About Basic Computer Hardware

Every part of your computer is the result of years of research and development. Parts that were once
hand made at a cost of thousands of man-hours are now mass produced for a fraction of a rupee.
Computer parts can be divided into two groups, hardware and software.

Hardware is any part of the computer that you can touch. The seeming miles of wires that get tangled on
your desk, the CD drive, the monitor are all hardware. Software is a set of electronic instructions
consisting of complex codes (Programs) that make the computer perform tasks. Windows is a software,
so is any other program that runs on your computer.

While there are thousands of parts even in the smallest computers that make up its hardware, you are not
required to know them all. You only need to know about basic computer hardware.

Basic computer hardware consists of the following parts:

1. CPU (Central Processing Unit)

The CPU is considered the brain of the computer. It performs all types of data processing operations,
stores data, intermediate results and instructions (program). It controls the operation of all parts of
computer. A CPU has 3 components as listed below.

(A) CU (Control Unit)

The control unit (CU) is a component of a computer’s central processing unit (CPU) that directs
operations of the processor. It tells the computer’s memory, arithmetic logic unit and input and output
devices how to respond to a program’s instructions. However, the Control Unit doesn’t process any data.

(B) ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit)

Think of the ALU as the logical part of the brain. When any mathematical calculation or decision/logic
needs to be carried out, the instruction is passed on to the ALU. The ALU thinks in bits (i.e. binary digits –
‘0’s and ‘1’s.)

It is made up of a group of memory locations built directly into the CPU called registers. These are used
to hold the data (binary information) that are being processed by the current instruction.

(C) Memory

Primary memory is memory that is part of the computer itself and necessary for its functioning. It consists
of mainly two types of memories:

(i) Random Access Memory (RAM)

RAM is the internal memory of the CPU for storing data, program and program result. It is read/write
memory which stores data until the machine is working. As soon as the machine is switched off, data is
erased. RAM is volatile. Volatile means that the data stored in memory is lost when we switch off the
computer or if there is a power failure. Hence a backup Uninterruptible Power System (UPS) is often used
with computers. There are different types of RAM available. Some of them are described below.
  Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM): A type of physical memory used in most personal
computers. The term dynamic indicates that the memory must be constantly refreshed or it loses
its contents. This type of memory is more economical.
 Static Random Access Memory (SRAM): A type of memory that is faster and less volatile than
DRAM, but requires more power and is more expensive. The term static is derived from the fact
that it does not need to be refreshed like DRAM.
 Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM): A type of DRAM that has a much
higher processing speed.

(ii) Read Only Memory (ROM)

The memory from which we can only read but cannot write on it. This type of memory is non-volatile. The
information is stored permanently in such memories during manufacture. A ROM, stores such instructions
that are required to start a computer. This operation is referred to as bootstrap. The different types of
ROM are given below.

 MROM (Masked ROM): The very first ROMs were hard-wired devices that contained a pre-
programmed set of data or instructions. These kinds of ROMs are known as masked ROMs
which are inexpensive. The MROM cannot be programmed by the user.
 PROM (Programmable Read only Memory): PROM is read-only memory that can be modified
only once by a user. The user buys a blank PROM and enters the desired contents using a
PROM program.
 EPROM (Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory): The EPROM is a type of a PROM
which can be programmed by the user multiple times. EPROM is erased by exposing it to ultra-
violet light for a duration of up to 40 minutes. Usually, an EPROM eraser achieves this function.
 EEPROM (Elastically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory): The EEPROM is
programmed and erased electrically. It can be erased and reprogrammed about ten thousand
times. Both erasing and programming take about 4 to 10 milliseconds.

2. Secondary Storage (External Storage Devices)

Floppy diskettes, hard disk, tapes and optical disks come under the category of external storage devices
or ancillary storage devices. These devices are very sensitive to environmental conditions (humidity and
temperature) as well as to external magnetic fields and need to be stored carefully. They are not
compulsory for the functioning of the computer but are useful for expanding the computer’s memory.

(A) Floppy Disk

Floppy disks are primarily used on PCs. Information on a floppy disk is recorded in the magnetized states
of particles of iron oxides evenly placed upon concentric circles known as tracks.

(B) Hard Disk

It is a non-removable enclosed magnetic disk included in most PCs. It contains a stack of metal platters,
each coated with iron oxide, that spin on a spindle and the entire unit is encased in a sealed chamber.

(C) Magnetic Tape

This is plastic tape, usually made of Mylar that is coated with iron oxide, thereby enabling the introduction
(writing); retention (memory) and reading of magnetically recorded information. The best use of tape
storage is for data that you do not use very often.

(D) Optical Disc Drive

An optical disc drive (ODD) is a disk drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves for reading or
writing data to or from optical discs (normally CD-ROM). A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed optical compact
disc which contains data. The name is an acronym which stands for “Compact Disc Read-Only Memory”.
Computers can read CD-ROMs, but cannot write to CD-ROMs which are not writable or erasable.

(E) USB

A USB flash drive, also commonly known as a USB drive, USB stick and a variety of other names. It is
a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. USB flash drives are
typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than an optical disc.

(3) Peripherals

Peripheral devices are devices connected to the computer externally. If a peripheral device is
disconnected, the computer will still be able to work; only functions performed by this peripheral device
will not be available. Here are the most used types of peripheral devices:

(A) Keyboard

The most common and very popular input device which helps in inputting data to the computer. It consists
of keys that are capable of inputting alphabets, numbers and special characters. You can also navigate
using the keyboard and perform shortcut functions.

(B) Mouse

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

(C) Monitors

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

(D) Printer

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

 Impact Printers: The impact printers print the characters by striking them on the ribbon which is
then pressed on the paper.
 Non-Impact Printers: Non-impact printers print the characters without using ribbon. These
printers print a complete page at a time so they are also called as Page Printers. Laser Printers,
Inkjet Printers.

(E) Joy Stick

It is a device used to move cursor position on a monitor screen. It is mainly used in Computer Aided
Designing (CAD) and playing computer games.

(F) Scanner
A scanner allows you to scan printed material and convert it into a file format that may be used within the
PC.

(G) Plotter

A plotter is used to create high-quality visuals on paper. Plotters were used in applications such
as computer-aided design, though they have generally been replaced with wide-format conventional
printers. A plotter gives a hard copy of the output. It draws pictures on a paper using a pen. It can be used
to create presentation-charts, graphics, tables and high quality technical drawings. There are two types of
plotter.

 Drum Plotter: The paper is placed over the drum that rotates back and forth. A carriage holding
one or more pens is mounted horizontally across the drum. The carriage with the pens moves
horizontally over the paper. Each pen could be filled with different colours. This plotter has the
ability to produce colour pictures.
 Flat Bed Plotter: In flat bed plotter, the paper does not move. The carriage holding the pens
should provide all motions. Inkjet plotters can also produce large drawings with different colours.

1. WHAT IS A COMPUTER?

Computer is a device that transforms data into meaningful information. Data can be anything like marks
obtained by you in various subjects. It can also be name, age, sex, weight, height, etc. of all the students
in a class. Computer can also be defined in terms of functions it can perform. A computer can i) accept
data, ii) store data, iii) process data as desired, and iv) retrieve the stored data as and when required and
v) print the result in desired format. The major characteristics of a computer are high speed, accuracy,
diligence, versatility and storage.

1.1 Computer Organisation

The computer performs basically five major operations of functions irrespective of their size and make.
These are 1) it accepts data or instruction by way of input, 2) it stores data, 3) it can process data as
required by the user, 4) it gives results in the form of output, and 5) it controls all operations inside a
computer. We discuss below each of these operations.

1. Input: this is the process of entering data and programs into the computer system.

2. Control Unit (CU): The process of input, output, processing and storage is performed under the
supervision of a unit called 'Control Unit'. It decides when to start receiving data, when to stop it, where to
store data, etc. It takes care of step -by-step processing of all operations in side the computer

3. Memory Unit: Computer is used to store data and instructions.

4. Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU): The major operations performed by the ALU are addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, logic and comparison.

5. Output: This is the process of producing results from the data for getting useful information.
The ALU and the CU of a computer system are jointly known as the central processing unit (CPU). You
may call CPU as the brain of any computer system.

1.2 PERIPHERAL DEVICES

Peripheral devices are connected to the computer externally. These devices are used for performing
some specific functions. Peripheral devices are as follows:

1. Input Devices 2. Output Devices 3. Other Peripherals

1.3. INPUT DEVICES

Input devices accept data and instructions from the user. Following are the examples of various input
devices, which are connected to the computer for this purpose.

1. Keyboard 2. Mouse 3. Light Pen 4. Optical/magnetic Scanner 5. Touch Screen 6. Microphone for voice
as input 7. Track Ball

1 Keyboard- A keyboard (as shown in figure 1.3) is the most common input device. Several kinds of
keyboards are available, but they resemble each other with minor variations. The keyboard in most
common use is the QWERTY board. Generally standard keyboard has 104 keys. In these keyboards, the
cursor control keys are duplicated to allow easier use of the numeric pad.

2 Mouse A mouse is an electro-mechanical, hand-held device. It is used as a pointer. It can perform

functions like selecting menu commands, moving icons, resizing windows, starting programs, and
choosing options. The most common mouse uses an internal, magnetically coated ball, to detect the
movement of the mouse across a flat surface, usually a desktop. Now a days Optical or laser mouse is
used to detect the movement. All windows based applications today are designed to work with a mouse.
A mouse is used to replace hard -to-remember key combinations with easier "Point and Click" actions.
However, it cannot substitute all keyboard operations. It can be alternative for commands based
operations.

3. Light pen- An input device that utilizes a light-sensitive detector to select objects on a display screen. A
light pen is similar to a mouse except that with a light pen you can move the pointer and select objects on
the display screen by directly pointing to the objects with the pen.

4. Optical Scanner- These devices are used for automatic data collection. The devices of this category
completely eliminate manual input of data. For example, the bar-code reader is actually just a special type
of image scanner. An image scanner translates printed images into an electronic format that can be
stored in a computer’s memory, and with the right kind of software, one can alter a stored image. Another
example of scanner is optical character recognition (OCR) device, used by banks to convert the scanned
image of a typed or printed page into text that can be edited on the computer.

5. Touch Screen- Touch panel displays and pads are now being offered as alternatives to keyboard. Here
the input can be given through the computer screen, that accepts the input through monitor; users touch
electronic buttons displayed on the screen or they may use light pen.
6.Microphone- Microphone is an input device, which takes voice as input. The voice communication is
more error-prone than information through keyboard. There are two types of microphones available 1.
Desktop Microphone 2. Hand held Microphone

7. Track Ball -Trackball, a pointing device, is a mouse lying on its back. To move the pointer, you rotate
the ball with your thumb, your fingers, or the palm of your hand. There are usually one to three buttons
next to the ball, which you use just like mouse buttons. The advantage of trackballs over mouse is that
the trackball is stationary so it does not require much space to use it. In addition, you can place a
trackball on any type of surface, including your lap. For both these reasons, trackballs are popular
pointing devices for portable computers.

1.4 OUTPUT DEVICES- Output devices return processed data that is information, back to the user. Some
of the commonly used output devices are: 1. Monitor (Visual Display Unit) 2. Printers 3. Plotter 4.
Speakers

1. Monitor Out of all the output devices, monitor is perhaps the most important output device because
people interact with this device most intensively than others. Computer information is displayed, visually
with a video adapter card and monitor. Information processed within the CPU, that needs to be visually
displayed, is sent to video adapter. The video adapter converts information from the format used, in the
same manner as a television displays information sent to it by a cable service.

Two basic types of monitors are used with microcomputers, which are as follows: 1. CRT 2. LCD Cathode
Ray Tube (CRT): CRT or Cathode Ray Tube Monitor is the typical monitor that you see on a desktop
computer. It looks a lot like a television screen, and works the same way. This type uses a large vacuum
tube, called cathode ray tube (CRT). Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD): This type of monitors are also known
as flat panel monitor. Most of these employ liquid crystal displays (LCDs) to render images. These days
LCD monitor are very popular. When people talk about the capabilities of various monitors, one critical
statistic is the resolution of the monitor. Most monitors have a resolution of at least 800 x 600 pixels.
High-end monitors can have resolutions of 1024 x 768 pixels or even 1280 x 1024 pixels. Thus monitors
are available either in low resolution or in high resolution.

2. Printer- After a document is created on the computer, it can be sent to a printer for a hard copy
(printout). Some printers offer special features such as colored and large page formats. Some of the most
commonly used printers are:

1. Laser Printer 2. Ink Jet Printer 3. Dot Matrix Printer 4. Line Printer

Laser Printer: A laser printer produces high quality print that one normally finds in publishing. It is
extremely fast and quiet. Moreover, the operation of a laser printer is easy with automatic paper loading
and no smudging or messing up of ink ribbons. The fastest laser printer can print up to 200 pages per
minute in monochrome (black and white) and up to 100 pages per minute in colour.

Ink-Jet Printer: An ink-jet printer creates an image directly on paper by spraying ink through as many as
64 tiny nozzles. Although the image it produces is not generally quite as sharp as the output of a laser
printer, the quality of ink-jet images is still high. In general, ink-jet printer offers an excellent middle ground
between dot matrix and laser printer. Like laser printer, an ink-jet printer is quiet and convenient, but not
particularly fast. Typically, an ink-jet printer is more expensive than a dot-matrix printer, but costs only half
as much as a laser printer
Dot Matrix Printer: The dot matrix printer was very popular at one point of time. It is a very versatile and
inexpensive output device. In dot matrix printer the print head physically "hits" the paper through the
ribbon and produces text (or images) by combinations of dots; hence the name dot matrix printer. Its
speed is measured in characters per second (CPS). Although it is less expensive, it is louder, slower and
produces lower print quality.

Line Printer: A line printer is generally used with large computer systems to produce text based data
processing reports. Line printers are high-speed printers with speeds ranging anywhere from 100 to about
3800 lines per minute. In the past, print quality on line printers was not high. Developments in technology
are improving the print quality on line printers. These are in the cost range of lacs of Rupees.

3. Plotter A plotter is a special kind of output device that, like a printer, produces images on paper, but
does so in a different way. Plotters are designed to produce large drawings or images, such as
construction plans for buildings or blueprints for mechanical objects. A plotter can be connected to the
port normally used by a printer. An array of different colored pens in a clip rack and a robotic arm is part
of plotter. The instructions that a plotter receives from a computer consist of a color, and beginning and
ending coordinates for a line. With that information, the plotter picks up the appropriate pen through its
arm, positions it at the beginning coordinates drops the pen down to the surface of the paper and draws
to the ending coordinates. Plotters draw curves by creating a sequence of very short straight lines.
Plotters usually come in two designs:

1. Flat Bed: Plotters of small size to be kept on table with restriction of paper size.

2. Drum: These plotters are of big size using rolls of paper of unlimited length.

4 Speaker- Speakers are another type of output device, which allow you to listen to voice like music, and
conversation with people.