NMEC-I BASICS OF COMPUTERS AND OFFICE AUTOMATION UNIT- I (Start) INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS DEFINE COMPUTER.

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER? Definition: Computer is a programmable machine that operates set of instructions and produce result. . It is an electronic device which converts raw data into meaningful information. Input Process Output WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTER? Two principal characteristics of a computer are: Responding to a specific set of instructions. Executing a prerecorded list of instructions. Modern computers are electronic and digital. Hardware The actual machinery that may be wires, transistors, peripheral devices and circuits. Software The instructions and data collectively called programs. EXPLAIN THE HARDWARE COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER. WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS USED IN COMPUTER? Computer hardware components are: Central processing unit (CPU) The heart of the computer that executes instructions of the computers. Memory Enables to store data and programs. Input devices The device to enter data and instructions to computer display screen. Ex: keyboard Output devices Display screen, printer that helps to show the result that the computer produced. Mass storage device -- Allows storing large amount of data permanently. Ex: disk & tape drive Bus It helps to transmits data from one computer to another. EXPLAIN THE TYPES OF COMPUTERS. Types of computers: Computers can be classified by their size and power. Personal computer A small, single-user computer based on a micro processor. It has a keyboard, monitor and storage device. Workstation A powerful, single-user computer. It has more powerful microprocessor and a higher quality monitor. Minicomputer A multi-user computer capable of supporting 10 to hundreds of users simultaneously. Mainframe A powerful multi-user computer capable of supporting many hundreds of users simultaneously. Super computer An extremely fast computer that can perform hundreds of millions of instructions per second. EXPLAIN THE CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTER. Characteristics of Computers:

Word length A digital computer operates on binary digits- 0 and 1. A binary digit is called a bit. A group of 8-bits is called a byte. The number of bits is measured in terms of word length. Commonly used word length is 16, 32 or 64 bits. Speed - Computers can calculate at very high speeds. For example: Microcomputers can execute millions of instructions per second without mistake. Super computers can operate at speeds measured in nanoseconds and even in picoseconds one thousand to one million times faster than microcomputer. Storage A computer can store a large amount of data. The storage capacity of a computer is virtually unlimited. The capability of storing and retrieving huge amounts of data in a fast and efficient manner is one of the important characteristics of computers. Accuracy The accuracy of a computer system is very high. Error detecting and correcting techniques will prevent false results, mistakes often occur when data is keyed-in and the computer accepts whatever that is keyed-in. If a wrong input is given, the output also will be wrong- GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out). Versatility Computers can perform activities ranging from simple calculations to perform complex CAD modeling and simulation to navigating missiles and satellites. Computers can communicate with other computers and can receive and send data in various forms like text, sound, video, graphics, etc. This ability of communication has led to the development of computer networks, Internet, www and so on. Automation- Computers can be programmed to perform a series of complex tasks involving multiple programs. Programs will be executed in the correct sequence. It will send warning signals or take corrective actions if the parameters exceed the control level. Diligence It means being constant and earnest in effort and application. Computers wont get tried or bored.

FIVE GENERATIONS OF MODERN COMPUTERS WRITE NOTE ON GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS. EXPLAIN DIFFERENT GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS IN BRIEF. Based on the period of development and the feature incorporated, the computers are classified into five generations. I. First generation computers: (1945-1956) In all the first generation computers the chief component used was vacuum tubes. The use of vacuum tubes created several problems. - 1946 John Presper Eckert & John-W Macchly First built the digital computer using parts called Vacuum tubes. This type of computer is named as ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). Consist of 18,000VT, 70,000 resistors 5 million soldered joints. It consumes 160 kilowatts of power. 1947 Von Neumann designed the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) with a memory to hold both stored program and data. 1951

Remington Rand built UNIVAC-I (Universal Automatic Computer) as a first commercial computer. Characteristics: Large in size. Slow-operating speed. Restricted computing capacity. Limited programming capacity Short life span Complex maintenance schedules. II. Second generation computers: (1956 - 1963) In the second generation computers, transistors were used in the place of vacuum tubes. These computers were much faster and more reliable than the earlier computers. Further they occupied less space, required less power and produced less heat. Advantages of transistors over vacuum tubes: Smaller Cooler More reliable Cheaper to use Second generation computers replaced machine language with assembly language. Commercially successful second generation computers used in businesses, universities and government from companies such as Burroughs, control data, Honeywell, IBM contained transistors in place of vacuum tubes. More sophisticated high-level languages such as COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) and FORTRAN (Formula Translator) came into common use during this time. These languages replaced cryptic binary machine code with words, sentences and mathematical formulae, making it much easier to program a computer. Early companies were located in the Santa Clara valley, in Palo Alto, the region became universally known as Silicon Valley. III. Third generation computers: (1964- 1971) Instead of using individual transistors to make circuits, many transistors were packed on a chip which was named IC (Integrated Circuit). The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers. Instead of punched cards and printouts users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allows the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors. IV. Fourth Generation: (1971- Present) The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computer as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. The Intel4004 chip developed in 1971, located all the components of the computerfrom the central processing unit and memory to input/output controls on a single chip. Very soon everyday household items such as microwave ovens, TV sets and automobiles with electronic fuel injection incorporated microprocessors.

V. Fifth generation: (Present and beyond) This generation computing devices, based on Artificial Intelligence are still in development. Some applications are voice recognition that is being used today. The use of parallel processing and superconductors helps to make AI a reality. The goal of fifth generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and selforganization. The most famous example of this generation computer is the fictional HAL9000 from Arthur c Clarkes novel-2001 A space odyssey.

Intelligent User Interface

Application systems

Inference processor

Knowledge Base System

(Schematic diagram of 5th generation computer) The knowledge base system has a very large store of knowledge with a set of processors, which access and update it. Operations on knowledge base require the manipulation of large numbers of individual elements. There are five major programs under the way to develop fifth generation computers: The ICOT program in Japan. The MCC project in the USA. The DARPA project in the USA. The Esprit in the European corporation. The Alvey program in Britain. CLASSIFICATIONS OF DIGITAL COMPUTER SYSTEM WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF DIGITAL COMPUTERS? DESCRIBE THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF DIGITAL COMPUTER SYSTEM IN BRIEF. General classification of computer: Computer may be classified according to the principles of operation, purpose and on the basis of their size and speed. Classification of computer

On principles of operation

On purpose or application

On size and speed

1. Analog computer 2. Digital computer 3. Hybrid computer

1. General-purpose computer 2. Special-purpose computer

1. Macro computer 2. Mini computer 3. Mainframe computer 4. Super

computer Based on operating principles: Analog computer operates on continuous data by measuring physical quantities. (e.g. Temperature) Digital computer operates on digital data performing arithmetic and logical operations on the data. (e.g. Business) Hybrid computer operates on both analog and digital data representation. (e.g. Hospitals) CLASSIFICATION OF DIGITAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS Computers are classified based on size and speed. The classifications are Microcomputer Minicomputer Mainframe Supercomputers Microcomputers: It is called because of its small size and the use of microprocessor. Its storage capacity is low. It accepts high level languages. It uses an interpreter or compiler for running high level languages. Advantages: Small and portable. Relatively inexpensive. Work as soon as they are switched on. Excellent graphic capabilities. Consume less space and power. Disadvantages: Microcomputers have a limited storage capacity Relatively slow. Types: Personal computer (PCs) Desktop or portable machines. Easy-to-use application software. Ex: word processor, spreadsheets Less sophisticated video display screens, operating system and networking capabilities. Example: Acers, Aspire, Compaq, Presario etc. (ii) Workstations Expensive, powerful machine used by engineers, scientist and other professionals. Use sophisticated display screens with high-resolution color graphics and operating system Use powerful networking links to other computer. Powerful workstations are called super micros.

Example: Sun, Apollo, Next and IBM Portable Computers: It can be easily carried around. Three categories of portable computers are (i) Laptops /Note books Either AC powered, battery-powered or both. Ideal for users who work far from offices. User of these computers are executive on the move, student, a journalist a sales person etc... Example: THINK PAD of IBM (ii) Sub notebooks Meant for frequent flyers and life on the road professionals. Users give up a full display screen and keyboard. It fit into briefcase, it can contain an external floppy disk drive and monochrome monitors. Example: Colour sub ebook is Toshiba portage.

(iii) Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) Smaller than sub notebooks. It combines pen, input, writing recognition, personal organization tools and communication capabilities in a very small package. Users are executives, businessman etc, Example: Apples Newton Minicomputer: Also known as mid-range computers. Used to control machines in a manufacturing unit. The most powerful minicomputer models are called super minis. The most popular minicomputer system is the VAX made by Digital Equipment Corporation. Example: client/server model. Advantages: It performs almost all the tasks that a mainframe can. Relatively inexpensive. Disadvantages: Slower than mainframe. Memory is smaller Mainframe: It can process several million-program instructions per second. Mainly used by insurance companies, banks, airline and railway reservations systems. An Advanced mainframe made by IBM is S/390. Advantages: Capable of handling all tasks. Storage capacity is about 10 mega words. Transfer rate is very high. Able to accept any high level language. Support around 500 terminals. Disadvantages: Very expensive.

Require large space. Consumption of electricity is very high. Maintenance cost is high. Supercomputers: Fastest calculating devices. It can operate at speeds measured in nanoseconds and in Pico seconds. One thousand to one million time as fast as microcomputers. Used by government agencies, weather forecasting, oil exploration, weapons research and large scale simulation. It uses a technology called massively parallel processing. It contains thousands of integrated microprocessors. It is capable of performing 8.6 billion mathematical calculations per second. Network computer: Network computers are with minimal memory, disk storage and processing power designed to connect to a network. It minimizes the amount of memory and processor power. Designed to connect to the Internet are sometimes called Internet boxes, Net PCs and Internet appliances. It has 4 t0 64 MB of RAM and 8MB ROM card, a smart card slot, infrared and network interfaces, a parallel port and a pair of PS/2 compatible I/O ports. Example: Oracle Corporation and Sun Microsystems.

ANATOMY OF A DIGITAL COMPUTER WHAT ARE THE FUNCTIONS OF A COMPUTER? Functions and components of a computer: To function properly, the computer needs both hardware and software, where the hardware consists of the mechanical and electronic devices, which can see and touch. The software consists of programs, the OS and the data that reside in the memory and storage devices. Parts of computers Storage device Input device Output device Processor Memory Functions of computers : Receive input Accepts information from outside through various input devices like the keyboard, mouse. Process information Perform arithmetic or logical operations on the information. Produce output Communicate information to the outside world through output devices like monitor, printer, etc. Store information Store the information in storage devices like hard disk, floppy disk etc. Computer hardware falls into categories: (a) Processing hardware which consists of the central processing unit (CPU). (b) Peripheral devices allow people interact with the CPU. WRITE A NOTE ON CPU.

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU): The part of a computer that executes the program instructions is known as the processor or CPU. In a microcomputer the CPU is on a single electronic component, the microprocessor chip, within the system unit or cabinet. The system unit also includes circuit board, memory chips, ports and other components. CPU has 2 parts: (1) Control unit it tells the system how to carry out program instruction. It directs the movement of electronic signals between memory- which temporarily holds data, instructions and the processed information and the ALU.
Arithmetic logic Unit (ALU) Input Output

Primary storage unit

Control unit

Secondary storage

(2) Arithmetic logic unit: - It is usually called the ALU- performs two types of operations: (a) Arithmetic operations Performs the fundamental mathematical operations consisting of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. (b) Logical operations Consists of comparisons. Two pieces of data are compared to see whether on is equal to, less than, or greater than the other. WRITE SHORT NOTES ON THE FOLLOWING: a) Memory b) Registers c) Address Memory: Also known as the primary storage or main memory. It is a part of the microcomputer that holds data for processing, instructions for processing the data and information. The capacity of the memory to hold data and program instructions varies in different computers. The original IBM PC could hold approximately 6, 40,000 characters of data or instructions only. Registers: Computers also have several additional storage locations called registers. It is a sort of special hi-speed staging areas that hold data and instructions temporarily during processing. The contents can be handled much faster than the contents of memory. Addresses: To locate the characters of data or instructions in main memory the computer stores them in the location known as addresses. A unique number designates each address.

MEMORY UNITS EXPLAIN DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEMORY? (OR) WHAT ARE MEMORY UNITS? Memory units are internal storage areas in a computer. Memory identifies data storage that comes in the form of chips. Storage used for memory that exists on tapes or disks. Physical memory actual chips capable of holding data. Referred to as main memory. Virtual memory expands physical memory onto a hard disk. CPU Main memory Secondary Memory

DETAIL DESCRIPTION ABOUT RAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM. Types of memory: 1. RAM (Random Access Memory): Referred to Read and write memory i.e. both write data and read data. Volatile it requires a steady flow of electricity to maintain its contents. (i.e. power is turned off, data is lost) Pronounced as ram, acronym for random access memory, a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly. (i.e.) any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes. There are two basic types of RAM. Dynamic RAM (DRAM) Static RAM (SRAM) Dynamic RAM needs to be refreshed thousands of times per second. Static RAM needs to be refreshed less often, which makes it faster, but it is also more expensive than dynamic RAM. Both types are volatile, meaning that they lose their contents when the power is turned off. 2. ROM (Read Only Memory): Always contain a small amount of read-only memory that holds instructions for starting up the computer. ROM cannot be written to. Retains the content even the computer is turned off. So called non-volatile. Stores critical program such as program that boots the computer. Used in calculators and peripheral devices such as lasers printers. 3. PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory): It is a memory chip to store a program. But once it has been used, it cannot be cleaned and used it to store something else. PROMs are Non-volatile. Data can be written only once. Retains the content even computer is turned off. It is manufactured as blank memory. It is a memory chip storing a program. Special device called PROM programmers or a PROM burner is needed to write data.

Process of programming a PROM is called as burning the PROM. 4. EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory): It is a special type of PROM. It can be erased by exposing it to ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet light clears its contents, making it possible to reprogram the memory. Enable to change the content of PROM. 5. EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory): It is a special type of PROM. It can be erased by exposing it to an electric charge. Non volatile. It is a special type of PROM. Erased one byte at a time. Not as fast as RAM Similar to flash memory. The principal difference is that EEPROM requires data to be written or erased one byte at a time whereas flash memory allows data to be written or erased in blocks. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY FLASH BIOS? FLASH MEMORY: It is a special type of EEPROM that can be erased and reprogrammed in blocks instead of one byte at a time. PCs have their BIOS (Basic Input Output System) stored on a flash memory chip such a BIOS is sometimes called flash BIOS. Flash memory is also popular in modems because it enables the modem manufacturer to support new protocols as they become standardized.

INPUT DEVICES EXPLAIN IN BRIEF ABOUT INPUT DEVICES. WRITE A NOTE ON INPUT DEVICES. An input device is any machine that feeds data into a computer. Keyboard is an input device whereas a display monitor is an output device. Example: mice, trackballs, and light pens, keyboard. WHAT DEVICE IS USED FOR FEEDING DATA TO THE COMPUTER? WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF KEYBOARD? Keyboard: Keyboard is an input device consisting of a set of typewriter like keys that enables to enter data into a computer. Keyboards are similar to electric typewriter. Classified as follows: Alphanumeric keys -- letter and numbers. Punctuation keys -- comma, period, semicolon. Special keys -- function keys, control keys, arrow keys, caps lock key. Three different types of PC keyboards are: Original PC keyboard 84 keys. AT keyboard 84 keys. Enhanced keyboard 101 keys. Page up Pause IBM keyboards contain the following keys: Page down Num lock Home Scroll lock End Break Insert Caps lock

Other types of keyboards are: QWERTY keyboard First five keys on top row of letters spelled so. DVORAK keyboard letters positioned for speed typing. Ergonomic keyboard reduce the strain while typing. Many companies have developed ergonomic keyboards, which reduce the strain while typing with the aim to prevent stress related injuries. Example: Apple Macintosh called ADB keyboard (Apple Desktop Bus) (2 varieties) Standard Keyboard Extended Keyboard

WHAT IS MOUSE? MENTION THE TYPES OF MICE? Mouse: A device that controls the movement of the cursor or pointer on a display screen. Its name is derived from its shape. Invented by Douglas Engelbart of Stanford Research Center in 1963, and pioneered by Xerox in 1970. It is important for GUI. The applications are often called as point and click programs. It allows to draw pictures by using the mouse like a pen, pencil or paintbrush. Types of mice: Three basic types of mice are Mechanical Mechanical sensors within the mouse detect the direction the ball is rolling and move the screen pointer. Optomechanical Use optical sensors to detect motion of the ball. Optical Uses a laser to detect mouse movement. It has no mechanical moving parts. More expensive and quick response. WRITE THE WAYS HOW THE MOUSE IS CONNECTED. WHAT ARE THE THREE WAYS OF MOUSE CONNECTIONS? EXPLAIN THE VARIOUS WAYS TO CONNECT A MOUSE IN A SYSTEM. Connections: Three ways of connections: Serial mice connect directly to an Rs-232 serial port or a PS/2 port. Simplest type connection. Bus mice connect to the bus through an interface card. More complicated. Cordless mice are not physically connected. They rely on infrared or radio waves to communicate with the computer. More expensive. WHAT IS MOUE PAD? Mouse Pad: Mouse pad is a pad over which one can move a mouse. For mechanical mice, mouse pads are optional. Optical mice require special mouse pads that have grids drawn on them. WHAT IS TRACK BALL? Track Ball: It is a pointing device. It is a mouse lying on its back. It does not require much space. Mouse pad is not necessary.

Advantage: It is a stationary that does not require much space to use. It is popular for portable computer. Joystick: A lever moves in all directions and controls the movement of a pointer. To stop the pointer, we must return the joystick to its upright position. Joysticks are used mostly for computer games, but they are also used for CAD/CAM systems and other applications. Most joysticks include two buttons called triggers. EXPLAIN DIGITIZING TABLETS IN SHORT. Digitizing Tablets: It is an input device that enables to enter drawings and sketches into a computer. A digitizing tablet consists of an electronic tablet and a cursor or pen.(also called stylus) A pen uses an electronic head instead of ink. The tablets contain electronics that enables it to detect the movements into digital signals that it sends to the computer. Digitizing tablets are also called digitizers, graphics tablets, touch tablets or simple tablets. WHAT IS THE USE OF THE SCANNER? Scanners: Scanners read text or illustrations printed on paper and translate the information into a form that the computer can use. A scanner works by digitizing an image dividing it into a grid of boxes and representing each box with either a zero or a one. To edit the text read by an optical scanner an optical character recognition system (OCR) is needed. It helps to translate the image into ASCII characters. Scanners differ from one another in the following aspects: Scanning technology: Most scanners use charge-coupled device(CCD)arrays, which consist of tightly packed rows of light receptors that can detect variations in light intensity and frequency. Resolution: The denser the bit map, the higher the resolution. Scanners support resolutions from 72 to 600 dots per inch (dpi) Size and shapes: Some scanners are small hand-held devices. These are often called half-page scanners because they can only scan 2 to 5 inches at a time. The large size scanners come in two ways. They are: A sheet-fed scanner takes sheets of paper. They are excellent for loose sheets of paper and they are unable to handle bound documents. A flatbed scanner, like a photocopy machine. It consists of a board on which we lay books, magazines and other documents that we want to scan. Bit depth: The number of bits needed to represent each pixel. The greater the bit depth, more colors or grayscales can be represented. Digital Camera: Images can be input into a computer using a digital camera. The light received through the lens is converted to digital signals by sensors, rather than stored by chemical change on a film as in a normal camera. The resulting picture can then be stored on a computer and used

just like any clipart files.

EXPAND MICR. Magnetic Ink Character Recognition [MICR]: It allows the computer to recognize characters printed using magnetic inks. Ex: Numbers on the bottom of cheque, a special purpose machine reader / sorter is used for this technique. It is used on the back of credit cards and bank debit cards that allows readers such as Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to read account information. In ID cards, it helps to monitor attendance to restrict access to specific locations. EXPAND OCR. Optical Character Recognition [OCR]: It is used to read text from paper and translating images into a form that the computer can manipulate. They can read variety of fonts, but have difficulty with hand written text. An OCR system includes an optical scanner for reading text and sophisticated software for analyzing images. OCR systems use a combination of hardware and software to recognize characters. Advanced OCR systems can read text in a large variety of fonts. WHAT IS OMR? WHERE IT IS USED? Optical Mark Recognition [OMR]: Also called as mark sensing, it is a technology where as OMR devices senses the presence or absence of a mark. It is used in tests such as aptitude tests. WHAT IS THE USE OF BAR CODE READER? Bar code Reader: It is made up of vertical lines and spaces. They are most often used to take inventory in supermarkets and retail stores. Bar code reader kit consists of scanner, decoder and cable. The scanner scans the bar code symbol and sends it to the decoder. The four different types of bar code readers available are: Pen type readers Laser bar code scanners Charge Couple Devices (CCD) barcode readers. Camera based barcode readers. The bar code identifies the product to the supermarkets computer. Speech Input devices: Speech or voice input devices convert a persons speech into digital form. Two types of voice recognition systems are: 1. Continuous speech: These systems are used to control microcomputers operations and to issue commands to special application program. 2. Discrete word: This system allows the user to discrete directly into a microcomputer using microphones. Touch Screen: This is a type of display screen that has a touch-sensitive transparent panel covering the screen, use fingers to point directly to objects on the screen. But it is difficult to point

small objects.

Touch pad: It is a type of small, touch-sensitive pad used as a pointing device on some portable computers. By moving a finger or other object along the pad, you can move the pointer on the display screen. Light Pen: It utilizes a lightsensitive detector to select objects on a display screen. It is similar to a mouse, except that with a light pen we can move the pointer and select objects on the display screen by directly pointing to the objects with the pen.
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OUTPUT DEVICES EXPLAIN OUTPUT DEVICES IN BRIEF. DEFINE OUTPUT. Anything that comes out of a computer is called output. Output can be meaningful information and appear in a variety of forms, as binary numbers, characters, as pictures and as printed pages. Output devices include display screens, loud speakers, printers, plotters etc. WRITE SHORT NOTES ON MONITOR. WHAT ARE THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF MONITOR? Monitor: Monitor is another term for the display screen. The term monitor, however usually refers to the entire box, where as display screen can means just the screen. Classification of monitor based on colors: Monochrome: actually display two colours, one for the background and one for the foreground. Gray-scale: it is a special type of monochrome monitor that displays different shades of gray. Colour: Colour monitors can display any where from 16 to over 1 million different colours. Colour monitors are sometimes called RGB monitors because they accept three separate signals- red, green and blue. Classification of monitor based on signals is: Digital monitor: It accepts digital signals. Al monitors use CRT technology. The term digital refers only to the type of input received from the video adapter. It translates the digital signals into analog signals that control the actual display. Only low-quality video standard such as MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter), CGA (Colour Graphics Adapter) and EGA (Enhance Graphics Adapter) specify digital signals. Analog monitor: It is the type of colour display screen. Low-cost digital monitors are often called

TTL (Transistor Transistor Logic) monitors. Most monitors accept analog signals, which are required by the VGA, SVGA and other high-resolution colour standards.

EXPLAIN THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A MONITOR. Characteristics of a monitor: Size: Screen sizes are measured in diagonal inches, the distance from one corner to the opposite corner diagonally. Small VGA monitors are 14 inches. Monitors that are 16 or more inches diagonally are often called full-page monitors. Monitors can be either portrait or landscape. Monitors can be either portrait (height greater than width) or landscape (width greater than height). Resolution: It includes how densely the pixels are packed. Pixel is short for picture element. It is a single point in a graphic image. Graphic monitors display pictures by dividing the screen into thousands of pixels, arranged in rows and columns. 8-bit colour monitor uses 8 bits for each pixel. In colour monitors, each pixel is composed of three dots- a red, a blue and a green one. VGA monitor display 640 by 480 SVGA monitor display 1024 by 768 True colour monitors use 24 bits per pixel. Modern monitors display 1024 by 768 pixels Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time is called the bandwidth. Digital devices the bandwidth is expressed in bits or bytes per second (bps) Analog devices the bandwidth is expressed in cycles per second or Hertz (Hz) Refresh rate: It determines how many times per second the screen is to be refreshed (redrawn). It is measured in hertz. It is also called the vertical frequency or vertical refresh rate. Old standard monitor refresh rates 60Hz New standard developed by VESA 75Hz for VGA and SVGA monitors. Interlaced or non-interlaced: Interlacing is a display technique that enables a monitor to provide more resolution inexpensively. The electron guns draw only half the horizontal lines with each pass. This type of monitors refreshes only half the lines at one time. Dot-pitch: A measurement that indicates the vertical distance between each pixel on a display screen. It is measured in millimeters. The dot pitch of colour monitors ranges from about 0.15mm to 0.30mm. Another term for dot pitch is phosphor pitch. Convergence: It refers to how sharply an individual colour pixel on a monitor appears. Each pixel is composed of three dots a red, blue and green.

Video standards There are variety of video standards that define resolution and colours for displays. Popular video standards for PCs are list out in the below table. Standard VGA (Video Graphics Array) SVGA (Super VGA) Resolution 640 X 480 320 X 200 800 X 600 1024 X 768 1280 X 1024 1600 X 1200 1024 X 768 640 X 480 1024 X 768 1024 X 768 Simultaneous Colours 16 256 16 256 256 256 256 65536 256 256

8514/A (IBM-1987) XGA (IBM-1990) TI 34010 (Texas Instruments)

WRITE SHORT NOTE ON PRINTERS. Printer: Printer is a device that prints text or illustration on paper. Based on the technology it

is classified as: Daisy Wheel Printer: It is a disk made of plastic or metal on which characters standout in relief along the outer edge. To print a character, the printer rotates the disk until the desired letter is facing the paper. It cannot print graphics, i.e., pictures. It is slow and printing from 10 to 75 characters per second. Dot- matrix printer: It creates characters by striking pins against an ink ribbon. Each pin makes a dot and combinations of dots from characters and illustrations. It is inexpensive and relatively fast, but do not produce high quality. It can print 50 to 500 characters per second (cps). Two characteristics Speed characters per second (cps). Print quality determined by the number of pins, it can vary from 9 to 24. InkJet printers: It works by spraying ionized ink at a sheet of paper. Magnetized plates in the inks path direct the ink onto the paper in the desired shapes. It produces high quality print. It provides a resolution of 300 dots per inch. Drawback it requires special type of ink. It requires smaller mechanical part. Laser printer: It utilizes a laser beam to produce an image on a drum. The light of the laser alters the electrical charge on the drum, wherever it hits. The drum is then rolled through a reservoir of the toner, which is picked up the charged portions of the drum.

Finally the toner is transferred to the paper through a combination of heat and pressure. The resolutions range from 300 dots per inch (dpi) to 1200(dpi). It produce very high-quality print. It comes with a basic set of fonts, called Internal or resident fonts. Additional fonts are added in two ways: Font cartridges Laser printer have slots in which we can insert cartridges, ROM boards o which fonts have been recorded. advantage is they use none of the printers memory. Soft fonts A font that has been downloaded is often referred to soft font, to distinguish it from the hard font available on cartridges. font The as a font

Laser printers are controlled through Page Description Language (PDL). Two default standards for PDLs: Printer control language (PCL) Hewlett-Packard developed this to control output. Postscript This is the de facto standard for Applet Macintosh printers and for all desktop publishing systems. LCD & LED printer: Similar to a laser printer but uses liquid crystals or light-emitting diodes to produce an image on the drum. Line printer: It is a high-speed printer capable of printing an entire line at one time. It can print 3000 lines per minute. The disadvantages are they can print only one font and cannot print graphics. Quality is low and very noisy. EXPLAIN THE CHARACTERISTICS ON THERMAL PRINTER. Thermal printers: It produces images by pushing electrically heated pins against special heat-sensitive paper. They are inexpensive, and used in fax machines. Characteristics: Quality of type The output produced by printers is said to be either letter quality, near letter quality or draft quality. Speed measured in characters per second (cps) or pages per minute (ppm), the speed of printers varies widely. Impact or non-impact Daisy wheel, dot-matrix and line printers are impact printers. Laser & ink-jet printers are non-impact. Graphics Printers can print both text and graphics. Fonts Dot-matrix printers are limited to one or a few fonts, laser & ink-jet printers are capable of printing an almost unlimited variety of fonts. Plotters: Plotter is a device that draws pictures on paper based on commands from a computer. It differs from printers in that they draw lines using pens, whereas printers can only simulate lines by printing a closely spaced series of dots. It is more expensive and used in engineering applications. Sound cards & speakers: Sound cards enables the computer to output sounds through speakers connected to the board, to record sound input from a microphone connected to a computer, and manipulate

sound stored, on a disk. It uses two basic methods to translate digital data into translate digital data into analog sounds. Frequency modulation (FM) synthesis mimics different musical instruments according to built-in formulas. Wavetable synthesis relies on recordings of actual instructions to produce sound. It produces more accurate sound, but is also more expensive. 3D Audio: It is a technique for giving more depth to traditional stereo sound. Typically, 3D sounds, or 3D audio is produced by placing a device in a room with stereo speakers. It is popular for improving computer audio where the speakers tend to be small and close together. AUXILIARY STORAGE DEVICES WHAT ARE AUXILIARY STORAGE DEVICES? EXPLAIN THEM IN DETAIL. EXPLAIN AUXILIARY STORAGE DEVICES IN BRIEF. WHAT IS THE OTHER NAME OF AUXILIARY STORAGE DEVICE? Auxiliary storage is also known as auxiliary memory or secondary storage. This is a longterm, non-volatile memory. It allows the computer to record information semi-permanently. Also used for transferring data or programs from one computer to another. WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF AUXILIARY STORAGE DEVICES? Types of auxiliary storage devices: Magnetic tapes. Floppy disks. Magnetic disks. Hard disks etc. IN WHAT BASIS THE STORAGE DEVICES ARE CLASSIFIED? There are two types of auxiliary storage devices. This classification is based on the type of data access. Sequential Random Based on the type of access they are called sequential-access media and random-media. Sequential-access media, the data stored in the media can only be read in sequence and to get to a particular point on the media.

Random access

Sequential access

Magnetic tapes are examples of sequential-access media-disks. These random accesses are also called as direct-access media. Other examples of direct-access media are magnetic disks, optical disks, zip disks etc.

WRITE SHORT NOTES ON MAGNETIC TAPES. Magnetic tapes: It is a magnetically coated strip of plastic on which data can be encoded. Tapes are slow, used only for long-term storage and backup. Tapes are sequential-access media, which means that to get a particular point on the tape, the tape must go through all the preceding points. Tapes are used for transporting large amounts of data. Tapes are sometimes called streamers or streaming tapes. Different types are, Types capacity inch --with 60MB 400MB inch --with 40MB 5GB 8mm helical scan --with 1GB 5GB 4mm data --with 2GB 24GB Helical-scan cartridge: It usually refers to 8-mm tapes, although 4-mm tapes (called DAT tapes) use the same technology. The 8-mm helical-scan tapes have data capacities from 2.5GB to 5GB. DAT cartridge: Digital Audio Tape is a type of magnetic tape that uses an ingenious scheme called helical scan to record data. DAT is slightly larger than a credit card and contains a magnetic tape that can hold from 2 to 24 gigabytes of data. It can support data transfer rates of about 2 Mbps. Winchester Disk: Developed by IBM that store 30MB and has a 30-millisecond access time, modern disk drives are faster and hold more data, the basic technology is the same. It is synonymous with hard disk. WRITE SHORT NOTES ON HARD DISK. Hard disk: A hard disk drive (HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk or fixed disk drive. It is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. It was originally developed for use with computers. In 2005 the first mobile phones to include HDDs were introduced by Samsung and Nokia. It record data by magnetizing a ferromagnetic material directionally, to represent either a 0 or a 1 binary digit. It consists of a spindle which holds one or more flat circular disks called platters, onto which the data is recorded. The platters are made from a non-magnetic material, usually glass or aluminum, and are coated with a thin layer of magnetic material. It can store much more data than floppy disk drives and access and transmit it faster. It might store between 160 GB and 1 TB of data, rotate at 7,200 or 10,000 revolutions per minute (RPM). Two types of removable hard disks are disk packs, removable cartridges. The capacity is calculated by multiplying the number of cylinders by the number of heads by the number of sectors by the number of bytes/sector. The physical size is quoted in inches. The sizes in desktops are 3.5 inches (9 cm) wide and in laptops are 2.5 inches (6 cm) wide. WRITE SHORT NOTES ON FLOPPY DISK. Floppy disk:

A data storage device is composed of a disk of thin, flexible ("floppy") magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Data are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD. Invented by IBM, floppy disks in 8", 5.25", and 3.5" formats. It is also known as floppies or diskettes. It was the primary means of storing programs, it was typically designated as the 'A:' drive. Floppies come in two basic sizes: 5 inch: capable of storing look to 1.2MB of data 3 inch: have a larger 400K to 1.4MB of data WHAT ARE THE BASIC INTERNAL COMPONENTS OF A FLOPPY DISK? The basic internal components of a 3-inch floppy disk are: 1. Write-protect tab 2. Hub 3. Shutter 4. Plastic housing 5. Paper ring 6. Magnetic disk 7. Disk sector. ZIP DISK: In 1994 Iomega introduced the zip drive. It can hold 100MB of data. They become a popular media for backing up hard disks. Initial zip system was introduced with a capacity of 100 megabytes. DEFINE JAZ DISK. JAZ DISK: It was introduced by the Iomega Company. It was based on hard disk drive technology. The Jaz drive has a 12-ms average seek time and transfer rate of 5.5 mbps. SUPER DISK: The new disk storage technology developed by the Imation Corporation that supports very high density diskettes. It is used to read and write to older 1.44MB diskettes as well as the new 120MB super disk diskettes. Imations current super disk drive is called LS-120. EXPLAIN THE FAMILIES OF CD-ROM. WHAT TYPE OF STORAGE MEDIUM IS OPTICAL DISK? OPTICAL DISK: The optical disk is random access storage medium. Information can be easily read from any point on the disk. A standard CD-ROM can store up to 650MB of data with 14,500 tracks per inch (tpi). There are three types: CD-ROM: It comes with data encoded onto them. Data is permanent. Read many times but cant be modified. WORM: This term stands for write once, read many. Erasable: This disk can be erased and loaded with new data. These are often referred to as EO disk (Erasable Optical). CD-ROM: It is an abbreviation of compact disc-read only memory.

It store large amount of data up to 1GB. Common size is 630MB and storage capacity is 700 floppy disks. Recorded by vender and once recorded they cannot be erased and filled with new data. CD-R drive: A compact-disk recordable is a variation of the compact disc invented by Philips and Sony. It is a write once, read many optical medium and retains a high level of compatibility with standard CD readers. Characteristics: It is a 1.2mm thick disc made of polycarbonate with a 120mm or 80mm diameter. It has storage capacity of 74 minutes of an audio or 650MiB of data. CD writing methods are disc at once, track at once, packet writing. CD-RW disks: Compact disc rewritable (CD-RW) is a rewritable optical disc format. It is also known as CD-Erasable (CD-E). Introduced in the year 1997. It can be written and erased roughly 1000 times. It can also write CD-R discs. It is not considered as reliable for long term storage. Magneto Optical (MO) Drives: It is capable of writing and rewriting data upon a magneto-optical disc. 130mm and 90mm form factors exist. It was introduced at the end of 1980. By default check information after writing it to the disc.