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Welingkar MFM– Sem III Introduction to Computers

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Welingkar MFM– Sem III Introduction to Computers

Parts of a Computer

Schematic diagram showing the various parts of a laptop computer.

Performance
Features that affect the performance of the computer include:
• microprocessor
• Operating System
• RAM
• disk drives
• display
• input/output ports
• fax/modem
• sound cards and speakers

The microprocessor:
• Has a set of internal instructions stored in memory, and can access memory for its own
use while working.
• Can receive instructions or data from you through a keyboard in combination with
another device (mouse, touchpad, trackball, and joystick).
• Can receive and store data through several data storage devices (hard drive, floppy
drive, Zip drive, CD/DVD drive).
• Can display data to you on computer monitors (cathode ray monitors, LCD displays).
• Can send data to printers, modems, networks and wireless networks through various
input/output ports.

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• Is powered by AC power and/or batteries.

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A Basic Computer and its parts

A standard fully featured desktop configuration has basically four types of featured devices

1. Input Devices 2. Output Devices 3. Memory 4. Storage Devices

INPUT
INPUT CPU
CPU OUTPUT
OUTPUT

SYSTEM
MAIN
MAINMEMORY
MEMORY EXTERNAL
EXTERNAL MEMORY
MEMORY BUS

Introduction to CPU

 CPU (Central Processing Unit)


 The Arithmetic / Logic Unit (ALU)
 The Control Unit
 Memory
 Main
 External
 Input / Output Devices
 The System Bus

Motherboard

A motherboard or main board is the physical arrangement in a computer that contains the
computer's basic circuitry and components.

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Input Devices
…..anything that feeds the data into the computer. This data can be in alpha-numeric form
which needs to be keyed-in or in its very basic natural form i.e. hear, smell, touch, see; taste &
the sixth sense …feel?

Typical input devices are:


1. Keyboard 2. Mouse
3. Joystick 4. Digitizing Tablet
5. Touch Sensitive Screen 6. Light Pen
7. Space Mouse 8. Digital Stills Camera
9. Magnetic Ink Character 10. Optical Mark Reader
Recognition (MICR) (OMR)
11. Image Scanner 12. Bar Codes
13. Magnetic Reader 14. Smart Cards
15. Voice Data Entry 16. Sound Capture
17. Video Capture

The Keyboard is the standard data input and operator control device for a computer. It consists
of the standard QWERTY layout with a numeric keypad and additional function keys for control
purposes.

The Mouse is a popular input device. You move it across the desk and its movement is shown
on the screen by a marker known as a 'cursor'. You will need to click the buttons at the top of
the mouse to select an option.

Track ball looks like a mouse, as the roller is on the top with selection buttons on the side. It is
also a pointing device used to move the cursor and works like a mouse. For moving the cursor
in a particular direction, the user spins the ball in that direction. It is sometimes considered
better than a mouse, because it requires little arm movement and less desktop space. It is
generally used with Portable computers.

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) is used to recognize the magnetically charged
characters, mainly found on bank cheques. The magnetically charged characters are written by
special ink called magnetic ink. MICR device reads the patterns of these characters and
compares them with special patterns stored in memory. Using MICR device, a large volume of
cheques can be processed in a day. MICR is widely used by the banking industry for the
processing of cheques.

The joystick is a rotary lever. Similar to an aircraft's control stick, it enables you to move within
the screen's environment, and is widely used in the computer games industry.

A Digitising Tablet is a pointing device that facilitates the accurate input of drawings and
designs. A drawing can be placed directly on the tablet, and the user traces outlines or inputs
coordinate positions with a hand-held stylus.

A Touch Sensitive Screen is a pointing device that enables the user to interact with the
computer by touching the screen. There are three types of Touch Screens: pressure-sensitive,
capacitive surface and light beam.

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A Light Pen is a pointing device shaped like a pen and is connected to a VDU.
The tip of the light pen contains a light-sensitive element which, when placed against the
screen, detects the light from the screen enabling the computer to identify the location of the
pen on the screen. Light pens have the advantage of 'drawing' directly onto the screen, but this
can become uncomfortable, and they are not as accurate as digitising tablets.

The Space mouse is different from a normal mouse as it has an X axis, a Y axis and a Z axis. It
can be used for developing and moving around 3-D environments.

Digital Stills Cameras capture an image which is stored in memory within the camera. When
the memory is full it can be erased and further images captured. The digital images can then be
downloaded from the camera to a computer where they can be displayed, manipulated or
printed.

The Optical Mark Reader (OMR) can read information in the form of numbers or letters and put
it into the computer. The marks have to be precisely located as in multiple choice test papers.

Scanners allow information such as a photo or text to be input into a computer. Scanners are
usually either A4 size (flatbed), or hand-held to scan a much smaller area. If text is to be
scanned, you would use an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program to recognise the
printed text and then convert it to a digital text file that can be accessed using a computer.

A Bar Code is a pattern printed in lines of differing thickness. The system gives fast and error-
free entry of information into the computer. You might have seen bar codes on goods in
supermarkets, in libraries and on magazines. Bar codes provide a quick method of recording the
sale of items.

Card Reader This input device reads a magnetic strip on a card. Handy for security reasons, it
provides quick identification of the card's owner. This method is used to run bank cash points or
to provide quick identification of people entering buildings.

Smart Card This input device stores data in a microprocessor embedded in the card. This
allows information, which can be updated, to be stored on the card. This method is used in store
cards which accumulate points for the purchaser, and to store phone numbers for cellular
phones.

Voice Data (MIC) This system accepts the spoken word as input data or commands. Human
speech is very complex, involving emphasis and facial expressions, so complete voice
recognition will not be developed for some time. However, simple commands from one user can
be used to control machines. In this way a paralysed person can operate a wheelchair or control
heating and lighting.

Voice Capture With the addition of a sound card in one of the expansion slots of your computer
you can "record" voice or music. The sound card digitises the information into a form that the
computer can understand.

With a video capture board in one of your computer's expansion slots you can capture video
(photographic) images through a video camera. The video capture board digitises the image.

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In Summary
There are several ways to get new information or input into a computer. The two most common
ways are the keyboard and the mouse. The keyboard has keys for characters (letters,
numbers and punctuation marks) and special commands. Pressing the keys tells the computer
what to do or what to write. The mouse has a special ball that allows you to roll it around on a
pad or desk and move the cursor around on screen. By clicking on the buttons on the mouse,
you give the computer directions on what to do. There are other devices similar to a mouse that
can be used in its place.

A trackball has the ball on top and you move it with your finger. A touchpad allows you to
move your finger across a pressure sensitive pad and press to click. A scanner copies a
picture or document into the computer. Another input device is a graphics tablet. A pressure
sensitive pad is plugged into the computer. When you draw on the tablet with the special pen
(never use an ink pen or pencil!), the drawing appears on the screen. The tablet and pen can
also be used like a mouse to move the cursor and click.

Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window.


Steve Wozniak

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Output Devices
Output devices display information in a way that you can you can understand. The most
common output device is a monitor. It looks a lot a like a TV and houses the computer screen.
The monitor allows you to 'see' what you and the computer are doing together.

Brief of Output Device


Output devices are pieces of equipment that are used to get information or any other response
out from computer. These devices display information that has been held or generated within a
computer. Output devices display information in a way that you can understand. The most
common output device is a monitor.

Types of Output Device


Printing: Plotter, Printer
Sound : Speakers
Visual : Monitor

A Printer is another common part of a computer system. It takes what you see on the
computer screen and prints it on paper. There are two types of printers; Impact Printers and
Non-Impact Printers.

Speakers are output devices that allow you to hear sound from your computer. Computer
speakers are just like stereo speakers. There are usually two of them and they come in various
sizes.

Types of Output Device - Visual


A Graphics Processing Unit or GPU (also occasionally called Visual Processing Unit or VPU) is
a dedicated graphics rendering device for a personal computer or game console. Modern GPUs
are very efficient at manipulating and displaying computer graphics, and their highly-parallel
structure makes them more effective than typical CPUs for a range of complex algorithms.
A computer display (also known as a computer monitor, computer screen, or computer video
display) is a device that can display signals generated by a computer as images on a screen.

Visual Display Units (VDU) or monitors are used to visually interface with the computer and are
similar in appearance to a television
Examples are:
 A cathode ray monitor
 A plasma monitor

Ports
The keyboard, mouse, monitor, and printer all plug into ports. There are also extra ports to plug
in extra hardware like joysticks, gamepads, scanners, digital cameras and the like. The ports
are controlled by their expansion cards which are plugged into the motherboard and are
connected to other components by cables - long, flat bands that contain electrical wiring.

Ports are the places on the outside of the computer case where you plug in hardware. On the
inside of the case, they are connected to expansion cards.

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Memory or Primary Storage


Purpose of Storage
The fundamental components of a general-purpose computer are arithmetic and logic unit,
control circuitry, storage space, and input/output devices. If storage was removed, the device
we had would be a simple calculator instead of a computer. The ability to store instructions that
form a computer program, and the information that the instructions manipulate is what makes
stored program architecture computers versatile.

 Primary storage, or internal memory, is computer memory that is accessible to the central
processing unit of a computer without the use of computer's input/output channels
 Primary storage, also known as main storage or memory, is the main area in a computer in
which data is stored for quick access by the computer's processor.

Primary Storage
Primary storage is directly connected to the central processing unit of the computer. It must be
present for the CPU to function correctly, just as in a biological analogy the lungs must be
present (for oxygen storage) for the heart to function (to pump and oxygenate the blood). As
shown in the diagram, primary storage typically consists of three kinds of storage:

Processors Register
It is the internal to the central processing unit. Registers contain information that the arithmetic
and logic unit needs to carry out the current instruction. They are technically the fastest of all
forms of computer storage.

Main memory
It contains the programs that are currently being run and the data the programs are operating
on. The arithmetic and logic unit can very quickly transfer information between a processor
register and locations in main storage, also known as a "memory addresses". In modern
computers, electronic solid-state random access memory is used for main storage, and is
directly connected to the CPU via a "memory bus" and a "data bus".

Cache memory
It is a special type of internal memory used by many central processing units to increase their
performance or "throughput". Some of the information in the main memory is duplicated in the
cache memory, which is slightly slower but of much greater capacity than the processor
registers, and faster but much smaller than main memory.

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Memory

Memory is often used as a shorter synonym for Random Access


Memory (RAM). This kind of memory is located on one or more
microchips that are physically close to the microprocessor in your
computer. Most desktop and notebook computers sold today include at
least 512 megabytes of RAM (which is really the minimum to be able to
install an operating system). They are upgradeable, so you can add
more when your computer runs really slowly.

The more RAM you have, the less frequently the computer has to access instructions and data
from the more slowly accessed hard disk form of storage. Memory should be distinguished from
storage, or the physical medium that holds the much larger amounts of data that won't fit into
RAM and may not be immediately needed there.

Storage devices include hard disks, floppy disks, CDROMs, and tape backup systems. The
terms auxiliary storage, auxiliary memory, and secondary memory have also been used for this
kind of data repository.

RAM is temporary memory and is erased when you turn off your computer, so remember to
save your work to a permanent form of storage space like those mentioned above before exiting
programs or turning off your computer.

Types of RAM
There are two types of RAM used in PCs - Dynamic and Static RAM.
Dynamic RAM (DRAM): The information stored in Dynamic RAM has to be refreshed after
every few milliseconds otherwise it will get erased. DRAM has higher storage capacity and is
cheaper than Static RAM.
Static RAM (SRAM): The information stored in Static RAM need not be refreshed, but it
remains stable as long as power supply is provided. SRAM is costlier but has higher speed than
DRAM.

Additional kinds of integrated and quickly accessible memory are Read Only Memory (ROM),
Programmable ROM (PROM), and Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM). These are used to
keep special programs and data, such as the BIOS, that need to be in your computer all the
time. ROM is "built-in" computer memory containing data that normally can only be read, not
written to (hence the name read only).

ROM contains the programming that allows your computer to be "booted up" or regenerated
each time you turn it on. Unlike a computer's random access memory (RAM), the data in ROM
is not lost when the computer power is turned off. The ROM is sustained by a small long life
battery in your computer called the CMOS battery. If you ever do the hardware setup procedure
with your computer, you effectively will be writing to ROM. It is non volatile, but not suited to
storage of large quantities of data because it is expensive to produce. Typically, ROM must also
be completely erased before it can be rewritten,

PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory)


A variation of the ROM chip is programmable read only memory. PROM can be programmed to
record information using a facility known as PROM-programmer. However once the chip has

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been programmed the recorded information cannot be changed, i.e. the PROM becomes a
ROM and the information can only be read.

EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory)


As the name suggests the Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory, information can be
erased and the chip programmed a new to record different information using a special PROM-
Programmer. When EPROM is in use information can only be read and the information remains
on the chip until it is erased.

Storage Devices

The purpose of storage in a computer is to hold data or information and get that data to the
CPU as quickly as possible when it is needed. Computers use disks for storage: hard disks that
are located inside the computer, and floppy or compact disks that are used externally.
• Computers Method of storing data & information for long term basis i.e. even after PC is
switched off.
• It is non – volatile
• Can be easily removed and moved & attached to some other device
• Memory capacity can be extended to a greater extent
• Cheaper than primary memory

Storage Involves Two Processes


a) Writing data b) Reading data

Definitions
Storage Media The materials on which data is stored

Storage Devices The hardware components that write data to, and read data from, storage
media

Categories of Storage Technology


• Magnetic storage
• Optical storage

Magnetic Storage
• Diskettes / High-capacity floppy disks
• Hard disks
• Zip Drives
• Disk cartridges
• Magnetic tape

Magnetism Allows Data Storage Hard disks, diskettes, high-capacity floppy disks and tapes
have a magnetic coating on their surface that enables each medium to store data.

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Floppy Disks
The floppy disk drive (FDD) was invented at IBM by Alan Shugart in 1967. The first floppy drives
used an 8-inch disk (later called a "diskette" as it got smaller), which evolved into the 5.25-inch
disk that was used on the first IBM Personal Computer in August 1981. The 5.25-inch disk held
360 kilobytes compared to the 1.44 megabyte capacity of today's 3.5-inch diskette.

The 5.25-inch disks were dubbed "floppy" because the diskette packaging was a very flexible
plastic envelope, unlike the rigid case used to hold today's 3.5-inch diskettes.

By the mid-1980s, the improved designs of the read/write heads, along with improvements in
the magnetic recording media, led to the less-flexible, 3.5-inch, 1.44-megabyte (MB) capacity
FDD in use today. For a few years, computers had both FDD sizes (3.5-inch and 5.25-inch). But
by the mid-1990s, the 5.25-inch version had fallen out of popularity, partly because the
diskette's recording surface could easily become contaminated by fingerprints through the open
access area.

When you look at a floppy disk, you'll see a plastic case that measures 3 1/2 by 5 inches. Inside
that case is a very thin piece of plastic that is coated with microscopic iron particles. This disk is
much like the tape inside a video or audio cassette. Basically, a floppy disk drive reads and
writes data to a small, circular piece of metal-coated plastic similar to audio cassette tape.

At one end of it is a small metal cover with a rectangular hole in it. That cover can be moved
aside to show the flexible disk inside. But never touch the inner disk - you could damage the
data that is stored on it. On one side of the floppy disk is a place for a label. On the other side
is a silver circle with two holes in it. When the disk is inserted into the disk drive, the drive
hooks into those holes to spin the circle. This causes the disk inside to spin at about 300 rpm!
At the same time, the silver metal cover on the end is pushed aside so that the head in the disk
drive can read and write to the disk.

Floppy disks are the smallest type of storage, holding only 1.44MB.

3.5-inch Diskettes (Floppy Disks) features:


• Spin rate: app. 300 revolutions per minute (rpm)
• High density (HD) disks more common today than older, double density (DD) disks
• Storage Capacity of HD disks is 1.44 MB
Floppy Disk Drive Terminology
• Floppy disk - Also called diskette. The common size is 3.5 inches.
• Floppy disk drive - The electromechanical device that reads and writes floppy disks.
• Track - Concentric ring of data on a side of a disk.
• Sector - A subset of a track, similar to wedge or a slice of pie.

It consists of a read/write head and a motor rotating the disk at a high speed of about 300
rotations per minute. It can be fitted inside the cabinet of the computer and from outside, the slit
where the disk is to be inserted, is visible. When the disk drive is closed after inserting the
floppy inside, the monitor catches the disk through the Central of Disk hub, and then it starts
rotating.

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There are two read/write heads depending upon the floppy being one sided or two sided. The
head consists of a read/write coil wound on a ring of magnetic material. During write operation,
when the current passes in one direction, through the coil, the disk surface touching the head is
magnetized in one direction. For reading the data, the procedure is reverse. I.e. the magnetized
spots on the disk touching the read/write head induce the electronic pulses, which are sent to
CPU.

The major parts of a FDD include:


• Read/Write Heads: Located on both sides of a diskette, they move together on the
same assembly. The heads are not directly opposite each other in an effort to prevent
interaction between write operations on each of the two media surfaces. The same head
is used for reading and writing, while a second, wider head is used for erasing a track
just prior to it being written. This allows the data to be written on a wider "clean slate,"
without interfering with the analog data on an adjacent track.
• Drive Motor: A very small spindle motor engages the metal hub at the center of the
diskette, spinning it at either 300 or 360 rotations per minute (RPM).
• Stepper Motor: This motor makes a precise number of stepped revolutions to move the
read/write head assembly to the proper track position. The read/write head assembly is
fastened to the stepper motor shaft.
• Mechanical Frame: A system of levers that opens the little protective window on the
diskette to allow the read/write heads to touch the dual-sided diskette media. An external
button allows the diskette to be ejected, at which point the spring-loaded protective
window on the diskette closes.
• Circuit Board: Contains all of the electronics to handle the data read from or written to
the diskette. It also controls the stepper-motor control circuits used to move the
read/write heads to each track, as well as the movement of the read/write heads toward
the diskette surface.

Electronic optics check for the presence of an opening in the lower corner of a 3.5-inch diskette
(or a notch in the side of a 5.25-inch diskette) to see if the user wants to prevent data from being
written on it.

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Hard Disks
Hard disks were invented in the 1950s. They started as large disks up to 20 inches in diameter
holding just a few megabytes. They were originally called "fixed disks" or "Winchesters" (a code
name used for a popular IBM product). They later became known as "hard disks" to distinguish
them from "floppy disks." Hard disks have a hard platter that holds the magnetic medium, as
opposed to the flexible plastic film found in tapes and floppies.

At the simplest level, a hard disk is not that different from a cassette tape. Both hard disks and
cassette tapes use the same magnetic recording techniques. Hard disks and cassette tapes
also share the major benefits of magnetic storage -- the magnetic medium can be easily erased
and rewritten, and it will "remember" the magnetic flux patterns stored onto the medium for
many years.

To increase the storage capacity for large computer system, hard disks were introduced. These
are two types, removable and fixed disks. A hard disk consists of a pack of magnetic disks
called platters mounted around a central spindle, rotating the set of disks at a high speed or
about 3600 revolutions per minute. The hard disk has many access arms containing two
read/write heads each for two surfaces of each individual disk. Thus the total number of heads
may be up to 15 heads as well.

IBM first introduced rotating removable hard disk with 10 disk surfaces with a capacity of about
7MB. Afterwards the Winchester Technology was developed. The entire disk was protected
from dust in the air by completely enclosing it and there by reducing the possibility of head crash
and simultaneously allowing the head to move nearer to the disk. The read/write head in the
Winchester disk never touches the surface but just lies above the surface on a cushion of air.

These disks are available in 5 1/4 inch or 3 ½ inch size. These disks can be removed and
replaced by the user. The speed of transferring the data is very high in Winchester disks as
compared to floppy disk. The storage capacity can be around 40, 90,120,240 even 600 MB. The
data is stored on the sectors of circular tracks, similar to a floppy disk.
A typical desktop machine will have a hard disk with a capacity of between 80 and 120 GB.

Data is stored onto the disk in the form of files. A file is simply a named collection of bytes. The
bytes might be the ASCII codes for the characters of a text file, or they could be the instructions
of a software application for the computer to execute, or they could be the records of a
database, or they could be the pixel colors for a GIF image. No matter what it contains,
however, a file is simply a string of bytes. When a program running on the computer requests a
file, the hard disk retrieves its bytes and sends them to the CPU one at a time.

There are two ways to measure the performance of a hard disk:


• Data rate - The data rate is the number of bytes per second that the drive can deliver to
the CPU. Rates between 5 and 40 megabytes per second are common.
• Seek time - The seek time is the amount of time between when the CPU requests a file
and when the first byte of the file is sent to the CPU. Times between 10 and 20
milliseconds are common.
The other important parameter is the capacity of the drive, which is the number of bytes it can
hold.

The best way to understand how a hard disk works is to take a look inside. It is a sealed
aluminum box with controller electronics attached to one side. The electronics control the

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read/write mechanism and the motor that spins the platters. The electronics also assemble the
magnetic domains on the drive into bytes (reading) and turn bytes into magnetic domains
(writing). The electronics are all contained on a small board that detaches from the rest of the
drive. Underneath the board are the connections for the motor that spins the platters, as well as
a highly-filtered vent hole that lets internal and external air pressures equalize. Removing the
cover from the drive reveals an extremely simple but very precise interior.

 The platters - These typically spin at 3,600 or 7,200 rpm when the drive is operating.
These platters are manufactured to amazing tolerances and are mirror-smooth.
 The arm - This holds the read/write heads and is controlled by the mechanism in the
upper-left corner. The arm is able to move the heads from the hub to the edge of the
drive. The arm and its movement mechanism are extremely light and fast. The arm on a
typical hard-disk drive can move from hub to edge and back up to 50 times per second

In order to increase the amount of information the drive can store, most hard disks have
multiple platters. This drive has three platters and six read/write heads. The mechanism that
moves the arms on a hard disk has to be incredibly fast and precise.

Data is stored on the surface of a platter in sectors and tracks. Tracks are concentric circles,
and sectors are pie-shaped wedges on a track. A sector contains a fixed number of bytes -- for
example, 256 or 512. Either at the drive or the operating system level, sectors are often grouped
together into clusters.

The process of low-level formatting a drive establishes the tracks and sectors on the platter.
The starting and ending points of each sector are written onto the platter. This process
prepares the drive to hold blocks of bytes. High-level formatting then writes the file-storage
structures, like the file-allocation table, into the sectors. This process prepares the drive to hold
files.

Hard Disks
Your computer uses two types of memory: primary memory which is stored on chips located on
the motherboard, and secondary memory that is stored in the hard drive. Primary
memory holds all of the essential memory that tells your computer how to be a
computer. Secondary memory holds the information that you store in the
computer.

Inside the hard disk drive case you will find circular disks that are made from polished steel. On
the disks, there are many tracks or cylinders. Within the hard drive, an electronic
reading/writing device called the head passes back and forth over the cylinders,
reading information from the disk or writing information to it. Hard drives spin at
3600 or more rpm (Revolutions Per Minute) - that means that in one minute, the
hard drive spins around over 7200 times!

Today's hard drives can hold a great deal of information - sometimes over 160GB!

Hard Disks
• Spin rate: from 3,600 to 15,000 rpm
• Storage capacity ranges from several hundred MB to more than 160 GB

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• The most common HDD are IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) & SCSI (Small Computer
System Interface)

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Removable High-Capacity Magnetic Disks Combines the speed and capacity of a hard disk
with the portability of a diskette.

Three Kinds of Removable High-Capacity Magnetic Disks


• High-Capacity Floppy Disks
• Hot-Swappable Hard Disks
• Disk Cartridges

Tape Drives Commonly used for (hard disk) backup, they can store huge data at half the price
of the hard disk

PC Cards Used to connect new components like memory and expanding storage capacity to a
computer

Zip Drives
 The zip drive size is similar to the floppy drive
 Its capacity varies from 250 MB to 700 MB
 The transfer rate is 1MB / Sec compared to 1.44 floppy disk’s 500kb / Sec.
 It can be integrated with IDE & SCSI interfaces
 It also has a read / write lock and can be password protected

Zip Drive

A high-capacity floppy disk(ZIP Disks) drive is slightly larger than conventional floppy disks, and
about twice as thick. They can hold 100 or 250 MB of data. Because they're relatively
inexpensive and durable, they have become a popular media for backing up hard disks and for
transporting large files

The 1.44-megabyte floppy disk drives that use 3.5-inch diskettes have been around for about 15
years. At the time of their introduction, they seemed like a miracle -- they were smaller than the
standard 5.25-inch disks, but they held more data!

Here are some of the parameters that determine how much data a floppy disk can hold:
• Tracks per inch: 135
• Total tracks per side: 80
• Sectors per track: 18
• Bytes per sector: 512
• Spin rate: 360 rpm
• Head movement mechanism: worm gear and stepper motor

Two important things to notice are the low number of tracks on the disk and the fixed number
of sectors per track. Neither one of these techniques makes very good use of the surface of the
disk.

The main thing that separates a Zip disk from a floppy disk is the magnetic coating used on
the disk. On a Zip disk, the coating is much higher quality. The higher quality coating means that
a Zip disk read/write head can be significantly smaller than a floppy disk's (by a factor of 10 or
so).

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The smaller head, combined with a head positioning mechanism similar to that used in a hard
disk, means that a Zip drive can pack thousands of tracks per inch on the track surface. Zip
drives also use a variable number of sectors per track to make the best use of disk space. All
of these things combine to create a floppy disk that holds a huge amount of data!

Optical Storage
• Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM)
• CD-Recordable (CD-R)/CD-Rewritable (CD-RW)
• Digital Video Disk Read-Only Memory (DVD-ROM)
• DVD Recordable (DVD-R/DVD Rewritable (DVD-RW)
• Photo CD

Optical Storage Devices Data is stored on a reflective surface so it can be read by a beam of
laser light.
Two Kinds of Optical Storage Devices
• CD-ROM (compact disk read-only memory)
• DVD-ROM (digital video disk read-only memory)

Compact Disks

Instead of electromagnetism, CDs use pits (microscopic indentations) and lands (flat surfaces)
to store information much the same way floppies and hard disks use magnetic and non-
magnetic storage. Inside the CD-Rom is a laser that reflects light off of the surface of the disk
to an electric eye. The pattern of reflected light (pit) and no reflected light (land) creates a code
that represents data.

CDs usually store about 650MB. This is quite a bit more than the 1.44MB that a floppy disk
stores. A DVD or Digital Video Disk holds even more information than a CD, because the DVD
can store information on two levels, in smaller pits or sometimes on both sides.

Compact Disk (CD)


• Standard CDs store 650 MB of data or 70 minutes of audio
• New generation CDs hold 700 MB of data or 80 minutes of audio
• CD-ROM drives are slower than hard disk drives
• CD-ROM speed is expressed in multiples and range from 2x to 52x

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Digital Video Disk (DVD) Storage capacity ranges from 9.4 GB to 17 GB

Recordable Optical Technologies


• CD-Recordable (CD-R)
• CD-Rewritable (CD-RW)
• PhotoCD
• DVD-Recordable (DVD-R)
• DVD-RAM

Emerging Storage Technologies


• FMD-ROM (Fluorescent Multi-Layer Disc). It can store data up to 140 GB
• Smart Cards
• Holographic memory

CD ROM - Compact Disc Read Only Memory.

Unlike magnetic storage device which store data on multiple concentric tracks, all CD formats
store data on one physical track, which spirals continuously from the center to the outer edge of
the recording area. Data resides on the thin aluminum substrate immediately beneath the label.

The data on the CD is recorded as a series of microscopic pits and lands physically embossed
on an aluminum substrate. Optical drives use a low power laser to read data from those discs
without physical contact between the head and the disc which contributes to the high reliability
and permanence of storage device.

To write the data on a CD a higher power laser are used to record the data on a CD. It creates
the pits and land on aluminum substrate. The data is stored permanently on the disc. These
types of discs are called as WORM (Write Once Read Many). Data written to CD cannot
subsequently be deleted or overwritten which can be classified as advantage or disadvantage
depending upon the requirement of the user. However if the CD is partially filled then the more
data can be added to it later on till it is full. CDs are usually cheap and cost effective in terms of
storage capacity and transferring the data.

The CD’s were further developed where the data could be deleted and re written. These types
of CDs are called as CD Rewritable. These types of discs can be used by deleting the data and
making the space for new data. These CD’s can be written and rewritten at least 1000 times.

CD ROM Drive

CD ROM drives are so well standardized and have become so ubiquitous that many treat them
as commodity items. Although CD ROM drives differ in reliability, which standards they support
and numerous other respects, there are two important performance measures.

 Data transfer rate


 Average access

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Data transfer rate: Data transfer rate means how fast the drive delivers sequential data to the
interface. This rate is determined by drive rotation speed, and is rated by a number followed by
‘X’. All the other things equal, a 32X drive delivers data twice the speed of a 16X drive. Fast
data transfer rate is most important when the drive is used to transfer the large file or many
sequential smaller files. For example: Gaming video.

CD ROM drive transfers the data at some integer multiple of this basic 150 KB/s 1X rate. Rather
than designating drives by actual KB/s output drive manufacturers use a multiple of the standard
1X rate. For example: a 12X drive transfer data at (12*150KB/s) 1800 KB/s and so on.

The data on a CD is saved on tracks, which spirals from the center of the CD to outer edge. The
portions of the tracks towards center are shorter than those towards the edge. Moving the data
under the head at a constant rate requires spinning the disc faster as the head moves from the
center where there is less data per revolution to the edge where there is more data. Hence the
rotation rate of the disc changes as it progresses from inner to outer portions of the disc.

CD Writers
CD recordable and CD rewritable drives are collectively called as CD writers or CD burners.
They are essentially CD ROM drives with one difference. They have a more powerful laser that,
in addition to reading discs, can record data to special CD media.

Following are the parameters for CD writer.


Transfer rate: CD writer has two speeds. The lower refers to the write speed and the higher
refers to read speed. An 8X/24X CD-R drive, for example, writes data at 1200 KB/s and reads it
at 3600KB/s. CD-RW drive has three speeds. The lowest refers to how fast data can be written
to a CD-RW disc, the middle to how fast the data can be written to CD-R disc and the highest to
how fast the drive can read data. Usually the drive, which provides 4X write performance, is
considered as ideal.

Average Access: The more powerful lasers are required for burning CDs require heavier heads
than standard CD ROM drives, which in turn means that average access times are slower.
Usually an average access of 200 ms is considered to be and proper model.

Interface: Writing CDs is less trouble prone if SCSI interface is used rather than ATAPI or
Windows NT is used rather than windows 9x. However if the burner is used infrequently and if
nothing is being used when a CD is being written and ATAPI model may suffice.

Buffer size: A large buffer helps avoid ruining CD-R discs due to buffer under runs. How large
buffer is large enough depends upon the maximum write speed of the drive. E.g. A 8X burner
with 2 MB buffer can store about 1.7 seconds of data when the drive is writing at maximum
speed.

DVD Drives
DVD originally stood for Digital Video Disc, later for Digital Versatile Disc. DVD is basically a CD
on steroids. Like a CD, a DVD stores data using tiny pits and lands embossed on a spiral tracks
on an aluminized surface. But CD ROM uses a 780 – nanometer infrared laser, DVD uses 636 –
nm or 650 – nm laser. Shorter wavelengths can resolve smaller pits, which enable pits to be
spaced more closely. This allows improved sector formatting, more efficient correction codes,
tighter tolerances and somewhat larger recording area, which allows DVDs to store seven times
as much as data than that in CD.

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One significant enhancement of DVD over CD is that DVD does away with the plethora of
incompatible CD formats. Every DVD disc uses the same physical file structure, promoted by
the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA), and is called Universal Disc Format
(UDF). That means any DVD drive or player can read any file or any DVD disc.

DVD-ROM Types and Capacities


DVD–ROMs are available in numerous standardized types, most of which are uncommon or not
used at all. Discs may be either of two physical sizes, and may have one or two sides, each of
which may store data in a single or double layer. Like CDs, single sided DVD-ROM discs are
1.2 mm thick. Double sided discs are simple two thin discs (0.6mm) glued back to back. Most
DVD players and drives require manually flipping the disc to access the data on other side.

DVD ROM Speed


Like CD drives DVD drives use the X-factor to specify the output. However DVD X has a
different meaning than CD ROM. 1X CD drive transfer data at 150KB/s, but a 1X DVD drive
transfers data at 11.08 million bits/s or 1.321MB/s. The data transfer rate is 9 times more that of
a DVD than a CD.

Pen Drives / Flash Drives


 Pen Drives / Flash Drives are flash memory storage devices.
 They are faster, portable and have a capability of storing large data.
 It consists of a small printed circuit board with a LED encased in a robust plastic
 The male type connector is used to connect to the host PC
 They are also used a MP3 players

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.


Pablo Picasso

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Printers
Printers are hardware devices that allow you to create a hard copy of a file. Today a printer is a
necessary requirement for any home user and business. Allowing individuals to save their work
in the format of paper instead of electronically.
Types of Printers
 Impact printers
o In case of Impact printer an inked ribbon exists between the print head and paper
,the head striking the ribbon prints the character.
 Non Impact Printers
o Non Impact printers use techniques other than the mechanical method of head
striking the ribbon
Impact printers
Impact printers are basically divided into 2 types
 Serial/Character printers
o Dot matrix printers
 Daisy wheel printers
o Line Printers

Non-Impact Printers
Non Impact Printers are divided into 3 categories
 Thermal printers
 Ink jet printers
 Laser printers
Classification
Printers are classified by the following characteristics:

Quality of type: The output produced by printers is said to be either letter quality (as good as a
typewriter), near letter quality, or draft quality. Only daisy-wheel, ink-jet, and laser printers
produce letter-quality type. Some dot-matrix printers claim letter-quality print, but if you look
closely, you can see the difference.

Speed: Measured in characters per second (cps) or pages per minute (ppm), the speed of
printers varies widely. Daisy-wheel printers tend to be the slowest, printing about 30 cps. Line
printers are fastest (up to 3,000 lines per minute). Dot-matrix printers can print up to 500 cps,
and laser printers range from about 4 to 20 text pages per minute.

Impact or non-impact: Impact printers include all printers that work by striking an ink ribbon.
Daisy-wheel, dot-matrix, and line printers are impact printers. Non-impact printers include laser
printers and ink-jet printers. The important difference between impact and non-impact printers is
that impact printers are much noisier.

Graphics: Some printers (daisy-wheel and line printers) can print only text. Other printers can
print both text and graphics.

Fonts: Some printers, notably dot-matrix printers, are limited to one or a few fonts. In contrast,
laser and ink-jet printers are capable of printing an almost unlimited variety of fonts. Daisy-
wheel printers can also print different fonts, but you need to change the daisy wheel, making it
difficult to mix fonts in the same document.

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Dot Matrix Printers


A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer refers to a type of computer printer with a print head
that runs back and forth on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon
against the paper, much like a typewriter. Unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are
drawn out of a dot matrix, and thus, varied fonts and arbitrary graphics can be produced.
Because the printing involves mechanical pressure, these printers can create carbon copies and
carbonless copies. The standard of print obtained is poor. These printers are cheap to run and
relatively fast.

The moving portion of the printer is called the print head, and prints one line of text at a time.
Most dot matrix printers have a single vertical line of dot-making equipment on their print heads;
others have a few interleaved rows in order to improve dot density. The print head consists of 9
or 24 pins each can move freely within the tube; more the number of pins better are the quality
of output. Dot Matrix Printer Characters are formed from a matrix of dots.

The speed is usually 30 - 550 characters per second (cps). These types of printers can print
graphs also. They can only print text and graphics, with limited color performance. Impact
printers have one of the lowest printing costs per page. These machines can be highly durable,
but eventually wear out. Ink invades the guide plate of the print head, causing grit to adhere to
it; this grit slowly causes the channels in the guide plate to wear from circles into ovals or slots,
providing less and less accurate guidance to the printing wires. After about a million characters,
even with tungsten blocks and titanium pawls, the printing becomes too unclear to read.

As of 2006, dot matrix impact technology remains in use in devices such as cash registers,
ATM, and many other point-of-sales terminals

Nearly all inkjet, thermal, and laser printers use a dot matrix to describe each character or
graphic. However, in common parlance these are seldom called "dot matrix" printers, to avoid
confusion with dot matrix impact printers

Daisy Wheel Printer


A daisy wheel printer is a type of computer printer that produces high-quality type, and is often
referred to as a letter-quality printer (this in contrast to high-quality dot-matrix printers, capable
of near-letter-quality, or NLQ, output). There were also, and still are daisy wheel typewriters,
based on the same principle. The DWP is slower the speed range is in 30 to 80 CPS.

The system used a small wheel with each letter printed on it in raised metal or plastic. The
printer turns the wheel to line up the proper letter under a single pawl which then strikes the
back of the letter and drives it into the paper. In many respects the daisy wheel is similar to a
standard typewriter in the way it forms its letters on the page, differing only in the details of the
mechanism (daisy wheel vs typebars or the typeball used on IBMs electric typewriters).

Daisy wheel printers were fairly common in the 1980s, but were always less popular than dot
matrix printers (ballistic wire printers) due to the latter's ability to print graphics and different
fonts. With the introduction of high quality laser printers and inkjet printers in the later 1980s
daisy wheel systems quickly disappeared but for the small remaining typewriter market.

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Line Printer
The line printer is a form of high speed impact printer in which a line of type is printed at a time.
The wheels spin at high speed and paper and an inked ribbon are stepped (moved) past the
print position. As the desired character for each column passes the print position, a hammer
strikes the paper and ribbon causing the desired character to be recorded on the continuous
paper. The speed is 300 to 2500 lines per minute(LPM). This technology is still in use in a
number of applications. It is usually both faster and less expensive (in total ownership) than
laser printers. In printing box labels, medium volume accounting and other large business
applications, line printers remain in use

or

Line printers, as the name implies, print an entire line of text at a time. Two principle designs
existed. In drum printers, a drum carries the entire character set of the printer repeated in each
column that is to be printed. In chain printers (also known as train printers), the character set is
arranged multiple times around a chain that travels horizontally pas the print line. In either case,
to print a line, precisely timed hammers strike against the back of the paper at the exact
moment that the correct character to be printed is passing in front of the paper. The paper
presses forward against a ribbon which then presses against the character form and the
impression of the character form is printed onto the paper.

These printers were the fastest of all impact printers and were used for bulk printing in large
computer centres. They were virtually never used with personal computers and have now been
partly replaced by high-speed laser printers.

Thermal Printers
Direct thermal printers create an image by selectively heating coated paper when the paper
passes over the thermal print head. The coating turns black in the areas where it is heated,
creating the image. More recently, two-color direct thermal printers have been produced, which
allow printing of both red (or another color) and black by heating to different temperatures.

Thermal Printer Characters are formed by heated elements being placed in contact with special
heat sensitive paper forming darkened dots when the elements reach a critical temperature. A
fax machine uses a thermal printer. Thermal printer paper tends to darken over time due to
exposure to sunlight and heat. The standard of print produced is poor. Thermal printers are
widely used in battery powered equipment such as portable calculators.

Direct thermal printers are increasingly replacing the dot matrix printer for printing cash register
receipts, both because of the higher print speed and substantially quieter operation. In addition,
direct thermal printing offers the advantage of having only one consumable - the paper itself.
Thus, the technology is well-suited to unattended applications like gas pumps, information
kiosks, and the like.

Until about 2000, most fax machines used direct thermal printing, though, now, only the
cheapest models use it, the rest having switched to either thermal wax transfer, laser, or ink jet
printing to allow plain-paper printouts. Historically, direct thermal paper has suffered from such
limitations as sensitivity to heat, abrasion (the coating can be fragile), friction (which can cause
heat, thus darkening the paper), light (causing it to fade), and water. However, more modern
thermal coating formulations have resulted in exceptional image stability, with text remaining
legible for an estimated 50+ years.

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Ink-Jet Printers
Inkjet printers spray very small, precise amounts (usually a few picolitres) of ink onto the media.
They are the most common type of computer printer for the general consumer due to their low
cost, high quality of output, capability of printing in vivid color, and ease of use. It is the most
common printer used with home computers and it can print in either black and white or color.

Compared to earlier consumer-oriented printers, ink jets have a number of advantages. They
are quieter in operation than impact dot matrix or daisywheel printers. They can print finer,
smoother details through higher print head resolution, and many ink jets with photorealistic-
quality color printing are widely available. For color applications including photo printing, ink jet
methods are dominant.

Working principle:
A cartridge of ink is attached to a print head with up to hundreds of nozzles, each thinner than a
human hair. The number of nozzles and the size of each determine the printer’s resolution. As
the print head moves across the paper, a digital signal from the computer tells each nozzle
when to propel a drop of ink onto the paper. On some printers, this is done with mechanical
vibrations.

Piezoelectric crystals change shape when a voltage is applied to them. As they do so, they
force ink through the nozzles onto the paper. Each pixel in the image can be made up of a
number of tiny drops of ink. The smaller the droplets, and the more of them, the richer and
deeper the colors should be.

These printers give incomparable resolution, vivid color, and sharp text and are easily affordable
to purchase. They are great for home use, and are fairly compact and easy to transport. Inkjet
printing speed varies and depends on the resolution you're using and whether you're printing
images or text.

Inkjet printers use colour cartridges which combine magenta, yellow and cyan inks to create
colour tones. A black cartridge is also used for crisp monochrome output. This method of
printing can generate up to 200 cps and allows for good quality, cheap colour printing

Laser Printers
A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that produces high quality printing, and is
able to produce both text and graphics. The process is very similar to the type of dry process
photocopier first produced by Xerox.

Laser Printers use a laser beam and dry powdered ink to produce a fine dot matrix pattern. This
method of printing can generate about 4 pages of A4 paper per minute. The standard of print is
very good and laser printers can also produce very good quality printed graphic images too.

Working principle:
An electric charge is first projected onto a revolving drum by a corona wire (in older printers) or
a primary charge roller. The drum has a surface of a special plastic or garnet. Electronics drives
a system that writes light onto the drum. The light causes the electrostatic charge to leak from
the exposed parts of the drum. The surface of the drum passes through a bath of very fine
particles of dry plastic powder, or toner. The charged parts of the drum electrostatically attract

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the particles of powder. The drum then deposits the powder on a piece of paper. The paper
passes through a fuser, which, with heat and pressure, bonds the plastic powder to the paper.

Each of these steps has numerous technical choices. One of the more interesting choices is
that some "laser" printers actually use a linear array of light-emitting diodes to write the light on
the drum. The toner is essentially ink and also includes either wax or plastic. The chemical
composition of the toner is plastic-based or wax-based so that, when the paper passes through
the fuser assembly, the particles of toner will melt. The paper can be oppositely charged, or not.
The fuser can be an infrared oven, a heated roller, or (on some very fast, expensive printers) a
xenon strobe.

The slowest printers of this type print about 4 pages per minute (ppm), and are relatively
inexpensive. Printer speed can vary widely, however, and depends on many factors. The fastest
print mass mailings (commonly for utilities) at several thousand pages per minute.

The cost of this technology depends on a combination of costs of paper, toner replacement, and
drums replacement, as well as the replacement of other consumables such as the fuser
assembly and transfer assembly. Often printers with soft plastic drums can have a very high
cost of ownership that does not become apparent until the drum requires replacement.

One helpful trait is that in very high volume offices, a duplexing printer (one that prints on both
sides of the paper) can halve paper costs, and reduce filing volumes and floor weight as well.
Not all laser printers, however, can accommodate a duplexing unit. Duplexing can also result in
slower printing speeds, because of the more complicated paper path.

Many printers have a toner-conservation mode, which can be substantially more economical at
the price of only slightly lower contrast.

The Warm Up is the process that a laser printer goes through when power is initially applied to
the printer. Lasers are used because they generate a coherent beam of light for high degree of
accuracy.

Plotter

A plotter is a vector graphics printing device that connects to a computer. Plotters print their
output by moving a pen across the surface of a piece of paper. This means that plotters are
restricted to line art, rather than raster graphics as with other printers. They can draw complex
line art, including text, but do so very slowly because of the mechanical movement of the pens.
(Plotters are incapable of creating a solid region of colour; but can hatch an area by drawing a
number of close, regular lines.)

Another difference between plotters and printers is that a printer is aimed primarily at printing
text. This makes it fairly easy to control, simply sending the text to the printer is usually enough
to generate a page of output. This is not the case of the line art on a plotter, where a number of
printer control languages were created to send the more detailed information like "draw a line
from here to here". The most popular of these is likely HPGL.

Plotters are used primarily in technical drawing and CAD applications, where they have the
advantage of working on very large paper sizes while maintaining high resolution. Another use
has been found by replacing the pen with a cutter, and in this form plotters can be found in
many garment and sign shops.

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Note that in many of today's environments, Plotters in the traditional sense have been
supplanted with (and, in many cases, obsolete by) large-format inkjet printers. Such printers are
often informally known as plotters.

Types of Plotter
Pen Plotter: have an ink pen attached to draw the images,
Electrostatic Plotter electrostatic plotters work similarly to a laser printer

Barcode printer

A barcode printer (or bar code printer) is a computer peripheral for printing barcode labels or
tags that can be attached to physical objects. Barcode printers are commonly used to label
cartons before shipment, or to label retail items with Universal Product Codes.

The most common barcode printers employ one of two different printing technologies. Direct
thermal printers use a print head to generate heat that causes a chemical reaction in specially
designed paper that turns the paper black. Thermal transfer printers also use heat, but instead
of reacting with the paper, the heat melts a waxy substance on a ribbon that runs over the label
or tag material. The heat transfers ink from the ribbon to the paper. Direct thermal printers are
generally less expensive, but they produce labels that can become illegible if exposed to heat,
direct sunlight, or chemical vapors.

Barcode printers are designed for different markets. Industrial barcode printers are used in large
warehouses and manufacturing facilities. They have large paper capacities, operate faster and
have a longer service life. For retail and office environments, desktop barcode printers are most
common. Barcode printers are commonly used to label cartons before shipment, or to label
retail items

Label Printers
A label printer is a computer peripheral that prints on self-adhesive label material and
sometimes card-stock. Label printers are different from ordinary printers because they need to
have special feed mechanisms to handle rolled stock, or tear sheet (fanfold) stock

Types of Label Printers


Desktop label printers are designed for light to medium duty use with a roll of stock up to 4".
They are quiet and inexpensive. Commercial label printers can typically hold a larger roll of
stock (up to 8") and are geared for medium volume printing. Industrial label printers are
designed for heavy duty, continuous operation in warehouses, distribution centers and factories.

PRINTER INTERFACES
Below is a listing of different types of computer printer interfaces.
* Firewire
* MPP-1150
* Parallel port
* SCSI
* Serial port
* USB

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PRINTER CHARACTERISTICS
Quality of Print - How good is the output quality of text that the printer prints.
Speed - How fast does the printer print. Generally there are different qualities of print. Keep in
mind the printer will print slower if set to the highest quality.
Ink / Ribbon - What type of ink and or ribbon does the printer use? How much will it cost to
replace? Can it be purchased locally or does it need to ordered from the printer company?
Paper - Does the printer require special paper? How is the printer paper loaded?

Other types of Printers


There are other types of printers available, mostly special-purpose printers for professional
graphics or publishing organizations. These printers are not for general purpose use, however.
Because they are relegated to niche uses, their prices (both one-time and recurring
consumables costs) tend to be higher relative to more mainstream units.

Solid Ink Printers


Used mostly in the packaging and industrial design industries, solid ink printers are prized for
their ability to print on a wide variety of paper types. Solid ink printers, as the name implies, use
hardened ink sticks that that are melted and sprayed through small nozzles on the print head.

The paper is then sent through a fuser roller which further forces the ink onto the paper. The
solid ink printer is ideal for prototyping and proofing new designs for product packages; as such,
most service-oriented businesses would not have a need for this type of printer.

Dye-Sublimation Printers
Used in organizations such as service bureaus — where professional quality documents,
pamphlets, and presentations are more important than consumables costs — dye-sublimation
(or dye-sub) printers are the workhorses of quality CMYK printing. The concepts behind dye-sub
printers are similar to thermal wax printers except for the use of diffusive plastic dye film instead
of colored wax as the ink element. The print head heats the colored film and vaporizes the
image onto specially coated paper.

Dye-sub is quite popular in the design and publishing world as well as the scientific research
field, where preciseness and detail are required. Such detail and print quality comes at a price,
as dye-sub printers are also known for their high costs-per-page.

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Printers
A computer printer is a computer peripheral device that produces a hard copy (permanent
human-readable text and/or graphics, usually on paper) from data stored in a computer
connected to it.

Printing technology – Types of Printer


Modern print technology
Toner-based printers
Liquid inkjet printers
Solid inkjet printers
Dye-sublimation printers

Obsolete and special-purpose printing technologies


Impact printers
Letter quality printers
Dot-matrix printers
Line printers
Thermal printers

Printing speed
The speed of early printers was measured in units of characters per second. More modern
printers are measured in pages per minute. These measures are used primarily as a marketing
tool, and are not well standardised. Usually pages per minute refer to sparse monochrome
office documents, rather than dense pictures which usually print much more slowly.

SCANNERS:

Technology today is rising to it’s heights. For time saving and to have paperless offices we have
a need of electronic version of invoice, Material ordering forms, Contract ordering data etc…for
filing and database management. Even to automate the process of logging sales data into
Excel, a scanner can help one with all of these tasks and more.

A scanner is an optical device that captures images, objects, and documents into a digital
format. The image is read as thousands of individual dots, or pixels. It can convert a picture into
digital bits of information which are then reassembled by the computer with the help of scanning
software. The file of the image can then be enlarged or reduced, stored in a database, or
transferred into a word processing or spreadsheet program.

Some of the key considerations for choosing the right scanner for your needs are given below.

a) How you intend to use the scanner?


b) Which type of scanner fits the exact usage?
c) Does one require a Black & White or a Colour quality output?
d) What is the Price and the Software bundles?

Depending upon the usage and the importance of the business if one would like to have quality
photographs or other images, than colour quality will be an important characteristic. With both a

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black and white or a color quality output the bit depth, resolution and dynamic range are
essential to selecting the right scanner for ones need.

Scanner Types:
Scanners create a digital reproduction of an image or document and come in a variety of
shapes and sizes designed to perform different types of tasks. There are three types of office
scanners usually seen in the market and the functions they serve are as follows:

Flatbed
The flatbed scanner consists of its own base with a flat piece of glass and cover just as
is found on most copiers. The scanning component of flatbeds runs over the length of
the image in order to gather data. Flatbeds are useful when a user needs to scan more
than single page documents. Pages from a book, for example, can easily be scanned
without having to copy each page individually first.

Scanning objects is also done by flatbeds. By placing a white sheet of paper over a
bouquet of flowers a scanner can reproduce what appears to be a stock photo onscreen.

Flatbeds have large footprint and hence take up a lot of desk thus if space is a concern
one may go for an alternative.

Sheetfed
Sheetfed scanners are only used if one wants to scan for anything other than sheets of
paper. The scanning component of a sheetfed is stationary while the document being
scanned passes over it's 'eyes' similar to a fax machine. It is so thin just a couple of
inches deep, such that it can easily fit between a keyboard and monitor.
Sheetfeds usually work best in conjunction with an automatic document feeder for large
projects. Pictures and other documents which are smaller than a full page can also be
scanned using a sheetfed scanner. They have been known to bend pictures and
reproduce less than quality images.

Slide
There is a need for accurate reproduce of very small images. For such application the
resolution required is very sharp and slide types of scanner create a totally different
scanner market. Slides are usually inserted into a tray, much like a CD tray on ones
computer, and scanned internally. Most slide scanners can only scan slides, though
some newer models can also handle negative strips.

Scanner Uses:
A scanner can do far more than simply scan a photograph, and many of its uses could go a
long way to helping a small business. Below are indicated some of the applications for the
scanner in a business environment.

1) Graphics
Graphic images are an important part of many businesses specially in marketing and sales
functions. Scanners, like digital cameras, enable users to convert photographs, slides, and
three-dimensional objects into files that can be pasted into a brochure, inserted into a

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presentation or posted on the Internet. Using accompanying software, these images can be
edited, cropped, or manipulated to fit space and size requirements.

2) Data-Entry
Scanners automatically convert the data into digital files using OCR (Optical Character
Recognition) software, this would save time and money which one would pay to someone to
manually enter the reams of data into the computer. In conjunction with the software, a scanner
reads each page and transfers the text to any number of programs. A form letter can be saved
to a word processing program, sales figures to a spreadsheet, even a brochure to web-editing
software.

3) Digital-Files
One observes that there are numerous papers filed in three-ring binders or different kinds of
manual filing in the offices for records. The process of the manual paper flow can be avoided by
using scanners of Digital type. Such scanners can help to create electronic filing cabinets for
everything from invoices to expense reports. Forms can be reproduced online, and searchable
databases can provide relevant information in seconds.

Digital camera

A still camera records images in digital form. Unlike the traditional analog cameras that record
infinitely variable intensities of light, digital cameras record discrete numbers for storage on a
flash memory card or optical disk. As with all digital devices, there is a fixed, maximum
resolution and number of colors that can be represented. Images are transferred to the
computer with a USB cable or via the memory card.

Advantages of Digital Cameras :

There are two distinct advantages of digital cameras.


1. The first being able to see the final image right away so you know you have the picture
you wanted. Bad pictures can be instantly erased.
2. The second is convenience. You can take one picture and print it without waiting to
develop an entire roll of film or wasting the whole roll for just a few pictures. In addition,
"digital film" is reusable, except for the write-once optical disc (CD-R) variety.

The film in a digital camera is made up of photo sensor chips and flash memory. The camera
records color images as intensities of red, green and blue, which are stored as variable charges
on a CCD or CMOS image sensor chip. The charges, which are actually analog, are converted
to digital and stored in one of several flash memory formats such as Compact Flash or Memory
Stick. Instead of memory cards, some still cameras use optical disc for storage, and video
cameras use discs or tape.

The size of the chip determines the resolution, but the analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which
converts the charges to digital data, determines the color depth. Digital video cameras also use
these same image sensing methods, but may also output traditional analog signals.

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Major Features :
Following are the major features of digital cameras.

Resolution (in Mega pixels)


The number of pixels determines the maximum size of a printed photo without sacrificing
quality. For 3x5" and 4x6" prints, 2 mega pixels is good. For 5x7" and 8x10" prints, 5 mega
pixels is preferred. For low-resolution images on the Web, almost any digital camera will suffice.
However, one can easily reduce a high-quality image to the low resolution required online. The
higher the resolution from the start, the better the results.

Optical Quality
Mega pixel resolution is a quantitative measurement, but the lens itself is qualitative. The optical
quality of the lens greatly contributes to the resulting picture quality as it has in analog cameras
for more than a century.

Optical vs. Digital (Interpolated) Zoom


The optical zoom is the real resolution of the lenses. The digital zoom is an interpolated
resolution computed by software. The higher the optical number, the better the result. A 10x
optical is far superior to a 10x digital. Some digital zoom numbers go into the stratosphere,
especially for video, but optical is what counts.

Storage Media
There are several types of flash memory cards used for "digital film," but no matter which type
the camera uses, the one that comes with the camera is typically undersized.

Data Transfer
Digital cameras come with a USB cable for transfer directly to the computer, and many
computers come with one or more memory card slots. Printers may also come with card slots,
allowing you to print your photos without using the computer at all.

Battery Duration
Digital cameras use either rechargeable or standard AA batteries. It can take an hour or more to
recharge a battery, so an extra one, fully charged, is always a good idea to have along. AA
batteries can be purchased almost anywhere, and rechargeable AA batteries can also be used.

Interchangeable Lenses
Digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras are the digital counterparts of their analog
predecessors and may use the same removable lenses that you already own. However, the
chip is often smaller in size than a 35mm frame, which means your 28mm wide angle lens may
function like a 42mm lens. Increasingly larger chips and wider angle lenses are solving the
problem.

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WEB CAMS :

A web camera or a web cam is a real time camera whose images can be accessed using the
World Wide Web, instant messaging, or a PC video calling application. Generally, a digital
camera delivers images to a web server, either continuously or at regular intervals.

A webcam is a desktop or video camera whose output is placed on a webpage either by


displaying images at intervals or producing a live video stream. This webpage is then viewable
via the internet.

As webcam capabilities have been added to instant messaging text chat services such as
Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and MSN Messenger, one-to-one live video
communication over the internet has now reached millions of mainstream PC users worldwide.

Web cam software allows users to share snapshots or live images which can be made available
on internet to all or only to authenticated users. The most important area in this is the bandwidth
and the quality of the pictures. They are easy to connect through the USB port.

Hardware required for Webcams : The camera is required to be connected with the computer
vis a hardware port. The port available are serial port, parallel port, USB port, Firewire etc…The
serial & parallel port webcams are today old and obsolete. USB is today’s required solution for
advanced users.

Network cameras do not require PCs and Wireless cameras are today’s reality. The PnP (Plug
and Play) camera devices are cheap and easy to install but have low frame rates than regular
cameras. They take power from the Keyboard or USB connector, hence a separate power
supply is not required for them. The images provided by them are of high quality

Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody


else use it, and get a new one every six months.
Clifford Stoll

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What is Ports-serial ?
Serial ports are a type of computer interface that complies with the RS-232 standard. They are
9-pin connectors that relay information, incoming or outgoing, one byte at a time. Each byte is
broken up into a series of eight bits, hence the term serial port.

Serial ports are one of the oldest types of interface standards. Before internal modems became
commonplace, external modems were connected to computers via serial ports, also known as
communication or “COM” ports. Computer mice and even keyboards also used serial ports.
Some serial ports used 25-pin connectors, but the 9-pin variety was more common. Serial ports
are controlled by a special chip call a UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter).

Serial ports differ from 25-pin parallel ports in that the parallel ports transmit one byte at a time
by using eight parallel wires that each carry one bit. With data traveling in parallel, the transfer
rate was greater. A parallel port could support rates up to 100 kilobytes per second, while serial
ports only supported 115 kilobits per second (kbps). Later, enhanced technology pushed serial
port speeds to 460 kbps.

[Optional]
[Shared Serial Ports is an advanced utility, the purpose of which is to share real serial ports
between multiple applications in the way that all applications will receive same data from real
serial port simultaneously. It is achieved by creating virtual serial ports, which are same copies
as real one. Each application will think that it is working with serial port in exclusive mode. All
virtual serial ports will be able also to send data to real serial port. Also, you will be able to set
permissions to read, write or change control lines state for every application separately.]

What is a Parallel port?


Parallel interface: an interface between a computer and a printer where the computer sends
multiple bits of information to the printer simultaneously

Normally devices such as printers or external devices such as a Zip Drive or Snappy! Video
Capture is hooked up to a parallel port. A parallel port allows for several bits of data to be
moved at the same time along different lines. For example, a parallel interface can transmit
eight bits (a whole byte) at one time, over eight parallel lines. A serial interface transmits only
one bit at a time

An input/output connection on a computer that sends and receives information in groups of eight
bits (binary digits) at a time, traveling at high speeds along parallel wires to a peripheral device
such as a printer. The other simple connection mechanism is a serial port, which transmits just
one bit at a time -- a data side-road compared with a multi-lane motorway.

In computing, a parallel port is an interface from a computer system where data is transferred in
or out in parallel, that is, on more than one wire. A parallel port carries one bit on each wire thus
multiplying the transfer rate obtainable over a single cable (contrast serial port). There are
usually several extra wires on the port that are used for control signals to indicate when data is
ready to be sent or received

A cable connector on the back of the CPU used to connect devices (usually printers and
scanners) to the computer. The parallel port is the one with the most pins meaning it is wider
than the other connectors. A Parallel Cable is used between Parallel Ports

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What is USB? (Universal Serial Bus)

A plug-and-play interface between a computer and add-on devices (such as mobile phones,
audio players. scanners and printers).

An external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps (12 million bits per
second). A single USB port can be used to connect up to 127 peripheral devices, such as mice,
modems, and keyboards. USB also supports Plug-and-Play installation.

A hardware interface for low-speed peripherals such as the keyboard, mouse, joystick, scanner,
printer, and telephony devices

A plug-and-play interface between a computer and add-on devices (such as keyboards, phones
and PDAs). With USB, a new device can be added to a computer without having to add an
adapter card or even having to turn the computer off. USB supports a data speed of 12
megabits per second and is now being incorporated in some cell phones. This is useful for
synchronizing information with a computer or downloading ring tones.

A plug-and-play interface between a computer and add-on devices such as mobile devices
(PalmOS, PocketPC), printers, keyboards etc. New devices can be added without adapter cards
or without the computer being shut off.

Typically located on the back of the computer near the expansion bay area (and sometimes
accessible through one or more front-mounted ports, too), USB ports provide an easy way to
connect USB-compatible peripherals such as scanners, cameras, joysticks, mice and keyboards
(etc.). To connect more than two USB devices, you will have to add an item with more ports
known as a USB hub. Generally, "powered" USB hubs provide better compatibility with cameras
and other USB devices than do inexpensive unpowered hubs. The 12Mbps USB 1.1 spec is
officially referred to as "full-speed" USB

The USB (for Universal Serial Bus) is a low cost serial bus which can provide upto 12 Mb/S.
That's about 100 times faster than the RS-232 style serial interfaces used in earlier generations
of computers. First developed in 1996, the USB is now widely used in Macs, PC's and even
Linux systems. USB is typically used to connect devices such as printers, scanners, keyboards,
digital cameras, MP3 players and low speed storage devices. In June 2002, Intel and others
started to demonstrate USB 2.0, which increases the speed of the peripheral to PC connection
from 12 Mbps per to 480 Mbps

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Modems

Modems differ in design, set-up aids, essential hardware performance, and service and support
policies. Be it for sending electronic mail, for data transfer, or for Internet surfing, a small,
Walkman-size gadget called a "modem" now accompanies the PC. Till recently part of the
corporate desktop only, modems are now becoming part of home PC configurations too, as
Internet usage at home is growing considerably.

A modem is a device that allows computers to transmit data over regular copper telephone
lines. Computers store, send, receive and process data in digital format. This means that the
data in your computer is stored as a series of binary digits, or bits. Phone lines however,
transmit data in a continuous analogue wave. A modem converts the signal from digital format
to analogue format for transmission to a remote modem - this is called modulation.

The growth in the modem market is fallout of the growth in Internet usage, increased
telecommuting, use of E-mail for communication, setting up of WANs (Wide Area Networks)
and implementation of intranets and extranets. Connectivity can be established through analog
lines, leased lines, ISDN lines and satellite.

Basically there are three types of modems, which facilitate connectivity” dial-up, leased line and
ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network). The system is so programmed that billings take
place accordingly. Dial-up modems could be external, internal and PC Card. An external or
desktop modem is a small box, equipped with a set of indicator lights, connected to the
computer using a serial cable.

External modems are more prevalent in India, primarily because internal modems are difficult
to configure and install, while an external modem is easier to troubleshoot or replace in case of
failure and further the LED indicators on an external modem helps the user to visually monitor
and troubleshoot.

There are two ways by which modems could be configured” as data/fax modems or
data/fax/voice modems. Data/fax modems provide only these two facilities while voice
capability in a modem acts as an answering machine. Irrespective of type, all modems are
designed to comply with the international standards.

• To communicate with another computer over copper phone lines, both the sending and
receiving computers must be connected to a modem.
• Data is sent from your computer to your modem as a digital signal.
• Your modem converts the digital signal into an analogue signal (modulation) then transmits
the data to the receiving (remote) modem.
• The remote modem converts the analogue signal into a digital signal (demodulation) then
transmits the data to the receiving computer for processing.
The data that you sent to the remote computer may then be forwarded to another computer for
processing - as is the case when you connect to VSNL, SIFY and others

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