Appendix- Peripheral Devices

1. Peripheral devices are generally outside of the PC, on the periphery, of the computers operations. Input devices Output devices Computer display devices Other peripherals

1) Input Devices a) Keyboard most important input device. Basically an x-y matrix arrangement of switch elements. Two kinds: i) Mechanical keyswitch uses an individual switch for each key. When a key is pressed, a plunger under the key cap moves down and makes a connection, or creates a short, between two signal lines coming from the keyboard controller in the keyboard. The keyboard controller uses a technique called debouncing, in which the controller constantly scans the keyboard for keystrokes. The keyboard controller sends a signal for the pressed character to the computer when the key is depressed for longer than two scans. A typical keyboard may have more than 100 individual keyswitches. Simple to manufacture and is inexpensive. ii) Capacitive Instead of using switches, which require a voltage, for each key on the keyboard, capacitive keyboards uses two sheets of semi-conductive material separated by a thin sheet of Mylar. When a key is pressed, the two sheets of semi-conductive material are pressed together, which changes the capacitance of the sheets. The keyboard controller senses what value (or character) is pressed and sends the results (or scan codes) to the computer. These keyboards are more durable, can be used in laptops, but generally cannot be repaired and must be replaced. iii) Keyboard connectors DIN-5 (IBM PC, XT/AT) connector Mini DIN-6 (PS/2) connector smaller

iv) Cleaning keyboards usually better to replace than clean a very dirty keyboard. b) Mice - evolved with the development of Graphical User Interface (GUI), where pictures were used to represent computer entities. The mouse is an X-Y positioning device. i) Opto-mechanical (trackball) - Uses a round ball that makes contact with two rollers attached to two potentiometers for an X axis (horizontal) and a Y axis (vertical). The mouse detects positional changes through this free wheeling trackball upon which it rides. The rollers are connected to wheels with small holes in them, which allow light to shine through. The speed and pattern of the light pulses shining through the wheels are translated into the position of the X-Y coordinates as the mouse moves. ii) Optical Must use a special mouse pad. A beam of laser light shines onto the mouse pad and reflects back into sensors inside the mouse. The mouse pad is divided into a number of x and y coordinates by horizontal and vertical lines on the surface of the pad, which can reflect the light into the sensor. 1

c) Mouse Interfaces Serial, Bus, and PS/2 i) Serial first type or mouse. The X-Y coordinates flow in a serial stream to the computer through the serial interface, which is usually a DB-9 connector. A DB-25 connector with an adapter can also be used. Installing a serial mouse consists of connecting the mouse to the serial port and installing the mouse driver. Uses a COM port. When the COM ports were used with a shared interrupt, as with COM1 and COM 3 both using IRQ3, then both devices connected to COM 1 and COM 3 would not work at the same time. ii) Bus avoids using a COM port. Instead, used a round DIN-6 connector. This connector is located on an 8-bit card installed into the computers bus. Bus mice communicate in parallel with the computer, not serial. Used on computer that ran out of resources (COM problem). However, the interface card used an IRQ (usually 2,3,4,5). Installing a bus mouse consists of installing the bus card, connecting the mouse to the card, and installing the driver software. iii) PS/2 essentially a bus mouse, with the bus card integrated onto the motherboard. Uses a round DIN-6, or PS.2 connector. Installation involves connecting the mouse to the PS/2 connector, on board, and installing the driver software. iv) Cleaning the mouse Most common to have dirt and deposits stuck to the rollers. Use a small screwdriver to scrape the gunk off the rollers. c) Trackballs Basically an upside-down opto-mechanical mouse. Used on laptops. Instead of moving the mouse on a table, the user moves the trackball itself. Rollers need to be cleaned on trackballs as well. d) Drawing tablets Used by CAD (Computer Aided Design) professionals, drawing tablets are very good for drawing, not typing. The tablet is flat piece of plastic covered with a rubberized coating. A pen-shaped tool, or stylus is used to draw on the tablet. There are three types: i) Electromagnetic tablets There is a grid of wires underneath the rubberized surface. The stylus contains a small sensor that is sensitive to electromagnetic fields. An electromagnetc timed pulse is sent across the grid. The controller in the tablet translates this data into X-Y coordinates. ii) Resistive tablets There is a special resistive surface under the rubberized coating, which has current induced from each of the X-Y coordinate sides. The position of the puck changes the current as it travels on the tablet. The readings are translated into coordinate values, which are sent to the computer. iii) Acoustic tablets The stylus or puck has a small spark generator which activate a spark when the user presses a button. The X-Y axes on the tablet have very small banks of microphones. The spark sound is picked up by the microphones and the X-Y values are sent to the computer. e) Touch Screens First introduced by HP in 1983. They are common in department stores, lobbies, and kiosks. The main drawback is the necessary use of excessive arm movements to 2

use and the finger is sometimes not a fine-enough pointing device. Touch screen monitors used a regular monitor with a film over the screen that is sensitive to touch. Two types: i) Optical Screens Infared light beams are generated from the sides of the screen, just in front of the glass. When the screen is pressed, the light beam is interrupted and this indicates the X-Y position. ii) Capacitive Screens Similar to capacitive keyboards, capacitive touch screens have two clear sheets of semi-conductive material separated by a thin layer of air in the monitor. When the screen is pressed, the controller senses the capacitance change of the two layers. These changes correspond to X-Y positions and this information is sent to the computer. f) Scanners - borrows technology from the copy machine. It is a CCD (charge coupled device), which converts the different intensities (or shades) of light into a proportional voltage signal. The voltage level produced corresponds to black, gray and white light levels. There are two types: i) Flatbed scanners - Inside the scanner, which resembles the top half of a photocopier, is a motorized carriage, a light source and a CCD. When the scanning occurs, the light source is turned on and starts receiving data from the CCD. The page is scanned line by line as the carriage moves incrementally down the length of the page. The controller feeds the stream of image data to the scanning software, where it is reassembled line by line into a picture of the image. Flatbed scanners are usually SCSI devices. Sometimes they have proprietary interface cards where the scanner connects to the card. The cards use an IRQ. Normal scanner resolutions are about 300 dpi but are also capable of 4800dpi. The higher the resolution the slower the scanner. ii) Handheld scanners Handheld scanners work similarly to flatbed scanners except that the controller, light source and CCD are all inside the handheld device which has wheels on outside of it. The actual carriage is the users hand. Cheaper, but quality is dependant on the ability to move the scanner in a steady manner. Should not be used for graphics work. Uses a COM port or bidirectional parallel port. Early handheld scanners provided scanning resolutions up to 300 dpi (dots per inch). Newer models can produce 24-bit, 3200dpi with 16 million colors. 2) Output Devices a) Printers i) Impact Printers that work by striking a form through an inked ribbon onto paper. Dotmatrix printers press a set of pins against the ribbon in patterns of characters. Daisy-wheel printers use a wheel that has the printable characters on different spokes, or petals, of the wheel. The spokes are struck against the ribbon, printing a fully formed character onto the paper. Impact printers are used primarily for printing multi-part forms. ii) Sprayed-ink (also called InkJet or Bubblejet) These printers spray ink onto the paper in the shape of letters or images. Primarily used by SOHO (Small Office, Home Office) users. Cheaper than laser printers. iii) Electrophotographic (EP) (more commonly called laser printers). These printers use a laser to form the image on a photosensitive drum and toner to fuse onto the paper. Image quality and price is high. 3

iv) Plotters Instead of creating an image one line at a time like most printers, plotters draw an image one shape at a time. Used primarily with CAD software to produce blueprints and technical diagrams. Plotters print to very large and wide rolls of paper. b) Computer Display Systems Convert computer signals into text and pictures and display them on a TV-like screen. All computer displays use CRT (cathode ray tube) technology or LCD (liquid crystal display) technology. The technology involves the computer sending a signal to a video adapter. The adapter then renders the character for the display. This means that it convert a single instruction into several instructions that tell the display device how to draw the graphic. These instructions are then send to the display device, or monitor. There are differences in the type of video adapter (EGA/CGA, VGA, SVGA) and type is display (CRT or LCD). i) Video Technologies The different types of video technologies depend on the maximum video resolution and a maximum number of colors that it can support. Resolution is expressed in an X-by-Y format and refers to the number of horizontal dots (pixels) and the vertical dots (pixels)that the monitor can display. The more pixels, the sharper the image. (1) Monochrome The first video technology for PCs was monochrome. Latin mono means one and chroma means color. Monochrome display adapters (MDA) came in black/white, green/white or amber/white versions. First developed by IBM, the MDA could display text with a resolution of 720X350 pixels, but not graphics. They were usually connected to the computer with a 9-pin D-type connector. The Hercules Graphics Card (HGC) was next developed to operate in two modes: text and graphics. It could display text and bitmapped graphics at a 720X348 resolution and switched between these two modes, on the fly. (2) EGA and CGA IBM developed the CGA (Color Graphics Adapter) technology that could display 16 colors at a low and medium resolution mode of 320X200 pixels for multiple colors and a high resolution mode of 640X200 for black and one other color (monochrome). The CGA cards also came with two ports: a color video output (a 9-pin female D-shell connector) and a parallel 25-pin, female D-shell connector, which was an RF-modulated output that could be connected to a television set. It accommodated 80 characters across the screen and 25 character lines down the screen. Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) soon followed with 16 supported colors, out of a palette of 64, and resolutions of either 320X200 or 640X350 pixels. EGA adapters were backward compatible and could be connected to monochrome and CGA monitors. Connected to computer using a 9-pin, female D-shell connector. (3) VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) technology appears when IBM announced its new PS/2 computers. VGA adapters included 256Kb of video memory on board and supported 16 colors at 640X480 pixels, 256 colors and 320X200 pixels. VGA is on an analog board, which means that the 256 colors can be chosen from a palette of 262,144 colors. VGA-compatible monitors can be connected to the VGA card through a 15-pin, D-shell connector. (4) SuperVGA - SVGA was introduced by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It supported 256 colors at a 800 X 600 resolution or 16 colors at a 1024X768 resolution, or 65,536 colors at 640X480 resolution. 4

(5) XGA Extended Graphics Array (XGA) is IBMs version of SVGA came about in 1991. It was only available on a Micro Channel (MCA) board. It supported 256 colors at 1024X768, 65,536 colors at 640X480. It also introduced interlaced technology, which means that the monitor scanned every other line, instead of every line, and had a bit more flicker.

ii) Monitors - Monitors are responsible for accepting, amplifying and routing the video and synchronizing information to the CRTs electron gun(s) and the deflection coils. A CRT is a vacuum tube that is used as the display screen for both TVs and computer terminals. Monitors work by using an electron gun that shoots electrons toward the back side of the monitor screen. The back of the screen is coated with phosphors that glow when the electrons strike them. The electron guns beam scans across the monitor from left to right and then top to bottom at a very fast rate (refresh rate) to form an image. The refresh rate (or vertical scan frequency) specifies how many times in one second the scanning beam of electrons redraws the screen. The phosphors on the back of the screen only stay bright for a fraction of a second, so they must constantly be hit with electrons in order to be visible. The refresh rate is expressed in Hertz. VGA uses a 60Hz refresh rate. The higher the refresh rate, the less flicker the user sees. Monitors must be used with compatible video adapter cards, ie. VGA adapter with VGA compatible monitor, etc. A CGA monitor will not work with a VGA video adapter and vice versa. Another factor to consider with monitors is the dot pitch, which is a measure of distance between two dots of the same color on the monitor. It is usually expressed in millimeters, ie .28mm dot pitch. The lower the number, (ie. .25mm) indicates the closer together the pixels and the sharper the image. Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) Used primarily in laptop computers. A LCD display is constructed by placing thermotropic liquid crystal material between two sheets of glass. A set of electrodes is attached to each sheet of glass. Horizontal electrodes are attached to one glass plate; vertical electrodes are fitted to the other plate. These electrodes are transparent and let light pass through. When an electric current is passed through the liquid crystal material, the crystals align themselves with the current. This allows light to pass through the display, producing a single dot onscreen. The screen is scanned using IC multiplexers and drivers to activate the panels row and column electrodes in a somewhat similar manner to the sweeping electron beam in the CRT. The scanning circuitry addresses each row sequentially, column by column. The 5

electrodes can be controlled on and off using standard TTL (transistor-transistor logic) levels. iii) Most laptops use backlighting, where the display is lit from behind the panel. A special plate called a polarizer is added to the outside of each glass plate. There is one polarizer on the front, and one on the back of the display. There are two kinds of LCD displays: Active Matrix An active matrix screen uses a lot of power to operate. The screen is made up of several individual LCD pixels. A transistor behind each pixel, when switched on, activates two electrodes, which align the crystals and turn the pixel dark. Very crisp display. Passive Matrix A passive matrix screen has two rows of transistors, one on the top and one on the side. The computers video circuit sends a signal to the X and Y coordinate transistors for that pixel and turns it on, which turns the pixel black. A pixel is created in the liquid crystal material at each spot where a row and column intersect. Lesser image quality than the active matrix displays and slower response time.

3) Other Peripherals a. Multimedia Devices A method of communicating using more than one form, or multiple media, such as a combination of video, pictures, sound and text. i. CD-ROM Drives A typical CD-ROM disk is 4.7 inches in diameter, and consists of three major parts: an acrylic substrate, and aluminized, mirrorfinished data surface and a lacquer coating The disk contains pits of varying lengths to represent data. The pits are the same width and depth, but their length and the spaces between them vary. The shortest pit is a 3T pit, and the longest, 11T. With a CD-Recordable disc, the pits are replaced by optical marks that, when read by a CD player or CDROM drive, appear similar to the pits in molded CDs. The lengths of the pits or marks are time-relative, not absolute; that is, the length is a function of disc spin. A disc that spins at a rate of 1.2 m/s while being recorded will contain marginally shorter 3T to 11T pits than a disc that spins at 1.4 m/s. It will also contain more of them, which allows for greater disc capacity. Commercial CD-ROM manufacturers use laser light to create a microscopic mark of a certain length on dye polymer. Because materials tend to respond differently when they are heated for different lengths of times, a laser setting that produces a light pulse that creates a mark of a given length does not necessarily produce a mark twice as long when the light pulse is twice as long. Similarly, a laser setting that produces a light pulse that creates a mark of a given length in one type or brand of media does not necessarily create a mark of that same length in another type or brand. Regardless, a scanning laser beam comes up through the disk, strikes the aluminized data surface, and the resulting data is reflected back to the computer. 6

Because CD-ROM drives all work in a similar manner, the ISO (International Standards Organization) created standards to allow the various types of CD disks for work in different drives made by different vendors. The Red Book specifies the standard for recording digital audio. It specifies that the recording level as 16-bit, 44.1KHz and that the entire disk will have an index of music tracks stored on it. The Yellow Book defines the standard for data storage on a CD-ROM disk. It supports both PC (ISO9660) and MAC (HPS) file system formats. The Green Book standard is primarily for CD-I (Compact Disk-Interactive) CDs. These disks have interactive functionality written directly to the CD.

ii. Sound Cards Sound cards are devices that convert computer signals into sound. Creative Labs and their SoundBlaster series are an industry leader in sound cards. Installing a sound card involves setting the IRQ, DMA, and I/O addresses with software. Some older sound cards have these settings configured using jumpers. A typical SoundBlaster sound card would use IRQ 5, DMA 1, Sound Card I/O address 200, and MIDI port I/O Address 330. iii. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) Midi devices allow computers to talk with musical devices with the addition of a special adapter cable the plugs into the game port on midi compatible sound cards. Mostly used by electronic keyboard players. b. Communication Devices i. Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Communications There are different types of modems because there are different types of communication environments, which require different methods of sending data. These environments can be divided into two areas related to the timing of communications. Synchronous communications rely on a timing scheme, or clock signal, that is coordinated between two devices. This timing scheme separates groups of bits and transmits them in blocks called frames. Special characters are used to begin synchronization and check its accuracy periodically. Synchronous communications are used in almost all digital and network communications 7

(ie. Cable modems, etc). Generally, synchronous devices cost more than asynchronous devices. Asynchronous communication is the most widespread form of connectivity in the world, as it was developed so it could use telephone lines (ie. Dial-up modems). Each character is turned into a string of bits. Each of these strings is separated from the other strings by a start-of-character bit and stop bit. Both the sending and receiving devices must agree on the start and stop bit sequence. The receiving computer uses the start and stop bit markers to schedule its timing functions so it is ready to receive the next byte of data. 25% of data traffic in async communications consists of data traffic control and coordination. Async transmission over telephone lines can occur at up to 28,800 bps. However, data compression methods can boost the 28,800 to 155,200 bps by removing the redundant elements or empty sections (ie. the zeros are not sent). ii. Modems A modem is a Modulator-DEModulator device, which converts the parallel, digital signals of the computer into serial, analog signals that are better suited for transmission over wire. Modems capable of both transmitting and receiving data with another computer are called half-duplex mode modems and full-duplex mode modems. Half-duplex modems can exchange data with another modem, but only in one direct at a time. Full-duplex modem can both send and receive data simultaneously. There are both internal and external modems. Internal modems are installed as expansions cards inside a computer. External modems have their own power supplies and connect to an external COM port with a RS-232 cable. Internal modems are small and cheaper than external modems. However they need to be configured to use an unused COM port, which includes the COM ports related IRQ and I/O port address. External modems use an existing serial port and tend to transfer data more slowly than an internal modem. Also, external modems are easier to see what is occurring during transmission because there are external status lights on the modem.