LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Introduction to Computer Hardware.

• Input Devices:
• Keyboard, mouse, trackball, joystick, light pen, touch screen, barcode reader, OMR, OCR, MICR,
Digitizer, smart card reader, biometric sensor, scanner, Mic, web cam, PC card, etc.
• Output Devices:
• Monitor, printer, plotter, speaker, headphones, projector, etc.
• Both Input-Output Devices:
• Modems, Network cards, Touch screen, Headsets, Facsimile (FAX), Audio cards/sound cards, etc.
• Input/Output (I/O)Ports.

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COMPUTER HARDWARE
• Computer hardware refers to the physical components of a computer that can be seen and touched
(tangible) by the user.
• E.g., central processing unit (CPU), monitor, mouse, keyboard, storage devices, graphics card, sound card,
speakers and motherboard.
• Hardware is typically directed by the software to execute any command or instruction.
• Hardware is so-termed because it is "hard" or rigid with respect to changes, whereas software is "soft"
because it is easy to change.
• A combination of hardware and software forms a usable computing system, although other systems exist
with only hardware.

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CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTER HARDWARE
• Hardware devices can be classified into four
distinct categories:
1. Input devices: For raw data input. For
instance a mouse, keyboard, joystick, etc.
2. Processing devices: To process raw data
instructions into information. E.g., CPU, GPU.
3. Output devices: To disseminate data and
information to the user. E.g., Monitor, printer,
etc.
4. Memory devices: For data and information
retention. E.g., RAM, ROM, Hard Disk, CD/DVD,
etc.

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INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O) DEVICES
• Provide means of communication between a computer and
outer world.
• Also known as peripheral devices because they surround the
CPU and memory of a computer system.
• Input devices are used to enter data from the outside world
into primary storage or control its operation.
• Output devices supply results of processing from primary
storage to users

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INPUT DEVICES
• An input device can be defined as a device that allows the user to feed
data into the computer for processing and storage and to give
commands to the computer.

• The data is entered into the main memory through the input devices.

• They accept commands/instructions from the user and convert the

accepted instructions into the machine language.

• Some of the commonly used input devices are

• Keyboard
• Point-and-draw devices - mouse, track ball, joy stick, light pen, and
touch screen
• Data scanning devices – Scanner, Plotter.
• Digitizer
• Electronic cards based devices – Smart Cards.
• Speech recognition devices - Mic.
• Vision based devices – WebCam.

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1. KEYBOARD
• Christopher Latham Sholes was an American inventor who invented the QWERTY
keyboard, and, along with Samuel W.
• It is one of the most common input devices.
• The user can type text and command using this device.
• Keyboard is used to enter data or information in a computer system, which may be
in numeric form or alphabetic form (alphanumeric).
• The layout of the keyboard was borrowed from the regular typewriter with some
additional keys.
• There are different types of keyboard such as QWERTY, DVORAK, JUCKEN and
AZERTY.

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KEYBOARD CONTROLLER
An interrupt is a signal from a
device attached to a computer or
from a program within the
computer that requires the
operating system to stop and figure
out what to do next.

• In computing, a keyboard controller is a device that interfaces a keyboard to a

computer.
• Its main function is to inform the computer when a key is pressed or released.
• When data from the keyboard arrives, the controller raises an interrupt (a
keyboard interrupt) to allow the CPU to handle the input.
• When key is pressed, keyboard interacts with a keyboard controller and keyboard
buffer.
• Keyboard controller stores the code of pressed key in keyboard buffer.

KEYBOARD
KEYBOARD Controller CPU
And Buffer
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TYPES OF KEYS ON KEYBOARD
The keys are categorized under the following groups
1. Alphanumeric Keys include the alphabet keys (A, B, C, ..., Z) and number keys (0, 1, 2, 3, ..., 9).
2. Numeric Keys are located at the right hand side of the keyboard. They consist of digits and
mathematical operators. Also called as Numpad. Not present in smaller keyboards.
3. Function Keys are the programmable keys, i.e. the programs can assign some specific actions. They
are numbered from F1 to F12.
4. Cursor Control Keys include four directional (left, right, up, down) arrow keys that are arranged in an
inverted T formation between the alphanumeric and numeric keypad.
• Above the arrow keys there are four more keys to control the cursor. These are as follows
(i) Home It is used to return the cursor to the beginning of the line or the beginning of a document.
(ii) End It moves the cursor to the end of line.
(iii) Page Up When it is pressed, the page view will be moved up one page and cursor goes to the back
page.
(iv) Page Down When it is pressed, the page view will be moved down one page and cursor goes to the
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TYPES OF KEYS ON KEYBOARD
5. Other Keys A keyboard contains some other keys such as follows
(i) Control Key It performs a special operation with the combination of other keys.
(ii) Alt Key “Alt” is an abbreviation for the word "alternate.” If you press this key simultaneously with
another key, the operating system ignores the basic function of the other key and lets you access an
alternative command instead.
(iii) Shift Key Some keys on the keyboard like numeric keys have a symbol printed on their upper
portion. Shift key is used to print these symbols. This key is also called combination key.
(iv) Enter Key It is used to finish an entry and begin the new entry in a document. Enter key is an
alternative to press ok button. Also known as the Return Key.
(v) Escape Key (Esc) It allows a user to cancel or abort operations, which are executing at present.
(vi) Backspace Key It is used to erase text to the left of the cursor.
(vii) Delete Key It is used to erase text to the Right of the cursor.A nd to erase information from the
computer’s memory.

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TYPES OF KEYS ON KEYBOARD
(viii) Caps Lock Key Caps Lock is a button on a computer keyboard that causes all
letters of bicameral scripts to be generated in capital letters. It is a toggle key: each
press reverses the previous action. Used to toggle between UPPER CASE and lower
case.
(ix) Insert key on the keyboard is used to switch to overwrite mode during data entry.
(ix) Num Lock Key It is used to enable and disable the numeric keypad. (Toggle Key)
(x) Windows Key It is used to open the Start menu and is used in other combinations.
(xi) Spacebar Key It provides a space between two words. It is the longest key on the
keyboard.
(xii) Tab Key It is used to move the cursor over to the right to next Tab stop (usually
equal to 4 spaces).
In Word document, tab is used to indent a paragraph.
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MORE ABOUT KEYBOARD
• QWERTY keyboard usually contains total 101 keys. (Some have 87)
• Caps Lock and Num Lock keys are called as ‘toggle keys’ because when
pressed, they toggle or change their status from one state to another.
• Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys are also known as modifier keys - temporarily
modifies the normal action of another key when pressed together. By
themselves, modifier keys usually do nothing; that is, pressing any of the
Shift, Alt and Ctrl keys alone does not (generally) trigger any action from
the computer..

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POINTING DEVICES
• A pointing device is used to communicate with
the computer by pointing to the locations on the
monitor.
• A pointing device is a human interface device
that allows a user to input spatial data to a
computer.
• Movements of the pointing device are echoed on
the screen by movements of the pointer.
• Some commonly used pointing devices are
mouse, trackball, joystick, light pen, touch
screen, etc.

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MOUSE
• It is a small handheld device having two buttons on its upper side and also
has a small wheel between these buttons.
• It is a pointing device which provides a means to input commands in
graphic form by selecting through moving an arrow called pointer on
monitor.
• The mouse may be used to position the cursor on screen, move an object
by dragging or select an object by clicking. Mouse was invented by Douglas
Engelbart at Stanford Research Center in 1963.
Types of mice are as follows
(i) Wireless mouse and Wired mouse
(ii) Mechanical mouse and Optical mouse
There are four actions of mouse as follows
1. Click or Left Click It selects an item on the screen.
2. Double Click It is used to open a document or program.
3. Right Click It displays a list of commands on the screen.
Right clicking is used to access the properties of selected object.
4. Drag and Drop It is used to move an item on the screen.
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TRACKBALL
TRACKBALL
• It is another pointing device which is an alternative to a mouse.
• A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a
socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about
two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse with an exposed
protruding ball.
• Users roll the ball to position the on-screen pointer, using their
thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand, while using the fingertips
to press the buttons.
• Trackball is also used to control cursor movements and actions
on a computer screen.
• Trackball is used on CAD/CAM workstations and sometimes seen
on computerized special purpose workstations such as radar
consoles in an air-traffic control room and sonar equipment on a
ship or submarine.
• A normal mouse relies on your hand to move a sensor over a
stationary surface like a desk or mousepad. A trackball
mouse relies on your fingers to move a ball over a stationary
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sensor.
JOYSTICK
• A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick or control
column, is an input device consisting of a stick that
pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the
device it is controlling.
• It is a device that moves in all directions and controls
the movement of the cursor.
• Joysticks are used in gaming, flight simulators, CAD/
CAM system, etc.
• A joystick is similar to a mouse except that the
movement of cursor on screen stops working as soon
as user stop moving the mouse.
• But with a joystick, the pointer continues moving in the
previously pointing direction.
• Joystick allows movements in all directions (360°).
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LIGHT PEN
• It is a handheld electro-optical pointing device,
which is used for making drawings, graphics and
for menu selection on a CRT Screen.
• Used to directly point with it on the screen to
select menu items or icons or directly draw
graphics on the screen
• Can write with it on a special pad for direct input
of written information to a system.
• The pen contains a photocell in a small tube.
• It senses the light from the screen when it
becomes closer and generates a pulse.
• It is used to especially in Personal Digital
Assistants (PDA). Tawqeer Sir @EACT CLASSES
POINTING STICK
• A pointing stick (or trackpoint or nub or
nipple) is a small stick (looks like a button)
used as a pointing device typically
mounted centrally in a computer keyboard.
• Like other pointing devices such as mice,
touchpads or trackballs, it is used to move
the cursor.
• Unlike other pointing devices, it reacts to
sustained force or strain rather than to
gross movement, so it is called an
"isometric“ pointing device.

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TOUCH SCREEN LCD: Liquid Crystal Display
• A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of OLED: Organic Light Emitting Diode
both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') AMOLED: Active Matrix Light Emitting Diode
device. The touch panel is normally layered on the
top of an electronic visual display of an information
processing system.
• The display is often an LCD, AMOLED or OLED
display while the system is usually a laptop, tablet,
or smartphone.
• It is an input device that accepts input when the
user places a fingertip on the computer screen.
• Touch screens have an infrared beam that
crisscross the surface of screen.
• The ability to interact directly with a display typically
indicates the presence of a touch screen.
• Most preferred human-computer interface used in
information kiosks (unattended interactive
information systems such as automatic teller
machine or ATM). Tawqeer Sir @EACT CLASSES
TOUCHPAD
• A touchpad or trackpad is a pointing device
featuring a specialized surface that can
translate the motion and position of a user's
fingers to a relative position on the operating
system that is made output to the screen.
• Touchpads are a common feature of laptop
computers as opposed to using a mouse on
a desktop, and are also used as a substitute
for a mouse where desk space is scarce.
• Because they vary in size, they can also be
found on personal digital assistants (PDAs)
and some portable media players.
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DIGITIZER / GRAPHICS TABLET
Stylus (or stylus pen) is a
small pen-shaped instrument
• Input device used for converting (digitizing) which is used to precisely draw
and make selections on a touch
pictures, maps and drawings and other hand- screen, digitizer, etc.
drawn images into digital form for storage in
computers.
• Images are usually drawn onto a flat surface
with a stylus and then appear on a computer
monitor or screen.
• Commonly used in the area of Computer Aided
Design (CAD) by architects and engineers to
design cars, buildings medical devices, robots,
mechanical parts, etc.

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DIGITIZER / GRAPHICS TABLET

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BARCODE READER
• It is an input device used for reading printed barcodes
(Universal Product Code) available on product to be sold.
• A barcode reader emits a beam of light which reflects off
the barcode image.
• A light sensitive detector in the barcode reader identifies
the barcode image by recognizing special bars at both the
ends of the image.
• A perfect example of a barcode reader, use in a
supermarket where barcode scanner reads the price of a
product.
• A barcode is a machine-readable representation of
information in the form of stripes of dark and light ink.
• Universal Product Code (UPC) is the most widely known bar
coding system
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OPTICAL MARK READER
(OMR)
• OMR is also known as Optical Mark Recognition.
• It is the process of detecting the presence of intended
marked responses.
• OMR is mainly used to detect marks on a paper.
• It uses a beam of light that is reflected on the paper with
marks, to capture presence and absence of data (marks).
• The OMR interprets the pattern of marks into a data record
and sends this to the computer for storage, analysis and
reporting.
• OMR is widely used to read the answer of objective type
tests, voting applications and other evaluation studies.

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OPTICAL CHARACTER
RECOGNITION (OCR)
• Scanner equipped with a character recognition
software (called OCR software) that converts the
images of characters to equivalent ASCII codes.
• Enables word processing of input text and also
requires less storage for storing the document as
text rather than an image.
• OCR software is extremely complex because it is
difficult to make a computer recognize an
unlimited number of typefaces and fonts
• Two standard OCR fonts are OCR-A (American
standard) and OCR-B (European standard).
• OCR technology is being developed for greater
accurate recognition and is also known as
Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR).

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TEXT VS IMAGE
Cannot be
Can be EDITED EDITED

Download the EDOWRM App for

JKSSB Exams.

OCR CONVERTS This into

That.

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13. MAGNETIC INK CHARACTER RECOGNITION (MICR)

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MAGNETIC INK CHARACTER
RECOGNITION (MICR)

• MICR reads the characters by examining their

shapes in a matrix form and the information is
then passed on to the computer.
• The characters are printed using a special ink,
which contains iron particles that can be
magnetized.
• It is generally used in banks to process the
cheques for recognizing the magnetic encoding
numbers printed at the bottom of a cheque.
• It consists of numerals 0 to 9 and four special
characters.
• MICR is not adopted by other industries because it
supports only 14 symbols.

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SMART CARD READER
• It is a device which is used to access the microprocessor of a smart
card.
• There are two kinds of smart cards; Memory cards and Microcontroller
cards.
• Memory cards are the cards which contain only non-volatile memory
storage components and some specific security logic.
• Microcontroller cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor
components.
• The card is made-up of plastic generally PVC.
• Smart cards are used in large companies and organizations for stronger
security authentication.
• They connect to a reader either by direct physical contact (also known
as chip and dip) or through a short-range wireless connectivity
standard such as Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) or Near-Field
Communication (NFC).

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RFID
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) refers to a wireless system comprised of two components: tags
and readers.
• The reader is a device that has one or more antennas that emit radio waves and receive signals back
from the RFID tag.
• Tags, which use radio waves to communicate their identity and other information to nearby readers,
can be passive or active.
• Passive RFID tags are powered by the reader and do not have a battery.
• Active RFID tags are powered by batteries.

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BIOMETRIC SENSOR
• It is a device which recognizes
unique physical or behavioral
characteristics of the individual.
• Biometric sensors are used for
marking attendance of
employees/students in
organisations/institutions.
• As biometric sensors are working
with accuracy, so these are widely
used in security purpose also.
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 SCANNER
• An image scanner (Scanner) is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting
or an object and converts it to a digital image.
• It is used to convert the data and image on paper into the digital form.
• Scanner is an optical input device and uses light to convert a physical document into an
electronic form that can be stored on the computer that can be modified and manipulated
later on.
• Scanner stores images in both gray scale and color mode.
• Modern scanners typically use a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a contact image sensor (CIS)
as the image sensor, whereas drum scanners, developed earlier and still used for the highest
possible image quality, use a photomultiplier tube (PMT) as the image sensor.

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• The most common types of scanners are as follows
(i) Handheld Scanners: They are very small in size which can be held in a hand.
These are less expensive and less wide. Hence, in order to scan a single page
image, multiple passes are required. But their handiness is a major advantage
of handheld scanner.

(ii) Flatbed Scanners: They are large and more expensive scanners that create
high quality images. Flatbed scanners have a flat surface on which the printed
image to be scanned, is placed. These scanners can scan a page in a single
pass.

(iii) Drum Scanners: They are medium size scanners with a rolling drum.
The sheet is fed through the scanners so that the drum rolls over the entire
sheet to be scanned (just as the sheets are fed in a fax machine).
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• Planetary scanners essentially photograph delicate books and
documents.
• 3D scanners produce information on the three-dimensional structure of
solid objects.

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 SCAN QUALITY
• Color depth or bit depth, is either the number of bits used to indicate the color of a
single pixel. Higher the colour depth better is the picture quality. It is usually at least
24 bits.
• 2 bits – 00, 01, 10 and 01
• 3 bits – 000, 001, 010, 011,100,101,110 and 111.
• With n bits we can represent 2n distinct colours.

• Image resolution is the detail an image holds. It measured in pixels per inch (ppi),
sometimes more accurately referred to as Samples per inch (spi).

• The third important parameter for a scanner is its density range (Dynamic Range) or
Drange. A high density range means that the scanner is able to record shadow details
and brightness details in one scan.
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MICROPHONE
• A microphone, a mic or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal.
• We can send voice input to the computer through a special manual input device called microphone or
mic.
• A mic converts the received sound into computer’s format, which is called Digitized Sound or Digital
Audio.
• To convert a voice into digital form, you need an additional hardware known as Sound Card.
• Now-a-days, microphones are also being used with speech recognition software.
• This means that we do not have to type, rather just have to speak and the spoken words appear in our
document.

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WEBCAM • It is a video / Image capturing device.
• Webcam is a digital camera attached to
computers and can be used for video
conferencing, online chatting, etc.
• A camera connected to a computer
allows anyone, those are connected to
the Internet, to view either a still
picture or motion video of a user or
other object.
• Now-a-days, Webcams are either
embedded into the display with laptop
computers or connected via USB or
firewire port or Wi-Fi to the computer.
• DSLR: Digital Single Lens Reflex
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OUTPUT DEVICES
• An output device is any piece of computer hardware equipment used to communicate the results of
data processing carried out by an information processing to the outside world.
• Some of the commonly used output devices are monitor, printers, plotter, speaker, headphones,
projector etc.

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TYPES OF OUTPUT
1. Soft-copy output
• Not produced on a paper or some material that can be touched and carried for being shown to others
• Temporary in nature.
• Examples are output displayed on a terminal screen (Monitor) or spoken out by a voice response
system (Speaker).

2. Hard-copy output
• Produced on a paper or some material that can be touched and carried for being shown to others.
• Permanent in nature and can be kept in paper files or can be looked at a later time when the person is
not using the computer.
• Examples are output produced by printers or plotters on paper.

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MONITOR
• A computer monitor (Visual Display Unit (VDU)) is an output device that displays
information in pictorial or text form.
• Monitors are connected to the computer via VGA, Digital Visual Interface (DVI), HDMI,
DisplayPort, USB-C, Low-voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) or other proprietary
connectors and signals.
• The first computer monitors used cathode-ray tubes (CRTs).
• TFT-LCD (thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display) is a variant of LCD which is now
the dominant technology used for computer monitors.
• Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) monitors provide higher contrast, better color
reproduction and viewing angles than LCDs but they require more power

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MONITOR
• A monitor is of two kinds; monochrome display monitor and color display monitor.
• A monochrome display monitor uses only one color to display text and colour display
monitor can display 256 colors at a time.
• An image on the monitor is created by a configuration of dots, also known as pixels.

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MONITOR
• The clarity of image depends on three factors which are as follows
1. Resolution of Screen: Resolution refers to the number of pixels in horizontal and vertical directions. The
resolution of monitor is higher when the pixels are closer together. 1280 x 1024
2. Dot Pitch It refers to the diagonal distance between two colored pixels. The smaller the dot pitch, the
better the resolution. The diagonal dot pitch, which measures pixel-to-pixel distance diagonally, and a
horizontal dot pitch, which measures horizontally
3. Refresh Rate The refresh rate of your display refers to how many times per second the display is able
to draw a new image. The refresh rate of monitor is measured in Hertz (Hz).

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• The popular types of monitor are as follows
1. Cathode Ray Tube (CRT): It is a typical rectangular shaped
monitor that you see on a desktop computer. The CRT works in
a same way as a television. CRT has a vacuum tube. CRT works
by moving an electron beam back and forth across the back of
the screen. A screen covered with a fine layer of
phosphorescent elements, called phosphores.
2. Liquid Crystal Display ( LCD): These screens are used in
laptops and notebook sized PCs. A special type of liquid is
sandwiched between two plates. It is a thin, flat and light
weight screen.
3. Light Emitted Diode (LED) Display: LED is an electronic
device that emits light when electrical current is passed
through it. LEDs usually produce red light, but today’s LEDs can
produce RGB (Red, Green and Blue) light, and white light as
well.
4. 3-D Monitor It is a television that conveys depth perception
to the viewer. 3-D describes an image that provides the
perception of length. When 3-D images are made interactive LCD: Liquid Crystal Display
then user feels involved with the scene and this experience is OLED: Organic Light Emitting Diode
called virtual reality. AMOLED: Active Matrix Light Emitting Diode
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• The performance of a monitor is measured by the following parameters:
• Display geometry:
• Viewable image size - is usually measured diagonally. E.g, 13 inches, 15 inch.
• Aspect ratio - is the ratio of the horizontal length to the vertical length. Monitors usually have the aspect ratio 4:3,
5:4, 16:10 or 16:9.
• Display resolution is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed.
• Dot pitch or pixel pitch represents the size of the primary elements of the display. In LCDs it is the distance
between the center of two adjacent pixels. Dot pitch is the reciprocal of pixel density. The diagonal dot pitch, which
measures pixel-to-pixel distance diagonally, and a horizontal dot pitch, which measures horizontally
• Pixel density is a measure of how densely packed the pixels on a display are. In LCDs, pixel density is the number
of pixels in one linear unit along the display, typically measured in pixels per inch (px/in or ppi).

• Color characteristics:
• Color depth - measured in bits per primary color or bits for all colors. Those with 10 bpc (bits per channel) or more
can display more shades of color (approximately 1 billion shades) than traditional 8 bpc monitors (approximately
16.8 million shades or colors).
• Gamut - A monitor's color gamut describes a specific range of colors that it can produce.

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• Input speed characteristics:
• Refresh rate is (in CRTs) the number of times in a second that the display is illuminated (the number of times a
second a raster scan is completed). In LCDs it is the number of times the image can be changed per second,
expressed in hertz (Hz). Maximum refresh rate is limited by response time. Determines the maximum number of
frames per second (FPS) a monitor is capable of showing.
• Response time is the time a pixel in a monitor takes to change between two shades.
• Input latency is the time it takes for a monitor to display an image after receiving it, typically measured in
milliseconds (ms).

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PRINTER
• A printer prints information and data from the
computer onto a paper.
• The speed of a printer is measured in Characters Per
Second (CPS), Lines Per Minute (LPM) and Pages
Per Minute (PPM).
• Printer resolution is a numerical measure of print
quality that is measured in Dots Per Inch (DPI).
• Printers are classified as
1. Character Printers Line Printers and Page Printers
2. Impact Printers and Non-Impact Printers

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IMPACT PRINTERS
• This type of printer strikes paper and ribbon together to form a
character, like a typewriter.
• Impact printer can print a character or an entire line at a time. They Pins / Hammers
use pins or hammers that pressed an inked ribbon against the
paper. Ribbon
• They are less expensive, fast and can make multiple copies with Paper
multipart paper.
• There are four types of impact printer
1. Dot Matrix Printer: It forms characters using rows of pins which
impact the ribbon on top of the paper therefore also called pin
printers. Dot matrix printers print one character at a time. It prints
characters and images as a pattern of dots. Many dot matrix printers
are bi-directional, that is they can print the characters from either
direction, i.e. left or right.

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2. Daisy Wheel Printer: It is an impact printer. In daisy wheel
printers, characters are fully formed on the petals, like
typewriter keys. These printers produce high resolution
output and are more reliable than dot matrix.

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3. Line Printer: It is a high-speed printer capable of
printing an entire line of text at once instead of one
or more characters at a time.
• These are impact shaped character printers which
print one line at a time.
• Print quality of line printer is not high.
• Also called Chain/Band Printers.
• Can only print pre-defined sets of characters that
are embossed on the chain/band used with the
printer
• Cannot print any shape of characters, different
sizes of print, and graphics such as charts and
graphs
• Are impact printers and can be used for generating
multiple copies by using carbon paper or its
equivalent
• Are usually monochrome.
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4. Drum Printer: An old-line printer technology
that uses formed character images around a
cylindrical drum as its printing mechanism.
• Line printers that print one line at a time
• Have a solid cylindrical drum with characters
embossed on its surface in the form of
circular bands
• Set of hammers mounted in front of the drum
in such a manner that an inked ribbon and
paper can be placed between the hammers
and the drum
• Can only print a pre-defined set of characters
in a predefined style that is embossed on the
drum.

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Dot pitch or pixel pitch represents the distance between the center of two adjacent pixels. The diagonal dot pitch,
which measures pixel-to-pixel distance diagonally, and a horizontal dot pitch, which measures horizontally.

Horizontal Dot Pitch Diagonal Dot Pitch

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• DMA: (Direct Memory Access) is a method that allows an input/output device to send or receive data directly to
or from the main memory, bypassing the CPU to speed up memory operations.

• Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of computer systems and allows certain hardware subsystems (I/O)
to access main system memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU).

• Without DMA, when the CPU is using programmed input/output, it is typically fully occupied for the entire
duration of the read or write operation, and is thus unavailable to perform other work.

• With DMA, the CPU first initiates the transfer, then it does other operations while the transfer is in progress,
and it finally receives an interrupt from the DMA controller (DMAC) when the operation is done.

CPU

MAIN DMA
Controller INPUT DEVICE
MEMORY
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NON-IMPACT PRINTER
• This type of printer uses electrostatic chemicals and inkjet technologies.
• They do not hit or impact a ribbon to print. It can produce high quality graphics and
often a wide variety of fonts than impact printers.
• There are following types of non-impact printer
1. Inkjet Printer: It is a printer that places extremely small droplets of ink onto paper to
create an image. It sprays ink onto paper to form characters and prints high quality text
and graphics.

2. Thermal Printer: It uses heat on chemically treated paper to form characters. Fax
machines that use rolls of paper are also of thermal printers type. It is relatively slow,
expensive and requires special paper.

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NON-IMPACT PRINTER
• 3. Laser Printer: It provides the highest quality text and images for
personal computer.
• Laser printer uses laser beam onto photo sensitive surface for
printing.
• It prints high quality graphics and more expensive than impact
printers.
• Page printers that print one page at a time.
• Consist of a laser beam source, a multi-sided mirror, a
photoconductive drum and toner (tiny particles of oppositely charged
ink).
• To print a page, the laser beam is focused on the electro statically
charged drum by the spinning multi-sided mirror.
• Toner sticks to the drum in the places the laser beam has charged the
drum’s surface.
• Toner is then permanently fused on the paper with heat and pressure
to generate the printer output.
• Laser printers produce very high quality output having resolutions in
the range of 600 to 1200 dpi
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4. Electrostatic Printer: It uses an electric charge to deposit toner on paper. These printers are
generally used for large format printing. They are favored by large printing shops because of their
ability to print fast and making low cost.

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PLOTTER
1. Paper support: Supports the paper loaded in the sheet feeder.
2. Sheet feeder: Holds blank paper and automatically feeds the paper
during printing.
3. Printer cover: Covers the printing mechanism. Open only when
installing or replacing ink cartridges.
4. Output tray: Receives the ejected paper.
5. Output tray extension: Supports the ejected paper.
6. CD/DVD guide: Supports the CD/DVD tray.
7. USB connector: Used to connect the computer and printer using a
USB cable.
8. Edge guides: Help load the paper straight. Adjust the left edge guide
to fit the width of your paper.
9. Printhead is a printer component that helps transfer ink onto the
page.
10. Ink Cartridge or inkjet cartridge is a component of an inkjet
printer that contains the ink that is deposited onto paper during
printing.
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PLOTTER
• It is an output device that uses a pen, pencil,
marker or other writing tools for making vector
graphics.
• A plotter is a special kind of output channel like a
printer, that produces images on paper.
• They are mainly used to produce large drawings or
images such as construction plans, blueprints for
mechanical objects, AUTOCAD, CAD/CAM, etc.
• Plotters usually come in two designs as follows
1. Flat Bed Plotter These plotters are of small size to
be kept on table with restriction of paper size.
2. Drum Plotter These plotters are of big size using
rolls of paper of unlimited length.

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SPEAKERS
• It is an output device that receives sound
in the form of electric current.
• It needs a sound card connected to a CPU,
that generates sound via a card.
• These are used for listening to music, for
being audible in seminars during
presentations, etc.
• Computer speakers are the speakers
which are attached internally or externally
to a computer system.

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HEADPHONES
• These are a pair of small loudspeakers or less commonly a single speaker, held close to a user’s ears
and connected to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player or portable media player.
• They are also known as stereo phones, headsets or cans.

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SPEECH SYNTHESIZERS
• Converts text information into spoken sentences.
• Used for applications such as:
• Reading out text information to blind persons
• Allowing those persons who cannot speak to communicate effectively.
• Translating an entered text into spoken words in a selected language

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PROJECTOR
• It is an output device which is used to project
information from a computer onto a large
screen, so it can be viewed by a large group
of people simultaneously.
• Projectors are widely used for classroom
training or conference halls with a large
audience.
• It provides a temporary output display.
• There are mainly two types of projectors; LCD
projector and DLP(Digital Light Processing )
projector.

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 Graphics Card
GRAPHICS / VIDEO CARD
• A graphics card (also called a video card, display card,
graphics adapter, GPU, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, or
display adapter) is an expansion card which generates a
feed of output images to a display device (such as a
computer monitor).
• At its core is the graphics processing unit (GPU), which is
the main component that is a specialized processor
originally designed to accelerate graphics rendering (but
should not be confused with the graphics card as a whole).
• The graphics card is the hardware as a whole, while the
GPU is a chip.
• GPU is the unit in the graphics card that performs the
actual processing of the images and graphics while the
graphics card is an expansion card in the device that
generates images to display on the output device.
• Graphics cards are used extensively for AI training,
cryptocurrency mining and molecular simulation.
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BOTH INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICES
• Few devices that give input and also show or get the output through same device. These are as
follows:
(i) Modem: A modulator-demodulator, or simply a modem, is a hardware device that converts data
from a digital format, intended for communication directly between devices with specialized wiring.
(ii) Network cards
(iii) Touch screen
(iv) Headsets (headset consists of speakers and microphone in which speaker acts as output
device and microphone acts as input device).
(v) Facsimile (FAX): It has scanner to scan the document and also have printer to print the
document).
(vi) Audio cards/sound cards.

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INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O) PORTS
• Ports: The connection point acts as an interface between the
computer and external devices like printers, modems, etc.
• The peripheral devices can be connected to computer in several
ways.
• Input/Output ports are the external interfaces that are used to
connect input and output devices like printer, monitor and joystick
to computer.
• The I/O devices are connected to the computer via the serial and
parallel ports, Universal Serial Bus (USB), firewire ports, etc.

• Internal Port: It connects the system’s motherboard to internal

devices like hard disk, CD drive, internal Bluetooth, etc.
• External Port: It connects the system’s motherboard to external
devices like a mouse, printer, USB, etc.

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INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O) PORTS
1. Parallel Port: It is an interface for connecting eight or more data wires.
• The data flows through the eight wires simultaneously.
• They can transmit eight bits of data in parallel.
• As result, parallel ports provide high speed data transmission.
• Parallel port is used to connect printer to the computer.
• 25 pin model.
2. Serial Port: It transmits one bit of data through a single wire. Since,
data is transmitted serially/sequentially as single bit. It provides slow
speed data transmission.
Two versions-9pin,25pin
Data travels at 115 kilobits per second
It is used to connect external modems, older computer mouse, barcode
reader, etc.

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INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O) PORTS
3. Universal Serial Bus (USB): It is a common and
popular external port available with computers.
• Normally, two to four USB ports are provided on a PC.
• USB also has the plug and play feature, which allows
devices ready to be run.
• It can connect all kinds of external USB devices such
as external hard disks, printers, scanners, mouse,
keyboards, etc.
• Data travels at 12 megabits per second.4. Firewire: It is
used to connect audio and video multimedia devices
like video camera.
• Firewire is an expensive technology used for large
data movement.
• Hard disk drive connects through firewire.
• It has data transfer rate of up to 400 MB/sec.
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INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O) PORTS
5. Ethernet Port / LAN Port:
Connects to a network and high-speed Internet.
Data travels at 10 megabits to 1000 megabits per second depending upon the network bandwidth.

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INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O) PORTS
VGA Port:
VGA ports also known as Video Graphic Array connector are those which connect the monitor to a
computer’s video card.
VGA port has 15 holes and it is similar to the serial port connector.
But VGA Ports have holes in it and the serial port connector has pins in it.

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INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O) PORTS
Digital Video Interface(DVI) Port:
DVI Port is used to connects LCD(flat panel) monitor to the computer’s high-end video graphic cards
and it is very popular among video card manufacturers.

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting

uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-
compliant source device, such as a display controller, to a compatible computer monitor, video
projector, digital television, or digital audio device.

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