CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTERS

The five major characteristics of computers, which have made them so

powerful and useful are: -
• Speed
• Accuracy
• Consistency
• Storage Capacity, and
• Flexibility

1. SPEED: Computers work at an incredible speed. This can be

gauged from the fact that the speed of the computers is
measured in terms of milliseconds, microseconds,
nanoseconds or picoseconds (i.e. one thousandth, one
millionth, one billionth, and one trillionth of a second,
respectively. The common computers today process
information at the speed of a couple of a million
instructions per second, also called MIPS in computer
slang.

2. ACCURACY: In addition to being fast, the computers are also

accurate. They either give the correct answer or do not
answer at all. However it must be remembered that the
computer is capable of doing only what it is instructed to
do. If faulty instruction is fed for processing the data then
the answers will also be faulty. This is also called GIGO, i.e.
Garbage In Garbage Out. Hence the only possibility of an
error occurring is due to the inaccuracy of the user or
faulty data.

3. CONSISTENCY: Unlike human beings, computers, being

machines, are highly consistent. They never get bored! All
computers patiently wait for instructions to be entered by
the user. If they do not get any instructions they do not
complain. Another aspect being that if the same command
is given to it for a number of times it will carry it out
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faultlessly without complaining. Hence they are ideal

machines for carrying out repetitive and voluminous work.

4. STORAGE CAPACITY: Today’s computers can store huge

amounts of data. Once recorded, a piece of information is
never forgotten (unless it is intentionally erased or some
problem takes place) and any information can be retrieved
almost instantaneously. For example a single CD ROM can
store the entire telephone directory of a city as big a
Mumbai.

5. FLEXIBILITY: Computer is a versatile machine and its use is

limited only by ones imagination. In today’s fast developing
technology world it would be very difficult in some cases
inconceivable, to find an area where computers are not
being used to a great advantage. A computer is perhaps
the first general-purpose machine devised by man. All
other machines like televisions, refrigerator, etc. do only
the thing they are designed for. Unlike these a computer
can be used to do various tasks such as play music, watch
movies, type letters, send faxes, email, data files, photos,
diagnose illnesses, fix problems in complex manufacturing
operations, design buildings and bridges, etc. etc.
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It is the era of computer technology. In the twentieth century, the

computer has been one of the most important inventions ever
accomplished by the mankind. The computer technology has
undergone rapid improvement and evolution, beginning with slow and
unwieldy computer machines to the present crop of laptop and
palmtop, which weigh a few kilograms. In the beginning the computer
was for a limited commercial purpose but now it has become our daily
necessity; hence, called Personal Computer. In future, the computer
would become our indispensable home appliance, like TV, Telephone,
Refrigerator, Fan etc.

As all technologies have, even computer technologies have Merits and

Demerits although merits outweigh demerits.

MERITS AND DEMERITS OF COMPUTER

TECHNOLOGY:
The computer is useful for educational purposes although youngsters
also use it for games, which if used excessively waste the valuable
time of students. In educational institutions, the students are using
computer for furthering their research and advanced training. But
excessive use also impairs the eyesight of students.

The latest Internet computer technology has made our world a global
village. But many young men misuse the websites. Although email
service of Internet creates friendship through communication all over
the world; yet it can have disastrous effects if freedom of
communication and expression is misused for negative purposes.

The computerization of office work has facilitated computer typing

which is fast, accurate and provide spell check and thesaurus services
and helps in appropriate and proper drafting of composition, letters,
prose and journalism. But the disadvantage is that the handwriting of
some students using computers has gone worse due to lack of use of
pen/pencil. Nevertheless, computerized typing has revolutionized the
old typewriter, which was slow and heavy on finger using. Even
desktop publishing has been made possible by computers. In the
offices of newspapers, they are printed fast and accurately for the
newsreaders.

There are computers in all fields, e.g. telephone companies,

automobiles factories, watches, air machines, defense weapons, TV,
VCR, aerodynamics, medical apparatuses, surgery, engineering
gadgets, databases creation, production units, electric generation,
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manufacturing devices, audio-visual techniques and so on and so forth.

It is predicted that in future, human labor would be replaced by
computer/robot exertion, which would increase mass unemployment,
which is a disadvantage ensuing from this invention. However, the
utilities that would be brought out by the computer technology would
help in newer and better inventions for the betterment of the mankind.

There are two aspects of every invention: good and bad. If we use
weapons for our defense, it is good; but if we use weapons for
aggression, it is bad. The same thing is applicable for the future of
computer technology, depending on how we use this invention. The
computer is being used all over the world for advancement of
knowledge and science.
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FLOPPY DISK
A floppy (in its drive) is a removable, non-volatile, direct access, read-
write, magnetic, secondary memory with a low storage capacity, slow
access time and inexpensive cost per byte of storage.
A floppy disk has a thin circular of plastic or Mylar. This disk is
coated on both sides with a magnetic ferrous oxide coating. The disk is
divided into concentric circles called tracks and each track is further
divided into radial slices called sectors. The entire disk is placed in a
square protective plastic sleeve and never taken out of it. This protects
the floppy from dust and spillage so that it could be used in dirty
environments.
Each sector represents the amount of information that can be
read from or written to a floppy in one operation. A sector of (an IBM-
PC compatible) floppy contains 512 bytes of data. Every sector
contains the same amount of data, whether the sector is on an inner
track or on an outer track of the disk. So data is close together on inner
tracks and spread out on outer tracks. This leads to wastage of space
on the outer tracks, reducing the capacity of the floppy drive.
The plastic sleeve within which the disk rotates has three holes
in it. The central round hole is called the spindle hole. The spindle of
the floppy disk drive rotates the floppy disk. The spindle of the drive
passes through the spindle hole of the floppy, securing the floppy in its
drive. A small round hole next to the spindle hole is called the sector
index hole. The sector index hole is used to locate a sector of the
rotating floppy. A small Light Emitting Diode is kept under the rotating
floppy disk. When the sector index hole passes over the light, the light
passes through to the other side of the floppy. This indicates that the
first sector of the disk is under the read-write head. The disk controller
then calculates the time delay until the required sector comes under
the read-write head. The controller waits for that much time and then
read the correct sector. An oblong offset hole is situated radially on the
plastic sleeve (not on the disk). The read-write head of the drive is
placed above the hole. The head is moved in and out over the offset
hole by a servomotor, to position itself over the required track of the
drive. There are two read-write heads in the drive, one for each side of
the floppy.
A small rectangular write protect notch is placed near the top of
the right hand side of the floppy. The floppy is write protected when an
opaque tape covers the notch (or when the plastic slider is moved out
of position). This affords protection to the floppy when it contains data
that should not be overwritten. Further, a virus cannot infect the
contents of a write-protected floppy.
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Floppy disks are available in various sizes and capacities.

• MINIFLOPPY DISKETTES:
DISKETTES 5¼-inch size, capacity for Double Sided
Double Density (DSDD) type 360kb, for Double Sided High
Density (DSHD) type 1.2Mb of data.
• MICROFLOPPY DISKETTES:
DISKETTES 3½ inch size, capacity DSDD - 720kb
and for DSHD – 1.44Mb of data.

DSDD stands for Double Sided Double Density floppies. Double sided indicates that the
floppy has magnetic coating on both sides and double density indicates that the floppy
has 80 tracks. The floppy drives for DSDD have two read-write heads, one for each side
of the floppy. Single density floppies have 40 tracks to a side. The floppies store 512
bytes of data per sector.
DSHD stands for Double Sided High Density diskette. High density
indicates that the tracks are even close together in the diskette than a
DSDD floppy. There are 135 tracks per inch in DSHD floppies. The 3½-
inch DSHD varieties are called diskettes rather than floppies as their
outer sleeve is made of hard plastic rather than the thin plastic used in
the 5¼ inch floppies. This makes them less flexible than the floppies.
(Hence contradicting their very name as floppies as they no longer
flop!)

ADVANTAGES OF FLOPPY DISKS

• It is a direct access as well as sequential access medium.
• The floppy drives as well as the disk are relatively inexpensive.
• They provide off-line storage of data.

DISADVANTAGES OF FLOPPY DISKS

• The storage capacity is quite small
• The floppy has to be protected from dust, heat, moisture,
magnetic fields, excessive bending and fingerprints on the
recording surface.
• Data loss on a floppy is possible due to the above reasons.
• The floppy has high access time and low transfer rate of data.
• Data update takes place in-place on the floppy, so that the
previous contents are lost, unless preventive measures are taken
by the computer system.
• Floppies that are not write protected are prone to virus
infections.

By: -
Girish
Shahid Usmani
Suyash Sambhare
Anup
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