AQA Computer Science A-Level

4.7.4 External hardware devices

Advanced Notes

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Specification:

4.7.4.1 Input and output devices:

Know the main characteristics, purposes and suitability of the devices
and understand their principles of operation.
Devices that need to be considered are:
● barcode reader
● digital camera
● laser printer
● RFID

4.7.4.2 Secondary storage devices:

Explain the need for secondary storage within a computer system.
Know the main characteristics, purposes, suitability and understand the
principles of operation of the following devices:
● hard disk
● optical disk
● solid-state drive (SSD)
Compare the capacity and speed of access of various media and make
a judgement about their suitability for different applications.

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 Input and output devices

In order to make use of data, computers must be able to use various devices which allow
the computer to have data input and output.

Barcodes and barcode readers

When you buy something in a supermarket, the chances are that a barcode reader is used
by the computer to identify what it is you’re buying.

Barcodes are printed diagrams that consist of light and dark portions. They contain
information which can be read by a computer using a barcode reader. There are two main
types of barcode: 1D and 2D.

1D 2D

2D barcodes can contain more information in the same amount of space as a 1D barcode
but require more processing in order for the information to be extracted.

Barcode readers consist of a laser light source, a lens, photodiodes and a mirror. The
mirror directs light from the laser onto a printed barcode. The light reflected by the barcode
passes through the lens and is incident on the photodiode which turns light into electrical
charge. This electrical charge can be measured and processed to form a digital signal
representing the content of a barcode.

Light portions of a barcode reflect the most light while dark sections absorb incident light.
The pattern of light and dark stripes in a barcode corresponds to binary 1s and 0s.

Barcodes can have error detection and prevention methods

such as parity bits and check digits built in, allowing
computers to tell whether a barcode has been read correctly.
If a barcode fails to scan correctly, perhaps because the
barcode is dirty, the reader will continue to scan until the
barcode is read successfully. Barcode readers can scan
barcodes 1000s of times a second, so the time delay caused
by rescanning is hardly perceptible to humans.

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Digital cameras
Digital cameras consist of a lens that focuses light onto a sensor. The path of light
between the lens and the sensor is regulated by a shutter.

Two sensors commonly used in digital

cameras are CMOS (complementary
metal oxide semiconductor) and CCD
(charge coupled device) which both
convert incident light into electrical
charge. Charge builds up in cells, each
of which represents a pixel in the image.
Once the photograph has been taken,
the charge in each of the cells is
measured and converted to a digital
value which is then processed by the
camera and stored as a digital image.

In colour cameras, there are multiple cells for each pixel, each of which has a filter that
only allows in certain wavelengths of light. This lets the camera build up a separate image
for the intensity of each colour of light which can then be combined to form a full colour
photograph.

Red light intensity Green light intensity Blue light intensity

Red, green and blue combined

A Bayer filter is a special colour filter used in digital cameras that

has the same number of green filters as red and blue combined.
Using a Bayer filter produces an image that is a closer
approximation of what the human eye, which is most sensitive to
green light, sees.

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Laser printer
A laser printer is an output device that produces images on paper from digital signals.
Laser printers, which print whole pages at a time, consist of a laser light source, a mirror, a
drum, a toner roller and fusers.

When a document is printed, the drum is positively charged all over before the laser is
directed at its surface by the mirror. Areas on which the laser is incident are discharged,
leaving behind an impression of the page in electrical charge on the drum.

The toner roller dispenses negatively charged toner (a type of plastic powder) onto the
drum. As opposite charges attract, toner is attracted to the positively charged portions of
the drum. The toner is then applied to the paper by the drum before the paper is heated by
fusers, fixing the toner to the paper.

Colour printers apply the same process with four different colours of toner: cyan, yellow,
magenta and black (CYMK) to achieve full colour prints.

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RFID
RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification,
is a method of transferring information wirelessly
between a tag and a reader. RFID is used in
contactless credit and debit cards as well as in some
hotel room cards.

Inside an RFID tag is a chip which contains a small

amount of memory. The chip is attached to a coil of
wire which acts as an antenna.

Most RFID tags are passive, meaning that they induce enough power wirelessly from the
reader to operate the chip. However, active tags (which contain a small power supply like a
battery) also exist. Active tags can be used much further away from readers than passive
tags which must be held within a few centimeters of their reader.

1 2 3
When an RFID tag is scanned, the reader emits radio waves which are picked up by the
tag’s antenna (stage 1). The power induced in the tag’s antenna from these waves is
enough to power the chip (stage 2) which then uses its antenna to emit its own radio wave
(stage 3), which contains the information held on the chip. This wave is picked up by the
reader which decodes the information and returns the information to a computer.

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 Secondary storage devices

A computer’s primary storage is memory such as RAM and ROM. Secondary storage,
which is used to store files and applications, includes hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state
drives (SSDs) and optical disks.

Hard disk drives

A hard disk drive consists of a number of circular platters which are made from a magnetic
material. Above each platter hovers an actuating arm on which is a read/write head.

The actuating arm allows the read/write head, which changes the magnetic polarity of
parts of the platter, to access all portions of each platter.

Data is written in concentric tracks, each of

which is further divided into sectors. The
platter rotates thousands of times per minute,
allowing for good read and write speeds.

Hard disk drives typically come in capacities of

between 500GB and 5TB. Adding more
platters and decreasing the width of tracks are
two ways in which hard disk drives can be kept
the same size while increasing their capacity.

Because of the number of moving parts in hard disk drives, they are susceptible to
damage from movement. This makes them unsuitable for use in portable devices like
phones and tablets.

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Solid-state drives
Solid-state drives (SSDs) consist of NAND flash memory cells and a controller that
manages the structure of data on the drive.

NAND flash memory is non-volatile, meaning that an SSD’s contents are retained even
when there is no power being supplied. The memory cells are formed of floating gate
transistors which store information by trapping electrical charge.

Data is stored on SSDs in pages, which are combined to form blocks.

Unlike hard disk drives, SSDs are not capable of overwriting data. Instead, an SSD’s
controller must completely erase the entirety of a page before writing new information to it.

Because SSDs don’t have any moving parts, they are capable of far higher read and write
speeds than HDDs and are suitable for use in portable devices like phones and tablets.

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Optical disks
Optical disks include CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. They store information which can be read
optically by a laser. Optical disks can be either read-only, recordable or rewritable
depending on what they are to be used for.

Different types of optical disk vary slightly but all follow the same basic principles of
operation.

The image below shows a microscope view of the surface of a read-only optical disk. The
stripes in the image are called pits, and the areas surrounding them called lands. Pits are
burnt into the disk by a high-power laser which permanently deforms the surface.

Unlike hard-disk drives which use tracks and sectors, optical disks have just one
continuous track which spirals from the center of the disk to the outside edge.

When a low-power laser beam is passed over the flat surface of an optical disk, it reflects
back onto a photodiode. However, when the laser is incident on a pit, the light from the
beam is scattered in different directions rather than reflected back at the photodiode. The
resulting pattern of reflections and scatters can be converted into a digital signal of binary
1s and 0s.

On recordable and rewritable optical disks, a pattern of reflections and scatters is created
not by pits and lands but by a dye on the disk’s surface. Where there is no dye, the disk
reader’s laser beam is reflected off the optical disk’s surface. Where there is dye, the laser
beam is absorbed by the dye and not reflected at all.

Recordable optical disks use a special photosensitive dye that changes from opaque to
transparent under a high-power laser used to write information to the disk. This dye
remains unaffected by the low-power laser used to read the disk.

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Rewritable optical disks, on the other hand, use a different type of dye that can be
converted multiple times between transparent and opaque. This phase-change dye
changes its state depending on the temperature it is heated to, allowing data to be erased
and rewritten multiple times.

Comparison of secondary storage devices

Hard-disk drive Solid-state drive Optical disk

Very low capacity.

High capacity. Relatively low
Blu-rays have the
Typical capacity Typically between capacity. Typically
highest capacity at
500GB and 5TB. under 1TB.
25GB.

Relatively low
Good speeds. Very high speeds.
Read / write speeds speeds.
≈ 100MB/s ≈ 500MB/s
≈ 30MB/s

Latency High Very low High

Very small and

Bulky, heavy and Lightweight and rarely
lightweight, can be
Portability easily damaged by damaged by
damaged by
movement. movement.
scratches and dirt.

Power consumption High Low High

Good for sharing and

Good for desktop Good for laptops,
Suitability distributing small
PCs and servers. phones and tablets.
volumes of data.

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