ICT 203 COMPUTER HARDWARE AND Refresh rate is the number of times per • QXGA: QXGA (quantum extended

SOFTWARE--OUTPUT HARDWARE second that the pixels are recharged so graphics array) uses a resolution of
that their glow remains bright. up to 2,048 x 1,536 pixels. Still relatively
The principal kinds of output are softcopy uncommon and very expensive in 2008,
and hardcopy TWO TYPES OF MONITORS: CRT & QXGA is being used for large LCD
FLAT PANEL Display screens are of two screens for computer users
Softcopy is data that is shown on a display types: needing to view extreme detail in
screen or is in audio or voice form; it exists CRT (cathode-ray tube) is a vacuum tube advanced graphics,
only electronically. used as a display screen in a computer or
video display terminal. WXGA and WUXGA: WXGA (wide aspect
Soft is also used to describe things that [wide screen] extended graphics
are easily changed or impermanent. In Flat-panel displays are made up of two array) and WUXGA (wide aspect ultra
contrast, plates of glass separated by a layer of a extended graphics array) are the
substance in which light is manipulated. newest VGA standards, wide-screen
hard is used to describe things that are versions of XGA and UXGA. WXGA
relatively permanent. One flat-panel technology is liquid crystal has a resolution of 1,366 x 768, and
display (LCD), in which molecules of liquid WUXGA 1,920 x 1,200; these
Hardcopy is printed output. The principal crystal line up in a way that alters their standards are used with high-definition
examples are printouts, whether text or optical properties, creating images on the (HD) TVs and HD movies and with
graphics, from printers. screen by transmitting or blocking out light. wide-screen notebook computers.

Film, including microfilm and microfiche, is ACTIVE-MATRIX VERSUS PASSIVE- Traditional Hardcopy Output: Printers
also considered hardcopy output. MATRIX PANEL DISPLAYS
printer is an output device that prints
Traditional Softcopy Output: Display Active matrix: In an active-matrix display, characters, symbols, and perhaps
Screens also known as TFT (thin-film transistor) graphics on paper or another hardcopy
display, each pixel on the flat-panel screen medium.
Display screens —also variously called is controlled by its own transistor.
monitors or simply screens —are output Printers can be separated into two
devices that show programming Passive matrix: In a passive-matrix categories, according to whether or not
instructions and data as they are display, a transistor controls a whole row the image produced is formed by physical
being input and information after it is or column of pixels on the flat-screen contact of the print mechanism
processed. display with the paper. Impact printers do have
contact with paper; nonimpact printers
SCREEN CLARITY: DOT PITCH, COLOR & RESOLUTION STANDARDS do not. We will also consider plotters and
RESOLUTION, COLOR DEPTH, & FOR MONITORS: SVGA & XGA multifunction printers.
REFRESH RATE
The common color and resolution impact printer forms characters or images
Among the factors affecting screen clarity standards for monitors are XGA, SXGA, by striking a mechanism such
(often mentioned in ads) are dot pitch, UXGA, QXGA, WXGA, and WUXGA. as a print hammer or wheel against an
resolution, color depth, and refresh rate. inked ribbon, leaving an image on paper.
• XGA (extended graphics array) has a
A pixel, for “ pict ure el ement,” is resolution of up to 1,024 x 768 pixels, with most common form of impact printer is the
the smallest unit on the screen that can be 65,536 possible colors. It is used mainly dot-matrix printer.
turned on and off or made different with15- and 17-inch CRT monitors. It’s A dot-matrix printer contains a print head
shades. useful for simple applications plus of small pins that strike an inked ribbon
spreadsheets and graphics software. against paper, to form characters or
Pixels are tiny squares, not circles. images.
• SXGA: SXGA (super extended graphics
Dot pitch (dp) is the amount of space array) has a resolution of up to 1,280 Nonimpact printers form characters
between the centers of adjacent pixels; the x1,024 pixels. It is often used with 15-inch and images without direct physical contact
closer the pixels, the crisper the image. LCD monitors. between the printing mechanism and
paper.
Resolution refers to the image sharpness • UXGA: UXGA (ultra extended graphics
of the display screen; the more pixels, or array) has a resolution of up to 1,600 a laser printer creates images with dots.
dots, there are per square inch, the finer x1,200 pixels and supports up to 16.8 However, as in a photocopying machine,
the level of detail. million colors. It is commonly used with these images are produced on a drum,
1,280 x 1,024 15- and 17-inch CRT treated with a magnetically charged ink
Color depth: As we said about scanners, monitors and 17- and 19-inch LCD like toner (powder),and then transferred
color depth, or bit depth, is the amount of monitors. Common applications for it from drum to paper.
information, expressed in bits, that is include CAD (computer-aided design) and
stored in a dot. business presentations, such as trade •Laser printers run with software called a
show displays. page description language
(PDL). This software tells the printer how
to lay out the printed page, and it supports
various fonts SOUND OUTPUT Sound-output devices
produce digitized sounds, ranging from The smallest unit of disk space that holds
• Inkjet printers: Inkjet printers spray onto beeps and chirps to music. datais called a cluster.
paper small, electrically charged droplets Voice-output devices convert digital data
of ink from four nozzles through holes in a into speech like sounds. You hear such
matrix at high speed forms of voice output on telephones
(“Please hang up and dial your call
•Thermal printers: Thermal printers are again”), in soft-drink machines, in cars, in
low- to medium-resolution printers that use toys and games, and in mapping software
a type of coated paper that darkens when for vehicle-navigation devices.
heat is applied to it.
VIDEO OUTPUT Video consists of
•Thermal wax-transfer printers: Thermal photographic images, which are played
wax-transfer printers print a wax-based ink at 15–29 frames per second to give the
onto paper. As the paper and ribbon travel appearance of full motion.
in unison beneath the thermal print head,
the wax-based ink from the transfer ribbon Another form of video output is The read/write head is used
melts onto the paper. videoconferencing, in which people in to transfer data between the computer and
different geographic locations can have a the disk.
• Photo printers: Photo printers are meeting—can see and hear one
Hard disks
specialized machines for printing another—using computers and
are thin but rigid metal, glass, or ceramic
continuous-tone photo prints (typically 3 x communications. platters covered with a substance that
5 or 4 x 6 inches), using special dye- allows data to be held in the form of
receptive paper and ribbons with special SECONDARY STORAGE magnetized spots.
transparent color dyes.
secondary storage hardware,
devices that permanently hold data and
PLOTTERS A plotter is a specialized
information as well as programs.
output device designed to produce
large, high-quality graphics in a variety of
Floppy disks
colors. • Hard disks
• Optical disks
The three principal kinds of plotters are • Magnetic tape
pen, electrostatic, and large-format: • Smart cards
• Flash memory Virtual File Allocation Table (VFAT), as a
• Pen: A pen plotter uses one or more • Online secondary storage method for storing and keeping track of
colored pens to draw on paper or files according to which clusters they use.
transparencies. A floppy disk, often called a diskette or
simply a disk, is a Hard disks are sensitive devices. The
removable flat piece of mylar plastic read/write head does not
• Electrostatic: In an electrostatic plotter, packaged in a 3.5-inch actually touch the disk but rather rides on
paper lies partially flat on a tablelike plastic case a cushion of air about 0.000001 inch thick.
surface, and toner is used in a
photocopier-likemanner. Floppy disks each store about head crash happens when the surface of
1.44 megabytes, the equivalent of 400 the read/write head or particles on its
• Large-format: Large-format plotters typewritten pages. surface come into contact with the surface
of the hard-disk platter, causing the loss of
operate somewhat like an
some or all of the data on the disk. A head
inkjet printer but on a much larger scale. Floppy disks are inserted into a floppy-disk crash can also happen when you bump a
This type of plotter is drive, computer too hard or drop something
often used by graphic artists. a device that holds, spins, reads data heavy on the system
from, and writes data to a floppy disk. cabinet.
Multifunction printers combine several
capabilities, such as printing, scanning, Read means that the data in secondary internal nonremovable hard disk, also
storage is converted to electronic signals known as a fixed disk, is housed in the
copying, and faxing.
and a copy of that data is transmitted to microcomputer system unit and is used to
the computer’s memory (RAM). store nearly all programs and most data
PRINTING- (softcopy =>hardcopy) files.
SCANNING-(hardcopy =>softcopy) Write means that a copy of the electronic
COPYING-(hardcopy=>hardcopy) information processed by the computer hard-disk speeds in revolutions per minute
FAXING- is transferred to secondary storage. (rpm), usually 5,400–7,200 rpm.
(hardcopy(telcomp)hardcopy)
Tracks, sectors, and clusters: On the An external hard disk is a freestanding
diskette, data is recorded in hard-disk drive enclosed in an airtight
SPECIALTY PRINTERS Specialty printers case, which is connected by cable to the
concentric recording bands called tracks
exist for such purposes as printing certain computer system unit through a FireWire,
types of labels, tickets, and text in Braille. USB, or other port
When a disk is formatted, the disk’s
storage locations are divided into
Mixed Output: Sound, Voice, & Video wedge-shaped sections, which break the
tracks into small arcs called
sectors .
 DVD-ROM—THE VERSATILE VIDEO A magnetic-strip card has a strip of
DISK A DVD-ROM (digital versatile disk magnetically encoded data on its back
or digital video disk, with read-only and holds about 0.2–0.9 kilobytes (KB) of
memory) is a CD-style disk with data. The encoded data might include
extremely high capacity, able to store 9.4 your name, account number, and PIN
A removable hard disk, or hard-disk or more gigabytes. (personal identification number).
cartridge, consists of one or two platters
enclosed along with read/write heads in a Like CDs, DVDs have their recordable and Two other kinds of cards, smart cards and
hard plastic case, which is inserted into a rewritable variants: optical cards
cartridge drive built into the
microcomputer’s system unit. • DVD-R—recordable DVDs: DVD-R
(DVD-recordable) disks allow onetime
HARD-DISK CONTROLLERS recording by the user.

Two hard-disk controllers for connecting • DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD _ RW—

external hard-disk drives are FireWire and reusable DVDs: Three types of
USB. Other standards are as follows: reusable disks are
DVD-RW (DVD-rewritable),
DVD-RAM (DVD–random access memory), A smart card is a plastic card the size of a
EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive
Electronics) can support up to four hard DVD _ RW ( DVD _ rewritable ), credit card with an integrated circuit—a
disks at 137 gigabytes per disk. all of which can be recorded on and microprocessor and memory chips—built
erased (except for video) many times. into it.
EIDE controllers are marketed under such DVD-R disks have a capacity of 4.7
names as SATA (for “Serial Advanced (single-sided) to 9.4 (double-sided)
gigabytes. Optical memory cards are plastic, laser-
Technology Attachment”) recordable, wallet-type cards used with an
BLU-RAY: THE NEXT-GENERATION optical card Reader
SCSI (small computer system interface),
pronounced “scuzzy,” supports several OPTICAL DISK Blu-ray, also known as
disk drives as well as other peripheral Bluray Disc (BD), is the name of a next- Flash & Solid State Memory
devices by linking them in a daisy chain. generation optical-disk format jointly
developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association
Flash memory cards, or flash RAM cards,
Fibre Channel is an up-and-coming (BDA), a group of consumer electronics
and PC companies are removable storage media that are
standard that is not expected to be used inserted into a flash memory port in a
much with personal computers, though it
may someday replace SCSI. The Blu-ray optical format was developed digital camera, handheld PC, smartphone,
to enable recording, rewriting, and or other mobile device.
A RAID (redundant array of independent playback of high-definition video, as well
[ or inexpensive] disks) storage system, as storing of large amounts of data. flash memory stick is a form of flash
which links any number of disk drives memory media that plugs into a memory
within a single cabinet or connected along Single-layer Blu-ray Disc can hold 25
gigabytes, which can be used to record stick port in a digital camera, camcorder,
a SCSI chain, sends data to the computer
over 2 hours of HDTV (or more than 13 notebook PC, photo printer, and other
along several parallel paths
simultaneously. hours of standard-definition TV). There are devices.
also dual-layer versions of the disks that
Optical Disks: CDs & DVDs can hold 50 gigabytes. A flash memory drive, also called a USB
flash drive, keychain drive, or key drive,
An optical disk is a removable disk, usually Magnetic Tape consists of a finger-size module of flash
4.75 inches in diameter and less than one- memory that plugs into the USB ports of
twentieth of an inch thick, on which data is Similar to the tape used on an audio tape nearly any PC or Macintosh.
written and read through the use of laser recorder (but of higher density),
beams.
Solid-state drives, which have far greater
magnetic tape is thin plastic tape coated
Recordable and Rewritable variations, with a substance that can be magnetized. capacity than flash memory drives or
are the two principal types of optical-disk Data is represented by magnetized spots keychain drives; like flash drives, they
technology used with computers. (representing 1s) or nonmagnetized spots have no moving parts to break down
(representing 0s).
CD-ROM—FOR READING ONLY The first
Online Secondary Storage allow you to
kind of optical disk for microcomputers tape cartridges, modules resembling
was the CD-ROM. CD-ROM (compact disk use the internet to back up your data.
audiocassettes
read-only memory) is an optical-disk Some services are free; others charge
that contain tape in rectangular, plastic
format that is used to hold prerecorded housings a small fee. Examples are Syncplicity,
text, graphics, and sound. Dropbox, Mozy, Carbonite, iDrivePro,
iDrive.com, and (for business)
CD-R—FOR RECORDING ONLY ONCE iBackup.com and eSureIt Business. 32
CD-R (compact disk–recordable)
disks can be written to only once but can Asustek Computer, maker of the low-cost
be read many times. ($300) Eee PC, offers free online storage.

CD-RW—FOR REWRITING MANY

TIMES A CD-RW (compact disk–
rewritable) disk, also known as an
erasable optical disk, allows users to
record and erase data, so the disk can be Smart Cards
used over and over again.