray Tube (CRT),

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 2. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
3. Gas Plasma Display (GPD

LCDs and gas plasma display are generally referred to as flat panel displays.

Cathode ray tube monitors

A Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitor consists of a long glass tube with electron gun on one end
and a screen on the other. The electron gun shoots electrons to illuminate the screen and is coated
with tiny phosphorus dots. The dots consist of three primary display colours i.e. red, green and
blue to make a pixel.

Figure 58: CRT monitor

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors

A Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) is made of special liquid crystals. Unlike CRTs, LCDs are less
bulky, consume less power and have little strain effect on eyes. Due to this reason, LCDs are
gradually replacing the CRT monitors on desktops computers.

Figure 59: LCD display

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There are two technologies used to make LCDs, passive matrix and active matrix. In passive
matrix, LCDs create images by scanning the entire screen. This type of LCDs requires little
power but have poor clarity. On the other hand, active matrix displays are made using Thin
Film Transistor technology hence the name TFTs. These displays consume more energy than
passive matrix but offer better clarity.

Gas plasma displays

Gas plasma display; resemble LCD only that they make use of gas instead of liquid crystals.
They contain millions of pixels that are illuminated by charged neon gas. Unlike LCDs, images
displayed on gas plasma do not suffer from angle distortion. Currently the technology is mainly
used to produce high definition TVs (HDTV), and wall display screens.

Figure 60: Gas plasma display

Monitor display terminologies

As you work with any of the three monitors discussed, you are likely to come across the
following terms:

1. Pixel: This is the smallest area of the screen which the computer can change. It stands for
picture elements, tiny dots which are used to form the images displayed on the screen. In
a Colour monitor, a pixel has the three primary colour namely red, green and blue.
2. Resolution: This is the measure of how fine the detail is on screen. It is the number of
pixels per inch on the screen usually given in dots per inch (dpi) or bits. The higher the
resolution, the more the number of pixels per square inch, hence clearer the image.
Screens are usually classed as low resolution, medium resolution or high resolution.

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 Commonly used resolutions are 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1,024 x 768 and 1,280 x 1,024
pixels. Higher resolution monitors use more pixels.
3. Monochrome: Monochrome monitors actually display two colours one for the
background and one for the foreground. The colours can be black and white, green and
black or amber and black.
4. Grey scale: A gray scale monitor is a special type of mono chrome monitor capable of
displaying different shades of gray
5. Colour: Colour monitors can display anywhere from16 to over 1 million different
colours. Colour monitors are sometimes called RGB monitors because they accept three
separate signals red, green and blue.
6. Colour depth: This is the number of colours which can be displayed by a pixel called
colour depth. It is measured in bits.
7. Refresh rate: Since CRTs cannot hold an image for a long time, image in the video
RAM is used to refresh the one on the screen as long as necessary. If the screen has a low
refresh rate, images flicker hence causing eye strain. Refresh rate therefore is the number
of times per second the screen the screen is refreshed (redrawn). To avoid flickering, the
refresh rate should be at least 72 Hz.
8. Bandwidth: This is the range of signal frequencies the monitor can handle. This
determines how much data it can process and therefore how fast it can refresh at higher
resolutions.
9. Display size: This is the measure in inches of the diagonal length of the screen measured
from top to bottom left.
10. Interlaced or no interlaced: Interlacing is a technique that enables a monitor to have
more resolution, but it reduces the monitor’s reaction speed.
11. Dot pitch: - The amount of space between each pixel. The smaller the dots pitch the
sharper the image.
12. Convergence: The clarity and sharpness of each pixel.

Applications of monitors

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 1. Computer Aided Design (CAD) enables users to produce accurate and detailed drawings
and required high resolution, colour monitors to make sure that the drawings are
accurately represented.
2. Screens used mainly for data entry need not to be of high resolution. However, with the
trend towards graphical user interfaces, medium or high resolution screen is
recommended.
3. Tele text pictures which are received by television channels use letters which are large
and made up of simple shapes. Lower resolution screen is suitable for Tele text and in
fact a standard television screen is used.

Disadvantages of high resolution monitors

1. A higher resolution monitor uses more pixels and thus uses more storage space on the
computer.
2. High resolution pictures take longer to process. It takes a very fast processor to
animate a high-resolution picture smoothly.
3. High resolution pictures need to be viewed on expensive display screens.

Video graphic adapters

For a monitor to display information, it must be connected through a video port to a video
adapter plugged or integrated on the motherboard. A video adapter determines the resolution and
clarity of the monitor. Examples of video adapters include:

1. Colour Graphic Adapter (CGA): This is the oldest type of adapter that displays text
and images up to 16 colours.
2. Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA): This is an improvement of CGA but also displays
in 16 colours.
3. Video Graphics Array (VGA): This displays text, graphics and video using 256 colours.
4. Super Video Graphic Array (SVGA): This displays text and graphics using more than
16 million colours, has a minimum resolution of 800 x 600 pixels.

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 5. Extended Graphics Array (XGA): This has a resolution of up to 1024 x 768 pixels. It is
popular with 17 and 19 inch monitors.
6. Super Extended Graphics Array (SXGA): This has a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels
and is popular with 19 and 21 inch monitors.
7. Ultra-Extended Graphics Array (UXGA): This is the latest and highest standard.

Sound output devices

Sound output devices produce sounds such as beeps, audio or digital. Some computers come
with inbuilt speakers, eliminating the need to connect external ones. An external speaker should
be connected to a sound card through the jacks on the system or on a multimedia monitor.

Speakers
Modern computers using the appropriate software can turn text in a document into audible
speech. This is known as speech synthesis. Other types of software allow music and other sounds
to be created and played back. Computers are able to play music directly from a CD or play a
film from a DVD. You can even fit your computer with radio or TV card to add to these
functions. In all cases, the sound is transited through a speaker in the same way. It is in a sound
system or radio.

Figure 61: Speakers

Data projector
Data projectors are used to display output from a computer onto a plain white screen like a wall
or whiteboard. It is a creative way of presenting computer output to an audience. This technology
is gradually replacing the traditional overhead projectors.

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Figure 62: Data projector

Light emitting diodes

Light emitting diodes (LED) are indicators that display light when an electric current is passed
through them. A good example is the red or green light displayed by the system unit to help the
user know whether it is on or off. Mostly LEDs are used to give warnings the same way a
motorist would use signals to indicate when he or she is over taking or taking a turn.

Figure 63: Light emitting diodes

Secondary Memory or Secondary storage devices
Secondary storage also referred to as auxiliary storage or backing storage are devices that
provide alternative long term storage for programs, data and information. They are regarded as
secondary because unlike primary storage, they are not directly accessible by the CPU. Storage
of data and programs is one of the most important features of a computer system. This is done
temporarily, while a program is running using RAM and long term to preserve the programs and
data using backing storage.

It is important to have backing storage for long term storage of data and programs. The backing
storage is also used when there is not enough room in the main store for data and programs while
they are running data is read from and written to the storage.

1. To write data means to move it or copy it from the main store to backing storage.
2. To read data means to move it or copy it from backing store to the main store.

Characteristics of backing storage

Data is usually accessed using read/write heads. The heads transfer the data while the medium
rotates in the drive.

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 1. Access to backing storage is slower than main storage
2. They are non-volatile, that is, the data is stored on the medium until it is deleted.
3. They are non- volatile, that is, the data is stored on the medium until it is deleted.

Backing stores are either serial access or direct access. Random access, also called direct
access, means that data can be retrieved directly from any location on the medium, in any order.
With sequential access, however, the data can only be retrieved in the order in which it is
physically stored on the medium.

Figure 64: Modes of medium access

The secondary storage supplements the internal memory of the computer and hence as compared
to the main memory the backing storage media are

1. Cheap
2. Mass storage media that stores voluminous data items and/or instructions.
3. Permanent storage media that stores data and/or instructions permanently for future
reference or manipulation.

The backing storage media are usually used in storing maintaining data and/or instructions that
are not immediately required by the processor. The contents of backing store can be quickly
retrieved into the computer’s main memory for processing as need arises. For recording data
and/or instructions on to the media are normally fit into their relevant reading/ writing unit.

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 In today’s market, there are three primary options available for collecting and/or storing
electronic data:

1. Magnetic media: hard drives, digital video recorders (DVR’s)

2. Optical media: CD’s, DVD’s, etc.
3. Solid-state media: compact flash (CF), secure digital (SD), USB drives, etc.

Secondary storage

Sequential access device Direct access devices

Magnetic disk

Magnetic Optical disk Magneto Memory stick

optical disk

DVD CD Blu ray disk

Floppy disk Hard disk Zip disk

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Figure 65: Classification of backing storage

Magnetic Storage media

Magnetic storage devices store information in the form of magnetic field on magnetically coated
surface. Hard disks, Floppy disks and tape devices are examples of magnetic storage devices.
Data is written to magnetic media with the help of electromagnetic heads. The same head is
usually used also for retrieval of data. Though magnetic storage media can hold large amount of
data, these are considered bulky and not usable for mobile applications. However, technological
advancements made it possible to create large capacity magnetic storage.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

The Hard Disk Drive (HDD) stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating (3,600-15,000
rpm) platters that are coated with a ferromagnetic film. Data is recorded (or removed) by
changing the magnetic properties of the film, which is accomplished through a read-write head
mechanism that operates in close proximity to the surface of the platter as it rapidly rotates. The
hard disk or hard drive’s metallic platters and read/write head, housed in a protective metal case.
The read/write head floats between the surfaces of the platters, which are held in a vacuum
which enables it to spin around very quickly.

Figure 66: Hard Disk Drives

Structure of the disk platters

Several disks plates depending on the design are mounted together to form a disk pack. The
plates within the pack are used as a unit. The disk pack plates are held on the rotational spindle,

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which is used by the drive motor to spin the disk pack’s plate’s surfaces past the R/W heads for
the read and write operations to be possible on the recording surface.
The read and write operations are carried out by the R/W heads, in the disk drive, under the
influence of the computer’s command signals.
The disk drive or unit is described as Fixed Disk Units (FDU). If the disk pack is permanently
held in it. If the disk pack is removable from the unit, then it is described as Exchangeable Disk
Unit (EDS).

Figure 67: Structure of disk platter

Advantages
1. Hard disks store much more data than floppy disks. The capacity of one disk is in the
gigabyte range.
2. Access to data is much faster than access to floppy disks.
3. Hard disks are more reliable than floppy disks there is better protection against dust.
Disadvantages
Hard disks are usually fixed (cannot be removed without opening the system unit)
Floppy disks
A floppy disk or simply a diskette is made up of a small flexible round disk coated with
magnetisable iron oxide. This disk covered with plastic protective case. The diagram below
shows a 3.5-inch floppy diskette. However, it is important to note that diskettes are becoming
unpopular due to the entry into the market of affordable mass storage media such as flash disks
and memory cards.

Flash disks and memory cards are discussed later. To read or write contents into floppy disk, a
computer must have a floppy drive. Floppy disks come in different sizes with different storage

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capacities. Initial floppy disks such as 5.25 inch were large in size but with lower storage
capacity than the present diskettes. For instance, a 3.5-inch diskette can hold as much as 2.88
MB.

Figure 68: Floppy disk

The structure of a floppy disk platter

If the protective plastic casing of a floppy disk is removed, a circular flexible disk, coated with
magnetic material will be revealed. The surface of the disk is divided into tiny invisible
concentric circles called tracks that store data. The tracks are further divided into units called
sectors

Magnetic tapes
A magnetic tape is made using a thin ribbon of Mylar coated with a thin of magnetic material
composed of iron oxide. The tape resembles the music cassette used in home tape recorders. The

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tape may be housed inside a plastic cartridge as shown. Data is read from or written using a tape
drive. Examples of magnetic tapes include: reel to reel tapes, cassette tapes and cartridge tapes.

Advantages of tapes

Tapes can store large amount of data for their size, i.e. they are compact and easy to store for
long periods.

1. Tapes are light and easy to carry.

2. Tapes are very effective when used to hold sequential files for batch applications.
3. Provide high capacity storage and backup storage at relatively low cost.

Disadvantages of tapes

1. Magnetic tapes are slow because of they must be read sequentially, one record after
another. All previous records must pass under the read/write head to reach the record the
operator is searching.
2. Environmental factors such as dust, moisture and high/low humidity can distort data
stored on magnetic tapes.
3. Tapes do not fully use their recording surface. Data is stored in blocks separate by inter-
block gaps (IRG) left for stopping purposes. The inter block gaps are necessary since the
tape cannot be stopped abruptly when the destination record is reached and therefore
some space has to be left to ensure that no data is lost. The space between successive data
records, IRG results in wastage of storage space.

Zip disks
A zip disk is a high capacity magnetic diskette that resembles a floppy disk. However, compared
to 3.5 floppy disk, a zip disk has a higher storage capacity and is physically thicker. A zip disk
can hold as much as 250 MB. Zip disks mostly come with separate portable external zip drives.

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Figure 69: Zip disk

Jaz disks
Jaz disks resemble zip disks in every sense only that they can hold as much as 2GB. Data is read
or written using internal or external Jaz drives.

Figure 70: Jaz disks

High capacity floppy
High capacity floppy disks simply known as HiFD disks are high capacity diskettes that can
store up to 200 MB of data. HiFD drive can also read the magnetic 1.44 MB diskettes.

Laser Servo 120 Super Disks

Laser servo 120 Super Disk technology (LS-120), is a diskette that resembles the 3.5-inch
diskette but uses optical technology. It has a greater storage capacity and speed of data retrieval
(it can store up to 240 MB). The LS-120 drive can read and write both the 3.5 inch floppy disk
and the 120 MB super disk.

Digital Video Recorders (DVR’s)

Sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder (PVR), is a consumer
electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive,
USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device.

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Figure 71: Digital Video Recorders

Care of magnetic storage media

To avoid accidental loss of data or information held on magnetic media, the following rules must
be observed.

1. Do not expose a magnetic media to strong magnetic fields. This would disorient the
magnetic dipoles causing erasure of recorded data. They should not be brought near
moving or magnetic bodies for such removal of the magnetic property from the surfaces
rendering recording in terms of magnetism impossible.
2. Do not expose a magnetic media to excessive heat. Heat energy lead to loss of magnetic
strength in materials, hence magnetically recorded data can easily get lost. They should
be stored in optimum temperature range e.g. for the diskettes 10o C to about 52o C.
3. Do not drop magnetic media on the ground because the impact weakens magnetism.
4. Do not bend or fold a magnetic media or put heavy weights on them to avoid breaking or
damaging it.
5. Do not touch the magnetic surfaces. They should be protected in their cases when not in
use, to safeguard the recording surfaces against the environmental influences such as
dust, touch, direct sunlight, radiations etc.
6. Do not remove a media from the drive when it is still being accessed by the computer
because this may result to data loss. Power should be put on before mounting the media
and be put off after removing the media from the drive, because the fluctuation in power
might also cause de-magnetization.

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 7. When loading, or mounting the media into its reading or writing unit, care should be
taken to avoid, brushing of the recording surfaces against the mechanical equipment or
components of the drive.

Characteristics of magnetic storage media

1. A typical magnetic disk has two surfaces or sides. However, mainframe computers may
have disk packs made up of a number of disks.
2. Each surface of the disk holds data in concentric circular tracks. The tracks are further
divided into pie shaped segments called sectors. The sector and tracks have the same
storage capacity because the inner tracks have higher densities and hence all the tracks
store the same number of bytes.
3. The area within the same track bound by the two edges of sector forms blocks which
forms the unit for the read or write operations.
4. Data can be written to and read from the disk.
5. The disks are direct access. The track and sector numbers are used to find exactly where
the data required is stored.
6. Data can be written to and read from the disk.
7. The disks are direct access. The track and sector numbers are used to find exactly where
the data required is stored.
8. The access time (i.e. time taken to read the data from the disk to the main storage) is the
sum of three parameters: seek time, rotational, delay time and data transfer time
a) Seek time: This is the time taken by the read/write head to locate the right track
which contains the required.
b) Rotational delay: This is the time taken for the drive motor to spin the read/write
head until the right contents come and align directly below the read/write head.
c) Data transfer time: This is the time taken for the data to be transferred to the
main storage.

Optical storage media

Optical storage devices store data on reflective polycarbonate discs in the form of pits and
bumps. Data is recorded on the disc by pointing modulated laser beam on to the rotating disc.
This makes a series of tiny pits which does not reflect light and bumps that reflect light. For
reading the data, a low power laser beam is focused to the track and the reflected beam is

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directed to a photo diode. The photo diode detects the presence of pits and bumps from the
reflected laser beam and convert it in to bits and bytes of information. Two reasons why optical
storage media are used:

1. They store very large volumes of data

2. Data stored in them is more stable and more permanent than the magnetic media

Compact disks (CD)

Compact disks hold large quantities of data and information. One disk can hold as much as 700
MB. They are mostly used to store data and information that requires a lot of space such as video
clips, software, sounds etc. currently compact disks are available in three forms namely;

Compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM): Compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM) as
the name suggests contain data that can only be read but cannot be written on. To record data the
recording surface is made into pits and lands (bumps). When a laser beam falls on the land, this
is interpreted as 1, otherwise a zero is recorded.

Figure 72:CD-ROM
Compact disk-recordable (CD-R): Compact disk recordable (CD-R) are coated with special
dye which changes colour to represent data when burned using a laser beam. Once data is burned
on a CD-R, it becomes read only.

Figure 73: CD-R

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Note: CD-ROMs and CD-Rs are referred to as Write Once Read Many (WORM). Data is only
recorded once but can be read as many times as possible.

Compact disk rewritable (CD-RW): Unlike the CD-Rs, these types of compact disks allow the
user to record, erase and rewrite new information just as one would with floppy disks.

Digital Versatile Disks

Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), also known as digital video disk resemble compact disks in every
aspect. The only difference is that they have a higher storage capacity of up to 17GB, which is
equivalent to approximately twenty-six 640 MB CDs. They are suitable for recording motion
pictures such as video because they offer better sound and picture quality than between the CDs.

Figure 74: Digital Versatile Disk

Blu ray disk

Blu-ray Disc (BD) is the name of a new optical disc format that offers more than five times the
storage capacity of traditional DVDs.

Figure 75: Blu ray disk

Optical tape
This is similar to a magnetic tape only that data is stored on it by using optical technology.

Solid-state media
Solid state storage is a non-volatile storage that employs integrated circuits rather than
mechanical, magnetic or optical technology. They are referred to as solid state because they do
not have movable parts. Some examples of solid state devices are memory sticks, compact flash
(CF), secure digital (SD), USB drives, etc.

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Compact flash (CF)
This is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices and was
the first flash memory card.

Figure 76: Compact flash

USB Flash Disk

This is a key-sized computer storage device with a storage capacity of 16 MB - 2 GB. It is ideal
for storing and transferring files. Can be repeatedly written for thousands of times. Can be put
into a pocket or attached to a key chain. Resistant to scratches, dusts, breaks, or mechanical
failure.

Figure 77: Flash disk

Computer performance
The speed at which a CPU can process information is known as its clock speed. This is
measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). Mega refers to a million and hertz refers to
frequency per second, therefore a 500MHz processor would be capable of operating at 500
million cycles per second. Giga refers to a thousand million (billion), therefore a 2.4GHz
processor would be capable of 2,400,000,000 cycles per second.

The clock speed of the CPU is one of the limiting factors which determine how quickly a PC can
perform tasks, the higher the clock speed of the processor, the faster and more expensive the PC
will be. The user can judge the performance of a PC according to how quickly tasks are

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performed. There are a number of factors that determine the overall operating speed of a
computer

1. The clock speed of the CPU

2. The capacity of the RAM
3. The capacity and speed of the HDD (Hard Disk Drive).
4. The number of applications running

The speed of a system is determined by any component that causes a bottleneck in the flow of
data. A PC with the fastest available CPU will not operate to its full potential if the machine
only has 16Mb RAM and a small, slow hard drive. Similarly, a PC fitted with 512Mb RAM and
a 120 GB hard drive will not give its optimum performance if the CPU speed is 166MHz. The
relative importance of all these factors will depend on the nature and number of the tasks being
performed.

A task involving thousands of complex calculations will depend heavily on CPU speed; while
one involving huge quantities of data will be more affected by RAM size and HDD access times.
Tasks involving the Internet will probably be restricted by modem speed. Although modern
operating systems are designed to allow more than one application to be open and in use
simultaneously, a large number of open applications will make enough demands on the CPU and
RAM to produce a noticeable reduction in performance. For a computer to operate at its
optimum speed the capability of all components needs to be carefully balanced

Caring for Microcomputers

Like all electronic equipment, microcomputers need to be serviced regularly to maintain their
operability. Some of the measures that should be taken are:

1. Place the microcomputer in a dust free environment with good ventilation. Dust covers
should be used to cover should be used to cover the microcomputer when not in use.
2. The microcomputer should not be exposed to direct sun light.
3. Food or drinks should not be allowed near the computers.
4. The computers should be regularly serviced, at least once a year or more frequently if the
environment is dusty. The service should normally include blowing the dust from the

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 system unit, cleaning the floppy drives, cleaning the keyboard, including all keys and the
keyboard contacts and cleaning the monitor externally.
5. The peripheral devices, such as printers and mouse, should also be regularly serviced.
6. The floppy disks used for installation of programs and backups should be kept safely in
disk banks, and kept away from sunlight and magnetic media.
7. In areas where the power fluctuates, it is important to use either a stabilizer or
Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS), to ensure a steady input power to the computer
system.

Factors to consider while selecting hardware/ hardware consideration

Before purchasing a computer, hardware resources, it is advisable to do a requirement analysis of

all the requirements necessary in order to balance between cost and user needs. Requirements
analysis involve, identifying user needs, hardware and software evaluating.
Microprocessor type and speed
The processing power, speed and cost of a computer mainly depends on the type of a
microprocessor and its clock speed. Some of the microprocessor available today include
microprocessor intel Duo core, Pentium IV, intel Celeron, AMD Duron. Consider an acceptable
speed that meets the user requirements at a fair price.

Memory capacity determines what operating system and application programs can be installed.
Although, a computer may have a superior processor, it may not perform as expected if it has
low memory capacity. Because of the current multimedia applications, a good computer should
have sufficient memory to handle the heavy application that require a lot of memory space in
order to run.

Therefore, purchasing computer or memory module for upgrade consider the following:

1. The type of memory package e.g. DDR, DDR II.

2. Whether there is an empty memory slot.
3. Compatible with other installed modules if upgrading.

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 4. Capacity of the module.

Warranty
A warranty is an agreement between the buyer and the seller that spells out terms and conditions
of, after selling a product in case of failure or malfunction. The most important consideration to
make is whether the seller is ready to actually provide after sales services. On top of the actual
cost of the item, most manufacturers and suppliers include a certain percentage charge to cover
the warranty. A good warranty should cover the following points:
1. Scope of cover for example, six months, one year etc.
2. Callout response and liability agreement. For example, how long should the supplier take
to repair a fault or replace the product and if he/ she delays, who bears the cost.
3. Preventive maintenance for example regularity of service at intervals
Cost
The cost of a computer system depends on:
1. It is processing capability
2. Whether it is branded or a clone. Branded computers are more expensive than their
equivalent clones.
3. It is size. Portable computers are more expensive than their desktop equivalents because
of the superior technology involved to manufacture smaller components without losing
performance abilities. It is important to do a market survey from magazines, newspapers
and electronic media or visit a number of vendors to compare prices before purchasing a
computer. Computer Information and technology exhibitions also enlighten a buyer on
current trends and costs.
Upgradability and Compatibility
The hardware bought must be compatible across platforms and platforms and easily upgradable.
For example, some older computers cannot support large hard disks and high speed serial bus
devices (USB and fire wire) available in the market today.
Portability
Portable computers such as laptop PDAs are ideal for people who do not take most of their time
in office.
Special user needs
When selecting computers hardware, consider the unique user needs e.g., if a user is physically

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challenged, consider buying voice input devices.
Monitor
Depending on preference, choice of a monitor may depend on size, resolution and technology
used on it. Currently, the flat panel displays are gradually replacing CRTs.
Multimedia capability
Multimedia capability refers to the ability for a computer to process and output text, sound, video
and pictures. A multimedia system consists of speakers, CD/DVD drive, sounds card and a
SVGA monitor.
Other considerations
One can also consider available ports, wireless connectivity and the system unit form factor
whether tower type or desktop.
Procedure of procurement of a computer

Computer acquisition necessitates the formation of a steering committee, whose purpose is to

supervise the computer feasibility study and subsequently to monitor the Electronic Data
Processing (EDP) operations. The steering committee is made up of personnel form the various
departments at various levels that are affected by the introduction of the computer into the
organization. The computer procurement feasibility study should establish:

1. The need to acquire the computer facilities.

2. How to finance the equipment, i.e. the methods of procuring the equipment needed.
3. The computer equipment implementation consideration e.g. user training, change
over, timescales.
4. The reaction of the personnel within the data processing department e.g. their
resistance to change.

Prior to feasibility study, preliminary survey is conducted to judge the expected costs and
benefits, computer work load so as to determine whether carrying out feasibility study is
necessary and to specify its objectives.

A detailed investigation of the work area is carried, based on the objectives set out from the
preliminary survey and a schedule is drawn, which takes care of both present and the future
application requirements of the EDP system. Once the schedule is drawn the supplier are asked

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to give a detailed quotation. Using the schedule, the supplier should specify the facilities
necessary e.g.

1. The required hardware, software and maintenance offered by the manufacturers.

2. The cost estimates, depending on the method to be adapted in financing the facilities.
3. Backup equipment or procedures provided and the capital involved in maintaining
such strategies.
4. Adaptability of the proposed system to enhanced data processing operations.
5. Training, advice or seminars offered by the manufacturer.
6. Delivery dates

The replies are evaluated by the steering committee and the decisions taken are contained in the
feasibility study report, which contains the following:

1. The recommended hardware, software and other facilities.

2. The method of procuring the recommended equipment.
3. Cost benefit appraisal of the recommended equipment against rejected ones.
4. Installation consideration and the expected growth in the work load.
5. The effect of computerization to the organization.

Note: The report is handed to the top management for a decision, to either acquire the facilities
of particular model or to take no action.

Methods of procurement of a computer

The four methods of acquiring and/or financing the computer costs are, rental, purchasing,
leasing and using a bureau.

Renting a computer

This is a very common arrangement of acquiring computer facilities. The computer facilities are
acquired and for use within the aspiring user’s premises at a fixed periodic changes, e.g. monthly
charges, payable to the manufacturer. Most agreements have a minimum rental period such as 90
days. After the minimum period, the user is free to cancel the agreement on short notice, one to
two months.

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The flexibility is perhaps the major advantage of the rental alternatives. If users are dissatisfied,
they can simply cancel the alternatives. If users are dissatisfied, they can simply cancel the
agreement. However, the value of this flexibility is often overestimated since the user may have
a large investment in training, preparation and implementation.

Advantages

1. Tax allowances are available.

2. There is no large initial capital expenditure.
3. The effects of technological changes are reduced because during the agreement period,
the charges are fixed hence inflation and maintenance are taken by the manufacturer and
obsolete equipment can be returned.
4. The user has more flexibility to change the equipment configuration.

Disadvantages

1. This method of acquiring the computer and its related facilities is usually expensive in the
long term, that is with time more computer varieties and related facilities may be in
market hence prices fall, but rental charges remain fixed.
2. The computer and the related facilities remain the assets of the manufacturer and hence
cannot be used by the renting company as a security e.g. while seeking loan facilities.
3. In breach of the rental agreement, the computer and the related facilities may be
repossessed by the manufacturer.
4. The renting company usually pays more for any extra work done by the computer and its
facilities that was not covered in the rental agreement.
5. Productivity of machine comes down with time but rental charges remain the same.

Purchasing a computer

The user, that is the aspiring organization pays the manufacturer or supplier an amount
equivalent to the computer and related facilities’ value and the purchasing company owns the
computer and the related facilities. The payment can be in cash, through bank savings, loan
arrangement or hire purchase arrangements. Whether it is straight purchase or through e.g. hire
purchase the buying company gets the ownership of the facilities including the computer though
in hire purchase arrangement the ownership shall be limited to the extent payments are made.

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The computer and the related facilities therefore become full property of the buying company
after all the installment payments are made.

Advantages

1. The computer and the related facilities become the assets of the buying company.
2. It may be cheaper in the long term with tax advantages.
3. Frequently expenditure is not expected, where the manufacturer enters maintenance
agreement with the buying organization.
4. The organization can decide to sell the computer and or related facilities to generate cash,
which will depend on the market value of the facility to be sold.
5. Since the organization owns the computer and the related facilities, there are no extra
charges for additional work done, as in renting.

Disadvantages

1. In long term the computer and the related facilities may become obsolete, hence the
organization suffers the loss, due to advancement in technology. Note that computer
technology, advances fast generally, though it is dependent on the manufacturers of a
particular computer family and amount of research.
2. An organization acquires the computer and its related facilities in order to carry out its
data processing tasks, which keep on changing. A good facility therefore will be that
facility which is flexible to adapt to the current work load of the organization, it is a
common situation where the work load is beyond or much below the computer
configuration’s capabilities.
3. There is large initial capital outlay but the returns are usually slow.
4. Capital committed in purchasing the computer and its related facilities may be spent on
other higher returning investments for the organization.
5. Several other competing investment opportunities would have to be forgone in making
the big cash outflow for purchasing the computer. The outflow would also reduce the
company’s liquidity greatly. If a loan is obtained, then it imposes a burden of repayment
and interest on the organization.

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Leasing a computer

The leasing organization (lessor), installs the computer and its facilities in the user’s (lessee’s)
premises. The lessee then pays leasing charges to the lessor, who acquires the computer and its
related facilities from the manufacturer and pays for the equipment. Leasing contracts are similar
to rental contracts but usually for longer periods than those of renting. Leasing contract charges
are low and renewable even at lower rates as compared to rental agreements.

Advantages

1. Leasing agreement charges are lower than the rental charges and the contracts are
renewable even at lower rates unlike rental agreements.
2. In leasing, the extra work load for the computer system is not charged for b the lessor.
3. It does not require heavy initial investment.
4. Lease expenditure being a revenue expense may be charged to the profit and loss
account.
5. Maintenance charges are included in the lease charges.
6. Lease charges generally decline after a specified period.

Disadvantages

1. Fixed charges are to be met.

2. The computer and the related facilities may be repossessed by the lessor; in case the
leasing contract is beached.
3. The computer and the related facilities remain the assets of the lessor.
4. Maintenance contracts may not be a guarantee, after a certain period of time, though the
lessee may suffer inflexibility within the lease time e.g. when the equipment fail to adapt
to the functional environments of the organization. This aspect is, therefore, worth to
clarify during the signing of the leasing contract is usually agreed on by the manufacturer
for leased equipment.
5. In this arrangement of acquiring the computer and its facilities, the lessee has got no
choice over such facilities because the lessor acquires such facilities from the
manufacturer of choice.

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 6. The primary period for leasing is usually much longer than the renting period.

Using a bureau

A bureau is an organization which renders computer services to, other organization which
depends on such services, it is clients. Computer bureau can be a company, manufacturer or
users with extra time to hire out, who work with an aim of rendering services to the other
organizations. Computer bureaus render a wide range of services to other organizations on either
continuously or on demand basis. Some of such services are

1. System analysis and design.

2. Developing computer programs.
3. Computer time hire out and do it yourself.
4. Advice and consultancy.

The bureau may undertake a full service to a give company, in the computer related services.
Basically, all bureaus offer a range data processing of services, though others may specialize on
the industry, processing tasks or application type they deal with.

Advantages

1. A computer that is considering acquiring a computer may find it extremely beneficial to

use a bureau because
a) It can evaluate the type of computer it is interested in.
b) It can test and develop its programs prior to the delivery of its own computer.
c) Its staff will become familiar with the requirement of a computer system.
2. The major benefit of using data centre is that the user pays only for the information
systems development and data processing services that he needs. Installing in house
computer and employing staff of data processing professionals creates fixed costs such as
machines cost, rent, depreciation, salaries etc.
3. Many organisations cannot justify the implementation of an in house computer on cost
benefit grounds and the use of a bureau does not require s high capital outlay. Thus the

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 computing services can be availed using a data centre and the organization is not having
sufficient finance for the implementation of an in house computer system.
4. Some computer users find it convenient to employ a bureau to cope with peak loads
arising, for example, from seasonal variations in sales. Also if the organization has
insufficient volume of work to justify the implementation of a computer system, it can go
for a data center.
5. A bureau’s computer may be used in the event of a breakdown of an in house computer.
6. Enable the client to obtain advice on all aspects of systems development and operation.
7. Enable the client to obtain the user up to date computer technology, specialized
equipment and programs.
8. There are time sharing vendors who provide, for a fee, the usage of central computer and
online file storage to users who obtain access through remote terminals. Time sharing
vendors also generally offer a large number of specialized programs many of which the
user may find to be strikingly applicable and useful.
9. It avoids the responsibility of operating an in house computer, i.e. it eliminates personnel
and management problems caused by the employment of a group of highly paid technical
professionals in a rapidly changing and highly technical field of computers.

Disadvantages

1. The users of the bureau services have got no control over their jobs once they are
submitted to the bureau.
2. Periodic audit is necessary, because transportation of data and or information from the
organization to the bureau premises or vice versa, may pose problems e.g. fraud.
3. Control by individual companies is difficult because processing goes on at a remote
location.
4. Documentation strictly adhered to, to ease the understanding of the systems, whose
developers might not be available during the running of the systems, whose developers
might not be available during the running of the systems. This is especially in a situation
where the bureau develops and implements the systems.
5. Confidential information’s security is at risk and the cost of using the bureau services
should be carefully weighed out against the cost of using an in house set up as an

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 alternative. In most cases, the use of bureau services may be expensive, especially in the
long term.

References
1. C.S French (2001) Data processing and information technology. Martins the printers Ltd.

2. N.A Saleemi (2000) Information technology simplified. N.A Saleemi publishers.

3. Dr John Onunga (2007) Introduction to microcomputers and programming. Mariwa

publishers Ltd.

4. S. Mburu and G. Chemwa (2009) Computer Studies Book 1. Longhorn publishers.

5. Dr John Onunga and Renu Shah (2008) Computer Studies Book 1. Mariwa publishers
Ltd.

6. L.Long and N. Long (2002) Computers, information technology in perspective.

7. D.Morlery and C.S. Parker (2008) Fundamentals of computers

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