INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY -

INTRODUCTION TO ICT

Definition of Terms

 Data
 Information
 Communication
 Technology
 Information Communication Technology
 Information Technology
 System
 Synergy
 Information System
 Communication System

Data

1) “ Raw unprocessed records which have no meaning, and cannot be used for
decision making”

Information

1) “Is processed data”

2) “Is data which is used for decision making”

Communication

1) “Is the act of sharing or exchanging information with someone, for example by
speaking, writing, or sending radio signals.”

2) “This is the process of imparting or exchanging information or news”

3) “Is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts,

messages, or information?”

4) “The act or an instance of imparting or exchange of information, ideas, or

feelings".

5) “the study of ways in which human beings communicate, including speech,

gesture, telecommunication systems, publishing and broadcasting media, etc”

6) “A connecting route, passage, or link”

Technology

1. “Is the collection of techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the
production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, ...”

2. “The use of science in industry, engineering, etc., to invent useful things or to

solve problem”

3. Technology a machine, piece of equipment, method, etc

4. “The definition of technology is science or knowledge put into practical use to

solve problems or invent useful tools.”
4 Ms

Information Communication Technology

5. “The Diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, to

create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” Plan
Organise
Information Technology Direct
Control
Staffing
1) “Is a term used to describe a set of technologies that includes technologies from
the domain of computer science and engineering, networking, electronics and
telecommunication and other such domains”.
2) “Is a general term referring to the study or use of systems for creating, storing,
exchanging, retrieving and sending information”
3) “The applications of computers and telecommunications equipment to store,
retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data often in a business or in any other
context”
Information technology ensures that processing of data is faster and accurate so that the
right information can be supplied to the right person at the right time with better
efficiency. Information technology helps information systems to deliver greater value to
the management by technology intervention not only in the processing arena but also in
the delivery of information, visualization, communication and ease of access areas.

It covers

 Computer networks
 Information distribution technologies

 Communication technology

 Data and process management technology

  Enterprise information systems and e-business systems.

System

1) “Is an organized complexity”

2) “A complex whole made up of interdependent parts”

Information System

1) “Information System is a combination of people, hardware, software,

communication devices, network and data resources that processes data and
nformation for a specific purpose.”
2) “Information systems are the software and hardware systems that support data-
intensive applications.”

3) “A combination of hardware, software, infrastructure and trained personnel

organized to facilitate planning, control, coordination, and decision making in
an organization.”(management functions)

4) “An information system (IS) - is any combination of information technology

and people's activities that support operations, management and decision
making.”

5) In a very broad sense, the term information system is frequently used to refer to
the interaction between people, processes, data and technology.

6) “The entire infrastructure, organization, personnel, and components that

collect, process, store, transmit, display, dissemination and act on information”

Activities of an information system

Information systems activities are devoted to processing information, this includes:

 Collect and Capture data.

 Transmitting

 Storing

 Retrieving

 Manipulating and

 Displaying
  Transforming information

Nature of an Information system

1) Information systems are interfaces or links to data systems on the one hand and
activity systems on the other.
2) An information system is a form of communication system in which data
represented and is processed as a form of social memory. – storage of data,
Library, Archives...

3) An information system can also be considered a semi-formal language which

supports human decision making and action.

4) It is a system that is concerned with the information that computer systems can
provide to an organization in defining and achieving its goals. It is also concerned
with the processes that an enterprise can implement and improve using
information technology.

5) IS can provide a foundation for superior organizational performance.

6) They serve as a bridge between the technical and management systems within an
organization.

Types of Information systems

Organizations use several types of information systems to suit their needs. The various
types of information systems that an organization uses may be classified into the
following categories:
 Office Automation systems
 Transaction processing system
 Decision support systems
 Executive information systems
 Business expert system
Apart from these broad classes of information systems, organizations also use specific
information systems for some special tasks like
 Executive information system,
 Enterprise (wide) resource planning systems, b
 Customer relationship management systems and
 Supply chain management system.

These systems also fall under the above broad classification.

Office Automation Systems

This type of information system aids in automating office tasks.
They have a limited role in decision-making.
Used for operational level people.
The information coming out of this kind of system can be used for rule-based decision-
making for managers at the operational level.
They help increase the productivity and efficiency of the office workforce by automating
simple tasks.
 Office work becomes faster and process driven.
 All basic level data is digitized and stored for future action.
An example of office automation system is the office suite of software that helps in
automating simple office tasks like presentations and documentation.
Sometimes we also come across a class of systems called the operations support system
(OSS). OSS also work with the lowest levl31of management in ensuring that the
operations of the firm are performed smoothly. OSS can be very different from Office
Automation System even though they both help bottom level managers, in term of the
information complexity involved.

Transaction Processing System

The objective of this kind of system is to capture all transaction related data between
the organization and its external and internal customers.
Typically, these transaction level data are stored in a pre-formatted manner in a relational
database for further action in future.
TPS is the most widely used form of information systems as they provide the
management with the flexibility of storing data in a structured manner and retrieving it at
a later date using a query facility.
The system also helps in aggregating and summarizing the data for creation of
management reports.
These reports are further improved by using visualization tools that help the management
in understanding situations and scenarios better.
These systems deal with tactical data from within the organization.
An example of TPS would be the sales management system with a relational database
management system at the server side back end and a customized front end to interact
with the users.

Decision Support Systems

“ Are Systems that Complements a Management Information System by enabling

managers to personalize their information by allowing active manipulation of data to
meet specific management decision making needs, they do not make decisions for the
manager but assist in decision making”

Decision support systems help senior management to take strategic decisions.

Contrary to the other systems, decision support systems are developed with the objective
of providing the users (top management personnel) with unstructured information.
These systems help the management to develop 'what if analysis' so that different
scenarios can be developed for decision-making.
Decision support systems deal with both internal and external data. Such systems are
custom built with features like business dashboard and scenario panel.
Such systems are complex with working models (internal) on the data to provide the
senior managers with decision support. Unlike transaction processing systems, these
systems are not query dependent only.
Their main role is to access data from a data repository and then pass that data through a
model (mathematical, heuristic, statistical, econometric, operations research and
combinatorial), so that the senior management can take better decisions by doing either
'what if analysis' and scenario building or by doing 'predictive analysis' to get some
insight into a business issue. Such systems are very costly to build and require advanced
analytics tools.

Executive Support System

Executive support system is also known as the executive information (support) system.
In functionality, it is nearer to decision support systems than management information
systems.
Its main objectives are to provide a macro-organization wide view for senior executives,
by providing a very user-friendly user-interface so that proactive steps may be taken
to beat competition.
It provides timely and proactive organization tracking and control.
It is able to perform these tasks by providing fast access to all type of data, by filtering
and tracking critical data and information.
It helps to identify problems and opportunities and thus, helps senior executives to
troubleshoot problems and take advantage of opportunities.

Business Expert System

Some business scenarios are so complex that they require the help of advanced systems
that can provide expert solutions. These systems use artificial intelligence and neutral
networks to reach the performance level of a human expert thereby helping the
organization. These systems are different from any other information system as they are
capable of decision-making by themselves without human intervention. Actually, these
systems are loaded with the knowledge of experts and these systems simply simulate the
expert knowledge to arrive at decisions.
Relative position of Information systems

The Subsystems of Information Systems.

Subsystems of an Information System
“Information system is a special type of system that allows storage, retrieval and
processing of data in a secure environment.”
Logically the major sub systems of information systems are:

Data Repository
This is a subsystem which is at the core of any information system. Mostly this is a
relational database management system that has pre-formatted and structured tables for
storage of data. These structures are arranged in a way that helps in faster storage and
retrieval of such data with adequate security.

User Interface
This subsystem handles the interaction of the system with the user (human) and hence it
has to take care of issues related to the display of data on an output medium. This can be
either graphical or character-based depending on the level of ease offered to the user.

Network
This subsystem ensures communication between the different entities of an information
system. It is crucial for functioning of an information system.

Computer Hardware
One needs IT infrastructure to use information systems in an effective manner. Almost all
the components of an information system are housed in some kind of computer hardware
enabling it to perform the tasks better. For example, an algorithm to find the lowest of
three numbers can also be calculated manually but under a computerized system, it will
be much faster and efficient.

System Software
Some basic software is required just like computer hardware for efficient functioning of
information systems. The system software does not directly aid in the functionality of
information systems but work as enablers. Examples would include operating systems.

Input/Output
Sometimes this is clubbed with the user interface to suggest that I/O functions are
handled by UI alone. However, in some systems I/O may be user independent like when
an alert is activated, the input for the alert comes from some other system input rather
than a user.

Business Rule (Process)

This is a set of rules that governs how a system should function to mimic the real
business process.

Algorithm/Program/ Application Software

This is the actual invisible component that integrates all the components. The logic
(business rule), is defined in the program (embedded in it) which enables the functioning
of the information system for some specific purpose.
All the above components work in concert to make a functional information system.

CRITERIA FOR DIVIDING INFORMATION SYSTEM INTO SUBSYSTEMS

 Flexibility/changeability,
 Separability,
 Comprehensibility,
 Integrability and
 Data usage and/or creation.

PURPOSE OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEM

It is important to note that all systems have a final purpose-Teleology

Information Systems

 Help (re)design and support operational business processes

 Help Evaluate/Assess whether the business processes of the organization are
well designed.

 Seek to tell whether they use the opportunities created by information

technology fully.

 Helps find answers to whether the organization use the communication and
collaboration capabilities of information technologies appropriately and whether
the organization is capable of adapting quickly enough to changing external
circumstances

 Modern business organizations dependend on their information systems to deal

with the complexity and changeability of the context (markets) in which they
operate and consequently their internal organization structures.

 Automation is essential to control operational business processes, for the simple

reason that humans cannot oversee the entire operation in an efficient and
effective way anymore-networks, mass customization of products and services,
and end-to-end process control require automated means

FIGURE: THE INFORMATION PROCESSING CYCLE

PROCESSING
INPUT Sort OUTPUT
Record Classify Decode
Validate Calculate Format
DATA Compare Transmit
INFORMATION
STORAGE Store, Retrieve, Maintain STORAGE

COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Definition

1) “A system or facility for transferring data between persons and equipment”

2) “A collection of individual communications networks, transmission systems, relay

stations, tributary stations, and data terminal equipment (DTE) usually capable of
interconnection and interoperation to form an integrated whole.”

3) “Communication systems are the various processes, ( formal and informal) by

which information is passed between the managers and employees within a business,
or between the business itself and outsiders.

Characteristics of Components of a Communication system

 Serve a common purpose,

 Are technically compatible,

 Use common procedures,

 Respond to controls, and

 Operate in unison.

The system usually consists of a collection of individual communication networks,

transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations and terminal equipment capable of
interconnection and interoperation so as to form an integrated whole.

Communication—whether written, verbal, nonverbal, visual, or electronic—has a

significant impact on the way business is conducted.
THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

The basic process of communication begins when a fact or idea is observed by one
person. That person (the sender) may decide to translate the observation into a message,
and then transmit the message through some communication medium to another person
(the receiver). The receiver then must interpret the message and provide feedback to the
sender indicating that the message has been understood and appropriate action taken.

Block diagram of communication system

FEEDBACK

 MESSAGE CREATION
 ENCODING

 TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGE IN CHANNEL

 DECODING

 RECEPTION

 FEEDBACK

Transmitter/Sender Is the person who conceives an idea and desires to send a message
. This message is sent to encoder.

Encoder The person in the communication process who converts a message into
symbols/form, which can be transmitted.If you transmit a message with out encoding
then there may be a chance of other persons trapping the message by knowing the
frequency of transmission. But if you transmit it through encoding even though they trap
it they cant decode. Only the person who know how it is encoded can decode it. This is
done to increase the security.
Noise

Any interference in a communication channel with the communication process which

hinders/obstructs smooth transfer of information.

NB: Channel is the medium through which the message is transmitted.

Decoder

“The Decoder is the person who decrypts encoded message and retrieves the actual
message. Decoding must be done correctly”
Decipher, Decode, Decrypt…..

Receiver
“This can be said to be the target to which the information need to be delivered.”
This is the party that receives a message

Causes of communication problems

 Differing expectations and perceptions;

 Selectivity (the tendency for individuals to pick and choose what they retain when
they receive a message from another person); and

 Distractions (such as ringing telephones, scheduled meetings, and unfinished

reports).

Characteristics of good communication

Good communication should be

 Complete,
 Concise,

 Clear,

 Concrete,

 Correct,

 Considerate, and

 Courteous.
More specifically, this means that communication should: answer basic questions like
who, what, when, where; be relevant and not overly wordy; focus on the receiver and his
or her interests; use specific facts and figures and active verbs; use a conversational tone
for readability; include examples and visual aids when needed; be tactful and good
natured; and be accurate and nondiscriminatory.

THE CONCEPT OF ICT

ICT- Refers to technologies that provide access to information through

telecommunications. It is similar to Information Technology (IT), but focuses primarily
on Communication Technologies.

ICT is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application,

encompassing:

 Radio,
 Television,

 Cellular phones,

 Computer and network hardware and Software (Eg. LAN, WAN,CAN)

 Satellite systems and so on, as well as

 The Internet(…interconnected networks-Internetworking)WAN

Wireless Networks Wi-Fi, RF, Bluetooth-

Wireless Fidelity- Using Waves, frequencies to send information wirelessly from a
sending point to a receiving point. You need Line of sight.
Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short
distances (using short-wavelength UHF radio waves in the ISM band from 2.4 to
2.485 GHz[3]) from fixed and mobile devices, and building personal area
networks (PANs). Invented by telecom vendor Ericsson in 1994,[4] it was
originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables.
Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which has
more than 30,000 member companies in the areas of telecommunication,
computing, networking, and consumer electronics. [5] The IEEE standardized
Bluetooth as IEEE 802.15.1, but no longer maintains the standard.

 The various services and applications associated with them, such as

Videoconferencing eg Skype, and Distance learning.

There isn't any universally accepted definition of ICT because the applications and
technology involved in this constantly keeps changing almost on a daily basis. The
changes happen so fast which makes it difficult to keep up with them.

IMPORTANCE OF ICT
ICT deals with:
 Digital data and the ways of storing it.
 Retrieving, transmitting and receiving it
 And with the ways these concepts work when put together.

The C in ICT stands for Communication of data over some distance by electronic
means. This is achieved by the use of networks connecting different hardware to send
and receive data like, personal computers; digital television etc. networks are further
divided into (LAN) local area networks usually linked within an office building and
(WAN) Wide area network, a very common example of the WAN is the internet which is
connected over a vast distance.

The term ICT is now also used to refer to the Convergence of audio-visual and economic
incentives (huge cost savings due to elimination of the telephone network) to merge the
audio-visual, building management and telephone network with the computer network

ICTs are often spoken of in a particular context, such as ICTs in education, health care, or
libraries.

Que. Explain the role of ICT in Education and Training with specific reference to
a TVET Institution.

In the past few decades, information and communication technologies have provided
society with a vast array of new communication capabilities. For example, people can
communicate in real-time with others in different countries using technologies such as

 Instant messaging - SMS,MMS, (business purpose)

 Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), and

 Video-Conferencing- Skype

 Social networking websites- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp

These technologies allow users from all over the world to remain in contact and
communicate on a regular basis.

Modern information and communication technologies have created a "global village," in

which people can communicate with others across the world as if they were living next
door.

COMPUTERS

Definition
A computer is an information-processing machine. That is used for communication
and processing and storage of data/Information.

It may also be defined as:

1) “A device that works under the control of stored programs automatically

accepting, storing and processing data to produce information that is the result
of that processing.”

2) “ A machine that accepts data from an input device, performs arithmetical and
logical operations in accordance with a predefined program and finally
transfers the processed data to an output device”

3) “Is a Mechanical/electronic and digital device that accepts data and

instructions, stores them temporarily in its memory awaiting processing and
automatically executes /obeys the sets of the issued instructions to produce
information from the input raw data”

Q. Define the term Computer.

o Device
o Storage
o Data(Input)
o Program(written Instruction)
o Processor(performs Arithmetical and Logical operations)
o Output(Information)
o Communication - Interface (facility for user to communicate
with Machine), Network...

Q. Differentiate between a Calculator and a Computer.

FORMS OF DATA PROCESSED BY COMPUTER

The forms of Data/information processed include:

 Data – e.g. Invoices, Sales ledger and Purchase ledger, Payroll, Stock controls etc.
 Text – widely available in many offices with microcomputers(Alpha- Numeric
characters)
 Graphics – e.g. Business Graphs, symbols($)
 Images – e.g.Pictures
 Signals- Video - Digital Audio/Video Broadcasting
 Voice – e.g. VOIP- telephone, Digital Audio Workstations(Digital Sound Studios)

Processing includes creating, Manipulating, Storing, Accessing and Transmitting

Sorting, Editing, Formatting, Analysing, Classifying, Categorising-

Advantages of Computerization include:

  Speed – Computers have higher processing speeds than other means of
processing, measured as number of instructions executed per second.
 Accuracy – Computers are not prone to errors. So long as the programs are
correct, they will always give correct output. A computer is designed in such a
way that many of the inaccuracies, which could arise due to the malfunctioning
of the equipment, are detected and their consequences avoided in a way, which is
completely transparent to the user.
 Consistency – Given the same data and the same instructions computers will
produce exactly the same answer every time that particular process is repeated.
 Reliability – Computer systems are built with fault tolerance features, meaning
that failure of one of the components does not necessarily lead to failure of the
whole system.
 Memory capability – A computer has the ability to store and access large
volumes of data.
 Processing capability – A computer has the ability to execute millions of
instructions per second.

Q Outline the Demerits of Computerization.

o Q. with Machine), Network...

Explain the various uses of Computers in everyday life.

AREAS OF COMPUTER APPLICATION

Some of the areas that computers are used include:

 Communication – digital communication using computers is popular and is

being adopted worldwide as opposed to analogue communication using the
telephony system. Computers have also enhanced communication through E-
mail communication, electronic data interchange (SMS,MMS,Pager, etc),
electronic funds transfer (EFT), Internet etc. More specific examples include:

 Banking – the banking sector has incorporated computer systems in such areas
as credit analysis, fund transfers, customer relations, automated teller machines,
home banking, and online banking.

 Organizational management – the proliferation of management information

systems have aided greatly the processes of managerial planning, controlling,
directing as well as decision-making. Computers are used in organization for
transaction processing, managerial control as well as decision-support. Other
specific areas where computer systems have been incorporated include sales and
marketing, accounting, customer service eg. Management Information Systems
(MIS)

 Science, Research and Engineering – (STI VISION 2030) computers used

o as research tools, complex computations- Research – Data Analysis
o For simulation e.g. outer-space simulations, flight simulations
 o as Diagnostic and monitoring tools,
o computerized maps using Global Positioning Satellite (GPS)
technology, Google Maps
o for modern mass production methods in the auto industry using computer
driven technology- Computer Aided Manufacture(CAM)

 Education–Distance learning, E-learning, etc

 Management of information materials-
 Manufacturing and production – CAD Computer Aided Design(3-D printing)
 Entertainment - Digital Recording, MIDI, CD, Downloads,…..
 Retailing - Retail Outlets, POS Devices,Cards…
 Home appliances Electronic /Digital Devices..
 Reservation systems Hotel,Flight,etc..
 Health care and medicine - Diagnostics, Therapy and monitoring-ICU

HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

The first electronic computers were produced in the 1940s. Since then, a series of
breakthroughs in electronics have occurred leading to great improvements in the
capacity, processing speed and quality of computer resources.
The importance land mark events are indicated below
 ~500 B.C. - counting table with beads
 ~1150 in China - ABACUS - beads on wires

 1614: A Scott, John Napier invents Logarithms
 1620: William Oughtred an Englishman invents the slide rule.
 1623: Francis Bacon invents Binary Coding to represent characters.
 1642: Pascals adding and subtracting machine invented.
 1822: Charles Babbage invented the difference machine
 1834: “ “ invented the general purpose calculator
Lady Ada produced the programs to be used by this machine (ADA a programming
languge was named after her)
 1847-54 George Boole developed Boolean algebra

 1870s: Development of the typewriter allows speedier communication and less

copying.
 Mid 1880’s The Tabulator that could detect stored data from punch cards created
by Hollerith his company later became IBM. later become international business
 1900 : Valdemar Poulson discovers magnetic tape storage mediums.

 1920s: Invention of the telephone enables both Wide Area Networks (WAN) and
Local Area Networks (LAN) communication in real time. This marks the
beginning of telecommunication.

 1930s: Use of scientific management is made available to analyze and rationalise.

 1937: Howard Aiken developed Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator(ASCC)

 1940s: developed in Mathematical techniques World War II (operations research)
are applied to the decision making process


 1944 Mark I (Harvard) - first stored program computer.

 1946 ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was developed and
used

 1950s: Introduction of copying(photocopy) facilitates cheap and faster document

production, and the (limited) introduction of Electronic Data Processing (EDP)
speeds up large scale transaction processing.
 1959 Von Neuman gave a report on the design of the computer today.
1959 : Aiken developed Punched Paper tape as an input medium.
 1960s: Emergence of Management Information Systems (MIS) provides
background within which office automation can develop
 1964 IBM - first all-purpose computer (business + scientific).

 1970s: Setting up of telecommunication networks to allow for distant

communication between computer systems. There is widespread use of word
processors in text editing and formatting, advancement in personal computing-
emergence of PCs. Use of spreadsheets.

 1980s: Development of office automation technologies that combine data, text,

graphics and voice. Development of DSS, EIS and widespread use of personal
productivity software.

 1990s: Advanced groupware; integrated packages, combining most of the office

work- clerical, operational as well as management.

 2000s: Wide spread use of Internet( interneworked Networks) and related

technology in many spheres of organisations including electronic commerce (e-
commerce), e-learning, e-health

EVOLUTION OF COMPUTERS
COMPUTER GENERATIONS
The view of computers into generations is based on the fundamental technology
employed. Each new generation is characterized by greater speed, larger memory
capacity and smaller overall size than the previous one.
Definition of Generation
“A period or moment in time during the evolution process of computers where a major
change has occurred in one or more of the following features of a computer:

 Processor Technology
 Storage Technology/Capacity
 Programming Language(s)
 Speed
 Cost
 Input Devices
 Output Devices
 Size
 Efficiency of operation
 Operating System...

i. First Generation Computers (1946 – 1957).

 The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and
 Magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, Big-taking up entire
rooms.
 They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of
electricity,
 Generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions.
 First generation computers relied on machine language the lowest-level
programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and
 They could only solve one problem at a time.
 Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and
 Output was displayed on printouts.
The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing
devices. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client,
the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.The following are major drawbacks of First generation
computers.
o The operating speed was quite slow.
o Power consumption was very high.
o It required large space for installation.
o The programming capability was quite low.
o Cumbersome to operate – switching between programs, input
and output
They used first generation programming languages (1st GL)
ii. Second Generation Computers (1958 - 1964)
 Replaced vacuum tubes with transistors.(Switch, Amplifier)
 They were cheaper to operate as the transistor is smaller, cheaper and
dissipates less heat than a vacuum tube.
 The second generation also saw the introduction of more complex
arithmetic and logic units, the use of higher – level programming
languages and the provision of system software with the computer.
  Had higher processing speeds Transistors are smaller than electric tubes
and have higher operating speed. They have no filament and require no
heating.
 Manufacturing cost was also lower
 Had a reduced size.
 It is in the second generation that the concept of Central Processing Unit
(CPU), memory, programming language and input and output units were
developed. The programming languages such as COBOL, FORTRAN
were developed during this period.
 Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and
printouts for output.

 Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine

language to symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed
programmers to specify instructions in words(EDIT, GO TO, END
COPY...) They used (2nd GL)

The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to
become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable
than their first-generation predecessors.

High-level programming languages were also being developed at this

time, such as early versions of (COBOL)(common business oriented
language) and(formula translation( FORTRAN). These were also the first
computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved
from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.

The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy
industry

iii. Third Generation Computers (1965 - 1971)

 Had an IC integrated circuit.

Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called

semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of
computers.

 The early integrated circuits are referred to as small-scale integration

(SSI). Computers of this generation were smaller in size, lower cost,
larger memory and processing speed was much higher.
 Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third
generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced
with an operating system,(Text based) which allowed the device to

 Could run many different applications at one time with a central program
that monitored the memory. (multiprogramming,multitasking)
  Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because
they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.

 They used 3rd GL

iv. Fourth Generation Computers (1972 - Present)

 Employ Large Scale Integrated (LSI) and Very Large Scale Integrated
(VLSI) circuit technology to construct computers. Introduced the Micro-
chip( Over a thousand integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon
chip.
 With the microprocessor all the components of the computer—from the
central processing unit(ALU and Control Unit) and memory to
input/output controls—were contained on a single chip.

 In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984
Apple introduced the Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the
realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and more
everyday products began to use microprocessors. Computer became
readily available.-(Personal Computers)

 As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked

together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the
Internet.

 Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs,

(Graphical User interphase) the mouse and handheld devices. E.g PDA
(Portable Digital Assistants)

v. Fifth Generation Computers

 These are computers of 1990s
 Used complex technology Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuit
technology to build computers.
 Over 10,000 components can be incorporated on a single integrated chip.
 The speed is extremely high in fifth generation computer.
 Apart from this it can perform parallel processing.
 The concept of Artificial intelligence(AI) used for formation e.g
computer aided manufacture has been introduced to allow the computer
to take its own decision.
 Are able to process for voice recognition that is being used today. The
use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make
artificial intelligence a reality
 Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically
change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-
generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural
language input and are capable of learning and self-
organization(System theory)
 Q. a) Briefly explain the different types of computers classified on a
basis of Size and Operational principle.

b) Explain the term Peripherals.

Outline the different categories of peripherals.

CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS

TYPES OF COMPUTERS

Classes of computers

Computers can be classified along several bases.

 Classes by Size
 Classes by function

 On Operational principles

Classes by size

Mainframe computers
“A very powerful computer capable of very high speeds of processing and able to serve
very many users running very many programs at the same time”

Created to service multiple from the smaller, single user machines.

 Are capable of handling and processing very large amounts of data quickly.

(Multiprogramming, Multitasking, Multiprocessing, Multiuser)

 Mainframe computers are used in large institutions such as government, banks

and large corporations
 They are measured in MIPS (million instructions per second) and respond to up to
100s of millions of users at a time.

 Very expensive

 Not very portable.

Minicomputers (Midrange computers)

“This is a middle level computer capable of handling very many users at a time with
Multiprogramming, Multitasking, Multiprocessing, and Multiuser capabilities but at a
fraction of the cost of a mainframe”

This is a class is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the
computing spectrum, in between the smallest multi-user systems (mainframe computers)
and the largest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). The
contemporary term for this class of system is midrange computer.
 Can handle thousands of users
 Has large storage capability
 As high processing speeds more than a personal computer

Microcomputers ((Personal computers)-pc

“These are small sized computers with high performance capability used by single
users that run using microprocessor technology”

 These are the most common type of computers used by people today, whether in a
workplace, at school or on the desk at home.
 The term “microcomputer” was introduced with the advent of single chip
microprocessors. The term "microcomputer" itself is now practically an
anachronism.

Personal computers come in different forms such as

 Desktops
 Laptops and
 Personal digital assistants

Let us look at each of these types of computers.

Desktops:

“This is computer intended to be used on a single location”

 The computer is placed on top of a Desk or table and is rarely moved.

 It has one or more processors (2,4,7...
 Data input is through Mouse, Keyboard, Microphone, Scanner...
 Processor rating measured in GHZ ( 2,3, 3.1...)
 Storage capacity measured in Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes...
 Output through GUI- Monitor, Sound Card(Speakers), Printer, ....

The spare parts of a desktop computer are readily available at relatively lower costs.
Power consumption is not as critical as that in laptops. Desktops are widely popular for
daily use in the workplace and households. Some computers will have CPU boxes that
are Towers others are Mini Tower while others are Slim-tops.

In-car computers (“carputers”) – Built into a car, for entertainment, navigation, etc.
Game consoles – Fixed computers specialized for entertainment purposes (video games).

Laptops:

“These are small computers like minituarized desktops which are designed to be
carried away from the desk”

Laptops run on a single battery or an external adapter that charges the computer batteries.
They are enabled with an inbuilt keyboard, touch pad acting as a mouse and a liquid
crystal display. Their portability and capacity to operate on battery power have proven to
be of great help to mobile users.

Notebooks

“Are slightly smaller in size compared with the laptop that have smaller features set
and lesser capacities in comparison to regular laptops.”

But over time have been offered with similar Features with laptops save for the smaller
size.

Netbooks:

“They are inexpensive and relatively smaller sized and lighter laptops and are smaller
than the notebook.”

They have a smaller feature set and lesser capacities in comparison to regular laptops, at
the time they came into the market. But with passing time, netbooks too began featuring
almost everything that notebooks had. By the end of 2008,

Net books had begun to overtake notebooks in terms of market share and sales. (The
notebook is smaller and lighter than a laptop)

Tablet computer:

Tablets are mobile computers that are very handy to use. They use the touch screen
technology. They have a touch-screen, sometimes entirely replacing the physical
keyboard. Tablets come with an onscreen keyboard or use a stylus or a digital pen.
Apple's iPad redefined the class of tablet computers.

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): It is a handheld computer and popularly known as a

palmtop. It has a touch screen and a memory card for storage of data. PDAs can also be
used as portable audio players, web browsers and smartphones. Most of them can
access the Internet by means of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi communication.

Wearable Computers: A record-setting step in the evolution of computers was the creation
of wearable computers. These computers can be worn on the body and are often used in
the study of behavior modeling and human health. Military and health professionals have
incorporated wearable computers into their daily routine, as a part of such studies. When
the users' hands and sensory organs are engaged in other activities, wearable computers
are of great help in tracking human actions. Wearable computers do not have to be turned
on and off and remain in operation without user intervention.

Mobile phones- (Smart phones), smart books and Pads (personal digital assistants) –
Small handheld computers with limited hardware.

Programmable calculator– Like small handhelds, but specialized on mathematical work.

Handheld game consoles – The same as game consoles, but small and portable.

SuperComputer

“Is a computer that has very high processing/computing capability including speed
and ability to multitask and multiprogramming”.

A supercomputer is focused on performing tasks involving intense numerical

calculations such as weather forecasting, fluid dynamics, nuclear simulations,
theoretical astrophysics, and complex scientific computations.

A supercomputer is a computer that is at the frontline of current processing capacity,

particularly speed of calculation. The term supercomputer itself is rather fluid, and the
speed of today's supercomputers tends to become typical of tomorrow's ordinary
computer.

Supercomputer processing speeds are measured in floating point operations per second or
FLOPS. An example of a floating point operation is the calculation of mathematical
equations in real numbers. In terms of computational capability, memory size and speed,
I/O technology, and topological issues such as bandwidth and latency, supercomputers are
the most powerful, are very expensive, and not cost-effective just to perform batch or
transaction processing. Transaction processing is handled by less powerful computers
such as server computers or mainframes.

Classes by function

Servers

“Are computers that are dedicated to provide a service.”

For example, a computer dedicated to a database may be called a "database server". "File
servers" manage a large collection of computer files. "Web servers" process web pages
and web applications. Many smaller servers are actually personal computers that have
been dedicated to provide services for other computers.

Workstations :
“Are computers that are intended to serve one user and may contain special hardware
enhancements not found on a personal computer.”

Productive- Video Production, Music production, Graphic studios- Animation…

Features to look out for in a computer

 Processing - Speeds Hz/Ghz 2, 3 4…

 RAM - 1 Gb

 OS - Windows 7 32 bits

 Graphics Card Resolution – Pixels DPI Dots Per Inch

 Size of Monitor Screen 17”

 Secondary storage – 160, 320 GB

Information appliances

Information appliances are computers specially designed to perform a specific user-

friendly function —such as playing music, photography, or editing text. The term is most
commonly applied to mobile devices, though there are also portable and desktop devices
of this class.

Embedded computers

“Embedded computers are computers that are a part of a machine or device”.

Embedded computers generally execute a program that is stored in non-volatile memory
and is only intended to operate a specific machine or device. Embedded computers are
very common. Embedded computers are typically required to operate continuously
without being reset or rebooted, and once employed in their task the software usually
cannot be modified. An automobile may contain a number of embedded computers;
however, a washing machine and a DVD player would contain only one. The central
processing units (CPUs) used in embedded computers are often sufficient only for the
computational requirements of the specific application and may be slower and cheaper
than CPUs found in a personal computer.

A computer is one of the most brilliant inventions of mankind. Thanks to computer

technology, we are able to achieve storage and processing of huge amounts of data; we
could rest our brains by employing computer memory capacities for storage of
information. Owing to computers, we have been able speed up daily work, carry out
critical transactions and achieve accuracy and precision at work. Computers of the
earlier times were of the size of a large room and they consumed huge amounts of
electric power. However, with the advancing technology, computers have shrunk to the
size of a small watch.
 
Analo


Digital
Based in operational principles
 Hybrid

Analog Computers: These are almost extinct today. These are different from a digital
computer because an analog computer can perform several mathematical operations
simultaneously. It uses continuous variables for mathematical operations and utilizes
mechanical or electrical energy.

Digital Computers: They use digital circuits and are designed to operate on two states,
namely bits 0 and 1. They recognize data in a discrete way. They are analogous to states
ON and OFF. Data on these computers is represented as a series of 0s and 1s. Digital
computers are suitable for complex computation and have higher processing speeds. They
are programmable. Digital computers are either general purpose computers or special
purpose ones. Special purpose computers, as their name suggests, are designed for
specific types of data processing while general purpose computers are meant for general
use.

Hybrid Computers:
“These computers are a combination of both digital and analog computers”. In this
type of computers, the digital segments perform process control by conversion of analog
signals to digital ones.

Computer
↓---------------------↓----------------------↓
Analog Digital Hybrid
COMPUTER STRUCTURES

Physical parts of a computer

 Peripheral devices
 Functional units

COMPUTER CARE

 Meaning of computer care

 Methods of computer care
 Health Issues in computer Environment

SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE

 Meaning of Hardware and Software

PHYSICAL PARTS OF A COMPUTER

 Monitor
 CPU Box
 Keyboard
 Mouse
 Uninterruptible Power Supply(UPS)
 Cables- power etc

Components of the Personal Computer

A typical computer consists of several basic parts or components that work together. To
perform any computer task you need two major components: the hardware and the
software.

“Hardware is the physical components of a computer system”.

Generally you can think of the hardware as any part of the computer that you can see or
touch. The Hardware performance tasks only after Instructions from the software.

“Software is a set of instructions that tells the hardware what to do”.

You can’t see or touch the software, although you can see packages that contain the
software. “It is typically distributed on CD-ROM disc and is installed on the computer
hard drive.

The major hardware components of the personal computer consist of the following:

The System Unit:

“This is the part of the computer where data is Processed, Memorized and Stored to
produce information”
It is the Central part of the computer i.e. the engine room of the computer. Generally any
device attached to the system unit is considered a Peripheral.

The Keyboard:

“…Is the physical device used for keying in/ entering commands and data”

The Mouse:
“A hand operated device used for moving the cursor on the computer screen, for
entering commands and data and to select icons on the monitor by clicking on its
buttons or moving scroll button”

The Printer:
“An output device used for transferring work onto paper, i.e. to print copies of
documents created using the computer”

NOTE: You don’t need a printer to be able to run a computer. It is a peripheral device.

PERIPHERALS

Definition

Computer peripherals

1) “A computer peripheral is any external device that provides input and output to a
computer”.

2) “Electronic equipment connected by cable to the CPU of a computer; "disk drives

and printers are important peripherals"

 A peripheral is a device attached to a host computer,

 But not part of it, and

 Is more or less dependent on the host.

 It expands the host's capabilities,

  Does not form part of the core computer architecture.

For example, a keyboard and mouse are input peripherals, while a monitor and printer are
output peripherals.

Computer peripherals, or peripheral devices, are sometimes called "I/O devices" because
they provide input and output for the computer. Examples are computer printers, image
scanners, tape drives, microphones, loudspeakers, webcams, and digital cameras.

Some peripherals, such as external hard drives, provide both input and output for the
computer (Turn around devices). Divided into input and output devices

FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF A COMPUTER

Internal / Electronic structure of a computer

PROCESSING
CPU UNIT

ARITHMETIC
LOGIC UNIT

INPUT OUTPUT
DEVICE DEVICES
CONTROL UNIT

RAM

Random access memory

SECONDARY STORAGE
The Von Neumann (CISC) architecture employs a single bus. CISC stands for Complex
Instruction Set Computer.

BUS
A Bus “…is a communication system or data pathway that transfers data between components
inside a computer or between computers”

This expression covers all related hardware components (wire, optical fiber, etc.) and
software, including communication protocols.
Early computer buses were parallel electrical wires with multiple connections, but the term is
now used for any physical arrangement that provides the same logical function as a parallel
electrical bus.```````````````

The EISA bus (Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) “…is a bus architecture that
extends the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) from 16 bits to 32 bits”. EISA was
introduced in 1988 to compete with IBM’s Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) - a patented 16
and 32-bit parallel computer bus for IBM’s PS/2 computers. EISA extended the advanced
technology (AT) bus architecture and facilitated bus sharing between multiple central processing
units (CPU).EISA is also known as Extended ISA.)

SCSI Bus (Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, /ˈskʌzi/ SKUZ-ee) “…is a set of standards
for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices”.
The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most
commonly used for hard disk drives and tape drives, but it can connect a wide range of other
devices, including scanners and CD drives, although not all controllers can handle all devices.
The SCSI standard defines command sets for specific peripheral device types; the presence of
"unknown" as one of these types means that in theory it can be used as an interface to almost
any device, but the standard is highly pragmatic and addressed toward commercial
requirements.

PCI Bus (Conventional PCI, often shortened to PCI, “…is a local computer bus for attaching
hardware devices in a computer) PCI is the initials for Peripheral Component Interconnect and
is part of the PCI Local Bus standard)

USB( short for Universal Serial Bus-“… is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s
that defines the cables, connectors and communications protocols used in a bus for
connection, communication, and power supply between computers and electronic devices”
It is currently developed by the USB Implementers Forum (USB IF).USB was designed to
standardize the connection of computer peripherals (including keyboards, pointing devices,
digital cameras, printers, portable media players, disk drives and network adapters) to personal
computers, both to communicate and to supply electric power. It has become commonplace on
other devices, such as smart phones, PDAs and video game consoles.
USB has effectively replaced a variety of earlier interfaces, such as parallel ports, as well as
separate power chargers for portable devices.
Primary Personal Computer Hardware Block Diagram Components in the PC shown above:

A single-bus system is illustrated.

(The Harvard (RISC) architecture utilizes two busses - a data bus and a separate address bus.
RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Comput)

Relationships are shown between the CPU, DRAM, local bus, and the peripherals which connect
to the motherboard.

Mother board PC components: CPU, Math Co-processor, SRAM cache, DRAM, Video RAM,
BIOS ROM, PCI Bridge
Peripherals: Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, EISA Hard Drive, Floppy Disk, CD ROM, printer,
scanner, USB drive
Recent Intel PC architectures incorporate a 3-chip chipset, consisting of -
CPU - Central Processing Unit
Northbridge - Connects CPU with DRAM, S-RAM cache, video RAM and Southbridge
Southbridge - Connects peripherals to the Northbridge chip
Graphics Resolution Table

EGA - Enhanced Graphics Adapter.

An IBM PC computer display standard. Supports 16 colours. 640 x 480
better than CGA. Now obsolete

VGA - Video Graphics Array 1024 x 768 .. A standard display unit, a graphics
display system. An analog interface between computer and monitor.
SVGA - Super Video Graphics Adapter 1280 x Hi-Resol can show 16 million
colours up to 1600x 1280
A set of video standards a step above VGA Cover a wide range evolution
These days being replaced with DVI(Digital Visual Interface)
which connects up monitor or projector or television

BASIC ELEMENTS/COMPONENTS OF COMPUTER SYSTEM (FUNCTIONAL

UNITS)

1. INPUT UNITS

The data, basic facts, and instructions which we give to the computer are called inputs.
Data and instructions must enter into the computer system before any computation
can be performed on the supplied data.

This task is performed by the input unit that links the external environment with the
computer system. Data and instructions entered through the input units in forms that
depend upon the particular device used.

For example data is entered from a keyboard in a manner similar to typing, and this
differs from the way in which data is entered through a mouse or scanner, which are also
form of input devices. However, regardless of the form in. which they receive their inputs
all input devices must provide data to the computer that are transformed into
binary codes that the primary memory of a computer is designed to accept.

In short, the following functions are performed by an input unit:

 It accepts (or reads) the list of instructions and data from the outside world.
 It converts these instructions and data in computer acceptable form.
 It supplies the converted instructions and data to the computer system for further
processing.
INPUT DEVICES

Definition

“A device that can be used to insert data into a computer or other computational
device electronic equipment”

“Input devices are the computer hardware that accepts data and instructions from a user”.
Input devices have been built in many forms to help in communicating with the
computer. The most common input devices are the keyboard and the mouse.
List:
 Keyboard
 Mouse
 Sound card/Microphone
 Joystick
 Scanner
 Lightpen
 Digital Cameras
 etc

TYPES OF INPUT DEVICES

1. The Keyboard:

“A board or peripheral device with typing keys like a typewriter for typing letters,
numbers, plus the keys for entering commands and moving around on the screen”.

The keyboard of the personal computer comes in a number of styles. The various models
may differ in size and shape, but except for a few special purpose keys. The most
common keyboard used today was established by IBM.\

QWERTY KEYBOARD

There are 101 keys arranged in groups:

Alpha-Numeric
Function,
Special Keys and lock Keys,
Direction Keys,
Normal Keys, Arrow/Cursor movement keys.

The Keyboard can be connected to a computer system through a terminal. A terminal is

a form of input and output device.

Terminal
A terminal can be connected to a mainframe or other types of computers called a host
computer or server. There are four types of terminals namely dumb, intelligent, network
and Internet.

Dumb Terminal

Used to input and receive data only.

It cannot process data independently.
A terminal used by an airline reservation clerk to access a mainframe computer for flight
information is an example of a dumb terminal

Intelligent Terminal
Includes a processing unit, memory, and secondary storage.
It uses communications software and a telephone hookup or other communications link.
A microcomputer connected to a larger computer by a modem or network link is an
example of an intelligent terminal.

Network Terminal
Also known as a thin client or network computer.
It is a low cost alternative to an intelligent terminal.
Most network terminals do not have a hard drive.
This type of terminal relies on a host computer or server for application or system
software.

Internet Terminal
Is also known as a web terminal.
It provides access to the Internet and displays web pages on a standard television set.
It is used almost exclusively in the home.

DIRECT DATA ENTRY DEVICES

Direct entry creates machine-readable data that can go directly to the CPU. It reduces
human error that may occur during keyboard entry. Direct entry devices include

POINTING, SCANNING AND VOICE-INPUT DEVICES.

Pen input devices e.g. Lightpen

Pen input devices are used to select or input items by touching the screen with the pen.
Light pens accomplish this by using a white cell at the tip of the pen. When the light pen
is placed against the monitor, it closes a photoelectric circuit. The photoelectric circuit
identifies the spot for entering or modifying data. Engineers who design microprocessor
chips or airplane parts use light pens.

Touch sensitive screen inputs

Touch sensitive screens, or touch screens, allow the user to execute programs or select
menu items by touching a portion of a special screen. Behind the plastic layer of the
touch screen are crisscrossed invisible beams of infrared light. Touching the screen with
 a finger can activate actions or commands. Touch screens are often used in ATMs,
information centres, restaurants, and or stores. They are popularly used at gas stations for
customers to select the grade of gas or request a receipt at the pump (in developed
countries), as well as in fast-food restaurants to allow clerks to easily enter orders.

Scanning Devices
“Scanning devices, or scanners, are input devices that input images and character
data directly into a computer by digitizing the data into machine-readable form”

ii. The scanning devices used in direct-entry include the following

 Image Scanner – converts images on a page to electronic signals.

 Fax Machine – converts light and dark areas of an image into format that can be
sent over telephone lines.
 Bar-Code Readers – photoelectric scanner that reads vertical striped marks
printed on items.
 Character and Mark Recognition Devices – scanning devices used to read
marks on documents.

Character and Mark Recognition Device Features

 Can be used by mainframe computers or powerful microcomputers.
 There are three kinds of character and mark recognition devices:

Magnetic-ink character recognition (MICR)

 Magnetic ink character recognition, or MICR, readers are used to read the
numbers printed at the bottom of checks in special magnetic ink.
 These numbers are an example of data that is both machine readable and
human readable. The use of MICR readers increases the speed and accuracy
of processing checks.

Optical-character recognition (OCR)

 Read special preprinted characters, such as those on utility and telephone bills.

Optical-mark recognition (OMR)

 Reads marks on tests – also called mark sensing. Optical mark recognition
readers are often used for test scoring since they can read the location of
marks on what is sometimes called a mark sense document. This is how, for
instance, standardized tests, such as the KCPE, SAT or GMAT are scored.

VOICE–INPUT DEVICES

“These are Devices that are used to direct input Voice data into a computer”

Speech recognition can be used for data input when it is necessary to keep your hands
free. For example, a doctor may use voice recognition software to dictate medical notes
while examining a patient. Voice recognition can also be used for security purposes to
allow only authorized people into certain areas or to use certain devices.

 Voice-input devices convert speech into a digital code.

 The most widely used voice-input device is the microphone.
 A microphone, sound card, and software form a voice recognition system.

Note:

Point-of-sale (POS) terminals (electronic cash registers) use both keyboard and
direct entry.
 Keyboard Entry can be used to type in information.
 Direct Entry can be used to read special characters on price tags.

Point-of-Sale terminals can use wand readers or platform scanners as

direct entry devices.
 Wand readers or scanners reflect light on the characters.
 Reflection is changed by photoelectric cells to machine-readable code.
 Encoded information on the product’s barcode e.g. price appear on terminal’s
digital display.

2. THE MOUSE:

“A mouse is a pointing device that enables you to quickly move around on the screen,
and to select commands from menus rather than type the commands”

The mouse was first used in the mid 80s and first gained widespread recognition when it
was first packaged with Apple Macintosh.

 A mouse is useful because it enables the user to point at items on the screen
 and click a button to select the item.
 It is convenient for entering certain data.
 Buttons are used to activate objects on the screen.

The mouse is connected to the computer by a cable or tail. The cable attaches to either a
serial port or a special mouse port. On top of the mouse are buttons. Usually, there are
two but sometimes there are three.. Everything you do with the mouse you accomplish by
combining pointing with three basic techniques - clicking, double-clicking and dragging.

There are four types of mouse

 The serial (port) mouse is connected to the serial bus.

 The Universal Serial Bus(USB) mouse comes with a special electronic card that
slides into one of the expansion slots inside the computer. One edge of this card
attaches to the back of the computer, providing a special port just for the
mouse.
  The mechanical mouse has a ball inside of it that extends just below the housing
of the mouse itself.
 The optical mouse has no moving part at all. Instead of a ball, it has a built-in
photo detector that senses the movement of the mouse over a special pad with
gridlines printed on it.

3. TRACK BALLS: A trackball is an input device that works like an upside-down

mouse.
You rest your hand on the exposed ball and the fingers on the button. To move the
cursor around the screen, you roll the ball with your thumb. Trackballs are much
popular with notebook computers. They require less desk space than the mouse.

4. THE JOYSTICK: This is a pointing device commonly used for games or for moving
cameras to face desired locations in /CCTV systems. It is not used for business
applications.

5. THE PEN: It is an input device that allows a user to write on or point at a special
pad on the screen of a pen-based computer, such as a personal digital assistant
(PDAS).

6. THE TOUCH SCREEN: A computer screen that accepts input directly into the
monitor; users touch electronic buttons displayed on the screen. It is appropriate in
environment where dirt or weather would render keyboards and pointing devices
useless.(TFT Amelod)...

7. THE SCANNER: This is an input device used to copy images into a computer
memory without manual keying.
It works by converting any image into electronic form by shinning light on the image
and sensing the intensity of reflection at every point.
There are several kinds of scanners. These includes: hand held, flatbed, and sheet-
feds.

8. THE BAR-CODE READER

This is one of the most commonly used input devices after the keyboard and mouse. It
is commonly found in supermarkets and department stores. This device converts a
pattern of printed bars on products into a product number by emitting a beam of light
frequently
from a laser that reflects off the bar code image. Alight sensitive detector identifies the
bar-code image by special bars at both ends of the image. Once it has identified the bar
code, it converts the individual bar patterns into numeric digits.

3. Control Unit (CU):

The function of the Control Unit is to:

 Supervise,
 Monitor,
  Coordinate

 Control, and

 Manage the various operations of a digital system.

The Control Unit

 Directs and coordinates the entire computer system in carrying out program
instructions. It does not execute the instructions itself but instead directs other
parts of the computer system to do so.
 The Control Unit supervises the flow of information between various units.

 It regulates the operations of the computer and

 Enables it to communicate with operator (Interface) and other devices in the

system.

Control Unit acts as a central nervous system for other data manipulating components of
computer. We can relate CU to the brain of the human body. It is the brain which control
the whole body, we perform work with o hands, we walk with our feet, we can see with
our eyes, we can hear with ears, but all devices are controlled by brain (CU).

4. Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU):

 This is the manipulating part of the CPU, Where actual data processing
occurs.
 All calculations and comparisons take place in this section. The data and
instructions, stored in the primary storage(RAM) prior to processing, are
transferred as and when needed to the ALU where processing takes place. –
Registers, Cache.

 ALU are designed to perform the four basic arithmetic operations add,
subtract, multiply, divide, and logical operations or comparisons such as less
than, equal to, or greater than. Because of these calculations and comparisons
ALU is called the accountant of the computer. After the completion of processing,
the final results which are stored in the storage unit are released to an output
device.

No processing is done in the primary storage unit. Intermediate results generated in the
ALU are temporarily transferred back to the primary storage until needed at a later time.
Data may thus move from primary storage to ALU and back again to storage many times
before the processing is over.

PROCESSING DEVICES

Basically two components handle processing in a computer: The central processing

unit (CPU) and the memory.
1. The Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The central processing unit (CPU) is a tiny electronic chip known as the microprocessor
located in the system unit.
It is installed on the main circuit board of the computer, the motherboard. The CPU as
the name implies is where information is processed within the computer. In this
regard, you might think of the CPU (processor) as the brain of the computer. The CPU
is otherwise known as microprocessor. Information constantly flows back and forth
between the CPU and all the other parts of the computer. The CPU is in the middle
controlling the flow of information. The CPU also calculates numbers when required.
The amount of data that a chip receives at one time and the amount of data that leaves
the chip is a measure of the chip’s processing capability.(clock)- measured in Ghz
In addition to receiving and sending data, chips internally process data.

Every CPU has at least two basic parts.

 The Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU).
 The Control unit and

The control unit coordinates all the computer activities and contains the CPUs
instruction to carry out commands. (management)
Device Drivers- software that drives hardware work together with Operating System to
Control the computer system.

The ALU is responsible for carrying out Arithmetic and

Logic functions. In other words, when the control unit encounters an instruction that
involves arithmetic (operations involving +,- , /, *) and logic(=,<,>) it refers it to the
ALU

TYPES OF PROCESSING

Data processing can be defined as : “the process through which Raw Data is fed into a
computer, analyzed and changed into useful information.”
The mode is decided on at system design stage.

After processing the output can be stored or used.

Processing entails Sorting, Searching , querying, converting..etc.
Types:

 Batch Processing
 Online Processing
 Real-time processing
 Demand Processing

Batch Processing

“This is processing where a number of similar tasks are collected together (batched)
and processed by a computer all at once rather than individually.”
Do not involve humans other than in initial “Batching’- and used where the system
does not need to react quickly.
E.g. Household bills are processed and can be paid at the end of the month, Payroll,
Stock Control…

It may involve execution of a series of programs (jobs) on a computer without human

interaction. This involves the use of preselected scripts or command lines to input data.
The Job queue or the number of items waiting to be processed is determined by a
control system based on time or quantity…

Advantages of Batch Processing

 Jobs can be processed without human presence- computer will automatically
process the batched files.
 Usually used where large quantities of data need to be processed.
 Is Economical for large organizations.
Disadvantages of Batch Processing
 Takes a long time to process individual tasks or jobs.
 Not good for urgent Information.
 The batching can take a lot of time.

Online Processing

This is the type of processing …”where a user communicates directly with the computer
system and is in complete control of the processor(CPU).”
Standalone computer that is connected to another computer- Networking...

The User uses Peripherals connected directly to the computer to input data or for inquiry
purpose.

Where processing will automatically give feedback or update for control the input and
processing functions.”E.g. online booking of a music concert...calculated how many
seats are left unbooked.
Used for Airline Ticket Reservations, ATMs, and Online Purchase systems…

Advantages of Online Processing:

Processing doesn’t have to be supervised / done automatically…

Disadvantages of Online Processing

Real-time processing

This is similar to online processing in that – “the computer automatically updates its
data, using technical hardware and software(sensors) to input data…”
They are usually used with control systems... like Navigation systems etc...Warning
systems, Greenhouses (automatic).
This is processing without any delay.

Advantages of Real-time Processing

Jobs humans cant do are done by computer systems( e.g. monitoring Radiation levels)
Disadvantages of Real-time Processing
System failure can cost human lives.

Data Processing Modes

These are the classifications of different types of computer processing.

These include:
 Time Sharing (Interactive processing.)
 Batch processing
 Real time processuing
 Transaction Process

Time Sharing (Interactive processing.)

This is processing where Software receives input form humans e.g. in keying in
commands
Like in popular application programs like M.S- Word, Excel etc. In this mode,
computer time is arranged so that multiprocessing can takes place: A(each) Terminal
is allowed a small amount of processing time before relinquishing the CPU for other
jobs.

Transaction Processing:
This is the type of information processing where processing is divided into individual
indivisible operations – called Transactions. The Transaction must be completed once
initiated. Processing here, takes place when it is needed.
Sales -(Vendor- Buyer) Point of Sale
Purchase - Point of Purchase...
Banking - ATM...Mobile Banking...

Demand Processing

“The processing of data by a computer system as soon as it is received, so that it is not

necessary to store large amounts of raw data”

Distributed processing

“Distributed processing is a phrase used to refer to a variety of computer systems that

use more than one computer (or processor) to run an application.”
Internet: Internetworking- many Networks linked together...

This includes parallel processing in which a single computer uses more than
one CPU to execute programs.
More often, however, distributed processing refers to local-area networks
(LANs) designed so that a single program can run simultaneously at various sites. Most
distributed processing systems contain sophisticated software that detects idle CPUs on
the network and parcels out programs to utilize them.
Another form of distributed processing involves distributed databases. (Emerging
Trend)This is databases in which the data is stored across two or more computer systems.
The database system keeps track of where the data is so that the distributed nature of the
database is not apparent to users.

5. OUTPUT UNIT:

“Output units are mechanisms that converts data from its electronic form inside the
computers to a form that can be used outside or user readable form.”

The job of an output unit is just the reverse of that of an input unit.

It supplies information and results of computation to the outside world. Thus it links the
computer with the external environment. As computers work with binary code, the
results produces are also in the binary form. Before supplying the results to the outside
world, it must be converted to human acceptable (readable) form. The following
functions are performed by an output unit:

 It accepts the results produced by computer which are in coded form (Binary
form)
 It converts these coded results to human readable form
 It supplies the converted results to the outside world for further processing

OUTPUT DEVICES

Definition

“Is electronic or electromechanical equipment connected to a computer and

used to transfer data out of the computer in the form of text, images, sounds,
or other media”- e.g. Printer, Sound Card

Output devices return processed data, that is, information back to the user. In other
words, output devices allow the computer ‘talk’ to us. The most common output devices
are the monitor and the printer. Others include modems and “speakers”.

Examples include:
o Output device
o Display device
o Graphical output device
o Computer display
1. The monitor: The monitor is an output device that enables the computer to display to
the user what is going on. It has a screen like that of a television. It is commonly
referred to as the screen or display. It is the main source for output of information
from the computer. As data is entered through an input device, the monitor changes to
show the effects of the command. Messages displayed on the screen allow the user to
know if the command is correct.

Features of the Monitor

(a) SHAPE: Two basic shapes of monitors are used with micro computers
(i) The Round Monitor: This type uses CRT (Cathode RayTube).This is the
typical monitor that we see on a desktop computer.
It looks like a television screen.
(ii) The Flat Panel Monitor: This type uses liquid crystal (LCD’s) to render
images and is commonly used with notebooks.

(b) SIZE: It is measured in inches diagonally across the

screen. The majority of computers are sold with
14-inch monitors. They are economical and the
size is adequate for most uses. However, for more
serious applications, large monitors (17” 21”)
have certain
advantages: they provide more room for icons,
tools, windows etc.

(c) ANTI-GLARE: This is coated glass fixed to a monitor to reduce

reflections and make viewing much easier
.
(d) STANDS: Some monitors have tilt and swivel that make
viewing easier.
(e) CONTROL: These are controls to adjust the brightness and
contrast
(f) COLOUR: There are basically two types; monochrome i.e.
only one colour is displayed against a contrasting
background usually black. Or coloured, which
displays multiple colours.

(g) THE VIDEO ADAPTER CARD: This is a piece of hardware that controls a
monitor. It is built into the computer’s motherboard or installed as an expansion card.
It has its own memory, which is separate from the computer’s in-built memory.
That way the video adapter card can build graphic images without using computer
memory needed by the system and programs. The amount of memory installed on the
video card determines the number of colours to be displayed.

2. THE PRINTER: The printer is an output device that produces on hard copy or a
print out on a paper i.e. It takes data from its electronic form and prints it out on
paper. There are three principal types of printers; Laser, Inkjet and Dot – Matrix. In
evaluating these types, 4 criteria are most important:

“An output deice that prints the results of data processing.”

o Image quality
o Speed
o Noise level
o Cost (printer and accessories)

Types of printers

LASER PRINTERS: Laser printers are much more expensive than other types of
printers; their print quality is higher. They are also much faster and are very quiet. As
the name implies a laser is at the heart of this printer. A separate computer is built into
the printer to interpret the data that it receives from the computer, and to control the
laser. A laser beam is moved by using a moving mirror to create an electrical charge on
a rotating drum. The electrical charge attracts a dry ink substance called toner. The
toner is melted onto the page to leave a permanent high-quality image.
Laser Printer speeds are often rated in “pages per minute” or ppm. Typically, the
higher the value, the faster the speed. The complexity of the pages you are printing
determines how fast the printer prints. Laser printers use the measure of dots per inch
(dpi) to determine print quality. Laser printers vary, generally ranging from 300 to
1,200 dpi.

INKJET PRINTERS:

These printers are less expensive than laser printers and they produce high quality
printouts quietly; however they are slow. Inkjet printers are necessary when you need
shop laser-quality text. However, to print graphics inkjet printers cannot produce the
same quality output as laser printers. Typically, an inkjet printer is more expensive
than a dot matrix printer but costs about half as much as a laser printer. They are
portable and sleek, and were developed to be used with notebook computers. In
addition inkjet printers are the best option if you want a good resolution colour printer.
Just like laser printers, inkjet printers have their own memory different from the
memory of the computer.
Inkjet printers work by creating an image on a paper when print head ink passes
through many tiny holes known as nozzles. Each nozzle heats up the liquid ink which
bubbles and when the bubbles burst, droplets of ink are sprayed onto the page.

How Inkjet Works: Inkjet printers offer two modes: draft mode (which is faster and
uses less ink) and high quality mode.

DOT MATRIX PRINTERS:

Dot-matrix printers were the first type of printers commonly used with personal
computers. They are generally the least expensive and the most versatile; however they
are slow and noisy. The print quality is less than that of Inkjet printers. Dot-matrix
printers can handle multi-part forms such as invoices and carbons. Dot-matrix printers
create graphics and characters as a collection of tiny
dots. They work by impact; tiny pins inside the print head hit the printer ribbon against
the paper, forming the characters and pictures. Dot-matrix printers remain popular
because they are perfectly suited for some jobs especially multi copy forms such as
invoice and forms which rely on impact to transfer printer characters from one copy to
the next.

Choosing a Printer: Choosing the right printer involves the following

considerations:

 What quality does your printing require?

 How fast do you need your printing?
 What type of paper do you have to print?
 What is the cost of the printer and consumables?
 Sound

3. THE SOUND CARD:

Sound Cards, otherwise known as soundboards, is a hard ware board. It is a device that
produces audio sounds and usually provides ports in the back of a computer for external
speakers. It is installed in one of the expansion slot inside the system unit’s motherboard.
A sound card enables computers to out-put quality sounds and music User commonly
purchase soundboards to hear the sounds of a game or to play some from a multimedia
CD. Some sound cards are capable of recording sounds, music and voice messages.
Although sound cards differ, most provide an output line for speakers, input lines for
mono or stereo recording and a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) interface for
electronic instruments. MIDI is a standard that allows you to connect your computer to a
wide

4. THE MODEM

“The modem is a device that allows a computer to communicate with another

computer through a telephone line.”

Both computers need compatible modem. With a modem, a computer and required
software, you can connect with other computers all over the world.

How to Use Modems

a) Modems are used for file transfers that are to copy files and programmes from one
computer to another computer. When you copy files from another computer to your
computer, you are downloading, and when you are copying files from your computer to
another computer you are uploading.

b.) Modems are used for fax services. The fax modem enables you to use your computer
to send and receive faxes through a fax machine or another computer that is equipped
with a fax modem. To send and receive faxes you need fax software.
c.) Modems are used for online services.

Modem Speed

Modems are available in different speeds which determine how long it takes to transfer
information. The speed of modem is commonly rated in bits per seconds’ bps. The higher
the bps, the faster data can be transmitted between computers. Naturally faster modems
are more expensive. 1200-921600bps

STORAGE UNIT

“This is the unit that provides space for storing data and instructions; it is the space
for intermediate results, and also space for the final results”.

The data and instructions that are entered into the computer system through input unit
have to be stored inside the computer before the actual processing starts. Similarly,
the results produced by the computer after processing must also be kept somewhere
inside the computer memory before being passed on to the output units.

Functions of storage Unit

The storage unit or the primary storage of a computer system is designed to provide all
these needs. The storage unit performs following functions:

 Stores all the data to be processed and the instructions required for processing
(receive from input devices)
 Stores intermediate results of processing(WIP)
 Stores final results of processing before these results are released to an output
device.

The storage may be divided into two main parts:

 Primary Memory
 Secondary Storage

PRIMARY MEMORY

The CPU cannot remember anything by itself. It often refers to the memory in the
computer for software instruction and to remember what it is working on. The term
RAM and memory are often interchangeable.

RAM refers to the way the CPU searches through memory for the information it
needs.

Information is stored in memory chips. The CPU can get information faster from RAM
than it can from a disk.
A computer then reads information or instruction from disks and stores the
information in the RAM where it can get the information quickly. The CPU processes
the information and then returns to the RAM.

Information before, while and after it is being processed is held in the computer
memory or Random Access Memory (RAM).
“RAM is a short term holding area that is built into the computer hardware.”

Note that memory is temporary because memory chips need electricity to hold
information. If power is interrupted, information in memory is lost forever.

Measuring Memory:

Memory is measured in a small group of data called bytes. Each byte consists of eight
bits. The byte is the basis of all measures dealing with the computer. Because each byte
is very tiny, other terms are often used to measure larger amounts of memory.
NB:
4 Bits =Nibble
8 Bits= Byte

Processor or Virtual Storage Disk Storage

· 1 Bit = Binary Digit

· 1 Bit = Binary Digit
· 8 Bits = 1 Byte
· 8 Bits = 1 Byte
· 1000 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
· 1024 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
· 1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
· 1024 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
· 1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
· 1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
· 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
· 1024 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
· 1000 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
· 1024 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
· 1000 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
· 1024 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
· 1000 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
· 1024 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
· 1000 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
· 1024 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
· 1000 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
· 1024 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
· 1000 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte
· 1024 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte

Or for example

Byte: one character (letter, number space or punctuation mark)

Kilobyte (k): one thousand bytes =1,024 bytes

However for convenience, these values or figures are rounded up to zeros. For
example
1 kilobyte though is actually made of 1024 bytes; it is often rounded up to 1000 bytes.
File Access Methods

Random File Access - RAM, Hard disk, CD ....

Sequential File Access - Magnetic Tape(Imagine a Cassette tape FF/ BB...HitRate)
SECONDARY STORAGE

STORAGE MEDIA(devices)

“These are the physical components or materials on which data is stored- are called
storage devices.”

“A storage device is a piece of hardware that permanently stores information”

Eg The Hard disk
Unlike Primary memory, a storage device retains information when electric power is
turned off( Non-Volatile)

Various technologies are used to store data some important ones theses days include the

 Magnetic and (floppy disk and hard disk)\

 Optical storage. (CDROM and WORM (Write Once Read Many) use optic
technology.
 Flash disk

Although devices that store data typically employ one or the other, some combine both
technologies.

Storage Device Names:

Storage device names are designed to instruct the computer to save information to
specific drives. The drives are named after letters of the alphabet. On most computers, the
drives are configured as follows:

 Drive A: For floppy disk Capacity 1.44 MB 1½”

 Drive B: Usually below Drive A also for the floppy disk.5¼
Most computers have only one floppy disk drive (Drive A), in which case there is
no drive B.
 Drive C: For the hard disk drive which is usually inside the system unit and is
the default storage location for system files
 Drive D: For CD-ROM drive.(but these days other types CDS have been
introduced eg.CD-RW(Recordable-Rewritable),DVD,

Types of Storage Devices:

Disks are the most commonly used types of storage device. Two forms of disks for
storage are

Floppy disk and Hard disk. In general, floppy disk and hard disk / drives are similar in
their construction and operation.
The most obvious differences between the two types are that the floppy- disk is visible,
the hard disk is not.
The floppy disk drive is designed to receive removable floppy disk. The hard disk
consists of several inflexible metal platters that stay within the housing. The hard disk can
store more information and process information faster. Because of this difference, hard
drives and floppy drives are used in different ways. Some storage manufacturers provide
another type of device that combines some of the benefits of floppy disks and hard disks
– the removable hard disk.

THE FLOPPY DISK:

“The floppy disk is a circular flat piece of plastic made of a flexible (or floppy)
magnetic material on which data are recorded.”

Floppy disk drives store data on both sides of the disks.

Earlier computers stored data on only a single side of the floppy disk. Floppy disks are
commonly used for:

a) Moving files or data or information between computers not connected through

communication hardware, i.e. portability.

b) Loading new programmes unto a system: Although extremely large programmes are
available on CD-ROM or tape, some programmes are also sold on floppy disk.

c) Backing up data or programmes, the primary copy of which is stored on a hard disk.
Backing up is the process of creating a duplicate set of the hard disk’s programmes and
data for safekeeping
.
Types of Floppy Disks: There are two physical sizes; 5 ¼ inch and 3 ½inch. The size
refers to the diameter of the disk, not the capacity. A 3 ½inch floppy disk, high density,
can hold 1.44 MB data. The 5 ½ inch floppy disks come in two capacities, double density
and high density.
The 3 ½ inch comes in three capacities; double density, high density and very high
density. The density is a measure of the quality of the disk surface. The 3 ½ inch disks are
more durable and as a result the 5 ¼ inch has almost disappeared.

Taking Care of Floppy Disks:

The disk includes a sturdy plastic case and a metal covering to protect the media from
finger marks, scratches, and dust. However, you still need to take precautions when
handling disks. For example:
 Store disks in a disk file box to protect them from dust
 Store disks in a cool, dry place to avoid exposing them to water, direct sunlight, or
heat from vent.
 Keep disks away from magnets
 Do not send disks through the metal detectors at airport security gates. This can
affect floppy disks. Request that they be inspected manually.
 Never force a diskette into a disk drive and never remove a disk from a drive
when the light is on.
 Always label your diskette to avoid a mix up.
  Do not slide the cover back on 3.5-inch disks, and do not touch the recording
medium on any disk.

Write Protecting a Floppy Disk:

To protect the contents of a disk from being accidentally erased or modified you can write
– protect the disk. This allows the computer to read data from the disk, but not change it.
You can turn a disks write protection ON and OFF as many times as possible.

Floppy Disk Formatting and Capabilities

The different capacities of disks are generally a function of the number of sides, tracks
and sectors per track. The capacity of an individual disk is determined when the disk is
formatted.

Formatting prepares the disk’s surface to hold data. Every process of mapping a disk is
called formatting or initializing the disk. Every new floppy disk must be formatted.
However, you can buy floppy disks that have been preformatted for your particular
computer.
When you format a disk, the disk drive divides the surface area of the disk into concentric
tracks or circles and wedge-shaped sectors. This type of storage unit makes it easier for
the computer to locate files. Hard disks are capable of storing much data than floppy
disks and they tend to store and retrieve data much more quickly than floppy disks.

THE HARD DISK:

The hard disk is generally not visible because hard disks are usually enclosed within the
system unit.

“The hard disk is a stack of metal platters that spin on one spindle like a stack of rigid
floppy disks”.

Unlike floppy disks where the disk and drive are separate, the hard-disk drive, or hard
drive is the whole unit.

Because of these characteristics, hard disks are well suited for storing files that:
 Are large
 Must always be available to the computer such as operating system
 Files or application; and
 Require quick access.

External Hard disk

“Is removable hard disks that plug into a separate drive unit”
Generally you cannot remove the hard disk from its drive.
Hard disks come in several sizes. The size of the hard disks is measure in terms of the
size of the platter. The different sizes of hard drives available are 2.5”, 3.5”, 5.25”, etc. A
2.5 inch disk is designed specifically for a small computer.
Storage Capacity
On the other hand, the number of programs and the amount of data that a hard disk can
store is measured in megabytes. The capacity of the drive is the single most important
consideration in its selection. There are no standard capacity sizes for hard disks; they
typically should several hundred GBs.

THE CD-ROM:

“Compact Disc Read – Only Memory(CD-ROM) disks are hard, plastic, silver colored
disk which can only be read (You cannot change or overwrite the contents of a CD-
ROM disk) which provide tremendous storage capacities”.

A single CD-ROM disc can store up to 680 MB of data, sound, and video. This is
equivalent to 485 floppy disks.
Like a floppy or hard disk, data is stored on a compact disc by using a series of 1s and
Os. Os are represented on the disk by using flat surfaces, and 1s are represented by pits in
the surface.

To read data on the disc, the CD-ROM drive uses a laser bean to reflect light off the disc
surface.
The pitted areas of the disc reflect light differently from the level areas, which let the
drive differentiate between 1s and 0s.

CD-ROM disks are appropriate for multimedia content: the combination of several forms
of media (text, sound, video and graphics) to present information.\

CDs

CD is the best sounding mass market audio medium ever. It will be replaced one day, but
not soon.

CDs are cheap, light, robust, user-friendly, computer-friendly, mail-friendly and most
music buyers have a player. Most recorded music is still sold on CDs—online and off by
new distributors and old. People have more CD players than MP3 players, mobile phones
or computers.

 Over 1 billion CD players sold to date (plus PCs and DVD players play CDs too)
 Over 2 billion mainstream CDs sell annually (over 5 million a day)

High street CD sales reached record levels in 2004/5 after a dip from 2000, but in 2007
they are clearly in decline. CD will probably be superseded by DVD and AAC or lossless
compression at some point, but CD compatibility will live on in multi-layer DVDs well
beyond that. Making records today still means making 16-bit 44.1kHz CDs, apart from
the odd bit of vinyl. Downloads are generally compressed from CD masters.
iTunes sold over 10 billion tracks from April 2003 to 2010, the equivalent of a single
year’s CD sales. The Majors’ total digital revenue including ringtones etc. is about 35%
(2010).

Albums have been released on flash memory cards but that is still a novelty format for
music releases. The limited edition Prince Opus iPod is a good example of premium-price
alternative media.

You’ll probably make a CD-R master of your tracks, although DAT and analogue tape are
also widely used.

Traditional CD standards include data, karaoke and multi-media, and new standards
include DVD-V, DVD-A and Super Audio CD (SACD). This page deals mainly with the
established CD-DA audio format.

Types of CD

There are three main types: standard manufactured CDs (CD-DA), CD-R recordable and
CD-RW rewriteable.

 Standard manufactured CDs can be played on any CD digital audio player.

 CD-Rs can be played on CD-R machines and many but not all CD digital audio
players.
 CD-RWs can only be played on CD-RW compatible machines.

Both writeable types can be burned to play in audio machines and PCs.

Recordable CDs

There are two main types of recordable CD, one for audio systems and one for computer
systems:

Recordable audio CDs are intended to carry a record industry levy and are not
interchangeable with computer CD-Rs. There is no levy in the UK.

 CD-R / CD-RW for CD digital audio (also called “for consumer” or “for
music”).
 CD-R / CD-RW for CD (normally used in computer CD burners).

Recordings can be added to both CD-Rs and CD-RWs in a number of sessions before
they’re finalised, but only CD-RWs can be re-recorded. Compatibility with other players
is impaired if you write a track or file at a time rather than writing a whole disc at once.
Recordable CDs can be played on CD writers before they’re finalised, but not on players.
It’s worth knowing that blank media isn’t entirely blank and there’s always information
on it that stops one kind being mistaken for another (whether you like it or not).

The best CD-R information resource I know online is Andy McFadden’s CD-R FAQ.
Identifying CD types

These five CD types are identified by logos on the media nd machines (although some
computer players and burners only identify themselves in the manual).

CD logo Type of CD

normal pressed CDs (CD-DA)

DIGITAL AUDIO

consumer audio or music CD-R

DIGITAL AUDIO
Recordable

consumer audio or music CD-RW

DIGITAL AUDIO
ReWritable

computer CD-R (audio, music and other files)

Recordable

computer CD-RW (audio, music and other files)

ReWritable

CD speeds

CDR/W burners used to be rated for up to three different speeds (e.g. 4x 8x 16x or
52/24/52):

 the slowest speed is for burning RW discs;

 the middle speed is for burning R discs;
 the fastest speed is for reading or digital transfer to computer.

However, today’s optical recorders burn may different kinds of media and the old 3-part
speed description is no longer used. Now you will see something like this:

 Read Speed: 48x (CD) / 16x (DVD)

 Write Speed: 48x (CD) / 22x (DVD±R) / 8x (DVD±R DL)
  CD / DVD Rewrite Speed: 32x (CD) / 6x (DVD-RW) / 8x (DVD+RW) / 12x
(DVD-RAM)

Recordable media is also rated to show compatible drive speeds. Fast media can normally
be used on slower players and burners, but not always. Slow media will only work on
drives that support a range of speeds and can detect the slower media. It’s best to use
media rated in the same range as the drive speed. Audio burners and players (i.e. not
computer drives) usually work in real time, although some dual drive duplicators go
faster.

Make sure you keep your Operating System, burner software and firmware up to date.
This Apple article has more information about media and drive compatibility.

DVD-R and DVD-RW speeds also appear on some burners. Here’s a

comprehensive DVD FAQ by Jim Taylor.

Copy-protected CD-DAs

For several years up to 2006 the Major record labels “copy-protected” certain CDs.

The original CD specification for discs and players didn’t include copy-protection. The
only reliable copy protected discs are new types such as SACD or DVD-A which play on
new machines.

Nevertheless big record labels have attempted to add copy-protection to CDs. The main
copy-protection schemes used on CDs are:

 Macrovision (previously Midbar) Cactus Data Shield™ CDS300

 SunnComm MediaCloQ™ and MediaMax™
 First 4 Internet (F4i) XCP and XCP2
 Sony key2audio™ and key2audioXS™

Most recently (2006) EMI used CDS300 and Sony/BMG used MediaMax and XCP.
Record labels pay a royalty of about 5¢ for each protected disc. UMG and WMG don’t
currently use copy-protection on CDs.

2007: the Macrovision CDS300 and F4i XCP products have been removed from the web.

This IFPI copy control logo means the “CD” is a non-standard disc and is
not guaranteed to play in a standard CD, DVD player or PC.

Protected discs are non-standard so there’s no guarantee they’ll play. They should not
carry a Compact Disc logo. They can be copied using techniques such as:

 obscuring the outer track with felt tip pen (key2audio™);

 obscuring the outer session 2 track (XCP);
  holding the shift key while loading the disc (MediaMax™);
 using a Mac (CDS300, XCP, MediaMax™);
 using pro CD software (CDS300, XCP, MediaMax™, key2audio™);
 recording the analogue signal (any playable CD).

Over the past twenty years almost all the top selling music of the past fifty years has been
released digitally on CD (far more than legally available online). Unless things change on
the creative front that will remain the lion’s share of the industry’s music assets.

Everything that can be made can be copied (consider SDMI, DVDs, counterfeit money,
credit cards and warez). Research in 2002 showed almost every copy protected CD track
was already available online. It’s a kind of challenge—the massive libraries of bedroom
MP3 downloaders are trophies, not really lost sales or music collections.

The Major labels have not been able to introduce reliable copy-protection, even with new
media.

 The industry SDMI system for standard digital media security was cracked within
days of release in 2000 and mothballed in 2001.
 Even DVD, designed to be secure, was compromised by the choice of CSS which
was cheaper to build into players (and easily cracked).
 The multi-region DVD system, designed to protect vested interests, is now no
more than an inconvenience for consumers.
 HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc copy protection AACS was broken within weeks.

Every consumer DRM product to date has been cracked. It’s hard to imagine a future
with anything other than open, standard media.

Some CD copy-protection history:

 Autumn 2005: Sony/BMG USA and EMI Europe launched a new copy-protection
campaign. Sony/BMG almost immediately withdrew XCP when they were sued
for compromising users’ PCs. MediaMax was also questioned.
 Autumn 2004: Sony Japan announced it would stop using CD copy-protection.
 January 2004: Belgian consumer watchdog Test-Achats took the Majors to court
over CD copy-protection (personal copies are legal in Belgium).
 October 2003: New legal SunnComm 3-copy limited CD “protection” can be
defeated by holding the shift key when the CD is inserted. SunnComm threatened
Princeton University for revealing this under the DMCA.
 July 2003: A consumer in France won the right to a refund for an EMI CD that
wouldn’t play. The case was brought by consumer group UFC-Que Choisir.
 February 2002: Fahrenheit Entertainment settled over a SunnComm Charley Pride
CD by implementing a returns policy.
 September 2001: Music City Records and SunnComm were found to breach fair-
use (Audio Home Recording Act 1992).

Unbranded recordable CDs

The term unbranded is used for two completely different types of recordable CD:

 blank inkjet printable discs with a plain white or uniform finish from Sony, TDK,
etc.;
 ordinary discs without a brand name whether plain, printable or otherwise.

Unbranded (no brand name) CD-Rs and CD-RWs can be anything from junk to top
quality discs. There’s a lot of mythology about suppliers, countries of origin and dye
colours, but unless you have some inside knowledge about the source it’s guesswork.

The term ‘Grade A Unbranded’ media doesn’t mean anything. These unbranded discs are
by definition discs no one has put their name to. While that’s not necessarily a problem,
the mystery is who then certifies them as Grade A (whatever that might mean).
Manufacturing information about blank discs can normally be displayed using pro CD
tools software.

To get a current recommendation for cheap, reliable CD-Rs check one of the popular
online music or computing forums.

The Red Book standard

Red Book is the nickname for the 1980 international consumer audio CD standard and it
means standard discs will play reliably on all players. You shouldn’t need to worry about
what it says as long as you use standard CD media and recorders. If you want to go
deeper on this you’ll find more information online (the two FAQ sites mentioned above
are excellent).

Future disc standards

Electronics companies and record labels would love to sell loads of new stuff and re-sell
loads of old stuff, but the jury is still out on a possible replacement for CDs. The current
contenders appear to be DVD-V (what we know as DVD), DVD-A and Sony/Philips
SACD. This Surround Associates article describes DVD-A and SACD, but there is a
debate about the real sound quality of these systems (this Elliott Sound Products
article for example).

Here is a comparison of the key features:

Disc Can include Needs Plays on Has copy Player

Audio capability
format a CD layer? TV? computer? protection? price
CD 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo yes no yes no £
DVD-V 24-bit 96 kHz stereo yes yes yes yes ££
DVD-A 24-bit 96 kHz 5.1 yes yes maybe yes £££
SACD 1-bit 2.9 MHz 5.1 yes no maybe yes ££
Blu-ray 24-bit 96 kHz 7.1 yes yes maybe yes £££

The digital system in SACD doesn’t allow a technical comparison with 24-bit 96 kHz and
there’s no consensus about its quality. In practice few albums were mastered in very high
resolution audio so improvements in sound quality can be theoretical. Sony and Philips
are building SACD into most of their new DVD-V players and many CDs, but if people
won’t pay extra at some point the only advantage is copy-protection.

It’s not certain that CDs are ready to go the way of vinyl and cassette. There are still
unanswered questions:

 what is the real trend from MP3 and the Internet?

 will people upgrade for better audio resolution?
 do people really want surround (5.1) audio for music?
 is surround relevant for stereo (car, PC, walkman, radio)?
 will the need for a video interface hold back DVD options?
 how will people use new portable media players and services?

DVD-V is a dark horse in the better stereo stakes, with the most players in homes and
many DVD titles selling very well. DVD players can play CDs but there’s still confusion
between the competing recordable DVD formats (DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD-RAM).

HD DVD has been beaten by Blu-ray Disc as a potential successor to DVD, but the
demand will depend on HD content.

Universal Media Discs (UMD) might become popular for portable applications with the
success of the Sony PSP (Playstation Portable). They are 60mm, 1.8 Gb optical discs,
currently read-only, but proprietary Sony standards tend not to last.

Lossless CD-quality downloads are another contender for full-bandwidth audio.

It’s hard to predict what will happen, and without a compelling attraction most
technologies fail. Microsoft’s HDCD (20-bit 44.1 kHz CD compatible format) hasn’t
done too well so far. In the mean time multi-format discs with a CD layer are becoming
the norm for spanning old and new standards.

TAPE DRIVES and Magnetic Tape(Music masterTape)

A tape drive is a device that reads and writes data to the surface of a magnetic tape,
generally used for backing up or restoring the data of an entire hard disk.
The best use of tape storage is for data that you don’t use very often. It thus becomes
useful to back up hard disks because the disk are vulnerable to change and can fail. Tape
drives unit provides a quick convenient way to back up a hard drive. The tape enables
you to copy files from your hard disk to a cassette tape for protection. If anything
happens to the data or profanes on your hard disk, you can restore them from the tape.
To make a back up tape, you insert a tape cartridge into the tape drive. Tapes must be
formatted before you can use them. To save time you can buy tape cartridges already
formatted. Be sure to use a tape cartridge that is large enough to store more information
than you are backing up to avoid having to exchange cartridges during the backup
process.
THE ZIP DRIVE

Zip drives are an alternative to tape back up units or tape drives. A zip drive can be
internal or external. Zip drives have removable cartridges or disk. A zip drive holds about
100MB to 250 MB of Data.

Storage is frequently used to mean

“The devices and data connected to the computer through input/output operations”

that is, hard disk and tape systems and other forms of storage that don't include computer
memory and other in-computer storage. For the enterprise, the options for this kind of
storage are of much greater variety and expense than that related to memory. This
meaning is probably more common in the IT industry than meaning 2.

The primary storage media for a computer is usually the internal hard drive. Most internal
drives are regular IDE devices. Integrated Drive Electronics is a standard electronic
Interface used between a computers motherboards data paths (Buses) and the computers
disk storage device. Most computers today use an enhanced version of IDE called EIDE
(Enhanced integrated Drive Electronics).

A removable drive( eg. Pen Drive) is another popular storage device that is usually
connected by firewire1, USB, or parallel port (e.g. portable Zip drives, Jaz drives, or
CD/DVD drives). Newer forms of external storage include USB thumb drives and
camera storage media.

The Jaz drive is a removable hard disk storage system sold by the Iomega
company from 1996 to 2002. Following the success of the Iomega Zip drive,
which stored data on removable magnetic cartridges with
1
Fire wire

FireWire is an I/O interface developed by Apple Computer.

FireWire is considered a high-speed interface, and therefore can be used for

connecting peripheral devices that require fast data transfer speeds. Examples include
external hard drives, video cameras, and audio interfaces

It has remained a popular choice for audio and video professionals. Since FireWire
supports speeds up to 800 Mbps, it is faster than USB 2.0, which maxes out at 480
Mbps. In fact, even FireWire 400 provides faster sustained read and write speeds than
USB 2.0, which is important for recording audio and video in real-time. However, the
FireWire interface has been superseded by Thunderbolt, which can transfer data at up
to 10,000 Mbps (10 Gbps) and is backwards compatible with multiple interfaces.
Most external drives enable flexible data transfer from one computer to another. A
computer that has had external drives connected to it usually has evidence in the
computer’s registry of using the subject device.

A storage device may hold information, process information, or both.

A device that only holds information is a recording medium.

Devices that process information (data storage equipment) may either access a separate
portable (removable) recording medium or a permanent component to store and retrieve
information.

With the exception of barcodes and OCR data, electronic data storage is easier to revise
and may be more cost effective than alternative methods due to smaller physical space
requirements and the ease of replacing (rewriting) data on the same medium. However,
the durability of methods such as printed data is still superior to that of most electronic
storage media. The durability limitations may be overcome with the ease of duplicating
(backing-up) electronic data.

DISK STORAGE CAPACITY

With reference to disk storage capacity, a megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes in decimal

notation. But when the term megabyte is used for real and virtual storage, and channel
volume, 2 to the 20th power or 1,048,576 bytes is the appropriate notation

Windows uses the 1,048,576 byte rule so when you look at the Windows drive properties
an 80 Gigabyte drive will report a capacity of 74.56 Gigabytes and a 250 Gigabyte drive
will only yield 232 Gigabytes of available storage space

The 1000 can be replaced with 1024 and still be correct using the other acceptable
standards. Both of these standards are correct depending on what type of storage you are
referring.

Processor or Virtual Storage Disk Storage

· 1 Bit = Binary Digit

· 1 Bit = Binary Digit
· 8 Bits = 1 Byte
· 8 Bits = 1 Byte
· 1000 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
· 1024 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
· 1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
· 1024 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
· 1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
· 1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
· 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
· 1024 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
· 1000 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
· 1024 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
· 1000 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
· 1024 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
· 1000 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
· 1024 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
· 1000 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
· 1024 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
· 1000 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
· 1024 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
· 1000 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte
· 1024 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte
This is based on the IBM Dictionary of computing method to describe disk storage - the
simplest.

Bit: A Bit is the smallest unit of data that a computer uses. It can be used to represent two
states of information, such as Yes or No.

Byte: A Byte is equal to 8 Bits. A Byte can represent 256 states of information, for
example, numbers or a combination of numbers and letters. 1 Byte could be equal to one
character. (10 Bytes could be equal to a word. 100 Bytes would equal an average
sentence).

Kilobyte: A Kilobyte is approximately 1,000 Bytes, actually 1,024 Bytes depending on

which definition is used. 1 Kilobyte would be equal to this paragraph you are reading,
whereas 100 Kilobytes would equal an entire page.

Megabyte: A Megabyte is approximately 1,000 Kilobytes. In the early days of

computing, a Megabyte was considered to be a large amount of data. These days with a
500 Gigabyte hard drive on a computer being common, a Megabyte doesn't seem like
much anymore. One of those old 3-1/2 inch floppy disks can hold 1.44 Megabytes or the
equivalent of a small book. 100 Megabytes might hold a couple volumes of
Encyclopedias. 600 Megabytes is about the amount of data that will fit on a CD-ROM
disk.

Gigabyte: A Gigabyte is approximately 1,000 Megabytes. A Gigabyte is still a very

common term used these days when referring to disk space or drive storage. 1 Gigabyte
of data is almost twice the amount of data that a CD-ROM can hold. But it's about one
thousand times the capacity of a 3-1/2 floppy disk. 1 Gigabyte could hold the contents of
about 10 yards of books on a shelf. 100 Gigabytes could hold the entire library floor of
academic journals.

Terabyte: A Terabyte is approximately one trillion bytes, or 1,000 Gigabytes. There was
a time that I never thought I would see a 1 Terabyte hard drive, now one and two terabyte
drives are the normal specs for many new computers. To put it in some perspective, a
Terabyte could hold about 3.6 million 300 Kilobyte images or maybe about 300 hours of
good quality video. A Terabyte could hold 1,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Ten Terabytes could hold the printed collection of the Library of Congress. That's a lot of
data.

Petabyte: A Petabyte is approximately 1,000 Terabytes or one million Gigabytes. It's

hard to visualize what a Petabyte could hold. 1 Petabyte could hold approximately 20
million 4-door filing cabinets full of text. It could hold 500 billion pages of standard
printed text. It would take about 500 million floppy disks to store the same amount of
data.

Exabyte: An Exabyte is approximately 1,000 Petabytes. Another way to look at it is that

an Exabyte is approximately one quintillion bytes or one billion Gigabytes. There is not
much to compare an Exabyte to. It has been said that 5 Exabytes would be equal to all of
the words ever spoken by mankind.

Zettabyte: A Zettabyte is approximately 1,000 Exabytes. There is nothing to compare a

Zettabyte to but to say that it would take a whole lot of ones and zeroes to fill it up.

Yottabyte: A Yottabyte is approximately 1,000 Zettabytes. It would take approximately

11 trillion years to download a Yottabyte file from the Internet using high-power
broadband. You can compare it to the World Wide Web as the entire Internet almost takes
up about a Yottabyte.

Brontobyte: A Brontobyte is (you guessed it) approximately 1,000 Yottabytes. The only
thing there is to say about a Brontobyte is that it is a 1 followed by 27 zeroes!

Geopbyte: A Geopbyte is about 1000 Brontobytes! Not sure why this term was created.
I'm doubting that anyone alive today will ever see a Geopbyte hard drive. One way of
looking at a geopbyte is 15267 6504600 2283229 4012496 7031205 376 bytes!

There is a big difference between Gigabytes and the Gigabit per second that the 4G
claims to be capable of.

It is estimated that the year 2002 marked the beginning of the digital age for information
storage, which means that this years marked the date where human kind started to store
more information on digital, than on analog storage devices. In the year 1986, merely 1%
of the world's capacity to store information was in digital format, which grew to 3% by
1993, 25% in the year 2000, and exploded to 97% of the world's storage capacity by
2007.

Data storage equipment

Any input/output equipment may be considered data storage equipment if it writes to and
reads from a data storage medium. Data storage equipment uses either:

 Portable methods (easily replaced),

 Semi-portable methods requiring mechanical disassembly tools and/or opening a
chassis, or
 Inseparable methods meaning loss of memory if disconnected from the unit.

 Cylindrical accessing
 Memory card reader/drive
 Tape drive
o Mono reel or reel-to-reel
o Compact Cassette player/recorder
 Disk accessing
o Disk drive
o Disk enclosure
 Cartridge accessing/connecting (tape/disk/circuitry)
 Peripheral networking
  Flash memory devices

Semi-portable methods
 Hard disk drive
 Circuitry with non-volatile RAM

Inseparable methods
 Circuitry with volatile RAM
 Neurons

Recording medium

“A recording medium is a physical material that holds data expressed in any of the
existing recording formats”.With electronic media, the data and the recording medium is
sometimes referred to as "software" despite the more common use of the word to describe
computer software.

Photographic film is a photochemical data storage medium

A floppy disk is magnetic data storage medium
A hard drive is both storage equipment and a storage medium
Types of Storage Media

 Magnetic Storage
 Optical storage
 Electrical Storage
 Paper Storage
 Tape storage
 Disk Storage
 Magnetic storage

o Wire recording (stainless steel wire)

o Magnetic tape
o Drum memory (magnetic drum)
o Floppy disk
 Optical storage
o Optical jukebox
o Photographic paper
o X-ray
o Microform(microfische)
o Hologram
o Projected foil
o Optical disc
o Magneto-optical drive
o Holographic data storage
o 3D optical data storage
 Electrical
o Semiconductor used in volatile random-access memory
 o Floating-gate transistor used in non-volatile memory cards

Modern examples by shape

A typical way to classify data storage media is to consider its shape and type of
movement (or non-movement) relative to the read/write device(s) of the storage
apparatus as listed:

 Paper card storage

o Punched card (mechanical)
 Tape storage (long, thin, flexible, linearly moving bands)
o Paper tape (mechanical)
o Magnetic tape (a tape passing one or more read/write/erase heads)
 Disk storage (flat, round, rotating object)
o Gramophone record (used for distributing some 1980s home computer
programs) (mechanical)
o Floppy disk, ZIP disk (removable) (magnetic)
o Holographic
o Optical disc such as CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc
o Minidisk
o Hard disk drive (magnetic) Secure Digital
o Sony Memory Stick
 Magnetic bubble memory
 Flash memory/memory card (solid state semiconductor memory)
o Multimedia Card
o USB flash drive (also known as a "thumb drive" or "key drive")
o Smart Media
o Solid-state drive

DATA STORAGE CONCEPTS

Computer's primary storage area is divided into four areas, each serving a specific
purpose.

 The input storage

 Working storage

 Output storage

 The program storage

The input storage area accepts and holds input data to be processed. The working
storage area holds intermediate processing results. The output storage area holds the
final processing results. The program storage area holds the processing instructions
(the program). These separate areas do not have built-in physical boundaries; rather the
boundaries are determined by the individual programs being used.

BITS AND BYTES

A bit is a single binary digit. It represents the smallest unit of data.

However, computers usually do not operate on single bits, rather they store and
manipulate a fixed number of bits. Most often, the smallest unit or number of bits a
computer works with is eight bits. These eight bits make up a byte. EBCDIC and
ASCII codes use eight bits (excluding the parity bit), and that eight bits represent a single
character, such as the letter A or the number 7. Thus, the computer can store and
manipulate an individual byte (a single character) or a group of bytes (several characters,
a word) at a time. These individual bytes, or groups of bytes, form the basic unit of
memory.

Primary storage capacities are usually specified in number of bytes. The symbol "K"
is used whenever we refer to the size of memory, especially when the memory is quite
large. The symbol K is equal to 1,024 units or positions of storage. Therefore, if a
computer has 512K bytes (not bits) of primary storage, then it can hold 512 X 1,024 or
524,288 characters (bytes) of data in its memory.

MAGNETIC CORE STORAGE

In primary storage, many magnetic cores are strung together on a screen of wire to form
what is called a core plane). As you may know, each core can store one binary bit (0 or 1)
of data. A core is magnetized by current flowing through the wires on which the core is
strung. Hence, a core magnetized in one direction represents a binary 0, and when
magnetized in the opposite direction, a binary 1. It is the direction that the core is
magnetized that determines whether it contains a binary 0 or a binary 1 (refer to view B).
These core planes look very much like small window screens and are arranged vertically
to represent data as shown in figure 4-8, view C. In looking at this figure, you will notice
that nine planes are needed to code in 8-bit EBCDIC. The ninth plane provides for a
parity (check) bit. view C, shows DP-3 in EBCDIC code, even parity.

Core storage with DP-3 represented using 8-bit EBCD1C code.

BINARY CODED DECIMAL(BCD)- is a class of binary coding of decimal numbers
where each decimal digit is represented by a fixed number of bits e.g. four, eight etc with
special bit patterns existing for signs, or other indications.

Uncompressed BCD implies a full byte for each digit including signs also.

Packed BCD usually encodes two decimal digits within a single byte – 4 bits are usually
enough to represent the 0-9.

EBCDIC- Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code

Using an 8 bit code it is possible to represent 256 characters or bit combinations. It

presents a unique code for each decimal value 0-9, each uppercase and lower case letters
A-Z, and a variety of special characters. You have four numeric bits and four zone bits-
each group of 8 bits makes one Alpha-Numeric character and is called a byte.

Zone bits are the first 4 bits and numeric bits are the last bits in a typical 8 bit byte
character.

An alternative to EBCDIC is ASCII- was originally designed for seven bits but an extra
bit was later added.

STORAGE CAPACITY AND ADDRESSES

The storage capacity of an address is designed and built into the computer by the
manufacturer. Over the years several different design approaches to partition primary
storage have been used. With this in mind, let's take a look at some of the ways primary
storage is partitioned into addresses.

Word based Addresses

One way to design or organize the primary storage section is to store a fixed number of
characters (bytes) at each address location. We can then reference these characters as a
single entity called a word, as illustrated in figure 4-9, view A. The name CHARLIE
(address location 400) or the amount he is paid, in this case

$69.00 (address location 401), are each treated as a single word.

Computers that are built to retrieve, manipulate, and store a fixed number of
characters in each address are said to be word-oriented, word-addressable machines,
or fixed-word-length computers.

Figure 4-9A. - Fixed-word-length vs. variable-word-length storage.

FIXED-LENGTH WORDS, CONTAINING EIGHT CHARACTERS EACH,

OCCUPYING TWO ADDRESS LOCATIONS (WORD ADDRESSABLE).

Another way to design the primary storage section is to store a single character, such as
the letter L or the number 8, in each address location. An address is assigned to each
location in storage. Computers designed in this way are said to be character-oriented or
character addressable. We also call them variable-word-length computers. Therefore,
the name CHARLIE (fig. 4-9 , view B) now requires seven address locations (300
through 306), while amount paid ($69.00) occupies six address locations (307 through
312).

ADDRESSABLE
Whether a computer addresses a group of bytes as a word or addresses each byte
individually is a function of the circuitry. Both designs have advantages and
disadvantages.

Variable-word-length computers make the most efficient use of available storage space,
since a character can be placed in every storage location. In a fixed-word-length
computer, storage space may be wasted. For example, if the storage capacity in each
address of a fixed-word-length computer is eight bytes, and some of the data elements to
be stored contain only three or four characters, then many of the storage positions in each
word are not being used.

Fixed-word-length computers have faster calculating speeds. They can add two data
words in a single operation. This is not so with character-addressable computers. Here,
only one digit (byte) in each number can be added during a single machine operation.
Thus, eight steps are required to complete the calculation.

The larger mainframe computers (super-computers like the CRAY-1 and CYBER 205)
use only fixed-word-length storage. Most microcomputers use the variable-word-length
approach allowing them to operate on one character at a time. Somewhere in between
these two extremes are the dozens of existing minicomputer and mainframe models that
have what is called built-in flexibility.

These flexible computers are byte-oriented but can operate in either a fixed- or variable-
word-length mode through the use of proper program instructions. Let's take a look at
how these flexible computers operate in a variable- and fixed-word-length environment.

Working in a variable-word-length environment, each address holds one alphanumeric

character as shown in figure 4-9, view B. Since a byte usually represents a single
alphanumeric character, unless you are using packed decimal.

Fixed-word-length vs. variable-word-length storage.

VARIABLE- WORD LENGTH/CHARACTER computer is often said to be byte-

addressable since a character is usually represented using a byte.

(Don't become confused; the terms character-addressable, character-oriented, and

byte-addressable all have the same meaning).

By using the appropriate program instructions, a programmer can retrieve a stored data
element by identifying the address of the first character (say position 300 as in fig. 4-9,
view B) and specifying the number of address locations to be included in the word. In
this case there are seven, positions 300 through 306.
When a flexible computer is working in a fixed-word-length environment, each address
identifies a group of bytes that can be operated on as a unit. This processing method helps
to achieve faster calculating speeds. A programmer can use program instructions to cause
the computer to automatically retrieve, manipulate, and store, as a unit, a fixed word of
say, two, four, or eight bytes of data in one machine operation by identifying the address
of the first character of data. At the same time all remaining bytes are acted upon as a unit
moving from left to right. Figure 4-10 illustrates the different word lengths possible with
many byte-addressable computers. They are half-word (2 bytes), full-word (4 bytes), and
double-word (8 bytes).

Word lengths used on flexible byte-addressable computers.

By now, you should have a good idea of how primary storage locations are identified by
their storage addresses, how these addressable storage locations are used, and how the
storage capacity at an address can vary depending on the design of the computer.

SECONDARY STORAGE DATA ORGANIZATION

Remember, secondary storage devices (also called auxiliary or mass storage devices) are
those devices which are not part of the central processing unit (CPU). They include:
external core; semiconductor, thin film, and bubble memories; punched cards;
paper tape; and several different types of mass storage, such as magnetic tape, disk,
and drum.

You already know it takes a certain number of bits to make one byte (normally eight), and
when bytes are grouped together at a single address they make up a word in the
computer's memory. When data is recorded on some type of magnetic storage medium,
such as disk or tape, it is normally organized by bits, characters (bytes), fields, records,
and files (fig. 4-11). The following definitions should help you understand the
relationship between bits, characters, bytes, words, fields, records, and files.
Figure 4-11. - Data organization.

BIT - The smallest unit of data; it represents one binary digit (0 or 1).

CHARACTER (BYTE) - A group of related bits (usually eight) that make up a single
character-letter, number, or special character.

WORD - A group of related bytes that are treated as a single addressable unit or entity in
memory.

FIELD - One or more related characters that are treated as a unit of information. A field
(also referred to as a data item) may be alphabetic, numeric, or alphanumeric, and may be
either fixed or variable in length. For example, your mobile phone no is of a fixed length;
that is, it's always 10 positions in length. Whereas, names are variable length because
they may be from 2 to 25 positions in length.

RECORD - A group of related fields, all pertaining to the same subject; a person, a thing,
or an event. For example, a payroll record might include fields for your name, amount
paid, taxes withheld, earned leave, and any allotments you might have. On the other
hand, a supply inventory record might consist of fields containing stock number, the
name of the item, its unit price, the quantity on hand, and its bin location.

FILE - A collection of related records, such as the payroll or supply inventory records.

Normally, all records within the file are in the same format.

When processing data, we think in terms of data files. For example, to process a parts
inventory, you would need the master parts inventory file and the file that contains up-to-
date information on each part that has been issued. The master parts inventory file would
have a record for every part in the inventory.

The update file, parts issued file, would have a record for each part issued. You would use
a program to read the records on the parts issued file and update the matching records on
the master parts inventory file. Depending on whether the data is stored on magnetic tape
or disk or in internal storage, the program would use different methods to access storage
to obtain the data.

COMPUTER CARE

Meaning of Computer care

Computers like other electronic items are subject to a lot of wear and tear besides getting
technically obsolete. PC has three enemies — heat, dust and humidity. These enemies
are in the order of their criticality for the computer.

Heat

Is a great enemy of the computer, it can cause huge losses to your computer ranging from
blowing off your computer to malfunctioning of components. Moreover even if the
computer is apparently working fine under heat then continuous exposure to heat could
cause the internal components and chips to wear out.

Heat also lowers the performance of your system. Thus in order to protect your system
from excessive heat, you must not put it in a room that is either under the direct
sunlight for long or which is not properly ventilated, especially in the hot months.

Ventilation at times could play a great role in reducing the impact of heat.

Many of the designer computer workstations, which you buy from the market, are
enclosed from three sides. If you have an enclosed cabinet then cut a hole in the back of
the cabinet behind your SMPS(Switched Mode Power Supply- that efficiently converts
Ac mains and has no power loss) fan. This will allow it to throw hot air out of your
cabinet and thus would reduce the heat. Moreover it will also draw cool air into the
system.

You should maintain your workstation with no clutter, loose paper, etc., to block the flow
of air into the computer. Also you should make sure that the top and rear of your monitor
are kept clean and clear of any waste like paper, dust etc. Normally some persons place a
lot of material like books small boxes, paper rim, etc. on the top of their monitor.

This is a dangerous thing to do as monitor also generates a lot of heat and has ventilation
slots on them, which are normally located on the top and the back. These ventilation
holes pass the excess heat from monitor and thus maintain the temperature. However, if
the heat is not released, then it could cause severe damage to your monitor. Some of the
likely damages are colour shifting, screen flicker and failure. So for maintaining your PC
well you should combat the biggest enemy properly.

Dust

Use dust covers

Dust needs to be tackled well. The dust is bound to impact your PC. Regularly clean the
outer surface of your PC and monitor with mild wet cotton cloth and cover it when not in
use. However, you should not cover it immediately after use as it blocks the heat in your
system. Secondly, you should also periodically clean your PC from inside by unscrewing
the outer cover.. Ideally you can use a vacuum cleaner or a dust blower to blow away the
dust. If possible, remove the dust from the CPU fan also by dusting it out. Clean the area
that covers it using a dry cotton cloth. Normally it gets choked by dust over a period of
time and jams the fan, which may even blow your processor. Moreover, you should also
blow the air in the SMPS (Switched Mode Power Supply) and clean it occasionally. You
should also blow the air from the motherboard and cards. However you should not
clean it by cloth. The dust is just like a blanket, which keeps the chips of your
components hot. Thus the more the dust, the hotter they get. As much as .005 millimeter
of dust can raise the internal temperature of your components by 5 per cent, which is
enough to shorten the life of your system by years.

Keep hard disk flat

For effective working of your computer, the keyboard and mouse needs to be cleaned. It
is as important as your other hardware gadgets. Another hardware component, which
needs special care, is hard disk. You should not mount your hard disk vertically; however
it should be done horizontally and kept flat.

Humidity

Take due care to fight the humidity that is a big problem during the humid months of the
year.. Just keep your room well-ventilated. You should never keep the room closed while
working on a computer when the atmosphere is humid. The cross-ventilation will not let
humidity affect you computer.

COMPUTER MAINTENANCE

“Is the practice of keeping computers in a good state of repair”.

Depending on your environment computers should be serviced at least once per quarter,
though monthly service is optimal. This will ensure your computers run at their peak
performance.

Computer cleaning

Definition ...”is the practice of physically cleaning the interior, and exterior, of a
computer including the removal of dust and debris from cooling fans, power supplies,
and hardware components?”

Cleaning your computer and your computer components and peripherals helps keep the
components and computer in good working condition and helps keep the computers from
spreading germs.

Backup
Important data stored on computers may be copied and archived securely so that, in the
event of failure, the data and systems may be reconstructed. When major maintenance
such as patching (software designed to fix problems with or update a computer program
or its supporting data. - includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs and
improving the usability or performance.)

is performed, a backup is recommended as the first step in case the update fails and
reversion is required.

Disk maintenance

Disk storage, such as your hard drive, fills up with unwanted files over time. Disk
cleanup (and maintenance procedures usually by a utility in the OS on a computer
designed to free up disk space) may be performed as regular maintenance to remove
these.

Files may become fragmented and so slow the performance of the computer. Disk
defragmentation may be performed to combine these fragments and so improve
performance.

Dust

Dust may accumulate as a result of air cooling. If filters are used to prevent this then
they will need regular service and changes. If the cooling system is not filtered then
regular Computer cleaning may be required to prevent short circuits and overheating.
Computer cleaning including the removal of dust and debris from cooling fans, power
supplies, and hardware components needs to be done regularly.

Registry, Operating systems files such as the Windows registry m ay require

maintenance. A utility such as a registry cleaner may be used for this.

Software updates

Software packages and operating systems may require regular updates to correct
software bugs and address security weaknesses.

Below is a listing of general tips that should be taken when cleaning any of the
components or peripherals of a computer as well as tips to help keep a computer clean.

1. Never spray or squirt any liquid onto any computer component. If a spray is
needed, spray the liquid onto a cloth and then use that cloth to rub down the
component.
2. You can use a vacuum to suck up dirt, dust, or hair around the computer on the
outside case. However, do not use a vacuum for the inside of your computer as
it generates a lot of static electricity that can damage the internal components
of your computer. If you need to use a vacuum to clean the inside of your
computer, use a portable battery powered vacuum designed to do this job or try
using compressed air.
 3. When cleaning a component or the computer, turn it off before cleaning.
4. Be cautious when using any cleaning solvents; some individuals may have
allergic reactions to chemicals in cleaning solvents and some solvents can even
damage the case. Try to always use water or a highly diluted solvent.
5. When cleaning, be careful not to accidentally adjust any knobs or controls. In
addition, when cleaning the back of the computer, if anything is plugged in,
make sure not to disconnect any of the plugs.
6. When cleaning fans, especially the smaller fans within a portable computer or
laptop it's suggested that you either hold the fan or place something in-between
the fan blades to prevent it from spinning. Spraying compressed air into a fan
or cleaning a fan with a vacuum may cause damage or back voltage to be
generated.
7. Never eat or drink around the computer.
8. Limit smoking around the computer

Cleaning tools

 Cloth - A cloth is the best tool used when rubbing down a component; although
paper towels can be used with most hardware.

You should not use a cloth to clean any circuitry such as the RAM or
motherboard since they can generate ESD that can damage electronics.

 Water or rubbing alcohol - When moistening a cloth, it is best to use water or

rubbing alcohol. Other solvents may be bad for the plastics used with your
computer.
 Portable Vacuum - Sucking the dust, dirt, hair, cigarette particles, and other
particles out of a computer can be one of the best methods of cleaning a
computer. Over time, these items can restrict the airflow in a computer and
cause circuitry to corrode
 Cotton swabs - Cotton swaps moistened with rubbing alcohol or water are
excellent tools for wiping hard to reach areas in your keyboard, mouse, and
other locations.
 Foam swabs - Whenever possible, it is better to use lint-free swabs such as foam
swab.

Case cleaning

During cleaning, if ventilation locations are found, these can be cleaned helping the case
keep a steady airflow to the computer, keeping components cool and in good working
condition.

Procedure: The plastic case that houses the PC components can be cleaned with a lint-
free cloth that has been slightly dampened with water. For stubborn stains, add a little
household detergent to the cloth. It is recommended that you never use a solvent cleaner
on plastics.
Make sure all vents and air holes are hair and lint free by rubbing a cloth over the holes
and vents. It is also helpful to take a vacuum around each of the hole, vents, and crevices
on the computer. It is safe to use a standard vacuum when cleaning the outside vents of a
computer; however, if you need to clean the inside of the computer, use a portable battery
powered vacuum to prevent static electricity.

CD-ROM, DVD, and other disc drive cleaning

A dirty CD-ROM drive or other disc drives can cause read errors when reading discs.
These read errors could cause software installation issues or issues while running the
program.

To clean the CD-ROM drive we recommend purchasing a CD-ROM cleaner from your
local retailer. A CD-ROM cleaner should sufficiently clean the CD-ROM laser from dust,
dirt, and hair.

In addition to cleaning the drive with a special disc designed to clean drives users can
also use a cloth dampened with water to clean the tray that ejects from the drive. Make
sure however that after the tray has been cleaned that it completely dry before putting the
tray back into the drive.

CD and DVD disc cleaning

Dirty CDs can cause read errors or cause CDs not to work at all. Cleaning CDs and
DVDs should be done with a cleaning kit but can also be done with a normal clean cotton
cloth or shirt. When doing this with a clean cotton cloth or shirt, wipe against the tracks,
starting from the middle of the CD or DVD and wiping towards the outer side as
shown in the below picture. Never wipe with the tracks; doing so may put more
scratches on the disc.

It is recommended when cleaning a CD that water is used. However, if the substance on a

CD cannot be removed using water, pure alcohol can also be used.

Hard drive cleaning

While hard drives cannot be cleaned physically, they can be cleaned with various utilities
on the computer to help it run fast and more efficiently. Utilizing these utilities will
prevent the hard drive from slowing down.
Keyboard cleaning.

Dust, dirt, and bacteria

Clean the computer keyboard to avoid keyboard malfunction. (Before cleaning the
keyboard first turn off the computer or if you're using a USB keyboard unplug it).

Use air: aim the nozzle of the can between the keys and blow away all of the dust and
debris that has gathered there. A vacuum cleaner can also be used, but make sure the
keyboard doesn't have loose "pop off" keys that could possibly be sucked up by the
vacuum. If you wish to clean the keyboard more extensively you'll need to remove the
keys from the keyboard.

After the dust, dirt, and hair has been removed. Spray a disinfectant onto a cloth or use
disinfectant cloths and rub each of the keys on the keyboard. As mentioned in our general
cleaning tips, never spray any liquid onto the keyboard.

Substance spilt into the keyboard

If the keyboard has anything spilt into it (e.g. Coke, beer, wine, coffee, milk, etc.), not
taking the proper steps can cause the keyboard to be destroyed.

If anything is spilt onto the keyboard turn the computer off immediately or at the very
least disconnect it from the computer. Once done flip the keyboard over helping to
prevent the substance from penetrating circuits. While the keyboard is upside down,
shake the keyboard over a surface that can be cleaned later. While still upside down, use a
cloth to help clean out what can be reached. After cleaned to the best of your ability leave
the keyboard upside down for at least one night allowing it to dry. Once dry, continue
cleaning the keyboard with any remaining substance. If after cleaning the keyboard you
have keys that stick remove the keys and clean below the keys and the bottom portion of
the key.

If after doing all the above steps the keyboard does not function properly or at all it's
recommended you buy a new keyboard.

Monitor

Dirt, dust, and finger prints can cause the computer screen to be difficult to read. Unlike a
computer monitor, the LCD or flat-panel display is not made of glass, therefore requires
special cleaning procedures.

When cleaning the LCD screen it is important to remember to not spray any liquids onto
the LCD directly, press gently while cleaning, and do not use a paper towel as it may
cause the LCD to become scratched.
To clean the LCD screen we recommend that you use a non-rugged microfiber cloth, soft
cotton cloth, or duster. If a dry cloth does not completely clean the screen, you can apply
rubbing alcohol to the cloth and wipe the screen with the damp cloth. Rubbing alcohol is
used to clean the LCD before it leaves the factory.

Glass monitors: The glass monitor screen can be cleaned with ordinary household glass
cleaner. Be sure to remove power from the monitor and spray the cleaner onto a lint free-
cloth so the fluid doesn't leak into the electrical components inside the monitor. Vacuum
off any dust that has settled on top of the monitor, and make sure no books or papers have
been placed on the air vents. Obstructed monitor vents can cause the monitor to overheat
or even catch on fire. Try using a cloth dampened with water when cleaning monitor on a
screen that is not made of glass or has any anti-glare protection on the screen. Using
ordinary household glass cleaner on special screens, especially cleaners with ammonia
can remove anti-glare protection or other special surfaces.

Motherboard cleaning

Dust and especially particles of cigarette smoke can build up and corrode circuitry
causing various problems such as computer lockup. When inside the computer take the
necessary precautions and try to avoid unplugging any cables or other connections. It is
recommended that when cleaning the motherboard from dust, dirt, or hair to use
compressed air. When using compressed air, hold it in the up-right position; otherwise, it
is possible chemicals may come out of the container that could damage or corrode the
Motherboard or other component within the computer. Also, ensure when using
compressed air that you always blow the dust or dirt away from the motherboard, or out
of the case.

Another good alternative to compressed air is to use a portable battery powered vacuum
that can effectively remove the dust, dirt, and hair from the motherboard completely and
prevent it from getting trapped within the case. However, do not use a standard electricity
powered vacuum as it can cause a lot of static electricity that can damage the computer.
When using the vacuum it is vital that you stay a couple inches away from the
motherboard and all other components to help prevent contact as well as to help prevent
anything from being sucked into the vacuum. Ensure that you do not remove any small
components with the vacuum such as jumpers.

Mouse cleaning

A dirty optical-mechanical mouse (mouse with a ball) can cause the mouse to be difficult
to move as well as cause strange mouse movement.

To clean the rollers of an optical-mechanical mouse, you must first remove the bottom
cover of the mouse. To do this, examine the bottom of the mouse to see what direction the
mouse cover should be rotated. As you can see in the below illustration, the mouse cover
must be moved counter clockwise. Place two fingers on the mouse cover and push the
direction of the arrows.
Once the cover has rotated about an inch, rotate the mouse into its normal position,
covering the bottom of the mouse with one hand and the bottom should fall off including
the mouse ball. If this does not occur, attempt to shake the mouse gently.

Once the bottom cover and the ball are removed, you should be able to see three rollers
located within the mouse. Use a cotton swab, finger, or fingernail to remove any
substance. Usually, there will be a small line of hair and dirt in the middle of the roller,
remove as much as this substance as possible.

Once you have removed as much dirt and hair as possible, place the ball back within the
mouse and place the cover back on.

If the mouse still appears to be having the same issue, repeat the above process; if after
several attempts the mouse is still having the same issues, it's likely that your mouse has
other hardware issues and we recommend that it be replaced.

Cleaning your mouse pad with a damp cloth can also help improve a computer's mouse
movement. To help keep a mouse clean and germ free it can be helpful to clean the
mouse.

Use a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol or warm water and rub the surface of the
mouse and each of its buttons.

Printer cleaning

Cleaning the outside of a printer can help keep the printer's appearance looking good; and
in the case of a printer that is used by many different people, keep the printer clean of
germs. First, make sure to turn off the printer before cleaning it. Dampen a cloth with
water or rubbing alcohol and wipe the case and each of the buttons or knobs on the
printer. As mentioned earlier, never spray any liquid directly onto the printer.

With some printers it may be necessary to clean the inside of the printer to help keep the
printer running smoothly.

Because of how many different printers there are, steps in cleaning printers, and printer
manufacturer policies on cleaning the inside of the printer, we recommend you obtain the
printer cleaning steps from your printer manufacturer.

Scanner cleaning

Flatbed scanners commonly become dirty with dust, fingerprints, and hair. When a
scanner is dirty, the images may have distortions. Clean a flatbed scanner's surface by
spraying a window cleaner onto a paper towel or cotton cloth and wipe the glass until
clean. As mentioned earlier, never spray a liquid directly onto the component. To clean
the outside of the scanner, the same towel or cotton cloth can be used.

Floppy drive cleaning

Dirty read/write heads on the floppy drive can cause errors during the reading or writing
process. The floppy drive can be cleaned two different ways. The first method of cleaning
a floppy drive, and our recommended method, is to purchase a kit at your local retail
store designed to clean the read/write heads on your floppy drive.

The second method of cleaning the floppy drive is only recommended for experienced
computer users. Open the floppy drive casing and physically swab the read/write heads
with a lint-free foam swab soaked in pure alcohol, free-on, or trichloroethane. When
performing these steps, be extremely careful when cleaning the heads to ensure that you
do not lock them out of alignment causing the floppy drive to not work. To help prevent
the heads from becoming out of alignment, use a dabbing motion lightly putting the swab
on the head and removing it, do not perform a side-to-side motion

HEALTH ISSUES IN COMPUTER ENVIRONMENT

Cleaning solvents

Be cautious when using any cleaning solvents; some individuals may have allergic
reactions to chemicals in cleaning solvents and some solvents can even damage the
case. Try to always use water or a highly diluted solvent.

Headphones

That are used by multiple people may need to be cleaned frequently. If the headphones
being used are plastic or vinyl, moisten a cloth with warm water and rub the head and
earpieces of the headphones. As mentioned earlier in our cleaning tips, it is recommended
that if your headphones are being used for a library or school that you do not use any
disinfectant or cleaning solvent as users may have allergic reactions to the chemicals they
contain.

Headphones that have cushions also have the availability of having the cushions replaced.
Replacing these cushions can also help keep the headphones clean.

Finally, in regards to headphones and the spreading of head lice, if multiple students are
using your headphones, you should consider having the students use their own
headphones, using bags that are placed over the headphones, or having headphones that
can be wiped with warm water after each student has used the headphones.

Printer

And in the case of a printer that is used by many different people, keep the printer clean
of germs. First, make sure to turn off the printer before cleaning

One set of issues concerns workstation design, setup, and illumination

 Eyestrain,
 Headaches,
 General malaise, and other
 Visual and musculoskeletal problems as the rationale for imposing workplace
standards, to be phased in over the next four years.

A second set of issues relates to suspected radiation hazards:

 Including miscarriage and

 Cancer.

A special concern with radiation is that nearby colleagues could be affected as well,
since radiation is emitted from the backs and sides of some terminals

Ergonomics and work habits

Those who spend several hours a day for many years should pay careful attention to
ergonomics-(the study of man-machine interfaces.)
There is need to provide for adjustability--to accommodate different body dimensions,
personal work style preferences, and the need to change positions to avoid fatigue.
A recommended working posture shows the body directly facing the keyboard and
terminal, back straight, feet flat on the floor, eyes aligned at or slightly below the top of
the screen, and thighs, forearms, wrists, and hands roughly parallel to the floor.
Achieving this posture may require:

* A chair with a seat pan that adjusts both vertically and fore-and-
 aft, an adjustable height backrest, and adjustable tilting tension
* An adjustable height work surface or separate keyboard/mouse tray
(note that many keyboard trays are too narrow to accommodate a mouse
pad, leaving the mouse at an awkward height or reach on the desktop)
* A height adjustment for the video display (a good use for those
manuals you'll never read!)
* An adjustable document holder to minimize head movement and eyestrain
* Adjustable foot rests, arms rests, and/or wrist rests.

Light and glare

Eyestrain, headaches, and impaired vision are often a product of improper

illumination resulting in glare, which is light within the field of vision that is brighter
than other objects to which the eyes are adapted.

Both direct glare from sunlight and lighting fixtures directed at the user's eyes and
indirect glare due to reflections from video screens or glossy surfaces are common
problems for VDT users.

Many offices are too bright for computer use, which may be a carryover from the days
when paperwork required such brightness or the result of many office workers'
preferences for sunlight and open windows. A study recommends 200-500 lux for
general office work; other source Suggest 500-700 lux for light characters on dark
monitors and somewhat more for dark-on-light

Terminal screens should be positioned at right angles to windows, so sunlight is

neither directly behind the monitor nor behind the operator, where it will reflect off the
screen. If this is infeasible, blinds or drapes should be installed.

Screens should also be positioned between rows of overhead fixtures, which can be
fitted with baffles or parabolic louvers to project light downward rather than
horizontally into the eyes or terminal screens.

Some users have found filters placed in front of the screen to be effective in reducing
reflections, however some dimming or blurring of the display may result. Experts
advise trial and error, since the best solution appears to depend upon specific
conditions and user
preferences. Finally, if you wear glasses or contact lenses, be sure your physician is
aware of the amount of terminal work you do; special lenses are sometimes necessary.
Bifocals, in particular, are not recommended for extensive terminal work, since the
unnatural neck
position compresses the cervical vertebrae..

Breaks and exercises

Working in the same position for too long causes tension buildup and is thought to
increase the risk of repetitive motion injuries. Remedies include changing postures
frequently, performing other work interspersed with computing (some studies
recommend a 10-15 minute break from the keyboard every hour), and doing exercises
such as tightening and releasing fists and rotating arms and hands to increase
circulation. Be aware, also, that the extra stress created by deadline pressure
exacerbates the effects of long hours at the computer.

Computer-induced medical problems can be an umbrella term for the various problems
a computer user can develop from prolonged and incorrect computer use

In today’s world using computers is a necessity for the majority of people but not many
people actually consider the medical consequences that working with computers can
cause, such as

 Damaged eyesight,
 Bad posture,

 Arthritis in fingers and

 Computer stress injuries that can be caused by sitting in one position for a
prolonged period of time.

Common computer-induced medical problems

There are three main notable medical problems that can arise from using computers. They
are

 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

 Computer Vision Syndrome and

 Musculoskeletal problems.

Carpal tunnel syndrome

The medical problem associated with computer-related work is carpal tunnel syndrome
(CTS). CTS is a stress-related injury caused by repetitive movement of joints,
especially the wrist, and can lead to numerous musculoskeletal problems. It has
become very common among Computer professionals due to poorly placed computer
components and extensive typing over a long period of time with many sources saying
that the syndrome is predominantly caused by the acute positioning of the wrist while
typing and this problem is exacerbated by the need for the user to be crouching towards
the screen while typing.

Touch screen monitors will help reduce stress on the hand and wrist,

Implementing frequent work breaks and work rotation procedures to ensure that
employees aren’t working on a single computer for hours on end "a higher level of
intensity of computer work results in higher risk for CTS. which causes severe stress on
the joints and thus can lead to CTS

Cumulative trauma disorders are caused by "people who sit at PC workstations or visual
display terminals in fast-paced, repetitive keystroke jobs. Their fingers, wrists, arms,
necks, and back may become so weak and painful that they cannot work,"[4] Many people
do not think about this when they look at their computer while using it. It is important to
note that everything down to the keyboard has a design process behind it focusing on user
interface.[5]

Computer vision syndrome

In many cases, frequent computer users suffer from computer vision syndrome, which is
a degenerative eye problem which can result in severely reduced eyesight (Myopia),
blurred vision, overall eye tiredness and even Glaucoma.

Computer Eye Syndrome is an umbrella term for many problems but the causes of these
problems can be easily identified. When using a computer due to the size and setup of the
monitor and components it is necessary for the user to be within at least two feet of the
monitor when performing any type of computational work. This presents many problems
especially in older monitors due to an elevated amount of monitor glare, poor display
quality and insufficient picture display refresh rates. Although these problems are more
evident in older computers the newer models are not free from these problems either.
Studies have been conducted [6] into the correlation between computers and eye problems
and it was found that the Ionizing radiation given off by monitors has severe detrimental
effects on the eye and eyesight on a whole. They also state “Treatment requires a
multidirectional approach combining ocular therapy with adjustment of the
workstation”.

Musculoskeletal problems

Another medical issue caused by the use of computers is back and posture problems. The
need for the user to be crouched and hunched towards the monitors and computer
components due to the design and positioning of these particular computer peripherals
causes posture and back problems but is also the cause of severe and acute pain in the
upper back, particularly pain in the neck and or shoulders.

POSSIBLE AMELIORATIONS

 Ensuring our computer peripherals are well situated to ensure maximum comfort
 Taking frequent breaks from computational work can go a long way to ensuring
that many medical conditions arising from computers are avoided.

 Modern medical treatment for computer-induced medical problems like carpal

tunnel syndrome include splints, surgery, corticosteroids, and physiotherapy
therapy. Alternative medicine for computer-induced medical problems has also
been shown to be effective, notably acupuncture.
Some things you can do to avoid problems is to:

 Adjust your chair so that your wrists are not bent as they sit on the keyboard .
 Do NOT use the small plastic prop-ups found on some keyboards to elevate the
back part of the keyboard. Propping up the rear of the keyboard, forces your
hands into dorsiflexion, which sets them up for carpal tunnel-related injuries. The
line created by the forearm, wrist, and hand as it types, should be a straight one .

 If you have a wrist rest, do NOT place your hands on it as you type. Your hands
should only rest there while pausing from typing; otherwise they should be "
floating " over the keyboard. Use a light touch; don't pound the keys .

 Don't grip the mouse ( or stylus ) too tightly, and try to move it with your whole
arm, not just your hand, moving from the shoulder .

 Take frequent breaks, stretch the muscles used, and rest your eyes .

 Pay attention to warning signs .

Tips & Warnings

 Take a brief break at least every hour, more or less. You should spend at least
ten minutes away from your desk during this time. Get up and walk around, or
at least stretch. If you can, do some type of physical exercise to keep your blood
circulating.
 Use proper lighting when using a computer. This will prevent eye issues. Make
sure the light does not reflect in the monitor also.
 You can use an ergonomic keyboard and/or mouse pad to prevent many health
issues.
 When you are on break or lunch, do not spend this time at your desk. It is best
to move positions as often as possible throughout the day.
 It is better to use proper and health-conscious computer safety tips then it is to
have to deal with the health issues that can arise later if you don't.

COMPUTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

Definitions

Hardware

“Hardware refers to the physical elements of a computer”.

Also referred to as the machinery or the equipment of the computer. Examples of

hardware in a computer are the keyboard, the monitor, the mouse and the processing unit

However, most of a computer's hardware cannot be seen; in other words, it is not an

external element of the computer, but rather an internal one, surrounded by the
computer's casing. A computer's hardware is comprised of many different parts, but
perhaps the most important of these is the motherboard. The motherboard is made up of
even more parts that power and control the computer.

In contrast to software, hardware is a physical entity, while software is a non-physical

entity. Hardware and software are interconnected, without software; the hardware
of a computer would have no function. However, without the creation of hardware to
perform tasks directed by software via the central processing unit (box), software would
be useless.

Software

1) “Software can also be described as a collection of routines, rules and symbolic

languages that direct the functioning of the hardware.”

2) “Consists of all the electronic instructions that tell the hardware how to perform a
task”. Software, commonly known as programs

These instructions come from a software developer in the form that will be accepted by
the operating system that they are based on. For example, a program that is designed for
the Windows operating system will only work for that operating system. Compatibility of
software will vary as the design of the software and the operating system differ. A
software that is designed for Windows XP may experience compatibility issue when
running under Windows 2000 or NT.

Software is capable of performing specific tasks, as opposed to hardware which only

perform mechanical tasks that they are mechanically designed for. Practical computer
systems divide software systems into three major groups:

Software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs,

procedures, and documentation that perform some task on a computer system.

1. System software: Helps run computer hardware and computer system.

Computer software includes operating systems, device drivers, diagnostic tools
and more.
2. Programming software: Software that assists a programmer in writing
computer programs.
3. Application software
HARDWARE VS SOFTWARE

The distinction between the two is at times arbitrary and often blurred. Software is an
ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer hardware in a
particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages that are
easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine
language. High-level languages are compiled or interpreted into machine language object
code. Software may also be written in an assembly language, essentially, a mnemonic
representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet.

Hardware is best described as a device that is physically connected to the computer or

something that can be physically touched. A CD-ROM, monitor, printer, and video card
are all examples of computer hardware. Without any hardware your computer would not
exist and software would have nothing to run on. It is the physical part of a computer,
including the digital circuitry, as distinguished from the computer software that executes
within the hardware.

There are several differences between computer hardware and software.

Comparison chart
Hardware Software
Quickbooks, Adobe
Acrobat, Winoms-Cs,
CD-ROM, monitor, printer, video card,
Examples: Internet Explorer ,
scanners , label makers, routers , and modems.
Microsoft Word , Microsoft
Excel
 Hardware Software
System software,
Input,storage,processing,control, and output
Types: Programming software,
devices.
and Application software.

To deliver its set of

Inter Hardware starts functioning once software is
instructions, Software is
dependency: loaded.
installed on hardware.

Hardware serve as the delivery system for To perform the specific

software solutions. The hardware of a task you need to complete.
computer is infrequently changed, in Software is generally not
Function:
comparison with software and data, which are needed to for the hardware
“soft” in the sense that they are readily to perform its basic level
created, modified, or erased on the comput tasks such as turning on
and reponding to input.

Hardware stays at steady reliability level in Software needs constant

Reliability:
useful life. testing after upgrades.

Software failure is
Hardware failure is random. Hardware does systematic. Software does
Failure:
have increasing failure at the last stage. not have an increasing
failure rate

Fault: Hardware faults is physical. Software faults are not.

Lifetime: Hardware wears out over time. Software does not wear out
over time.
Nature: It is physical in nature It is logical in nature
Collection of instructions
that enables a user to
interact with the computer.
Software is a program that
Devices required to store and execute (or run)
Definition: enables a computer to
the software.
perform a specific task, as
opposed to the physical
components of the system
(hardware).
Anything which we can see
Simple small Anything which we can see when the computer
on the screen when the
definition: is off is hardware.
computer is on is software.
Type

Hardware is a physical device something that you’re able to touch and see. For example,
the computer monitor you’re viewing this text on or the mouse you’re using to navigate is
considered computer hardware. Software is a program that enables a computer to perform
a specific task, as opposed to the physical components of the system (hardware).

Function

Software performs the specific task that requires completion by giving the ordered set of
instructions to complete it.

Hardware serve as the delivery system for software solutions.

Examples

Examples of Hardware types include a CD-ROM, monitor, printer, video card etc. While
some examples of software can be Internet Explorer, Windows etc.

Interdependancy

Hardware cannot function till software is loaded and software is installed in hardware to
set the programs in action.

Firewalls

Firewalls can be both for Hardware and Software. The most popular firewall choice is a
software firewall which are installed on the computer (like any software) and can be
customized and allow control over its function and protection features. Hardware
firewalls are typically found in broadband routers.

Changes

The hardware of a computer is infrequently changed, in comparison with software and

data, which are “soft” in the sense that they are readily created, modified, or erased on the
computer. With technological changes, software changes take place faster than hardware
changes.

The term "software" is sometimes used in a broader context to describe any electronic
media content which embodies expressions of ideas such as film, tapes, records, etc.

Depends on the hardware. Almost all computer setups will require at least a disk drive
(e.g. hard drive), display, keyboard, memory, motherboard, processor, power supply, and
video card in order to function properly. If any of these devices was missing or had
problems, an error would be encountered, or the computer would not start. Adding other
hardware such as a disc drive (e.g. CD-ROM or DVD), modem, mouse, network card,
printer, sound card, speakers, etc. are not required, but will give the computer additional
capabilities.

Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related

data that provides the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it.
Software refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of the
computer. In other words, software is a set of programs, procedures, algorithms and its
documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system. Program
software performs the function of the program it implements, either by directly providing
instructions to the digital electronics or by serving as input to another piece of software.
The term was coined to contrast to the old term hardware (meaning physical devices). In
contrast to hardware, software "cannot be touched Software is also sometimes used in a
more narrow sense, meaning application software only. Sometimes the term includes data
that has not traditionally been associated with computers, such as film, tapes, and records.

Computer software is so called to distinguish it from computer hardware, which

encompasses the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute
(or run) the software

At the lowest level, executable code consists of machine language instructions specific to
an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of binary values
signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding
state.

Programs are an ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer
in a particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages that
are easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine
language. High-level languages are compiled or interpreted into machine language object
code. Software may also be written in an assembly language, essentially, a mnemonic
representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet. Assembly
language must be assembled into object code via an assembler.

HARDWARE

COMPUTER HARDWARE

A computer contains several major subsystems such as the

Central Processing Unit (CPU),

Memory and peripheral device controllers. These components all plug into a "Bus".
The bus is essentially a communications highway; all the other components work
together by transferring data over the bus. The active part of the computer, the part
that does calculations and controls all the other parts is the "Central Processing Unit"
(CPU). The Central Processing Unit (CPU) contains electronic clocks that control the
timing of all operations; electronic circuits that carry out arithmetic operations like
addition and multiplication; circuits that identify and execute the instructions that
make up a program; and circuits that fetch the data from memory. Instructions and
data are stored in main memory. The CPU fetches them as needed. Peripheral device
controllers look after input devices, like keyboards and mice, output devices, like
printers and graphics displays, and storage devices like disks. The CPU and peripheral
controllers work together to transfer information between the computer and its users.
Sometimes, the CPU will arrange for data be taken from an input device, transfer
through the controller, move over the bus and get loaded directly into the CPU. Data
being output follows the same route in reverse – moving from the CPU, over the bus,
through a controller and out to a device. In other cases, the CPU may get a device
controller to move data directly into, or out of, main memory.

CPU AND INSTRUCTIONS

The CPU of a modern small computer is physically implemented as single silicon
"chip". This chip will have engraved on it the million or more transistors and the
interconnecting wiring that define the CPU's circuits. The chip will have one hundred
or more pins around its rim --- some of these pins are connection points for the signal
lines from the bus, others will be the points where electrical power is supplied to the
chip. Although physically a single component, the CPU is logically made up from a
number of subparts. The three most important, which will be present in every CPU

Timing and control circuits

The timing and control circuits are the heart of the system. A controlling circuit
defines the computer's basic processing cycle:
repeat fetch next instruction from memory decode instruction (i.e. determine which
data
manipulation circuit is to be activated) fetch from memory any additional data that are
needed execute the instruction (feed the data to the appropriate manipulation
circuit)until "halt" instruction has been executed; Along with the controlling "fetch-
decode-execute" circuit, the timing and control component of the CPU contains the
circuits for decoding instructions and decoding addresses (i.e. working out the location
in memory of required data elements).

The Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) contains the circuits that manipulate data.
There will be circuits for arithmetic operations like addition and multiplication. Often
there will be different versions of such circuits – one version for integer numbers and a
second for real numbers. Other circuits will implement comparison operations that
permit a program check whether one data value is greater than or less than some other
value. There will also be "logic" circuits that directly manipulate bit pattern data.
While most data are kept in memory, CPUs are designed to hold a small amount of
data in "registers" (data stores) in the CPU itself. It is normal for main memory to be
large enough to hold millions of data values; the CPU may only have space for
something like 16 values. A CPU register will hold as many bits as a "word" in the
computer's memory.
Most current CPUs have registers that each store 32 bits of data. The circuits in the
ALU often are organized so that some or all of their inputs and outputs must come
from, or go to, CPU registers. Data values have to be fetched from memory and stored
temporarily in CPU registers. Only then can they be combined using an ALU circuit,
with the result again going to a register. If the result is from the final step in a
calculation, it gets stored back into main memory. While some of the CPU registers are
used for data values that are being manipulated, others may be reserved for
calculations that the CPU has to do when it is working out where in memory particular
data values are to be stored.CPU designs vary with respect to their use of registers. But,
commonly, a CPU will have 8 or more "data" registers and another 8 "address"
registers. Programmers who write in low-level "assembly languages" Assembly
language code defines details such as how data should be moved to specific data
registers and how addresses are to be calculated and saved temporarily in address
registers. Generally, programmers working with high level languages 1but, when
necessary, a programmer can find out how the CPU registers are used in their code. In
addition to the main data and address registers, the CPU contains many other registers
The ALU will contain numerous registers for holding temporary values that are
generated as arithmetic operations are performed. The Computer hardware timing and
control component contains a number of registers that hold control information. The
Program Counter (PC) holds the address of the memory location containing the next
instruction to be executed. The Instruction Register (IR) holds the bit pattern that
represents the current instruction; different parts of the bit pattern are used to encode
the "operation code" and the address of any data required. Most CPUs have a "flags"
register. The individual bits in this register record various status data. Typically, one bit
is used to indicate whether the CPU is executing code from an ordinary program or
code that forms part of the controlling Operating Systems (OS) program. (The OS code
has privileges; it can do things, which ordinary programs can not do, like change
settings of peripheral device controllers. When the OS-mode bit is not set, these
privileged instructions can not be executed.) Commonly, another group of bits in the
flags register will be used to record the result of comparison instructions performed by
the ALU. One bit in the flags register would be set if the comparator circuits found two
values to be equal; a different bit would be set if the first of the two values was greater
than the second.
Ultimately, a program has to be represented as a sequence of instructions in memory.
Each instruction specifies either one data manipulation step or a control action.
Normally, instructions are executed in sequence. The machine is initialized with the
program counter holding the memory location of the first instruction from the
program and then the fetch-decode-execute cycle is started. The CPU sends a fetch
request to memory specifying the location specified by the PC (program counter); it
receives back the instruction and stores this in the IR. The PC is then updated so that it
holds the address of the next instruction in sequence. The instruction in the IR is then
decoded and executed. Sometimes, execution of the instruction will change the
contents of the PC.
Program Counter and Instruction Register Flags register Programs and instructions
CPU and instructions "branch" instruction (these instructions allow a program to do
things like skip over processing steps that aren't required for particular data, or go
back to the start of some code that must be repeated many times). A CPU is
characterized by its instruction repertoire – the set of instructions that can be
interpreted by the circuits in the timing and control unit and executed using the
arithmetic logic unit.. The Motorola 68000 CPU chip can serve as an example
 (Instructions are usually given short "mnemonic" names – names that have been
chosen to remind one of the effect achieved by the instruction, like ADD and
CLeaR.)Different CPU architectures, e.g. the Motorola 68000 and Intel-086
architectures, have different instruction sets. There will be lots of instructions that are
common – ADD, SUB, etc. But each architecture will have its own special instructions
that are not present on the other. Even when both architectures have similar
instructions, e.g. the compare and conditional branch instructions, there may be
differences in how these work. Instruction repertoire mnemonic instruction names
Computer hardware An instruction is represented by a set of bits. A few CPUs have
fixed size instructions; on such machines, every instruction is 16-bits, or 32-bits or
whatever. Most CPUs allow for different sizes of instructions. An instruction will be at
least 16-bits in size, but may have an additional 16, 32, or more bits.The first few bits
of an instruction form the "Op-code" (operation code). These bits identify the data
manipulation or control operation required. Again CPUs vary; some use a fixed size
op-code, most have several different layouts for instructions with differing numbers of
bits allocated for the op-code. If a CPU uses a fixed size op-code, decoding is simple.
The timing and control component will implement a form of multiway switch. Thus, if
one had a 4-bit op-code, one could have a decoding scheme something like the
following:
0000 Do an addition
0001 Do a subtraction
0010 Copy (move) some data
0011 Do an AND operation
...
...
The meaning of the remaining bits of an instruction depends on the actual instruction.
Many instructions require that data be specified. Thus, an ADD instruction needs to
identify which two values are to be summed, and must also specify a place where the
result should be stored. Often some of this information can be implicit. An ADD
instruction can be arranged so that the sum of the two specified values always replaces
the first value wherever this was stored. Although some data locations can be implicit,
it is necessary to define either the source or destination locations for the other data.
Sometimes a program will need to add numbers that are already held in data registers
in the CPU; at other times, the program may need to fetch additional data from
memory. So sometimes the "operand description" part of an add instruction will need
to identify the two CPU data registers that are to be used; other times, the "operand
description" will have to identify one CPU register and one memory location.
Occasionally, the "operand description" part might be used to identify a CPU register
and the value that is to added to that register's existing contents. It is here that things
get a bit complex. CPUs have many different ways of encoding information about the
registers to be used, the addresses of memory locations, and the use of explicit data
values. Particular machine architecture will have a set of "addressing modes" – each
mode specifies a different way of using the bits of the operand description to encode
details concerning the location of data values. Different architectures have quite
different sets of addressing modes. Some instructions don't need any data. For
example, the "Bcc" (conditional branch) group instructions use only information
recorded in the CPU's Flags register. These instructions have different ways of using
the operand bits of instruction word. Often, as with the Bcc instructions, the operand
bits encode an address of an instruction that is to be used to replace the current
contents of the program counter. Replacing the contents of the PC changes the next
instruction executed.

MEMORY AND DATA

Computers have two types of memory:

ROM – Read Only Memory
RAM - normal Read Write Memory
The acronym RAM instead of RWM is standard. It actually standards for "Random
Access Memory". Its origin is very old, it was used to distinguish main memory (where
data values can be accessed in any order – hence "randomly") from secondary storage
like tapes (where data can only be accessed in sequential order).ROM memory is
generally used to hold parts of the code of the computer's operating system. Some
computers have small ROM memories that contain only a minimal amount of code just
sufficient to load the operating system from a disk storage unit. Other machines have
larger ROM memories that store substantial parts of the operating system code along
with other code, such as code for generating graphics displays. Most of the memory on
a computer will be RAM. RAM memory is used to hold the rest of the code and data for
the operating system, and the code and data for the program(s) being run on the
computer.

Memory sizes may be quoted in bits, bytes, or words:

Bit a single 0 or 1 data value

Byte a group of 8 bits
Word the width of the primary data paths between memory and the CPU, maybe
16-bit (two byte), 32-bit (four byte) or larger.

Memory sizes are most commonly given in terms of bytes. (The other units are less
useful for comparative purposes. Bits are too small a unit of storage. Word sizes vary
between machines and on some machines aren't really defined.) The larger memory
units like bytes and words are just made up from groups of bits. All storage devices
require simple two-state components to store individual bits. Many different
technologies have been used Some early computers distinguished 0 and 1 bit values by
the presence or absence of a pulse of energy moving through a tube of mercury;
external storage was provided using paper media like cards or tapes where the
presence or absence of a punched hole distinguished the 0/1 bit setting. Later, the most
popular technology for a computer's main memory used small loops of magnetic oxide
("cores") that could be set with differing North/South polarity to distinguish the 0/1 bit
state. Disks (and tapes) still use magnetic encoding – 0/1 bit values are distinguished
by the magnetic state of spots of oxide on the disk's surface. The main memories of
modern computers are made from integrated circuits. One basic circuit is a "flip-flop".
This uses four transistors wired together; it can be\

 ROM memory
 RAM memory
 Bits, bytes, and words
Computers set in an on or an off state and so can hold one bit. A more elaborate
circuit, with eight flip-flops, can hold one byte. Repeated again and again, these can be
built up into integrated circuits that hold millions of bytes. Individual memory chips
with as much as 4 million bytes of storage capacity can now be purchased. A
computer's memory will be made up out of several of these chips. Memory can be
viewed as a vector (one dimensional array) of words. The words can be identified by
their positions (index number) in this vector – the integer index of a word is its
"address". Most computers are designed to allow addressing of individual bytes. (If a
request is made for a specific byte, the memory unit may return the entire word,
leaving it to the CPU circuits to select the required byte). Because the individual bytes
are addressable, word addresses increase in 2s (or in 4s if it is a machine with 4 byte
words).The amount of memory available on a computer has increased rapidly over the
last few years. Most current personal computers now have around 8 million bytes of
storage (8 megabyte, 8MB); more powerful workstations have from 32MB to 256MB
and large time shared systems may have 1000 MB (or 1gigabyte)."Cache" memories
are increasingly common ("cache – a hiding place for provisions, treasures etc").
Cache memories are essentially hidden from the applications programmer; the cache
belongs to the computer hardware and its controlling operating system. These work
together using a cache to increase performance. Currently, a typical cache memory
would be up to 256 KB in size. The cache may form a part of the circuitry of the CPU
chip itself, or may be a separate chip. Either way, the system will be designed so that
information in the cache can be accessed much more quickly than information in
main storage.

Memory addresses, Cache memories and Memory and data

The OS and CPU hardware arrange to copy blocks of bytes ("pages") from main
memory into the cache. The selected pages could be those with the instructions
currently being executed. Most programs involve loops where particular sets of
instructions are executed repeatedly. If the instructions forming a loop are in the
cache, the CPU's instruction-fetch operation is greatly speeded up. Sometimes it is
worth copying pages with data from main memory to the cache – then subsequent data
accesses are faster (though data that get changed do have to be copied back to main
memory eventually). The operations shifting pages, or individual data elements,
between cache and memory are entirely the concern of the CPU hardware and the
operating system. The only way that a programmer should be able to detect a cache is
by noticing increased system's performance. All data manipulated by computers are
represented by bit patterns. A byte, with 8 individual bits, can represent any of 256
different patterns; some are shown in A set of 256 patterns is large enough to have a
different pattern for each letter of the alphabet, the digits, punctuation characters, and
a whole variety of special characters. If a program has to work with textual data,
composed of lots of individual characters, then each character can be encoded in a
single byte. Of course there have to be conventions that assign a specific pattern to
each different character. At one time, different computer manufacturers specified their
own character encoding schemes. Now, most use a standard character encoding
scheme known as ASCII (for American Standard Code for Information
Interchange).Although standardized, the assignments of patterns to characters is
essentially arbitrary.
Tab
Space
(
*
6
@
B
U
a
d
}
±
P
V
™
0
1
This ASCII scheme is mandated by an international standard. It specifies the bit
patterns that should be used to encode 128 different characters including all the letters
of the Roman alphabet, digits, punctuation marks and a few special control characters
like "Tab".
Data as bit patterns in memory Character data ASCII character codes
Some computer systems may have these patterns assigned to additional characters like
™, ±, ¢, ‡.Bit patterns can also be used to represent numbers. Computers work with
integer numbers and "floating point" numbers. Floating point numbers are used to
approximate the real numbers of mathematics. A single byte can only be used to
encode 256 different values. Obviously, arithmetic calculations are going to work with
wider ranges – like -2,000,000,000 to +2,000,000,000. Many more bits are needed to
represent all those different possible values. All integer values are represent using
several bytes. Commonly, CPUs are designed to work efficiently with both two-byte
integers and four-byte integers (the CPU will have two slightly different versions of
each of the arithmetic instructions). Two-byte integers are sufficient if a program is
working with numbers in the range from about minus thirty thousand to plus thirty
thousand; the four-byte integers cover the range from minus to plus two thousand
million.. The number representations have an obvious regular pattern. Unlike the case
of character data, the patterns used to represent integers can not be arbitrary. They
have to follow regular patterns in order to make it practical to design electronic
circuitry that can combine patterns and achieve effects equivalent to arithmetic
operations. The code scheme that provides the rules for representing numbers is
known as "two's complement notation"; this scheme is covered in introductory courses
on computer hardware. There are other coding schemes for integers but "two's
complement notation" is the most commonly used. The actual coding scheme used to
represent integers, and the resulting bit patterns, is not often of interest to
programmers. While a computer requires special bit patterns representations of
numbers,
strings of 0 and 1 characters are not appropriate for either output or input. Humans
require numbers as sequences of digit characters. Every time a number is input to a
program, or is printed by a program, some code has to be executed to translate between
the binary computer representation and the digit string representation used by
humans. The electronic circuits in the CPU can process the binary patterns and
correctly reproduce the effects of arithmetic operations. There is just one catch with
integers – in the computer they are limited to fixed ranges. Two-bytes are sufficient to
represent numbers from -32767 to +32768 – and it is an error if a program generates a
value outside this range. Mistakes are possible. Consider for example a program that is
specified as only having to work with values in the range 0 to 25000; a programmer
might reasonably choose to use two byte integers to represent such values. However, a
calculation like "work out 85% of 24760" could cause problems, even though the
result (21046) is in range. If the calculation is done by multiplying 85 and 24760, the
intermediate result 2104600 is out of range. Arithmetic operations that involve
unrepresentable (out of range) numbers can be detected by the hardware – i.e. the
circuits in the ALU. Such operations leave incorrect bit patterns in the result, but
provide a warning by setting an "overflow” bit in the CPU's flags register. Commonly,
computer systems are organized so that setting of the overflow bit will result in the
operating system stopping the program with the error. The operating system will
provide some error message. (The most common cause of "overflow" is division by
zero – usually the result of a careless programming error or, sometimes, due to
incorrect data entry.)Floating point numbers are used to approximate real numbers.
They are mainly used with engineering and scientific calculations. The computer
schemes for floating point numbers are closely similar to normalized scientific
notation:
Number Normalized scientific representation
17.95 +1.795 E+01
-0.002116 -2.116 E-03
1.5 +1.5 E+00
31267489.2 +3.12674892 E+07
The normalized scientific notation has a sign, a "mantissa", and a signed "exponent"
– like '+', 1.795, and E+01. Floating point representations work in much the same way
(you can think of floating point as meaning that the exponent specifies how far the
"decimal" point need to be moved, or floated, to the left or the right).A floating point
number will be allocated several bytes (at least four bytes, usually more). One bit in the
first byte is used for the sign of the number. Another group of bits encode the (signed)
exponent. The remaining bits encode the Integer overflow, Floating point numbers
Computers mantissa. Of course, both exponent and mantissa are encoded using a
binary system rather than a decimal system. Since the parts of a floating point number
are defined by regular encoding rules, it is again possible to implement "floating
point" arithmetic circuits in the ALU that manipulate them appropriately. Like
integers, floating point numbers can overflow. If the number has an exponent that
exceeds the range allowed, then overflow occurs. As with integers, this is easy to detect
(and is most often due to division by zero). But with floating point numbers, there is
another catch – a rather more pervasive one than the "overflow" problem. The
allocation of a fixed number of bits for the mantissa means that only certain numbers
are accurately represented. When four bytes are used, the mantissas are accurate to
about eight decimal digits. So, while it might be possible to represent numbers like
0.81246675 and 0.81246676 exactly, all the values in the range 0.812466755.. to
0.812466764... have to be approximated by the nearest number that can be represented
exactly i.e. 0.81246676. Any remaining digits, in the 9th and subsequent places in the
fraction, are lost in this rounding off process. Each floating point operation that
combines two values will finish by rounding off the result to the nearest representable
value. It might seem that loss of one part in a hundred million is not important.
Unfortunately, this is not true. Each calculation step can introduce such errors – and a
complete calculation can involve millions of steps in which the errors may combine
and grow. Further, it is quite common for scientists and engineers to be trying to
calculate the small difference between two large values – and in these cases the
"rounded off" parts may be comparable to the final result. While integer overflow
errors are easily detected by hardware and are obvious errors, round off errors can not
be dealt with so simply. Those needing to work extensively with floating point numbers
really need to take a numerical analysis course that covers the correct way of
organizing calculations so as to minimize the effects of cumulative round off errors.
Instructions are represented as bit patterns – maybe 16 bits (two bytes) in length,
possibly longer. In memory, instructions are stored in a sequence of successive bytes. A
few experimental computers have been built where every word in memory had
something like 2 or 3 extra bits that tagged the type of data stored in that word. These
"tagged memory architecture" machines might have used code 00 to mark a word
containing an instruction, 01 if it contained integer data etc. Such computers are a
typical. On most computers, bit patterns in memory have no "type", no intrinsic
meaning. The meaning of a bit pattern is determined by the circuit of the CPU that
interprets it; so if it ends up in the IR (instruction register) it gets interpreted as
representing an instruction, while if it goes to an (integer) addition circuit in the ALU
it is interpreted as an integer. It is possible (though uncommon)to make programming
errors so that data values fetched from memory to be interpreted as instructions or,
alternatively, for a program to start storing results of calculations in those parts of its
memory that hold the instruction sequence. If a program contains such gross errors, it
usually soon attempts an illegal operation (like attempting to execute a bit pattern that
can not be recognized as a valid instruction) and so is stopped by the computer
hardware and operating system.

BUS

A computer's bus can be viewed as consisting of about one hundred parallel wires;
will have a bit pattern code that identifies the component (CPU, memory, peripheral
controller) that is to deal with the data, and other wires carry signals encoding the
data. Signals are sent over the bus by setting voltages on the different wires (the
voltages are small, like 0-volts and 1-volt). When a voltage is applied to a wire the
effect propagates along that wire at close to the speed of light; since the bus is only a
few inches long, the signals are detectable essentially instantaneously by all attached
components. Transmission of information is controlled by clocks that put timing
signals on some of the wires. Information signals are encoded on to the bus, held for a
few clock ticks to give all components a chance to recognize and if appropriate take
action, then the signals are cleared. The clock that controls the bus may be "ticking"
at more than one hundred million ticks per second The "plugs" that attach
components to the bus incorporate quite sophisticated circuits. These circuits interpret
the patterns of 0/1 voltages set on the control and address lines – thus memory can
recognize a signal as "saying" something like "store the data at address xxx", while a
disk control unit can recognize a message like "get ready to write to disk block
identified by these data bits". In addition, these circuits deal with "bus arbitration".
Sometimes, two or more components may want to put signals on the bus at exactly the
same time – the bus arbitration circuitry resolves such conflicts giving one component
precedence (the other component waits a few hundred millionths of a second and then
gets the next chance to send its data).

PERIPHERALS

There are two important groups of input/output (i/o) devices. There are devices that
provide data storage, like disks and tapes, and there are devices that connect the
computer system to the external world (keyboards, printers, displays, sensors). The
storage devices record data using the same bit pattern encodings as used in the
memory and CPU. These devices work with blocks of thousands of bytes. Storage space
is allocated in these large units. Data transfers are in units of blocks". The other i/o
devices transfer only one, or sometimes two, bytes of data at a time. Their controllers
have two parts. There is a part that attaches to the bus and has some temporary storage
registers where data are represented as bit patterns. A second part of the controller has
to convert between the internal bit representation of data and its external
representation. External representations vary – sensors and effectors (used to monitor
and control machinery in factories) use voltage levels, devices like simple keyboards
and printers may work with timed pulses of current.

Disks and tapes

most personal computers have two or three different types of disk storage unit. There
will be some form of permanently attached disk (the main "hard disk"), some form of
exchangeable disk storage (a "floppy disk" or possibly some kind of cartridge-style
hard disk), and there may be a CD-ROM drive for read-only CD dissect disks encode 0
and 1 data bits as spots with different reflectivity. The data can be read by a laser beam
that is either reflected or not reflected according to the setting of each bit of data; the
reflected light gets converted into a voltage pulse and hence the recorded 0/1 data
values gets back into the form needed in the computer circuits. Currently, optical
storage is essentially read-only – once data have been recorded they can't be changed.
Read-write optical storage is just beginning to become available at reasonable prices.
Most disks use magnetic recording. The disks themselves may be made of thin plastic
sheets (floppy disks), or ceramics or steel (hard disks). Their surfaces are covered in a
thin layer of magnetic oxide. Spots of this magnetic oxide can be magnetically
polarized. If a suitably designed wire coil is moved across the surface, the polarized
spots induce different currents in the coil – allowing data to be read back from the
disk. New data can be written by moving a coil across the surface with a sufficiently
strong current flowing to induce a new magnetic spot with a required polarity. There is
no limit on the number of times that data can be rewritten on magnetic disks. The bits
are recorded in "tracks" – these form concentric rings on the surface of the disk. Disks
have hundreds of these tracks. (On simple disk units, all tracks hold the same number
of bits; since the outermost tracks are slightly longer, their bits are spaced further
apart than those on the innermost
Disks and tapes
More elaborate disks can arrange to have the bits recorded at the same density; the outer
tracks then hold more bits than the inner tracks.)Tracks are too large a unit of storage –
they can hold tens of thousands of bits. Storage on a track is normally broken down into
"blocks" or sectors. At one time, programmers could select the size of blocks. A
programmer would ask for some tracks of disk space and then arrange the breakdown
into blocks for themselves. Nowadays, the operating system program that controls most
of the operations of a computer will mandate a particular block size. This is typically in
the range 512 bytes to 4096 bytes (sometimes more).The blocks of bytes written to the
disk will contain these data bytes along with a few control bytes added by the disk
controller circuitry. These control bytes are handled entirely by the disk controller
circuits. They provide house keeping information used to identify blocks and include
extra checking information that can be used, when reading data, to verify that the data
bits are still the same as when originally recorded. The disk controller may identify
blocks by block number and track number, see, or may number all blocks sequentially. it
is used sequential numbering, track 1 would contain blocks 16, 17, ….
Blocks (or sectors)
Before data blocks can be read or written, the read/write head mechanism must be moved
to the correct track. The read/write head contains the coil that detects or induces
magnetism. It is moved by a stepping motor that can align it accurately over a specific
track. Movements of the read/write heads are, in computer terms, relatively slow – it can
take a hundredth of a second to adjust the position of the read/write heads. (The operation
of moving the heads to the required track is called "seeking"; details of disk performance
commonly include information on "average seek times".) Once the head is aligned above
the required track, it is still necessary for the spinning disk to bring the required block
under the read/write head (the disk controller reads its control information from the
blocks as they pass under the head and so "knows" when the required block is arriving).
When the block arrives under the read/write head, the recorded 0/1 bit values can be read
and copied to wherever else they are needed. The read circuitry in the disk reassembles
the bits into bytes. These then get transferred over the bus to main memory (or,
sometimes, into a CPU register).Disks may have their own private cache memories.
Again, these are "hidden “stores where commonly accessed data can be kept for faster
access. A disk may have cache storage sufficient to hold the contents of a few disk blocks
(i.e. several thousand bytes). As well as being sent across the bus to memory, all the bytes
of a block being read can be stored in the local disk cache. If a program asks the disk to
"Seeking" for tracks

Disk cache memory

The required bytes can be read from the cache and sent to main memory. Commonly,
hard disks have several disk platters mounted on a single central spindle. There are
read/write heads for each disk platter. Data can be recorded on both sides of the disk
platters (though often the topmost and bottommost surfaces are unused). The read/write
heads are all mounted on the same stepping motor mechanism and move together
between the disk platters. The controller will have several registers (similar to CPU
registers) and circuitry for performing simple additions on (binary) integer numbers. (The
cache memory shown is optional; currently, most disk controllers don't have these
caches.) One register (or group of registers) will hold the disk address or "block number"
of the data block that must be transferred. Another register holds a byte count; this is
initialized to the block size and decremented as each byte is transferred. The disk
controller stops trying to read bits when this counter reaches zero. The controller will
have some special register used for grouping bits into bytes before they get sent over the
bus. Yet another register holds the address of the (byte) location in memory that is to hold
the next byte read from the disk (or the next byte to be written to disk).Errors can occur
with disk transfers. The magnetic oxide surface may have been damaged. The read
process may fail to retrieve the data. The circuits in the disk can detect this but need some
way of passing this information to the program that wanted the data. This is where the
Flags register in the disk controller gets used. If something goes wrong, bits are set in the
flags register to identify the

Disk controller
A program doing a disk transfer will check the contents of the flags register when the
transfer is completed and can attempt some recovery action if the data transfer was
erroneous.

This elaborate circuitry and register setup allows a disk controller to work with a fair
degree of autonomy. The data transfer process will start with the CPU sending a request
over the bus to the disk controller; the request will cause the disk unit to load its block
number register and to start its heads seeking to the appropriate track. It may take the disk
a hundredth of a second to get its heads positioned . During this time, the CPU can
execute tens of thousands of instructions. Ideally, the CPU will be able to get on with
other work, which it can do provided that it can work with other data that have been read
earlier. At one time, programmers were responsible for trying to organize data transfers so
that the CPU would be working on one block of data while the next block was being read.
Nowadays, this is largely the responsibility of the controlling OS program. When the disk
finds the block it can inform the CPU which will respond by providing details of where
the data are to be stored in memory. The disk controller can then transfer successive bytes
read from the disk into successive locations in memory. A transfer that works like this is
said to be using "direct memory access".

Direct Memory Access

When the transfer is complete, the disk controller will send another signal to the CPU
files on disk are made up out of blocks. For example, a text file with twelve thousand
characters would need twenty four 512-byte blocks. (The last block would only contain a
few characters from the file, it would be filled out with either space characters or just
random characters). Programmers don't choose the blocks used for their files. The
operating system is responsible for choosing the blocks used for each file, and for
recording details for future reference. The data in these blocks form a table of entries with
each entry specifying a file name, file size (in bytes actually used and complete blocks
allocated), and some record of which blocks are allocated. The allocation scheme shown
in Figure 1.14 uses a group of contiguous blocks to make up each individual file. This
makes it easy to record details of allocated blocks; the directory need only record the file
size and the first block number. Fixed set of blocks holding a file directory: In addition to
the table of entries describing allocated files, the directory structure would contain a
record of which blocks were allocated and which were free and therefore available for
use if another file had to be created. One simple scheme uses a map with one bit for each
block; the bit is set if the block is allocated. Tapes are now of minor importance as
storage devices for users' files. Mostly they are used for "archival" storage – recording
data that are no longer of active interest but may be required again later. There are many
different requirements for archival data. For example, government taxation offices
typically stipulate that companies keep full financial record data for the past seven years;
but only the current year's data will be of interest to a company. So, a company will have
its current data on disk and hold the data for the other six years on tapes. Apart from
archival storage, the main use of tapes is for backup of disk units. All the data on a
computer's disks will be copied to tape each night (or, maybe just weekly). The tapes can
be stored somewhere safe, remote from the main computer site. If there is a major
accident destroying the disks, the essential data can be retrieved from tape and loaded on
some other computer system.

Tapes

The tape units used for most of the last 45 years are physically a bit like large reel-to-reel
tape recorders. The tapes are about half an inch wide and two thousand feet in length and
are run from their reel, through tensioning devices, across read write heads, to a take up
reel. The read write heads record 9 separate data tracks; these 9 tracks are used to record
the 8-bits of a byte along with an extra check bit. Successive bytes are written along the
length of the tape; an inch of tape could pack in as much as a few thousand bytes. Data
are written to tape in blocks of hundreds, or thousands, of bytes. (On disks, the block
sizes are now usually chosen by the operating system, the size of tape blocks is program
selectable.) Blocks have to be separated by gaps where no data are recorded – these "inter
record gaps" have to be large (i.e. half an inch or so) and they tend to reduce the storage
capacity of a tape. Files are written to tape as sequences of blocks. Special "end of file"
patterns can be recorded on tape to delimit different files. A tape unit can find a file
(identified by number) by counting end of file marks and then can read its successive data
blocks. Data transfers are inherently sequential, block 0 of a file must be read before the
tape unit can find block 1. Files cannot usually be rewritten to the same bit of tape –
writing to a tape effectively destroys all data previously recorded further along the tape
(the physical lengths of data blocks, interrecord gaps, file marks etc vary a little with the
tension. on the tape so there is no guarantee that subsequent data won't be overwritten).
All the processes using tapes, like skipping to file marks, sequential reads etc, are slow.
Modern "streamer" tape units used for backing up the data on disks use slightly different
approaches but again they are essentially a sequential medium. Although transfer rates
can be high, the time taken to search for files is considerable. Transfers of individual files
are inconvenient; these streamer tapes are most effective when used to save (and, if
necessary restore) all the data on disk.

OTHER I/O DEVICES

A keyboard and a printer are representative of simple Input/Output (I/O) peripheral

devices. Such devices transfer a single data character, encoded as an 8-bit pattern, to/from
the computer. When a key is pressed on the keyboard, internal electronics identifies
which key was pressed and hence identifies the appropriate bit pattern to send to the
computer. When a printer receives a bit pattern from the computer, its circuitry works out
how to type or print the appropriate character. Figure 1.15 shows, in simplified form, the
general structure of a controller for one of these simple i/o devices. The controller will
have a 1-bit register for a "ready flag". This flag is set when the controller is ready to
transfer data. There will be an 8-bit data register (or "buffer" register) that will hold the
data byte that is to be transferred. The controller will incorporate whatever circuits are
needed to convert the bit pattern data value into output voltages/light pulses/…. The
controller will be connected to the actual device by some cable. This will have at least
two wires; if there are only two wires, the bits of a byte are sent serially. Many personal
computers have controllers for "parallel ports"; these have a group of 9 or more wires
which can carry a reference voltage and eight signal voltages (and so can effectively
transmit all the bits of a byte at the same time).CPU wait until data arrive from the
device. The program code would be: Repeat ask the device its status until device replies
"ready" read data The "repeat" loop would be encoded using three instructions. The first
would send a message on the bus requesting to read the status of the device's ready flag.
The instruction would cause the CPU to wait until the reply signal was received from the
device. The second instruction would test the status data retrieved. The third instruction
would be a conditional jump going back to the start of the loop. The loop corresponds to
panes 1 and 2 .When a key is pressed on the keyboard the hardware in the keyboard
identifies the key and sends its ASCII code as a sequence of voltage pulses. These pulses
are interpreted by the controller which assembles the correct bit pattern in the controller's
data register. When all 8 bits have been obtained, the controller will set the ready flag.
The next request to the device for its status will get a 1 reply (step 4). The program can
continue with a "read data register" request which would copy the contents of the device's
data register into a CPU register. If the character was to be stored in memory, another
sequence of instructions would have to be executed to determine the memory address and
then copy the bits from the CPU register into memory. A wait loop like this is easy to
code, but makes very poor use of CPU power. The CPU would spend almost all its time
waiting for input characters (most computer users type very few characters per second).
There are other approaches to organizing input from these low-speed character oriented
devices. These alternative approaches are considerably more complex. They rely on the
device sending an "interrupt signal" at the same time as it sets its ready flag. The program
running on the CPU has to be organized so that it gets on with other work; when the
interrupt signal is received this other work is temporarily suspended while the character
data is read. Visual displays used for computer output have an array of data elements, one
element for each pixel on the screen. If the screen is black and white, a single bit data
element will suffice for each pixel. The pixels of color screens require at least one byte of
storage each. The memory used for the visual display may be part of the main memory of
the computer, or may be a separate memory unit. Programs get information displayed on
a screen by setting the appropriate data elements in the memory used by the visual
display. Programs can access the data element for each pixel. Setting individual pixels is
laborious. Usually, the operating system of the computer will help by providing routines
that can be used to draw lines, color in rectangles, and show images of letters and digits.
There are many other input and output devices that can be attached to computers.
Computers have numerous clock devices.
Clocks

Computers frequency clocks that control the internal operations of the CPU and the bus,
there will be clocks that record the time of day and, possibly, serve as a form of "alarm
clock" timer. The time of day clock will tick at about 60-times per second; at each tick, a
counter gets incremented. An alarm clock time can be told to send a signal when a
particular amount of time has elapsed. "Analog-to-Digital" (A-to-D) converters change
external voltages ("analog" data) into bit patterns that represent numbers ("digital" data).
A-to-Ds allow computers to work with all kinds of input. The input voltage can come
from a photo-multiplier/detector system (allowing light intensities to be measured), or
from a thermocouple (measurements of temperature), a pressure transducer, or anything
else that can generate a voltage. This allows computers to monitor all kinds of external
devices – everything from signals in the nerves of frog's leg to neutron fluxes in a nuclear
reactor. Joystick control devices may incorporate simple forms of A-to-D converters.
(Controllers for mice are simpler. Movement of a mouse pointer causes wheels to turn
inside the mouse assembly. On each complete revolution, these wheels send a single
voltage pulse to the mouse controller. This counts the pulses and stores the counts in its
data registers; the CPU can read these data registers and find how far the mouse has
moved in x and y directions since last checked.)
The controller for an A-to-D , except that the data register will have more bits. A one-byte
data register can only represent numbers in the range 0 to 255; usually an accuracy of one
part in 250 is insufficient. Larger data registers are used, e.g. 12-bits for measurements
that need to be accurate to one part in four thousand, or 16-bits for an accuracy of one
part in thirty thousand. On a 12-bit register, the value 0 would obviously encode a
minimum (zero) input, while 4095 would represent the upper limit of the measured range.
The external interface parts of the A-to-D will allow different measurement ranges to be
set, e.g. 0 to 1 volt, 0 to 5 volt, -5 to 5 volt. An A-to-D unit will often have several inputs;
instructions from the CPU will direct the controller to select a particular input for the next
measurement.
A "Digital-to-Analog" (D-to-A) converter is the output device equivalent to an A-to-D
input. A D-to-A has a data register that can be loaded with some binary number by the
CPU. The D-to-A converts the number into a voltage. The voltage can then be used to
control power to a motor. Using an A-to-D for input and a D-to-A for output, a computer
program can do things like monitor temperatures in reactor vessels in a chemical plant
and control the heaters so that the temperature remains within a required range. Often,
there is a need for a computer to monitor, or possibly control, simple two-state devices –
door locks (open or locked), valves (open or shut), on/off control lights etc. There are
various forms of input devices where the data register has each bit wired so that it
indicates the state of one of the monitored devices. Similarly, in the corresponding output
device, the CPU can load a data register with the on/off state for the controlled devices. A
change of the setting of a bit in the control register causes actuators to open or close the
corresponding physical device.