CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.

E (IM) Session 2011

Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin

COMPUTER PERIPHERALS
Input hardware:

Input hardware consists of devices that translate data into a form the computer can process.

The people-readable form may be words like the ones in these sentences, but the computer-readable form
consists of binary 0s and 1s, or off and on signals.

Output hardware:

Output hardware consists of devices that translate information processed by the computer into a form that humans
can understand.

The computer-processed information consists of 0s and 1s, which need to be translated into words,
numbers, sounds, and pictures.

Figure 1 : Common Input and Output Devices

Video source
SYSTEM UNIT Monitor
Video capture card

Display Adapter

Scanner
Scanner controller card Sound card Speakers

Printer (or plotter)

Ports
Mouse (or trackball, joystick etc)

Digital Camera
Microphone
Keyboard

Input Hardware:
Three basic categories of input hardware are as follows:

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
 Keyboard
 Pointing Devices
 Source Data Entry Devices

Keyboard:

A keyboard converts letters, numbers, and other characters into electrical signals that are machine-readable by the
computer’s processor.

The keyboard may look like a typewriter keyboard to which some special keys have been added.

Most keyboards have between 80 and 110 keys, including:

 Standard typing keys
 Cursor-movement keys
 Numeric keys
 Function keys

Standard typing keys:

The typing keys include the letters

of the alphabet, generally laid out
in the same pattern used for
typewriters. The layout, known as
QWERTY for its first six letters,
helped keep mechanical
typewriters' metal arms from
colliding and jamming as people
typed.

Keyboards can also use a variety of

other typing key arrangements.
The most widely known is Dvorak,
named for its creator, August
Dvorak. The Dvorak layout places
all of the vowels on the left side of
the keyboard and the most
common consonants on the right.
The most commonly used letters
are all found along the home row.
The home row is the main row
where you place your fingers
when you begin typing. People
who prefer the Dvorak layout say
it increases their typing speed and reduces fatigue.
Figure 2: Different Keyboard Layouts
Cursor-movement keys:

The cursor, also called the insertion point, is the symbol on the display screen that shows where data may
be entered next. The cursor-movement keys or arrow keys are used to move the cursor around the text on
the screen. These keys move the cursor left, right, up, or down.

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
The keys labeled Page Up stands for page up and the key labeled Page Dn stands for page down. These
keys move the cursor the equivalent of one page or one screen at a time up (toward the beginning of the
document) or down (toward the end of the document).

Numeric keys:

A separate set of keys on some keyboards that contain the numbers 0 through 9 and a decimal point
arranged as on an adding machine. Numeric keypads make it easier to enter large amounts of numeric
data.
Frequently, the keys on the numeric keyboard also serve as cursor control keys. Their meanings,
therefore, depend on what mode the numeric keypad is in. In numeric mode, they represent numbers; in
cursor control modes, they are like arrow keys. Keyboards that support these dual functions contain an
additional key that enables you to switch modes. The name of this key varies on many keyboards it is
labeled Num Lock.

Function keys:

Functions keys are labeled with an F and a number, such as F1 and F2tyey are used for issuing
commands, not typing in characters. Desktop microcomputers usually have 12 function keys, portables
often only 10.

The purpose of each function key is defined by the software you are using. For example in one program
pressing F2 may print your document; in different program pressing F2 may save your work to disk. The
documentation manual that comes with your software tells you how to use the function keys.

Keyboard’s circuit:

Figure 2: The microprocessor and controller circuitry of a keyboard

The keyboard has its own processor and circuitry that carries information to and from that processor. A
large part of this circuitry makes up the key matrix.

The key matrix is a grid of circuits underneath the keys. In all keyboards each circuit is broken at a point
below each key. When you press a key, it presses a switch, completing the circuit and allowing a tiny
amount of current to flow through. The mechanical action of the switch causes some vibration, called
bounce, which the processor filters out. If you press and hold a key, the processor recognizes it as the
equivalent of pressing a key repeatedly.

When the processor finds a circuit that is closed, it compares the location of that circuit on the key matrix
to the character map in its read-only memory (ROM). A character map is basically a comparison chart or
lookup table. It tells the processor the position of each key in the matrix and what each keystroke or
combination of keystrokes represents. For example, the character map lets the processor know that
pressing the a key by itself corresponds to a small letter "a" but the Shift and a keys pressed together
correspond to a capital "A".

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin

A computer can also use separate character maps, overriding the one found in the keyboard. This can be
useful if a person is typing in a language that uses letters that don't have English equivalents on a
keyboard with English letters. People can also set their computers to interpret their keystrokes as though
they were typing on a Dvorak keyboard even though their actual keys are arranged in a QWERTY layout.
In addition, operating systems and applications have keyboard accessibility settings that let people
change their keyboard's behavior to adapt to disabilities.

Pointing Devices:

One of the most natural of all human gestures, the act of pointing, is incorporated in several kinds of
input devices.

Pointing devices control the position of the cursor or pointer on the screen and allow the user to select
options displayed on the screen. These Devices include Mouse, Trackball, Joystick, Touchpad, Light Pen,
Digitizing tablet, and Pen-based Systems.

Mouse:

A mouse is a device that is rolled about on a desktop to direct a pointer on the computer’s display screen.

When you move the mouse on your desk the pointer on the screen moves in the same direction. The
mouse pointer is the symbol that indicates the position of the mouse on the display screen. The pointer
will change from an arrow to a pointing-finger icon, depending on the task you are performing. It also
changes to the shape of an I-beam to indicate where text or other data may be entered. If you click on the
left mouse button when the I-beam is positioned, a cursor (a blinking vertical line) appears in the text.
What you type will be inserted here.

The mouse usually has a cable that is connected to the microcomputer’s system unit. This tail like cable
and the rounded head of the instrument are what suggested the name mouse.

On bottom side of mouse is a ball that translates the mouse movement into digital signals. On the top side
are one to four buttons. The software determines the use of the second, third, and fourth button. The first
one is used for common functions, such as clicking and dragging.

Some brands of mouse have a wheel between the left and right mouse buttons with which one can scroll
through the contents of a file.

Trackball:

A trackball is a movable ball, on the top of a stationary device, that is rotated with the fingers or palm of the hand.

The trackball, is a variant on the mouse. In fact, the trackball looks like a mouse turned upside down.
Instead of moving the mouse around on the desktop, you move the trackball with the tips of your fingers.

Trackballs are especially suited to portable computers, which are often used in confined places such as on
airline tray tables. Trackballs may appear on the keyboard. On some portables, the trackball is a separate
device that is clipped to the side of the keyboard.

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
Joystick:

A joystick is a pointing device that consists of a vertical handle like a gearshift lever mounted on a base with one or
two buttons.
Named for the control mechanism that directs an airplane’s fore-and-aft and side-to-side movements,
joysticks are used principally in video games, in some computer aided design systems, and in
computerized robot systems. Special joysticks, such as SAM-Joystick from RJ Cooper and Associates, are
available for people with disabilities that do not let them use a mouse or a trackball.

Touchpad:

About the same size as mouse, touch pads are flat, rectangular device that use a very weak electrical field to sense
your touch.

Touchpad let you control the cursor/pointer with your finger. As you move your fingertip, the cursor
follows the movement. You ‚click‛ by tapping your finger on the pad’s surface or by pressing buttons on
the top, back, or side of the pad. Many portable computers and desktop computers now include touch
pads built into the keyboard.

Light Pen:

The light pen is a light sensitive stylus, or pen like device, connected by a wire to the computer terminal.
The user brings the pen to a desired point on the display screen and presses the pen button, which
identifies that screen location to the computer.

Light pens are used by engineers, graphic designers, and illustrators.

Digitizing Tablet:

A digitizing tablet consists of a tablet connected by a wire to a stylus or puck. A stylus is a pen-like device
with which the user ‚sketches‛ an image. A puck is a copying device with which the user copies, or
traces, an image.

When used with drawing and painting software, a digitizing tablet and stylus allow you to do shading
and many other effects similar to those artists achieve with pencil, pen, or charcoal. Alternatively, when
you use a puck, you can trace a drawing laid on the tablet, and a digitized copy is stored in the computer.

Digitizing tablets are used primarily in graphic design, computer animation, and engineering.

Pen-Based Systems:

Pen-based systems consist of computer that uses pattern-recognition software to enable it to accept
handwriting as a form of input. A stylus, which may contain special electronic circuitry, is used to write
on the computer display or on a separate tablet.

The earliest devices were limited to recognizing geometric shapes for computer graphics applications and
neatly printed alphabetic characters. Pattern recognition has improved to the level where cursive input is
now acceptable, especially in personal digital assistants (PDAs), although such input is not always
accurately interpreted by the software. Some software requires the use of a specially modified alphabet to
enter data.

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin

Source Data Entry Devices:

Source-data input devices do not require keystrokes to input data to the computer. Data is entered from
as close to the source as possible. One of the most common source-data entry devices is the scanner.

Scanning Devices:

Scanners use laser beams and reflected light to translate hardcopy images of text, drawings, photos, and
the like into digital form. The images then can be processed by a computer, displayed on a monitor,
stored on a storage device, or communicated to another computer. Scanning devices include:

 Bar-code readers
 Mark- and character-recognition devices
 Fax machines
 Imaging systems

Bar-code readers:

A barcode is a machine-readable representation of information in a visual format on a surface. Originally

barcodes stored data in the widths and spacing of printed parallel lines, but today they also come in
patterns of dots, concentric circles, and hidden in images. Barcodes can be read by optical scanners called
barcode readers.

Bar code readers are photoelectric (optical) scanners that translate the symbols in the bar code into digital code
(ASCII or EBCDIC).

Mark- and character-recognition devices:

There are three types of scanning devices that translate certain types of marks and characters. They are
usually referred to by their abbreviations MICR, OMR, and OCR.

Magnetic-ink character recognition: In magnetic-ink character recognition (MICR), a scanner translates the
magnetically charged numbers printed at the bottom of bank checks and deposit slips. MICR characters,
which are printed with magnetized ink, are read by MICR equipment, producing a digitized signal. This
signal is used by a bank’s reader/sorter machine to sort checks.

Optical mark recognition: Optical mark recognition (OMR) uses a device that reads pencil marks and
converts them into computer-usable form. Well-known examples are the OMR technology used to read
the College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), and
SCANTRON tests.

Optical character recognition: Optical character recognition (OCR) uses a device that reads special OCR
character sets called OCR fonts, as well as typewriter and computer-printed characters, and converts them
into machine readable form. Examples that use OCR characters are utility bills and price tags on
department-store merchandise.

Some advance OCR can recognize human handwriting, but generally the letters must be block printed.
There is no standard that can be used to program computers to recognize script handwriting styles,
because they vary so widely.

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin

Using OCR can be five times faster than retyping a document into the computer. The important function
of OCR is that, once the text appears on-screen, a user can copy it to a word processing program, spell-
check it, make corrections, and additions, and save it.

Fax machines:

A fax machine or facsimile transmission machine (facsimile means ‚an exact copy‛), scans an image on
paper and sends it as electronic signals over telephone lines to a receiving fax machine, which recreates
the image on paper.

It can also scan and send an image to a fax modem (circuit board) inside a remote computer; this fax can be
displayed on the screen, stored, or printed out by the computer’s printer.

Imaging system:

An imaging system or image scanner or graphics scanner converts text, drawings, and photographs into
digital form that can be stored in a computer system and then can be manipulated, stored, output, or sent
via modem to another computer.

The system scans each image, color or black and white, with light and breaks it into light and dark dots or
color dots, which are then converted to digital code. This is called raster graphics, which refers to the
technique of representing a graphic image as a matrix of dots.

Imaging systems are used in document management, desktop publishing (DTP), and multimedia
development.

Types of Scanner:

 Hand-held scanner
 Flatbed scanner
 Drum scanner

Hand-held scanner:

A scanner that is held in hand and passed across the image to be scanned is termed as hand held scanner.
It is very small in size. Hand-held scanners are less expensive, but require a steady hand to get a clear
image. The picture is placed on a flat surface and the scanner is moved downward by hand onto the
picture to capture the image. These scanners are easy to use, but sometimes they are limited to scan a
wide picture. The latest scanners provide the facility to scan a wide picture by scanning left half and then
right half of the picture. Computer then combines these two parts of picture to create complete images.

Flatbed scanner:

This type of scanner has a flat piece of glass. The document is put on the glass upside down to scan it.
Flat-bed scanners are identifiable by their similarities in design to a photocopier machine, which is
scanned by scanning beam. It is useful for single-sheet documents, books, photos.

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
Drum scanner:

Drum scanners are widely used for commercial graphic production and applications that require the
highest quality scanning. The earlier Howtek scanner provided an optical revolution up to 4,000 dpi. It is
used by publishing industry to capture extremely detailed images. Images that are to be scanned are
mounted on a glass cylinder, inside of which are sensors that convert light signals into digital images.

Output Hardware:

One of the most common output devices you will encounter is the monitor; another is the printer.

Printer:

A printer is categorized according to whether or not the image produced is formed by physical contact of
the print mechanism with the paper. Impact printers have contact; non-impact printers do not.

Impact Printer:

An impact printer makes contact with the paper. It usually forms the print image by pressing an inked
ribbon against the paper with a hammer-like mechanism. The following are the major types of impact
printers:

o Dot Matrix Printers

o Daisy Wheel Printers
o Line Printers
o Chain Printers

Dot Matrix printers:

The technology behind dot-matrix printing is quite simple. The paper is pressed against a drum (a
rubber-coated cylinder) and is intermittently pulled forward as printing progresses.

The electromagnetically-driven print-

head moves across the paper and
strikes the printer ribbon situated
between the paper and print-head pin.
The impact of the print-head against
the printer ribbon imprints ink dots on
the paper which form human-readable
characters.

Dot-matrix printers vary in print

resolution and overall quality with
either 7 or 24-pin print-heads. The
more pins per inch, the higher the
print resolution. Most dot-matrix
printers have a maximum resolution
around 240 dpi (dots per inch).
Figure 3: Dot Matrix Printer Mechanism

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
Daisy Wheel Printers:

An earlier print mechanism that used a plastic or metal hub with spokes like an old-fashioned wagon
wheel minus the outer rim. At the end of each spoke is the carved image of a type character.

When the required character spins around to the print hammer, the image is banged into a ribbon and
onto paper. The mechanism is then moved to the next location. Daisy wheel printers print typewriter-like
quality from 10 to 75 cps and have been superseded by dot matrix and laser printers.

Figure 4: Daisy Wheel Printer Mechanism

Line Printers:

Another type of impact printer somewhat similar to the daisy-wheel is the line printer. However, instead
of a print wheel, line printers have a mechanism that allows multiple characters to be simultaneously
printed on the same line.
The mechanism may use a large spinning print drum or a looped print chain. As the drum or chain are
rotated over the paper's surface, electromechanical hammers behind the paper push the paper (along
with a ribbon) onto the surface of the drum or chain, marking the paper with the shape of the character
on the drum or chain.
Because line printers are used for their speed, they use special tractor-fed paper with pre-punched holes
along each side. This arrangement makes continuous unattended high-speed printing possible, with stops
only required when a box of paper runs out.

Figure 5: Line Printer Mechanism

Chain Printers:

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
An early line printer that used type slugs linked together in a chain as its printing mechanism. The chain
spins horizontally around a set of hammers. When the desired character is in front of the selected print
column, the corresponding hammer hits the paper into the ribbon and onto the character in the chain.
Chain printers gave way to band printers in the early 1980s.

When the required character in the chain has revolved to the selected print column, the hammer pushes
the paper into the ribbon and against the type slug of the letter or digit.

Figure 6: Chain Printer Mechanism

Non-Impact Printer:

Most printers in use today are non-impact printers. These printers do not strike characters against ribbon
or paper when they print. These printers generate much less noise than impact printers. The main
categories of non-impact printers are:

o Thermal Printers
o Ink-jet Printers
o Laser Printers

Thermal Printers:

Characters are formed by heated elements being placed in

contact with special heat sensitive paper forming darkened dots
when the elements reach a critical temperature. A fax machine
uses a thermal printer

Thermal printer paper tends to darken over time due to

exposure to sunlight and heat. The standard of print produced
is poor.

Thermal printers are widely used in battery powered

equipment such as portable calculators.
Figure 7: A fax machine uses a thermal printer
Ink-jet Printers:

Inkjet printers are another common type of computer printers for the general consumer. An inkjet printer
forms images by spraying tiny droplets of ink from jet nozzles onto the paper. The ink, which is charged,
passes through an electric field, which deflects it to produce a dot-matrix character. Inkjet printers, by

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
using multiple nozzles can print in several different colors of ink. Colored inkjet printers produce
excellent graphics.

Inkjet printers use color cartridges which combine magenta, yellow and
cyan inks to create color tones. A black cartridge is also used for crisp
monochrome output.

This method of printing can generate up to 200 cps and allows for good
quality, cheap color printing.

Laser Printers: Figure 8: An Ink-jet Printer

LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)

printer technology is much less mechanical than impact printing,
resulting in much higher speed and quieter operation.

The process resembles the operation of a photocopy machine. A laser

beam writes an image onto the surface of a light-sensitive rotating
drum. Then ink-like toner is deposited on the drum, it stays where the
image was written. The toner is then transferred to paper-a page at a
time, in the same fashion as a photocopy machine. Figure 9: A Laser Printer

Comparison of some common Non-Impact Printers:

Type Technology Advantages Disadvantages Speed

Thermal Temperature sensitive;
paper changes color when
treated; characters are
formed by selectively
heating print head.
Ink-jet Electro statically charged
drops hit paper.
Laser Laser beam directed onto a
drum, ‘etching’ spots that
attract toner, which is then
transferred to paper.
Quiet; high-quality Special paper required; 0.5 - 4 pages
color output; prints expensive; slow per minute
graphics; can produce (ppm)
transparencies.
Quiet; prints color; less Relatively slow; clogged 1- 4 ppm
expensive than jets; output not as crisp as
thermal/laser; prints thermal/laser.
graphics.
Quiet; excellent quality Relatively high cost, 4 -25 ppm
output; prints graphics especially for colored
and color; very high printers.
speed.

Plotter:

A plotter is a piece of equipment connected to a computer that prints images by using a pen that moves
across the paper. It uses vector graphics, a series of straight lines to produce an image. This means that
plotters are restricted to line art, rather than raster graphics as with other printers. They can draw
complex line art, including text, but do so very slowly because of the mechanical movement of the pens.

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
The plotter was the first computer output device that could print graphics as well as accommodate full-
size engineering and architectural drawings. Using different colored pens, it was also able to print in
color long before ink jet printers became an alternative.
There are two types of plotters:
o Drum Roll Plotters
o Flatbed Plotters

Figure: 10 Drum Roll (Left) and Flatbed (Right) Plotters

Monitor:

The computer monitor is an output device that is part of our computer’s display system. A cable connects
the monitor to a video adapter (video card) that is installed in an expansion slot on computer’s
motherboard. The computer sends a signal to the video adapter, telling it what character, image or
graphic to display. The video adapter converts that signal to a set of instructions that tell the display
device (monitor) how to draw the image on the screen.

The two most common types of monitors that are being used today are:

CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors

Flat Panel Display

CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) Monitors:

A CRT monitor contains millions of tiny red, green, and blue phosphor dots that glow when struck by an
electron beam that travels across the screen to create a visible image. The illustration below shows how
this works inside a CRT.

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
Figure 11: CRT Technology

The terms anode and cathode are used in electronics as synonyms for positive and negative terminals.
For example, you could refer to the positive terminal of a battery as the anode and the negative terminal
as the cathode.

In a cathode ray tube, the "cathode" is a heated filament. The heated filament is in a vacuum created
inside a glass "tube." The "ray" is a stream of electrons generated by an electron gun that naturally pour
off a heated cathode into the vacuum. Electrons are negative. The anode is positive, so it attracts the
electrons pouring off the cathode. This screen is coated with phosphor, an organic material that glows
when struck by the electron beam.

There are three ways to filter the electron beam in order to obtain the correct image on the monitor
screen: shadow mask, aperture grill and slot mask. These technologies also impact the sharpness of the
monitor's display.

Flat Panel Display:

A thin lightweight video display used in laptop and notebook computers and employing liquid crystals,
electroluminescence, or a similar alternative to cathode-ray tubes is called flat panel display or flat screen.

Flat panel display works through the following two major technologies:

o Plasma
o Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display

Plasma:

A plasma display is an emissive flat panel

display where light is created by phosphors
excited by a plasma discharge between two
flat panels of glass. The gas discharge contains
no mercury (contrary to the backlights of an
AMLCD); a mixture of noble gases (neon and
xenon) is used instead. This gas mixture is
inert and entirely harmless.
Figure 12: Plasma Technology

Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display:

An active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) is

a type of flat panel display, currently the
overwhelming choice of notebook computer
manufacturers, due to light weight, very good
image quality, wide color gamut, and response
time.

The most common example of an active matrix

display contains, besides the polarizing sheets and
cells of liquid crystal, a matrix of thin-film
transistors (TFTs) to make a TFT LCD. These

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17 13: Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display (AMLCD)
CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
devices store the electrical state of each pixel on the display while all the other pixels are being updated.
This method provides a much brighter, sharper display than a passive matrix of the same size.

Comparison between LCD and CRT technology:

Advantages of LCD Monitors:

 Require less power - Power consumption varies greatly with different technologies. CRT displays are
somewhat power-hungry, at about 100 watts for a typical 19-inch display. The average is about 45 watts
for a 19-inch LCD display. LCDs also produce less heat.

 Smaller and weigh less - An LCD monitor is significantly thinner and lighter than a CRT monitor,
typically weighing less than half as much. In addition, you can mount an LCD on an arm or a wall, which
also takes up less desktop space.

 More adjustable - LCD displays are much more adjustable than CRT displays. With LCDs, you can
adjust the tilt, height, swivel, and orientation from horizontal to vertical mode. As noted previously, you
can also mount them on the wall or on an arm.

 Less eyestrain - Because LCD displays turn each pixel off individually; they do not produce a flicker like
CRT displays do. In addition, LCD displays do a better job of displaying text compared with CRT
displays.

Advantages of CRT Monitors:

 Less expensive - Although LCD monitor prices have decreased, comparable CRT displays still cost less.

 Better color representation - CRT displays have historically represented colors and different gradations
of color more accurately than LCD displays. However, LCD displays are gaining ground in this area,
especially with higher-end models that include color-calibration technology.
 More responsive - Historically, CRT monitors have had fewer problems with ghosting and blurring
because they redrew the screen image faster than LCD monitors. Again, LCD manufacturers are
improving on this with displays that have faster response times than they did in the past.

 Multiple resolutions - If you need to change your display's resolution for different applications, you are
better off with a CRT monitor because LCD monitors don't handle multiple resolutions as well.

 More rugged - Although they are bigger and heavier than LCD displays, CRT displays are also less
fragile and harder to damage.

Smart Cards:

A smart card resembles a credit card in size and shape, but inside it is completely different. The inside of a smart
card usually contains an embedded microprocessor. The microprocessor is under a gold contact pad on one side of
the card.

The microprocessor on the smart card is there for security. The host computer and card reader actually
"talk" to the microprocessor. The microprocessor enforces access to the data on the card. If the host
computer read and wrote the smart card's random access memory (RAM), it would be no different than a
diskette.

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin

Smart cards may have up to 8 kilobytes of RAM, 346

kilobytes of ROM, 256 kilobytes of programmable
ROM, and a 16-bit microprocessor. The smart card uses
a serial interface and receives its power from external
sources like a card reader e.g; POS (Point-Of-Sale)
terminals.

The most common smart card applications are:

 Credit cards Figure 14: Microprocessor based Smart Card

 Electronic cash
 Computer security systems
 Wireless communication
 Loyalty systems (like frequent flyer points)
 Banking
 Satellite TV
 Government identification

Smart cards contain unique features like:

 Chip is tamper-resistant.
 Information stored on the card can be PIN protected and/or read-write protected.
 Capable of performing data encryption.
 Capable of processing (not just storing) information.
 Post-issuance update of information and application.

Input/ Output Devices:

I/O Devices or Input/ Output devices are the electronic devices which have the ability to take the data,
process the data, convert it into information, and finally give output of the information at the same time.

Automated Teller Machine (ATM):

An ATM (Automated Teller Machine) is a computerized machine designed to dispense cash to bank
customers without need of human interaction. The ATM can also take deposits, transfer money between
bank accounts and provide other basic financial services.

Figure 15: Working of an ATM

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin

Like any other data terminal, the ATM has to connect to, and communicate through, a host processor. The
host processor is analogous to an Internet service provider (ISP) in that it is the gateway through which
all the various ATM networks become available to the cardholder (the person wanting the cash).

Most host processors can support either leased-line or dial-up machines. Leased-line machines connect
directly to the host processor through a four-wire, point-to-point, dedicated telephone line. Dial-up
ATMs connect to the host processor through a normal phone line using a modem and a toll-free number,
or through an Internet service provider using a local access number dialed by modem.

The host processor may be owned by a bank or financial institution, or it may be owned by an
independent service provider. Bank-owned processors normally support only bank-owned machines,
whereas the independent processors support merchant-owned machines.

The three general stages of ATM operation are:

 Client initialization:
To use an ATM, the customer feeds it a bankcard, sometimes called a debit card. This resembles a
credit card but is issued from the bank to use with an ATM. Once the machine reads the magnetic
strip on the card, it requests a personal identification number, or PIN. The PIN provides security in
case the card is lost or falls into the wrong hands.

 Client registration:
Upon entering the associated PIN correctly, the customer will see a list of choices on the ATM screen.
Through touch-screen or buttons, the customer navigates through the ATM screens to complete the
desired transaction.

 Data transfer:
If the customer chooses to withdraw cash, the cash is dispersed through a feeder slot. If making a
deposit, the customer feeds the deposit envelope into a deposit slot when cued by the machine.
Receipts are optionally printed for the customer, but the ATM retains a record of all transactions.
Tied into the bank’s computer system, the ATM can automatically deduct withdrawals or add
deposits to the customer’s account.

1 Link:

1 Link is the largest network of ATMs across Pakistan, providing unparalleled convenience and flexibility
to customers. With a total of 508 ATMs in 41 cities, all member bank customers can access their accounts
through any 1 Link ATM in Pakistan.

Few of 1 Link Member banks include:

 ABN AMRO
 Allied Bank Limited
 Askari Commercial Bank Limited
 Bank Al Habib
 Bank Alfalah
 Crescent Commercial Bank
 Faysal Bank Limited
 Habib Bank Limited
 Meezan Bank Limited
 National Bank of Pakistan

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CS-101 Introduction to Computers F.E (IM) Session 2011
Computer Peripherals Course Instructor: Syed Jaseemuddin
 PICIC Commercial Bank
 Soneri Bank Limited
 Union Bank Limited
 United Bank Limited

POS Terminals:

POS stands for Point of Sale, a general operations term used to describe the moment when a customer is
ready to pay for goods and services. A typical point of sale would be the cash register in a supermarket,
or the front counter of a restaurant. When speaking in regards to a POS system, this could mean some
combination of the sale counter, register, and credit card machine where the POS transaction takes place.
In addition, POS equipment may encompass specialized software that has been developed for a specific
set of tasks in certain consumer industries.

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