Component of Computer System

COMPUTER

It is a device or equipment which receives the input of data performs processing on it & gives the
output or result according to a set of instruction.
OR
Simply we can say that, it is a machine that receives input & processing it and produced Result.
OR
A computer is electronic device that accept the data from the user, process it and gives output.
OR
A combination of hardware and software is called computer.

Input Processing Output

Major Component of a Computer System

A typical digital computer system consists of the following units.

 Input Devices.
 Central Processing Unit (CPU).
 Output Devices.
 Auxiliary Storage unit/Storage.

Processor (CPU)
Input Output
Devices Devices
Main Memory

Auxiliary Storage
Unit/Storage

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INPUT DEVICES
The input devices enter the date into main memory or provide the information to a computer.
A verity of input devices exist to convert information in any form (Data, Text, Video, Image,
Animations)in to binary pulses recognized by computer. There are of different types:

a. Character input. (e.g. Keyboard).

b. Signal input (e.g. Mouse, Joystick, Light Pen, and Trackball).
c. Voice input (e.g. Micro phone).
d. Digitized input (e.g. Digital Camera).
e. Special input (e.g. Screen-oriented Devices).

Keyboard
It is the most common device used to input Characters, Numbers and Symbols. It has following
parts.

Alphanumeric Keys
This area of keyboard has alphabets and numbers. We can enter the alphanumeric data by there
keys.

Numeric Keys
It consist numbers from (0 to 9) and we can enter numeric data bay these numeric keys.

Screen Navigation & Editing Keys

These are used to move the cursor on monitor screen from one point to another point, the editing
keys are also used for modifying text window & arrow keys is are part of this area.

Function Keys
They are (12) in number. These keys are lick-at the top of the key board these are used in special
purpose called special keys.

Mouse

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The mouse is hand-held device with rubber ball project from it base. It is a faster input devise
then keyboard. It was invented in 1960 by DONG ROBERT. It has 2 or 3 buttons. We press and
take such as picking options displayed on the screen. There are 2 basic types
 Electromechanical Mouse.
 Optical Mouse.

Joy Stick
It is just like lever .it is used to move the things on screen. It is often used for playing Video
games, word line page object & picture.

Light Pen
It is pen shaped. It is hand-held and can detect presence of light with photoelectric cell at its at
point, means used for graphic work and Computer Aided Design (CAD) purpose.

Track Ball
A track ball is uses a hand sphere to control cursor movement .the tack ball translates the spheres
direction and speed of rotation into a digital signal used to control the cursor.
It is a pointing device, which is similar to a mouse. To move graphics cursor around the screen,
the ball is rolled with the fingers. It required less space then a mouse for operation. It is built into
the keyboard or commonly used in Laptop (Notebook) Computers.

Microphones
With the help of micro phones we can easily store our voice in computer. Microphones also
make the PC useful for audio/video conferencing over the internet.

Digital Camera

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It is portable handheld device. Normal photo cameras capture the images on a specially coated
film, digital cameras capture image electronically. It digitalized the image, compresses it, and
stores it on a special memory card. Then user can copy, edit, and print etc

Digital Scanner
It is also called data scanner devices. Which are used for direct data entry into the computer
system from source documents. There are many types of data scanning devices. e.g.
Image scanner, (flatbed /handheld).

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CENTRAL PROCESSING UINT (CPU)
It is device which is used to supervised or coordinate all the operations performed in the
computer. It is also called brain of the computer. CPU is basically a small chip, which is fixed in
main circuit box called mother board that’s all necessary chips or devices are fixed. This chip is
called microprocessor/IC (Integrated Circuit).this IC is made up of silicon chips. The CPU
consist of three component

 Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU).

 Control Unit (CU).
 Memory Unit / Main memory.

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

It gets data from computer memory and performs operation on it. ALU basically divided into two
units, arithmetic and logic units. Arithmetic unit performs arithmetic like subtraction, addition,
multiplication and division. And logic unit performs logic operation like true/false. It can
compare the two numbers which is smaller and which is greater .the common comparison are
performed by it.

Control Unit (CU)

It is the basic part of CPU. It controls the activities of CPU and also input/output devices. It is
just like Police inspector which controls the traffic. It also controls whole traffic of CPU and
instruction given to computer. Control Unit gets the information from main memory, interprets
and gives signals that cause other units to execute them.

Memory Unit/Main memory

Every processor has its own memory in shape of small cells. Each cell is called register. There
are 13 registers in a processor. The data is temporarily stored in it to perform operations. Data

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comes from main memory and store in registers on which ALU perform arithmetic and logic
operations. A computer memory is measured by in bytes each character has one byte and one
byte is combination of 8-bits.Bits are represented as (0’s) or (1’s).

Chart of Memory Units

8 Circuits == 1 Bit.
8 Bits == 1 Byte.
(1024) Byte == 1 Killo Byte.
(1024) Killo Byte == 1 Mega Byte.
(1024) Mega Byte == 1 Giga Byte.
(1024) Giga Byte == 1 Tera Byte.
(1024) Tera Byte == 1 Exza Byte.

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 OUTPUT DEVICES
The device used to give the result called output devices.
OR
The devices which given the output processed data, There are two types of out put devices.
 Soft Copy Output.
It is usually screen displayed output. It is temporary form of output and is lost when the
computer is turned.
 Hard Copy Output.
It is output on paper and can be read immediately or stored and read letter. It is relatively
stable and permanent form of output.

Although there are many kinds of input devices but there are three currently types of output
devices:
 Monitor.
 Printer.
 Plotters.
 Sound System.

MONITOR
It is most common output device. It also called soft copy (means that it display sentences on data
on screen) device. It is like a TV and display the generated alphanumeric and graphics output.

Types of Monitor
 According to resolution and pixels the monitor classified:

 CGA (Color Graphic Adapter).

 EGA (Enhanced Graphic Adapter).
 VGA (Video Graphic Adapter).
 SVGA (Supper Video Graphic Adapter).

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  According to size there are different sized of monitors

They may be 3 to 30 inches, 15 to 17 inches.

 According to volume there are two types:

 CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)

These monitors are commonly used in Offices, Collages and Homes. They are
large and weighted. The CRT monitors uses an electron gun that systematically
aims beam of electrons at every pixel on the screen. It is also called general
monitor but eyes is affected by them.

 FPL (Flat Panel Tube)

These are also available market they are commonly used with laptop but we can
also use them to desktop computers it has several types but most common is LCD
(Liquid Crystal Display).

 According to display there are two types:

 Monochrome:
It displays the data in single color. This color may be red, blue, white or amber. It
can display the shades of only one color and computer industry use the term
“Grayscales” to refer to the number of shades of a color shown on screen. This
technology is used in laptops it doesn’t effect the eyes.

 Color:
It displays the data with full color these are mixture of three basic colors (Red,
Green, Blue) that’s why image produced is in three mixed color.

PRINTER
Printer is most commonly used output device. They print the output on the paper and also called
hardcopy device. They are categories:

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 1. Impact Printers.
An impact printer creates an image by using pins or hammers to press an inked ribbon against
the paper. A simple example of impact printer is Typewriter, which uses small hammers to strike
the ribbon. Each hammed is embossed with the shape of letter, number or symbols. That shapes
transferred through the inked ribbon onto the paper .creating a printed characters.

 Impact Character Pinter.

This printer prints the character at a time at speed of 10 t0 500 characters
per scound.It is slowest form of printer.

 Impact Line Printer.

This printer prints the one line at a time. The impact line printers are further
Classified as:

• Daisy wheel Printers.

• Drum Printers.
• Band Printers.
• Chain Printers.
• Dot Matrix Printer.

Daisy wheel Printers

This printer is used to in order to get quality of type found on typewriters. The print head f daisy
wheel printer is circular wheel, about three inches in diameter with arms or spokes. The character
shapes are stamped at the outer and of the arms .The shape of the wheel printer resembles the
petals of daisy flower and hence it is names as Daisy Wheel Printers. The main advantage of that
is print quality is high because exact shape of character hits the ribbon to leave an impression on
paper, but it is slow, typically prints 25 to 55 characters per second.

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Drum Printers

The characters are stamped on its surface. These characters are printed on the paper when
hammer strikes on the paper and the rotating drum. When an appropriate character comes into
position. These printers can print 3000 lines per minutes.

Band Printers

It has steel band divided into five sections of 48 characters each. The printed output is produced
when the band moves appropriate characters comes into positions, is struck out by its own
hammer against the band, paper ad ribbon.

Chain Printers

It works the same as band printers, but it has a linked chain .These printers can print 3000 lines
per minutes.

Dot Matrix Printers

Dot matrix printers normally have line or 24 pins arranged in the form of a matrix. To print a
character on the paper, the built in microprocessor activates the appropriates pins in the print
head to move forward and hits the printers ribbon, which is placed against a paper. Dot matrix
printers form the shape of characters by a number of dots and not the character shapes itself,
therefore the prints quality is low. Dot matrix printers are very popular, tyopically its print 100 to
600 characters per second.

2. Non Impact Printers.

It uses various methods to place ink on the page. It forms characters and images without
making direct physical contact between printing mechanism and paper.
Followings are different types of non impact printers:

Ink-Jet Printers

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It sprays small, electronically charged droplets of ink from 4 nozzles through holes in a matrix at
high speed on paper. These are quit and fast but more expensive then dot matrix or daisy wheel
printers. These printers can print at above 1 to 4 text-only pages per minutes.

Thermal Printers
These printers used to colored waxes and heat to produced image by burning dots onto special
paper. It is expensive, and requires expensive papers. They are not generally used of jobs
requiring a high volume of output.

Electrostatic and Xerographic Printers

Theses printers produced images on paper by directing a laser beam at a mirror, which bounces
the beam onto a drum. The laser leaves a negative charge on the drum to which positively
charged black toner powered will stick. As the paper rolls by the drum, a toner is transferred to
the paper. A hot roller bonds the toner to the paper. These printers can print 21,000 lines or 437
pages per minutes.

Plotters
Although graphics and designs can be printed with the help of printers but plotters are used to
give very neat & best quality of graphic designed. It also prints the big chart and sheets. A plotter
is very useful for engineers, architects, physicians and artists.

Types of plotters
Following are different types of plotters used to produce different result:

Ink-Jet Plotters
It produces output by spraying tiny droplets of different colored inks on the paper mounted on a
rotating drum.

Pen Plotters
It produces output result by using one or more pens that moves on the papers surface.

Flatbed Plotters
The paper is placed on the flatbed plotter and pens moves across it to produced different results.

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Drum Plotters
Paper is rolled over a cylinder and images are produced by the pens moving over the paper.

Sound System
Today nearly any new multimedia capable PC includes a complete sound system. With a
microphone, speakers, a sound card, and a CD-ROM or DVD derive. Sound system are specially
useful to people who use their computers to create or use multimedia products ,watch videos, or
listen music or participate in online activities(video conferencing).

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 Auxiliary Storage /External Storage
The term secondary storage is also known as Auxiliary storage, External storage, backup storage
or long term storage. These are devices in which information can be introduced, held, and
subsequently obtained. The information can be erased.

Purpose of storage medium

 To provide long term storage to data and programs, which are not being executed.
 To give the additional memory to the computers to save data and provide backup to primary
memory.
 To speed up the accessing the data/information which is not possible in the case of using only the
primary memory.
 To provide permanent storage to that electricity failure or switching of the computers does not
harm or loss data.

There are several types of storage devices in used, most of them magnetic. Followings are few
types of storage devices.
 Magnetic Disks (Floppy Diskettes, Disk Derives).
 Compact Disks (CD-ROM).
 Hard Disks.
 Magnetic Tapes (Tape Cartridge, Tape Cassettes).

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