Input/output Devices:

Input Devices

Keyboard
Keyboard is the most common and very popular input device which helps in inputting data to the
computer. The layout of the keyboard is like that of traditional typewriter, although there are
some additional keys provided for performing additional functions.

Keyboards are of two sizes 84 keys or 101/102 keys, but now keyboards with 104 keys or 108
keys are also available for Windows and Internet.

Mouse

Mouse is most popular pointing devicc. It is a very famous cursor-control device having a small
palm size box with a round ball at its base which senses the movement of mouse and sends
corresponding signals to CPU when the mouse buttons are presscd.

Joystick
Joystick is also a pointing device which is used to move cursor position on a monitor screen. It is
a stick having a spherical ball at its both lower and upper ends. The lower spherical ball moves in
a socket. The joystick can be moved in all four directions.

The function of joystick is similar to that of a mouse. It is mainly used in Computer Aided
Designing(CAD) and playing computer games.

Light Pen

Light pen is a pointing device which is similar to a pen. It is used to select a displayed menu item
ordraw pictures on the monitor screen. It consists of a photocell and an optical system placed in
a small tube. When the tip of a light pen is moved over the monitor screen and pen button is
pressed, its photocell sensing element detects the screen location and sends the corresponding
signal to the CPU.

Track Ball

Track ball is an input device that is mostly used in notebook or

mouse. This is a ball which is half inserted and
laptop computer, instead of a
by moving fingers ball, pointer can be moved.
on
Since the whole device is not moved, a track ball
comes in various shapes like a ball, a button and a
requires less space than a mouse. A track ball
square.
Scanner
Scanner is input device which works more like a photocopy machine. It is used when some
an

information is available on a paper and it is to be transferred to the hard

disc of the computer for
further manipulation. Scanner captures images from the source
which are then converted into the
digital form that can be stored on the disc. These images can be edited before
they are printed.
Digitizer
Digitizer is
input device which converts analog information into
an
convert signal from the television or camera into a series of numbersdigital
a
form. Digitizer can
that could be stored in a
computer. They can be used by the computer to create a
pictureof whatever the camera had been
pointed at. Digitizer is also known as Tablet or Graphics Tablet because it converts graphics and
is used for doing fine works of
pictorialdata into binary inputs. A graphic tablet as digitizer
drawing and image manipulation applications

Microphone
Microphone is aninput device to input sound that is then stored in digital form. The microphone
is used for various applications like adding sound to a multimedia presentation or for mixing
music.

Magnetic Ink Card Reader(MICR)

be
MICR input device is generally used in banks because of a large number of cheques to
processed every day. The bank's code number and cheque number are printed on the cheques
with a special type of ink that contains particles of magnetic material that are machine readable.
This reading process is called Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR). The main
advantages of MICR is that it is fast and less error prone.

Bar Code Readers

Bar Code Reader is a device used for reading bar coded data (data in form of light and dark
t may
lines). Bar coded data is generally used in labelling goods, numbering the books etc.
hand held scanner or may be embedded in a stationary scanner. Bar Code Reader scans a bar
a
be
code image, converts it into an alphanunmeric value which is then fed to the computer to which
bar code reader is connected.

Output Devices

Following are few of the important output devices which are used in a computer.

Monitors Graphic Plotter Printer

Monitors

Monitors, commonly called as Visual Display Unit (VDU), are the main output device of a
computer. It forms images from tiny dots, called pixels that are arranged in a rectangular form.
The sharpness of the image depends upon the number of pixels.

There are two kinds of viewing screen used for monitors.

Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) Flat-Panel Display

Printers
Printer is an output device, which is used to print information on paper.

There are two types of printers:

Impact Printers Non-Impact Printers

Impact Printers

The impact printers print the characters by striking them on the ribbon which is then pressed on
the paper

Non-impact Printers
 Non-impact printers print the characters without using ribbon. These printers print a complete
page at a time so they are also called as Page Printers.

These printers are of two types

Laser Printers Inkjet Printers

Secondary storage
Magnetic Tape
Magnetic tapes are used for large computers like mainframe computers where large volume ot
data is stored for a longer time. In PCs also you can use tapes in the form of cassettes. The cost
of storing data in tapes is inexpensive. Tapes consist of magnetic materials that store data
1200 meter
permanently. It can be 12.5 mm to 25 mm wide plastic film-type and 500 meter to
and
long which is coated with magnetic material. The deck is connected to the central processor
information is fed into or read from the tape through the processor. It is similar to cassette tape

recorder

Magnetic Disk
You might have seen the gramophone record, which is circular like a disk and coated with

magnetic material. Magnetic disks used in computer are made on the same principle. It
rotates
with very high speed inside the disk drive. Data are stored on both the surface of the disk.
Magnetic disks are most popular for direct access storage. Each disk consists of a number of
invisible concentric circles called tracks. Information is recorded on tracks of a disk surface in
the form of tiny magnetic sports. The presence of a magnetic sport represents one bit (1) and its
absence represents zero bit (0). The information stored in a disk can be read many times without
affecting the stored data. So the reading operation is non-destructive. But if you want to write a
new data, then the existing data is erased from the disk and new data is recorded

Floppy Disk

It is similar to magnetic disk discussed above. It is 3.5 inch in diameter. The capacity of a 3.5
inch floppy is 1.44 mega bytes. It is cheaper than any other storage devices and is portable. The
floppy is a low cost device particularly suitable for personal computer system.

Optical Disk

With every application and software there is greater demand for memory capacity. It is the
necessity to store large volume of data that has led to the development of optical disk storage
medium. Optical disks can be divided into the following categories.

i) Compact Disk/Read Only Memory (CD-ROM): CD-ROM disks are made of reflective
metals. CD-ROM is written during the process of manufacturing by high power laser beam. Here
the storage density is very high, storage cost is very low and access time is relatively fast.
Eachdisk is approximately 4 1/2 inches in diameter and can hold over 600 MB of data. As the
CD-ROM can be read only we cannot write or make changes into the data contained in it.

(i) Write Once Read Many (WORM): The inconvenience that we can not write any thing in to
a CD-ROM is avoided in WORM. A WORM allowsthe user to write data permanently on the
disk. Once the data is written it can never be erased without physically damaging the disk. Here
data can bc recorded from keyboard, video scanner, OCR equipment and other devices. The
advantage of WORM is that it can store vast amount of data amounting to gigabytes. Any
document in a WORM can be accessed very fast.

and re-
(ii) Erasable Optical Disk : These are optical disks where data can be written, erased used as
written. This also applies a laser beam to write and rewrite the data. These disks may be
alternatives to traditional disks. Erasable optical disks are based on a technology known as
laser
magnetic optical (MO). To write a data bit on the erasable optical disk the MO drive's
beam heats a tiny, precisely defined point on the disk's surface and magnetizes it.
and USB
Flash drive: Flash drives have many names jump drives, thumb drives, pen drives,
refer to the same thing, which is a
keychain drives. Regardless of what you call them, they all
memory and has built-in USB connection.
Small data storage device that uses flash a

than an inch in
Flash drives are typically no more than two to three inches in length and less
or a small pen (which is
where the namnes
WIdth. Their size and shape may resemble a thumb
thumb drive" and "pen drive" come from).

a depth of less than a

centimeter. Because of their
Flash drives are also very thin, often having
small form factor, they are highly portable
and can easily fit in a pocket or on a keychain (hence
the name "keychain drive").
small in size
drives can store several gigabytes
of information. Since they are
Nowadays flash data storage
drives have replaced most previous portable
but have large storage capacities, flash Because they have a
removable hard disks like Zip disks.
mediums such as floppy disks and to be used. Instead,
built-in USB connection, flash drives
also don't require a special disk drive
USB which nearly all moderm computers have.
they can be used on any computer with a port,
and data files,
but not recorded. Used to store programs
A type of CD disc that can only be read, than the
a different recording format
or 70OMB of data and employs
a CD-ROM holds 65OMB the
evolved. In the 1990s, the CD-ROM rapidly replaced
audio CD (CD-DA), from which it
distribution.
floppy disk for software

CD-R
and WORM (Write Once Read Many) is a
CD-R also known as (Compact Disc Recordable)
drive to burn or make a copy of their personal data,
blank disc that users can put into a CD-ROM of
have to use special software to burn specific types
music, videos and information. CD-R's
disc to create an MP3 CD or vice versa. Users
media or data. You cannot use the menu of a data
to burn documents and files.
would select "Audio CD" to burn music or "Data"

CD-RW
be erased and returned to its
Disc Rewritable) can
Unlike a CD-R, the CD-RW (Compact
then be copied onto the rewritable disk. CD-RW never
original blank state. New files can are not compatible with most disc players to listen
became as popular as the CD-R's because they
move data from one computer to another, or to copy files
to music. They are primarily used to
that are only needed a few times.
CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RVw
The 120mm CO-ROM is
thede facto standard for
Software distribution and
for publishing large
databases. The smaller

mini CD-ROM is only

80mm in d i a m e t e r and
CD-ROM holds 180MB (Compared
to the full-size 650MB).
It fits into the deeper we
in
in the c e n t e r of the tray
most CD-ROM drives.

have a silver
l i n i CD-ROM CD-ROMs
audio CDs
cast just like
discs can be
Blank CD-R
once and read
recoded
CD-ROM
reader.
on any blue
CD-Rs have a gold,
or green cast.

CD-RWs can be
rewriten, but m u s t b e
Multi R e a d
read on newer
drives.
CD and DVD
blue
C D - R W s have a
CD-R
cast.

CD-RVV