CHAPTER-4

INPUT, OUTPUT AND MEMORY DEVICES

I) INPUT DEVICES: - The input unit is attached to the input devices which are responsible for accepting input that is
data and instruction from the user, are known as input devices.
There are following input devices:-

i) Keyboard :- Keyboard is a typewriter like device which is used to type in the letters, digits, special character and
commands. A keyboard contains a matrix of switches.

ii) Mouse :- The mouse is pointing device with a three buttons the left click button, right click button and the scroll
buttons. Mouse controls movement of pointer on the screen which is also called mouse pointer.

iii) Microphone(Mic) :- With microphone we can send input to computer through a special input device is called
microphone or mic. A mic converts the sound received into computer format which is called digital audio.

II) OUTPUT DEVICE :- The output unit is attached to the output devices which are responsible for producing the
output in user readable form. The function of an output device is to present output to the user. There are following
output devices:-

i) Monitor: - A monitor is the most common form of output device. It display information in a similar way to that
shown on a television screen. The picture on a monitor is made up of thousands of tiny colored dots called pixels.

There are following types of monitor:-

a) CRT (Cathode ray tube):- The CRT works as the same way as a television. It contains electron gun at the back of
the glass tube. This fires electron at groups of phosphor dots, which cots the inside of the screen. When the electron
strikes the phosphor dot, they glow to give the colors.

b) LCD (Liquid Crystal Display):- Liquid crystal is the material used to create each pixel on the screen the material
has some special properties. It can polarize light depending on the electrical charge across it. This feature allows the
pixel to be continued.

c) LED (Light Emitting Diode):- Light Emitting Diode or LED display is a flat panel display that uses an array of LED’s
as pixel for a video display. That means in this kind of monitor LED’s are used as pixel and form the picture.

ii) Printer:- A most convenient and useful method by which the computer can deliver information is by means of
printed characters. Printers can be divided into two categories:-

a) Impact printer:- In these printers there is a mechanical contact between the print head and paper. The impact
printers come in lot of varieties such as line printer, drum printers, daisy wheel printers and dot matrix printer.
Most common impact printer in use today is dot-matrix printer.

a.1) Dot matrix printer:- A dot matrix printer (DMP) is the most popular printer. It prints one character at a time. In
dot-matrix printer the printing head contains a vertical array of pins. As the head moves across the paper, selected
pins fire against an inked ribbon to form a pattern of dots on the paper.

b) Non-Impact Printer:- In these printers there is no mechanical contact between the print head and paper. The
mostly used non-impact printer is as follows:-

b.1) Inkjet printer:- Some printers direct a high velocity stream of ink toward the paper. This stream is deflected
generally by passing it through an electrostatic field. In some system the ink stream is broken into droplets by an
ultra-sonic transducer.

b.2) Laser printer:- These printers make use of office copier technology. The desired output image is written on a
copier drum with the help of a light beam controlled by the computer. The laser printers are quiet and are capable of
producing very high point quality. The speed of laser printer can be up to 10-15 pages per minute.
iii) Speaker:- Speaker receives the sound in the form of electric current form the sound card and then convert it into
sound format.

III) MEMORY DEVICE: - An essential component of every computer is its memory. Memory is used for storing data
and instructions.

There are following types of memory:-

i) Main memory/ Primary Memory: - The main memory can be divided into two parts :-

a) RAM

b) ROM

a) RAM (Random Access Memory):- RAM stands for Random Access Memory. RAM memory cells can be accessed for
information transfer from any desired Random location. The main drawback of RAM memory is that it is volatile
memory i.e. when the power goes off the contents of RAM get erased.

There are two types of RAM:-

a.1) Dynamic RAM (D-RAM)

a.2) Static RAM (S-RAM)

b) ROM (Read Only Memory):- ROM stands for read only memory. It does not have write capability. This means that
the information stored in a ROM is made permanent during the hardware production is the unit and cannot be
changed.

There are following types of ROM:-

b.1) Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM)

b.2) Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM)

b.3) Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM)

c) Cache memory: - The cache memory is a high speed memory available between the CPU and RAM when data is
found in cache memory, it is called cache hit and otherwise it is known as cache-miss.

There are two types of cache memory:-

c.1) Level 1 (L1) cache

c.2) Level 2 (L2) cache

ii) Secondary Memory: - Since Primary Memory has a limited storage capacity and is not permanent. Hence,
secondary storage is used to store large amount of data permanently.

There are various types of secondary memory:-

a) Floppy disk: - The floppy disks are one of the oldest types of portable storage device still not in use. The floppy
disk enables to transfer small files between computers and also to store data or information as backup.

b) Compact Disk (CD):- The compact disk or optical media. The CD is relatively, cheap and has a storage capacity of
up to 700 MB. There are three main types of CD:-

b.1) CD-Rom (Compact disk-Read Only Memory)

b.2) CD-R (Compact disk-Recordable)

b.3) CD-RW (Compact disk-Re-writable)

c) DVD (Digital Video Disk):- DVD is an optical storage device that looks the same as CD but it is able to hold about
15 times as much information. A DVD is also called super density disk (SDD) and can hold up to 17 GB of data.
 DVD is of three verities:-

c.1) DVD-ROM (Digital Video Disk- Read Only Memory)

c.2) DVD-R (Digital Video Disk- Recordable)

c.3) DVD-RW (Digital Video Disk-Re-writable)

d) Blue Ray Disk:- Blue ray disk is the name of a next generation optical disk format jointly developed by the blue
ray disk association (BDA). It uses high definition (HD) video and data storage.

d) Hard Disk :- HDD is an electro-mechanical storage device, which is an abbreviation of Hard Disk Drive. It uses
magnetic storage for storing and retrieving the digital data. It is a non-volatile storage device.

d) SSD :- SSD (Solid State Drive) is also a non-volatile storage medium that is used to hold and access data. Unlike a
hard drive, it does not have moving components, so it offers many advantages over SSD, such as faster access time,
noiseless operation, less power consumption, and more.

e) Pen Drive :- Pen drive is a compact secondary storage device. It is also known as a USB flash drive, thumb drive or
a jump drive. It connects to a computer via a USB port. It is commonly used to store and transfer data between
computers.

f) SD Card :- SD Card stands for Secure Digital Card. It is most often used in portable and mobile devices such as
Smartphone and digital cameras. We can remove it from your device and see the things stored in it using a computer
with a card reader.

PORTS

As we know that we can connect multiple external devices with the computer system. Now, these devices
are connected with the computer using Ports. In other words, a port is an interface between the motherboard and
an external device of the computer. There are different types of ports :

i. Serial Port:- A serial port is also called a communication port and they are used for connection of external
devices like a modem, mouse, or keyboard (basically in older PCs). Serial cables are cheaper to make in
comparison to parallel cables and they are easier to shield from interference. There are two versions of it,
which are 9 pin model and 25 pin model. It transmits data at 115 KB/sec.
ii. Parallel Port:- Parallel ports are generally used for connecting scanners and printers. It can send several
bits at the same time as it uses parallel communication. Its data transfer speed is much higher in
comparison with the serial port. It is a 25 pin model. It is also known as Printer Port or Line Printer Port.
iii. USB(Universal Serial Bus) Port:- In 1997 USB was first introduced. This can connect all kinds of external
USB devices, like external hard disk, printer, scanner, mouse, keyboard, etc. There are minimum of two USB
Ports provided in most of the computer systems. It is a kind of new type serial connection Port that is much
faster than the old serial Ports.
iv. AGP Ports:- The AGP(Accelerated Graphics Port) port is used to connect to graphic card that provides high
speed video performance typically required in games and other multimedia applications.
v. IR(Infrared Port) :- An Infrared(IR) port is used to sends and receives infrared signals from other devices.
It is a kind of wireless type port with a limited range of 5-10ft.
vi. VGA Port:- VGA ports also known as Video Graphic Array connector are those which connect the monitor to
a computer’s video card. VGA port has 15 holes and it is similar to the serial port connector. But VGA Ports
have holes in it and the serial port connector has pins in it.
vii. PS-Port :- PS-2 ports are special ports used for connecting old computer keyboard and mouse. It was
invented by IBM. In old computers, there are minimum of two PS/2 Ports, each for the keyboard and the
mouse. It is a 6 pin connector.
viii. Ethernet Port:- Ethernet Port helps to connect to a network and high-speed Internet(provided by LAN or
other sources). It connects the network cable to a computer and resides in a Ethernet card.

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