Computer - Memory Units

Memory unit is the amount of data that can be stored in the storage
unit. This storage capacity is expressed in terms of Bytes.

The following table explains the main memory storage units −

S.No
Unit & Description
.

Bit (Binary Digit)

1 A binary digit is logical 0 and 1 representing a passive or an active
state of a component in an electric circuit.

2 Nibble
A group of 4 bits is called nibble.

Byte
3 A group of 8 bits is called byte. A byte is the smallest unit, which can
represent a data item or a character.

Word
A computer word, like a byte, is a group of fixed number of bits
processed as a unit, which varies from computer to computer but is
4 fixed for each computer.
The length of a computer word is called word-size or word length. It
may be as small as 8 bits or may be as long as 96 bits. A computer
stores the information in the form of computer words.

The following table lists some higher storage units −

S.No. Unit & Description

1 Kilobyte (KB)
1 KB = 1024 Bytes

2 Megabyte (MB)
1 MB = 1024 KB

3 GigaByte (GB)
1 GB = 1024 MB
 4 TeraByte (TB)
1 TB = 1024 GB

5 PetaByte (PB)
1 PB = 1024 TB

INPUT and OUTPUT Devices

Following are some of the important input devices which are used in
a computer −

 Keyboard
 Mouse
 Joy Stick
 Light pen
 Track Ball
 Scanner
 Graphic Tablet
 Microphone
 Magnetic Ink Card Reader(MICR)
 Optical Character Reader(OCR)
 Bar Code Reader
 Optical Mark Reader(OMR)

Keyboard
Keyboard is the most common and very popular input device which
helps to input data to the computer. The layout of the keyboard is
like that of traditional typewriter, although there are some
additional keys provided for performing additional functions.
Keyboards are of two sizes 84 keys or 101/102 keys, but now
keyboards with 104 keys or 108 keys are also available for Windows
and Internet.

The keys on the keyboard are as follows −

S.N
Keys & Description
o

Typing Keys
1 These keys include the letter keys (A-Z) and digit keys (09) which
generally give the same layout as that of typewriters.

Numeric Keypad
It is used to enter the numeric data or cursor movement. Generally, it
2
consists of a set of 17 keys that are laid out in the same configuration
used by most adding machines and calculators.

Function Keys
The twelve function keys are present on the keyboard which are
3
arranged in a row at the top of the keyboard. Each function key has a
unique meaning and is used for some specific purpose.

Control keys
These keys provide cursor and screen control. It includes four
4 directional arrow keys. Control keys also include Home, End, Insert,
Delete, Page Up, Page Down, Control(Ctrl), Alternate(Alt),
Escape(Esc).

5 Special Purpose Keys

 Keyboard also contains some special purpose keys such as Enter,
Shift, Caps Lock, Num Lock, Space bar, Tab, and Print Screen.

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

Generally, it has two buttons called the left and the right button and
a wheel is present between the buttons. A mouse can be used to
control the position of the cursor on the screen, but it cannot be
used to enter text into the computer.

Advantages

 Easy to use
 Not very expensive
 Moves the cursor faster than the arrow keys of the keyboard.

Joystick
Joystick is also a pointing device, which is used to move the cursor
position on a monitor screen. It is a stick having a spherical ball at
its both lower and upper ends. The lower spherical ball moves in a
socket. The joystick can be moved in all four directions.
The function of the joystick is similar to that of a mouse. It is mainly
used in Computer Aided Designing (CAD) and playing computer
games.

Light Pen
Light pen is a pointing device similar to a pen. It is used to select a
displayed menu item or draw pictures on the monitor screen. It
consists of a photocell and an optical system placed in a small tube.

When the tip of a light pen is moved over the monitor screen and
the pen button is pressed, its photocell sensing element detects the
screen location and sends the corresponding signal to the CPU.

Track Ball
Track ball is an input device that is mostly used in notebook or
laptop computer, instead of a mouse. This is a ball which is half
inserted and by moving fingers on the ball, the pointer can be
moved.
Since the whole device is not moved, a track ball requires less space
than a mouse. A track ball comes in various shapes like a ball, a
button, or a square.

Scanner
Scanner is an input device, which works more like a photocopy
machine. It is used when some information is available on paper
and it is to be transferred to the hard disk of the computer for
further manipulation.
Scanner captures images from the source which are then converted
into a digital form that can be stored on the disk. These images can
be edited before they are printed.

Digitizer
Digitizer is an input device which converts analog information into
digital form. Digitizer can convert a signal from the television or
camera into a series of numbers that could be stored in a computer.
They can be used by the computer to create a picture of whatever
the camera had been pointed at.

Digitizer is also known as Tablet or Graphics Tablet as it converts

graphics and pictorial data into binary inputs. A graphic tablet as
digitizer is used for fine works of drawing and image manipulation
applications.

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

Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)

MICR input device is generally used in banks as there are large
number of cheques to be processed every day. The bank's code
number and cheque number are printed on the cheques with a
special type of ink that contains particles of magnetic material that
are machine readable.

This reading process is called Magnetic Ink Character Recognition

(MICR). The main advantages of MICR is that it is fast and less error
prone.
Optical Character Reader (OCR)
OCR is an input device used to read a printed text.

OCR scans the text optically, character by character, converts them

into a machine readable code, and stores the text on the system
memory.

Bar Code Readers

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

Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

OMR is a special type of optical scanner used to recognize the type
of mark made by pen or pencil. It is used where one out of a few
alternatives is to be selected and marked.

It is specially used for checking the answer sheets of examinations

having multiple choice questions

Computer - Output Devices

Following are some of the important output devices used in a

computer.

 Monitors
 Graphic Plotter
 Printer

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

There are two kinds of viewing screen used for monitors.

  Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT)
 Flat-Panel Display

Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor

The CRT display is made up of small picture elements called pixels.

The smaller the pixels, the better the image clarity or resolution. It
takes more than one illuminated pixel to form a whole character,
such as the letter ‘e’ in the word help.

A finite number of characters can be displayed on a screen at once.

The screen can be divided into a series of character boxes - fixed
location on the screen where a standard character can be placed.
Most screens are capable of displaying 80 characters of data
horizontally and 25 lines vertically.

There are some disadvantages of CRT −

 Large in Size
 High power consumption

Flat-Panel Display Monitor

The flat-panel display refers to a class of video devices that have

reduced volume, weight and power requirement in comparison to
the CRT. You can hang them on walls or wear them on your wrists.
Current uses of flat-panel displays include calculators, video games,
monitors, laptop computer, and graphics display.

The flat-panel display is divided into two categories −

 Emissive Displays − Emissive displays are devices that convert

electrical energy into light. For example, plasma panel and LED
(Light-Emitting Diodes).
 Non-Emissive Displays − Non-emissive displays use optical effects
to convert sunlight or light from some other source into
graphics patterns. For example, LCD (Liquid-Crystal Device).

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

There are two types of printers −

 Impact Printers
 Non-Impact Printers

Impact Printers

Impact printers print the characters by striking them on the ribbon,

which is then pressed on the paper.
Characteristics of Impact Printers are the following −

 Very low consumable costs

 Very noisy
 Useful for bulk printing due to low cost
 There is physical contact with the paper to produce an image

These printers are of two types −

 Character printers
 Line printers
Character Printers

Character printers are the printers which print one character at a

time.

These are further divided into two types:

 Dot Matrix Printer(DMP)

 Daisy Wheel
Dot Matrix Printer

In the market, one of the most popular printers is Dot Matrix

Printer. These printers are popular because of their ease of printing
and economical price. Each character printed is in the form of
pattern of dots and head consists of a Matrix of Pins of size (5*7,
7*9, 9*7 or 9*9) which come out to form a character which is why
it is called Dot Matrix Printer.
Advantages
 Inexpensive
 Widely Used
 Other language characters can be printed
Disadvantages
 Slow Speed
 Poor Quality
Daisy Wheel

Head is lying on a wheel and pins corresponding to characters are

like petals of Daisy (flower) which is why it is called Daisy Wheel
Printer. These printers are generally used for word-processing in
offices that require a few letters to be sent here and there with very
nice quality.

Advantages
  More reliable than DMP
 Better quality
 Fonts of character can be easily changed
Disadvantages
 Slower than DMP
 Noisy
 More expensive than DMP
Line Printers

Line printers are the printers which print one line at a time.

These are of two types −

 Drum Printer
 Chain Printer
Drum Printer

This printer is like a drum in shape hence it is called drum printer.

The surface of the drum is divided into a number of tracks. Total
tracks are equal to the size of the paper, i.e. for a paper width of
132 characters, drum will have 132 tracks. A character set is
embossed on the track. Different character sets available in the
market are 48 character set, 64 and 96 characters set. One rotation
of drum prints one line. Drum printers are fast in speed and can
print 300 to 2000 lines per minute.

Advantages
  Very high speed
Disadvantages
 Very expensive
 Characters fonts cannot be changed
Chain Printer

In this printer, a chain of character sets is used, hence it is called

Chain Printer. A standard character set may have 48, 64, or 96
characters.

Advantages
 Character fonts can easily be changed.
 Different languages can be used with the same printer.
Disadvantages
 Noisy

Non-impact Printers

Non-impact printers print the characters without using the ribbon.

These printers print a complete page at a time, thus they are also
called as Page Printers.

These printers are of two types −

 Laser Printers
 Inkjet Printers
Characteristics of Non-impact Printers
 Faster than impact printers
 They are not noisy
 High quality
 Supports many fonts and different character size
Laser Printers

These are non-impact page printers. They use laser lights to

produce the dots needed to form the characters to be printed on a
page.
Advantages
 Very high speed
 Very high quality output
 Good graphics quality
 Supports many fonts and different character size
Disadvantages
 Expensive
 Cannot be used to produce multiple copies of a document in a
single printing
Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers are non-impact character printers based on a

relatively new technology. They print characters by spraying small
drops of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers produce high quality output
with presentable features.
They make less noise because no hammering is done and these
have many styles of printing modes available. Color printing is also
possible. Some models of Inkjet printers can produce multiple
copies of printing also.

Advantages
 High quality printing
 More reliable
Disadvantages
 Expensive as the cost per page is high
 Slow as compared to laser printer