MUTHAYAMMAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE (AUTONOMOUS)

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER APPLICATION

Staff Name: Mr.V.VENGADESH Class: II B.Sc ZOOLOGY Paper Code: 21M3UCSN02

Paper Name: Office Automation Unit: II

FUNCTIONS AND COMPONENTS OF COMPUTER

 Computer needs both hardware and software. Hardware consists of the mechanical and electronic device.
 The software consists of programs, the operating system and the data that reside in the memory and
storage device.
FUNCTIONS OF COMPUTER
 Receive input: Accept information outside through various input devices like the keyboard, mouse, etc
 Process information: Perform arithmetic or logical operations on the information
 Produce output: Communicate information to the outside world through output devices like monitor,
printer, etc
 Store information: Store the information in storage devices like hard disk, floppy disks, etc.
 Computer hardware falls into two categories:
 Processing Hardware: Which consists of the central processing unit (CPU). CPU used to process the
data.
 Peripherals devices: Allow people to interact with the CPU.

COMPUTER ORGANIZATION:
ARITHMETIC LOGIC UNIT (ALU)
 ALU performs two types of operations arithmetic and logical.
 Arithmetic operations are the fundamental mathematical operations consisting of addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division.
 The logical operations consist of comparison that is two data are compared to see whether one is equal
to, less than or greater than other.
CONTROL UNIT
 Control unit tells the rest of the computer system to carry out a program’s instructions.
 It directs the movement of electronic signals between memory and the ALU.
 It also directs these control signals between the CPU and input / output devices.

INPUT DEVICE
 An input device is any machine that feeds data into computers.
 Input devices are:

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 Keyboard
 Mouse
 Track Ball
 Joystick
 Scanner
 Digitizing Tablet
 Digital Camera
 Touch Pad
 Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
 Optical Character Recognition
 Optical Mark Recognition
 Barcode Reader
 Speech Input Device
 Touch Screen
 Light Pen
Keyboard
 Keyboard is input devices consist of keys that enable us to enter data into a computer.
 Computer keyboards are similar to electric typewriter keyboards but contain additional keys.
 The keys on computer keyboards are often classified as follows:
 Alphanumeric keys : Letters and numbers.
 Punctuation Keys: Comma, period, semicolon etc.
 Special Keys: Function keys, control keys, arrow keys, Caps lock keys, etc.
 There are actually three different PCs keyboard.
 Original PC keyboard with 84 keys.
 AT keyboard with 84 keys.
 Enhanced keyboard with 101 keys.

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 IBM keyboards contain the following keys:
 Insert
 Page up  Num lock  Pause
 Scroll lock  Print screen
 Page down  Break
 Caps lock
 Home
 End
Mouse
 The mouse is pointing device that controls the movement of the cursor or pointer on a display
screen.
 A mouse is small object we can roll in either a hard or flat surface.
 As we move the mouse, the pointer on the display screen moves in the same direction.
 Mice has at least one button and sometime as many as three, which have different functions.
 Mouse is useful for graphics by using the mouse like pen, pencil and paintbrush.
Types of Mice
 There are three basic types of mice.
 Mechanical mouse
 Opto-mechanical mouse
 Optical mouse
Mechanical Mouse:
 It has a rubber or metal ball on its underside that can roll in all directions.
 Mechanical sensors within the mouse detect the direction the ball is rolling and move the screen pointer
accordingly.
Opto-mechanical Mouse:
 Same as a mechanical mouse, but uses optical sensors to detect motion of the ball.
Optical Mouse:
 It uses a laser to detect the mouse’s movement.
 We must move the mouse along a special mat with a grid so that the optical mechanism has a frame of
reference.

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 Connections
 Mice connect to Pcs in one of the three ways:
 Serial mice connect directly to an Rs-232 serial port or a PS/2 port. Simplest type connection.
 Bus mice connect to the bus through an interface card.
 This is more complicated because we need to configure and install an expansion board.
 Cordless mice are not physically connected.
 Instead they rely on infrared or radio waves to communicate with the computer.
Mouse Pad
 Mouse pad is a pad over which one can move a mouse. Mouse pads provide more traction than smooth
surfaces such as glass and wood. So they make it easier to move a mouse accurately.
 For mechanical mice, mouse pads are optional. Optical mice require special mouse pads.
Trackball
 The track ball is another pointing device. It is a mouse lying on its back.
 To move the pointer the user can rotate the ball with the thumb, fingers
or the palm of the hand.
 We use like mouse buttons and It doesn’t require much space to use it.
 We can place a track ball on any type of surface, including our lap.
 A track ball comes in various shapes like a ball, a button, or a square.
Joystick
 Joystick is also pointing device which has lever that moves in all directions
and controls the movement of a pointer or some other display symbols.
 A joystick is similar to mouse except that with a mouse the cursor stops
moving as soon as we stop moving the mouse. With a joystick, the pointer
continues to move in the pointed direction of the joystick.
 To stop the pointer the user must return the joystick to its upright position.
 It includes two buttons called “Triggers”.
Digitizing Tablet
 This is an input device that enables us to enter drawings and sketches
into a computer.
 It consists of an electronic tablet and a cursor or pen.
 A cursor (also called a puck) is similar to mouse and it has window with
cross hairs for pinpoint placement.
 It can have as many as 16 buttons.
 A pen (also called a stylus uses an electronic head instead of ink.

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 The tablet contains electronics that enable it to detect movement of the cursor or pen and translate the
movements into digital signals that it sends to the computer.
 It is also called as digitizers, graphics tablets, touch tablets or simply tablets.
Scanners
 Scanner is an input device that can read text or printed on paper
and translate the information into a form that the computer can
use.
 A scanner works by digitizing an image dividing it into a grid of
boxes and representing each box with either a zero or a one,
depending on whether the box is filled in.
 The resulting matrix of bits called a bit map can be stored in a file, displayed on a screen, and
manipulated by programs.
 We can’t edit text that has been scanned. We need an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system to
translate the image into ASCII character.
 Scanners differ from one another in the following aspects:
Scanning technology:
 Scanners use Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) arrays, which consist of tightly packed rows of light
receptors that can detect variations in light intensity and frequency.
Resolution:
 The denser the bit map, the higher the resolution. Scanners support resolutions from 72 to 600 Dots
Per Inch (dpi)
Bit depth:
 The number of bits needed to represent each pixel. The greater the bit depth, more colors or grayscales
can be represented.
Size and shapes:
 Some scanners are small hand-held devices that scan 2 to 5 inches at a time. It is called half-page
scanners.
 Large scanners include machines into which we can feed sheets of paper. These are called sheet-fed
scanner.
 The second type of large scanner, called flatbed scanner, is like a photocopy machine.
Digital Camera
 Images can be input into a computer using a digital camera. These images
can be manipulated in many ways using the various imaging tools available.
 It takes a still photograph, stores it, and then sends it as digital input into the
computer.
 The images are stored as digital files.

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 Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)
 MICR allows the computer to recognize characters printed using magnetic inks.
 This is direct entry method used in bans and used to automatically read
looking numbers on the bottom of the cheque.
 A special-purpose machine known as a reader/sorter reads characters
made of ink containing magnetized particles.
 Magnetic strip is used on the back of credit cards and bank debit cards that allows readers such as ATM
to read account information and facilitate monetary transactions.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
 Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the
mechanical or electronic conversion of scanned images of
handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text.
 Some systems are capable of reproducing formatted output that
closely approximates the original scanned page including images,
columns and other non-textual components.
 An OCR system enables to take a book or a magazine article and feed it directly into an electronic
computer file.
Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)
 OMR is also called mark sensing and it is a technology where an OMR device
senses the presence or absence of a mark, such as a pencil mark. It is used in
various tests such as aptitude tests.
Bar Code Reader (BCR)
 Bar code readers are photoelectric scanner that read the bar codes or vertical
zebra stripped marks, printed on product containers.
 Supermarkets use a bar code system called the Universal Product Code
(UPC).
 It identifies the product to the super market, which has description and the latest price of the product.
Speech Input Devices
 Speech or voice devices convert a person’s speech into digital form.
 These input devices, which combine with appropriate software, form voice recognition systems.
 These systems enable users to operate micro computers using voice commands.
 These are translating from one language to another, such as from English to Japanese.
 There are two types of voice recognition systems are: continuous speech and discrete word.
Continuous Speech
 This system is used to control a microcomputer’s operations and to issue command to special
application programs.

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 Example, rather than using the keyboard to save a spreadsheet file, the user could simply say “Save the
file”.
 Two popular systems are Apple Computer’s PlainTalk and IBM’s continuous speech series.
Discrete Word
 A common activity in business is preparing memos and other writing documents.
 Discrete-word recognition systems allow users to dictate directly into a microcomputer using a
microphone.
 The microcomputer stores the memo in a word processing file where it can be revised later or directly
printout.
 Example: IBM voice Type simply speaking.
Touch Screen
 Touch screen is a type of display screen that has a touch-sensitive
transparent panel covering the screen.
 Instead of using a pointing device such as a mouse or light pen, we can use
our finger to point directly to objects on the screen.
 It provides a natural interface for computer novices. There are unsatisfactory for most applications
because the finger is such relatively large object.
Touch Pad
 A small, touch-sensitive pad used as a pointing device on some portable
computers.
 By moving a finger or other object along the pad, we can move the pointer on
the display screen.
Light Pen
 Light pen is an input device that utilizes a light-sensitive detector to select
objects on a display screen.
 A light pen is similar to a mouse, except that with a light pen we can move the
pointer and select objects on the display screen by directly pointing to the
objects with the pen.
OUTPUT DEVICES
 Output is anything that comes out of a computer.
 Output can be meaningful information; it can appear in a variety of forms as binary numbers, as
characters, as pictures, and as printed pages.
 An output device is any machine capable of representing information on a computer.
 Output devices include Display screens, Loud speakers, Printers, Plotters etc.,

Monitor
 Monitor commonly called as Visual Display Unit (VDU) are the main output device of a computer.

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 Monitor refers to the entire box, where as display screen can means just the screen.
 Monitor often implies graphics capabilities.
Classification of Monitor- Based on Colour
 There are many ways to classify monitors. The most basic is in terms of color capabilities, which
separates monitors into three classes:
 Monochrome
 Gray scale
 Colour.
Monochrome
 Monochrome monitors actually display two colors, one for the
background and one for the foreground.
 The color can be black and white, green and black and amber and black.

Gray-scale
 A gray-scale monitor is a special type of monochrome monitor
capable of displaying different shades of gray.

Colour
 Colour monitor can display anywhere from 16 to over 1 million different colors.
 Colour monitors sometime called as RGB monitors because they
accept three separate signals – Red, Green and Blue. This differs from
colour televisions.
 All colour computer monitors are RGB monitors.
 An RGB monitor consists of a vacuum tube with three electron guns.
One each for red, green and blue at one end and the screen at the other end.
 Colour and gray scale monitors are classified by the number of bits they use to represent each pixel.
Classification of Monitors–Based on Signals
 Another common way of classifying monitors is in terms of the type of signal they accept. There are
two types:
 Analog monitor
 Digital monitor
Digital monitor
 A digital monitor accepts digital signals rather than analog signals.
 All monitors use CRT technology, which essentially analog.

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 It refers to type of input received from the video adapter and then translates the digital signals into
analog signals that control the actual display.
 It is a fast and produce clear images, they can’t display variable colours continuously.
 Low-quality video standards such as MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter).
 CGA (Color/Graphics Adapter) and EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter) specify digital signals.
Analog Monitor
 This is the traditional type of colour display screen that has been used in televisions.
 Digital monitors must nevertheless translate the signals into an analog form
before displaying images. Some monitors can accept both digital and analog
signals.
 VGA (Video Graphics Array) and SVGA (Super VGA) require an analog monitor.
 Some monitors have fixed frequency, which means that they accept input at only one frequency.
Another type of monitor, called a multi scanning monitor, automatically adjusts to the frequency of the
signals being sent to it. Fixed frequency monitors multi scanning monitors accept TTL, analog or both
type of input.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A MONITOR
 The characteristics of monitors are:
Size
 The important aspect of a monitor is its screen size. Screen sizes are measured in diagonal inches.
 A size for small VGA monitor is 14 inches.
 Monitors that are 16 or more inches diagonally are often called full page monitor.
 Larger landscape monitor can display two full pages side by side. Monitors can be either portrait or
landscape.
Resolution
 The resolution of a monitor indicates densely the pixels are packed.
 Pixel is a single point in a graphic image graphics monitor display pictures by dividing the display
screen into thousands of pixels, arranged in rows and columns.
 The pixels are so close together that they appear connected.
 The number of bits used to represent each pixel determines how may colours or shades of gray can be
displayed.
 Colour monitor, each pixel is composed of three dots – a red, a blue, and a green one.
 The quality of display monitor depends on its resolution, how many pixels it can display, and how
many bits are used to represent each pixel.
Band width
 The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time.
 For digital devices, the bandwidth is usually expressed in bits or bytes per second (bps).

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 For analog devices, the bandwidth is expressed in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz).

Refresh Rate
 Display monitors must be refreshed many times per second.
 The refresh rate determines how many times per second the screen is to be refreshed.
 The refresh rate for a monitor is measured in hertz (Hz) and is also called the vertical frequency or
vertical refresh rate.
 The old standard monitor refresh rates was 60Hz, but new refresh rate 75Hz.
 The faster the refresh rate, the less the monitor flickers.
Interlaced or Non-Interlaced
 It is a display technique that enables a monitor to provide more resolution inexpensively.
 With interlacing monitor, the electron guns draw only half the horizontal lines with each pass.
 Interlacing provides the same resolution as non interlacing, but less expensively.
 A short coming of interlacing is that the reaction time is slower, so programs that depend on quick
refresh rates may experience flickering or streaking.
Dot pitch
 A measurement that indicates the vertical distance between each pixel on a display screen measured in
millimeters, the dot pitch is one of the principal characteristics that determine the quality of display
monitors.
 The dot pitch of colour monitors for personal computer ranges from about 0.15mm to 0.30mm.
 Another term for dot pitch is phosphor pitch.
Convergence
 Convergence refers to how sharply an individual color pixel on a monitor appears. Each pixel is
composed of three dots – a red, blue and green one.
 It the dots are badly misconverged, the pixel will appear blurry.
 All monitors have some convergence errors, but they differ in degree.

Video Standards
 There are a variety of video standards that defines resolution and colours for displays.
 The monitor must be able to show the resolution and color defined by the standard, and the video
adapter must be capable of transmitting the appropriate signals to the monitor.
 For more information, refer to the entries for the specific graphics systems given in table
 Popular video standards for PCs are list out in the below table.

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 Standard Resolution Simultaneous
colours
VGA(Video Graphics 640X480 16
Array) 320X200 256
SVGA(Super VGA) 800X600 16
1024X768 256
1280X1024 256
1600X1200 256
8514/A(IBM-1987) 1024X768 256
XGA(IBM-1990) 640X480 65536
1024X768 256
TI 34010 (Texas 1024 X 768 256
Instruments)
VGA (video graphic of array)
 It graphics display system for PCs developed by IBM. VGA has become one of the de facto standards
for PCs.
 It provides a resolution of 720x400 pixels.
 In graphics mode, the resolution is either 640x480
 All PCs made today support VGA, and possibly some other more advanced standard.
SVGA (super VGA)
 A set of graphics standards designed to offers greater resolution than VGA.
 There are several varieties of SVGA, each providing a different resolution.
 It supports a palette of 16 millions colors, but the number of colors that can be displayed
simultaneously is limited by the amount of video memory installed in a system.
8514/A
 A high-resolution video standard for PCs developed by IBM in 1987.
 It was designed to extend the capabilities of VGA.
 The 8514/A standard provides a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels, which gives it about 2.5 times the
pixels of VGA (640 by 480).
 It provides a palette of 262,000 colours of which 256 can be displayed at one time.
XGA (extended graphics array)
 A high-resolution graphics standard introduced by IBM in 1990.
 It provides the same resolutions(640 by 480 or 1024 by 768 pixels) but support more simultaneous
color
 XGA allows monitors to be non-interlaced.
T1 34010
 T1 34010 is a video standard from Texas Instruments that supports a resolution of 1024 by 768.
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 T1 34010 conforms to T1’s Graphics Architecture (T1GGA).
 It supports the same resolution of 8514/A but it is non-interlaced.
PRINTER
 Printer is a device that prints text or illustrations on paper and in many cases on transparencies and
other media.
 Types of printer:
 There are many types of printers:
 Impact Printers
 Character Printers
 Dot Matrix printers
 Daisy Wheel printers
 Line printers
 Non-impact printers
 Laser printers
 Inkjet printers
Daisy-Wheel Printer
 Daisy wheel printer produces letter-quality type. It works on the same
principle as a ball-head type writer.
 To print a character, the disk is rotated by the printer until the desired letter
faces the paper.
 We can change the daisy wheel to print different fonts.
 It can’t print graphics, they are noisy and slow. Printing from 10 to about 75 characters per second.

Dot Matrix Printer

 Dot matrix printers cre
 ate characters by striking pins against an ink ribbon. Each pin makes a
dot and combination of dot form characters and illustrations.
 It is in expensive and fast, but they don’t produce high quality output.
 It varies in two important characters.
 Speed: Given in character per second (cps) the speed can vary from about 80 to over 500 cps.
 Print quality: Determined by the no of pins it can vary from 9 to 24.
 The best dot matrix can produce near letter quality type although we can still see a difference.
 It can print multi page forms.
Ink-Jet Printer

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 Ink-Jet printer is a non-impact printer that works by spraying ionized
ink at a sheet of paper.
 Magnetized plates in the ink path direct the ink onto the paper the
desired shapes.
 It produces high quality print and resolution of 300 dots per inch,
although so newer models offer high resolutions.
 The drawback of ink jet printer is that they require special type of ink that is apt to smudge on
inexpensive copier paper.
Laser Printer
 Laser printer is a non-impact printer that uses a laser beam to print the characters.
 The light of the laser alters the electrical charge on drum wherever it hits.
 The drum is rolled through a reservoir of toner, which is picked up by the
charges portions of the drum.
 The toner is transferred to the paper through a combination of heat and
pressure.
 It sometimes called page printer.
 The laser printers is their resolution how many dots per inch (dpi) they lay down.
 The resolutions range from 300 dpi at the low end to 1200 dpi at the high end.
 It prints at 1200 or 2400 dpi per second.
 It produce very high quality and capable of printing unlimited variety of
points.
LED and LCD Printer
 It is similar to laser printer but uses liquid crystals or light-emitting diodes rather than a laser to
produce an image on the drum.
Line Printer
 These are high-speed printers capable of printing an entire line at one
time.
 A fast line printer can print as many as 3000 lines per minute.
 The disadvantages of these printers are that they can print only one font, and can’t print graphics; the
print quality is low and very noisy.
Thermal Printer
 Thermal printers are printers that produce image by pushing electrically heated
pins against special heat sensitive paper.
 The produce low quality print and the paper tends to curl and fade after a few
weeks or months.

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 Plotter
 They are used to produce a hard- copy output in the form of graphs, maps,
charts and mechanical and architectural drawings.
 Plotters differ from printers in that they drew lines using a pen.
 As a result, they can produce continuous lines, whereas printers can only
simulate lines by printing a closely spaced series of dots. Fig: Plotter

 Multicolor plotters use different-colored pens to draw different colors.

 Plotters are considerably more expensive than printers.
Sound Cards and Speakers
 Sound cards enable the computer to output sound through speakers connected on the board, to record
sound input from a microphone connected to the computer, and manipulate sound stored on a disk
 It records the sound input from a microphone connected to the computer and manipulates the sound
stored on a disk. Sound cards support MIDI standard for music electronically.
Video card
 Alternatively referred to as a display adapter, graphics card, video adapter, video board, or
a video controller.
 A video card is an internal circuit board that allows a display device such as a monitor to
display images from the computer.
Headphones
 Sometimes referred to as earphones, is a hardware device that either plugs into computer or in speakers
and allows to privately listen to audio without disturbing anyone else.
Projector
 It is the output device that can take the display of a computer screen and project a
large version of it onto a flat surface.
 Projectors are often used in meetings and presentations to help make sure everyone
in the room can view the presentation.
3D-Audio
 3D audio is a technology for giving more depth to traditional stereo sounds.
 Typically, 3D sound, or 3D audio, is produced by placing a device in a room with stereo speakers.
 The device dynamically analyses the sound coming from the speaker & sends feedback to the sound
system so that it can readjust the sound to give the impression that the speaker are further apart.
MEMORY UNITS
 Memory units are the internal storage areas in a computer.
 Memory identifies data storage that comes in the form of chip and the storage is used for memory that
exists on tapes or disks.
 Memory refers to the actual chips capable of holding data.

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 Some computes use Virtual Memory which expands physical memory onto a hard disk.
 Storage devices include Hard disk, Floppy disk, CD-Rom, and Tape Backup systems.
 A computer memory is of two types:
 Primary Memory (Internal storage)
 Secondary Memory (External storage)

Types of Main Memory:

 There are several kinds of memory.
 RAM [RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY]
 ROM [READ ONLY MEMORY]
 PROM [PROGRAMMABLE READ ONLY MEMORY]
 EPROM [ERASABLE PROGRAMMABLE READ ONLY MEMORY]
 EEPROM [ELECTRICALLY ERASABLE PROGRAMMABLE READ ONLY MEMORY]
 FLASH MEMORY
RAM
 RAM is the internal memory of CPU for storing data, program and program
result.
 RAM is also known as read/write memory as information can be read from and
write.
 RAM is volatile, meaning that they lose their contents when the power is turned off.
 There are two types of RAM: Static RAM and Dynamic RAM
Static RAM:
 Static RAM need to be refreshed less often, which makes it to work faster.
 It is more expensive and consumer more power than dynamic memory.
 Characteristic of Static RAM
 Long life  Large size
 Expensive
 High power consumption
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 No need to refresh
 Faster
 Used as cache memory
Dynamic RAM:
 Dynamic must be continually refreshed inorder to maintain the data.
 It has high density and low power consumption.
 Characteristics of Dynamic RAM:
 Smaller in size
 Short data lifetime  Less expensive
 Less power consumption
 Needs to be refreshed continuously
 Slower as compared to SRAM
 Used as RAM
ROM
 ROM stands for Read-only memory as information can only be read from and
not written or changed onto ROM. It is the built-in memory of a computer.
 It stores some basic input – output instructions during manufacturing.
 The storage of data and instructions in ROM is permanent.
 It does not depend on the power supply (i.e.) it is non-volatile memory.
 Advantages of ROM:
 Non-volatile in nature  More reliable than RAMs
 Static and do not require refreshing
 Cannot be accidentally changed  Contents are always known and can be verified
 Cheaper than RAMs
 Easy to test
PROM
 Prom is read only memory that can be modified only once by a user.
 Once a program has been written onto a PROM, it remains there forever.
 PROM retains their contents when the computer is turned off.
EPROM
 EPROM is a special type of memory that retains its contents until it is
exposed to ultraviolet light.
 The ultraviolet light clears its contents, making it possible to reprogram the
memory
 An EPROM differs from a PROM in that a PROM can be written to only once and cannot be erased
EEPROM
 It is also a special type of PROM. It can be erased by exposing it to on electrical
charge.

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  It can be erased and reprogrammed about ten thousand times.
 EEPROMs can be erased one byte at a time rather than erasing the entire chip.
FLASH MEMORY
 Flash Memory also known as flash storage, is a type of nonvolatile memory.
 It can be erased and reprogrammed in blocks instead of one byte at a time.
 Modern PCs have their BIOS (Basic Input Output System) stored on a flash memory chip so that it can
be easily be updated.
Difference between RAM and ROM
DIFFERENCE RAM ROM
RAM is a volatile memory which ROM is a non-volatile memory which
Data retention could store the data as long as the could retain the data even when
power is supplied. power is turned off.
Data stored in RAM can be
Working type Data stored in ROM can only be read.
retrieved and altered.
Used to store the data that has to be
It stores the instructions required
Use currently processed by CPU
during bootstrap of the computer.
temporarily.
Speed It is a high-speed memory. It is much slower than the RAM.
Size and
Small size with less capacity.
Capacity Large size with higher capacity.
Used as / in CPU Cache, Primary memory. Firmware, Micro-controllers
cost Costlier cheaper than RAM.

AUXILIARY STORAGE DEVICES

 Auxiliary storage device, otherwise known as secondary storage or auxiliary
memory, is a long-term, non-volatile memory.
 These storage devices hold data and programs for future use and are
considered nonvolatile storage that retains information even when power is
not available.
 There are two types of auxiliary storage devices, sequential and random.
 Sequential access media, which can only read data in a sequential manner. E.g. Magnetic tapes.
 In random-access media, without passing through the principal points, one can access any point at
random. E.g. Disks

MAGNETIC TAPE
 Magnetic tape data storage uses digital recording on to magnetic tape to store digital
information.
 When storing large amounts of data, tape can be substantially less expensive than disk
or other data storage options. But accessing a data on the tape is slower than accessing it on disks.
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  In order to get a particular point on the tape, one has to go through all the preceding points.
 Tapes are sometimes called streamers or streaming tapes.
 Tapes are of various sizes and formats.
 The highest capacity tape cartridges can store 5 TB of uncompressed data.

Types of tapes
 Half-Inch - 60MB-400 MB
 Quarter-inch- 40MB – 5GB
 8-mm Helical scan- 1 GB-5GB
 4-mm DAT – 2GB-24GB
HELICAL-SCAN CARTRIDGE
 A type of magnetic tape that uses the same technology as VCR tapes.
 The 8-mm helical –scan tapes have data capacities from 2.5GB to 5 GB.
DAT CARTRIDGE
 It is another type of magnetic tape that uses an ingenious scheme called helical scan to record data.
 The latest format, DDS-3, specifies tapes that can hold 24GB( the equivalent of over 40 CD ROMs)
and support data transfer rates of 2 Mbps.
WINCHESTER DISK
 It comes from an early type of disk drive developed by IBM that stored 30 MB.
 Although modern disk drives are faster and hold more data, the basic technology is the
same, so Winchester has become synonymous with hard disk.
HARD DISK
 Hard disks are mass storage media, typically inside the computer.
 PC’s available nowadays usually have hard disks with 40GB, 80 GB, 160 GB, 250
GB or 500 GB.
 They are faster than floppy disk. There are several platters on a single hard disk.
 Each platter requires two read/write heads, one for each side.
 All the read/write head are attached to a single access arm, to make them dependent.
 There are same numbers of tracks in each platter. The track location that cuts across all platters is
called cylinder. Unlike floppies, hard disks are less portable.
 Hard disks are less portable than floppies.
FLOPPY DISK
 Floppy disk is a soft magnetic disk, which is portable.
 They could be accessed slowly than the hard disks. When compared to hard
disk, they have a less storage capacity. They are less expensive.

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  There are two basic sizes of floppy disks. They are:
 5 ¼ -inch: It is capable of storing 100K and 1.2MB of data.
 3 ½ -inch: These have large storage capacity. It can store data from 400K to 1.4MB of data.
ZIP DISK
 The Zip drive is a medium-capacity removable disk storage system that was
introduced by Iomega in late 1994.
 Originally, Zip disks launched with capacities of 100 MB, but later versions
increased this to 250 MB and then 750 MB.
 ZIP disks are slightly larger than the conventional floppy disks, and are twice thick.
JAZ DISK
 The Jaz drive was a removable disk storage system, introduced by the Iomega company in
1995.
 The Jaz disks were originally released with a 1 GB capacity.
 The capacity was later increased to 2 GB through a drive and disk revision in 1998.
SUPER DISK
 Super disk is backward compatible older diskettes
 This means that we can use the same super disk drive to read and write to older 1.44 MB diskettes as
well as the new 120 MB super diskettes.
OPTICAL DISK
 Optical disk is storage medium for which data is read and to which it is written by
lasers.
 Optical disks can store much more data –up to 6 gigabytes than magnetic media.
 There are three basic types of optical disks are: CD-ROM, WORM and Erasable.
CD-ROM:
 In CD-ROM, the data is permanent and can read any number of times, but CD-ROMS cannot be
modified.
WORM:
 This term write-once read many. With WORM disk drive, we can write data onto a WORM disk, but
only once.
 After that, the WORM disk behaves just like a CD-ROM.
Erasable:
 Optical disks that can be erased and loaded with new data, just like magnetic disks. These are often
referred to as Erasable optical disks.
CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory)
 A CD-ROM stores large amount of data up to 1 GB, where the data can be stored permanently.

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  The data cannot be erased or modified.
 The user can only read the data. In order to read a CD, the system should be provided with
a CD-ROM player.
 CD-ROM players are classified as: Single-speed and Multiple of single-speed. There are two
measurements. They are,
 Seek time /Access time: How long the drive takes to access a particular piece of information.
 Data transfer rate: How much data can be read and sent to the computer in a second.
CD-R Drive (Compact Disk- Recordable Drive)
 It is a type of disk drive that can create CD-ROMs and audio-CDs. CD-ROMs can be created by using
CD-R software package.
 It is capable of multi-session recording and is useful in creating back-ups for CD-ROMs. But it is very
expensive.
CD-RW (Compact Disk-Re-Writable) Disks
 In CD-RW disks, data can be written multiple times. It is used for multiple times for accessing.
 The first CD-RW drives become available in mid-1997
 They can read CD-ROMs and can write onto today’s CD-R disks, but they cannot write on CD-ROMs.
MAGNETO-OPTICAL (MO) DRIVES
 Like magnetic disks, magnetic disks can be read and written to
 And like floppy disks, they are also removable.
 However, their storage capabilities can be more than 200 megabytes, much greater than magnetic
floppies.

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