TABLE OF CONDENTS

Page Introduction Central Processing Unit.. Bios Ram .. CMOS .. Cache .. Device interface.. Serial Port Parallel ... USB Fire wire .. Network card Expansion slot PCL Slot .. AGP Slot .. PCIE Storage device Hard drive .. Floppy Drive .. DV-Drive . Memory stick .. Flash Memory Power Supply .. Input Drives .. Keyboard .... Mouse .... Light pen ....... Touch Screen .. Digitizing Table Microphone Web-cam .. Output devices .. Monitor Data Projector LCD Printer Pen Plotter 3D-Printer Modem . 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 8 8 9 10 10 10 12 12 12 14 15 17 17 18 18 19 20 21 21 21 22 22 23 24 25 26 0

wireless Index Bibliography

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28 30 31

Introduction
Computers have become a omnipresent feature of nowadays modern life, or else It would be difficult to get through a day without some activities involving a computers., Be it composing e-mail on a computer, using a computer features hidden inside a cell phone, or receiving an official letter generated by a computer at a specific company or organization. Compute skills allows all these activities to happen. A computer is an electronic device which is used to performing logical and mathematical operations based on its programs. The devices include not only the obvious electronic devices which have screens, keyboards or, printers but also computers that are embedded into devices like those at supermarkets checkout counters or in DVD players. A computer system is more than just a computer. Its a set of components that work together to make a computer usable. The components are divided into several categories: input devices, output devices, storage devices, and utility devices. An input device is used to give data to the computer. While an output device transmits data from the computer back to the user. A storage device keeps data for later use. Computers also consist of a hardware which refers to all the physical devices that make up a computer system, both those inside the computer case and those outside the case. And a software which refers to the programs the computer executes.

1. Central Processing Unit (CPU).

The Central Processing Unit is the major internal components of a computer. Which is well known as a processor the heart of a computer and performs all forms of computing tasks. A CPU has three essential components: an ALU, registers, and a CU. The arithmetic logic unit (ALU), performs mathematical calculations and logical operations. The ALU, considered all the data in a computer as n a number. An example of an ALUs mathematical operation is multiplying two numbers together. An example of a logical operation is comparing two numbers to determine which one is larger. A register is temporary storage for data. Different CPUs have different numbers of registers. While computers store most of their active data in RAM, the ALU can only directly access the registers. Thus, having more registers is an advantage(Spraul 2005).The control unit(CU), controls the movement of data inside the CPU.The CU is controlled by the program the CPU executes.

(A)

Bios

The BIOS which stands for Basic Input/Output System,is a set of small programs stored in ROM. The ROM, as in CD-ROM,means read-only memory. Here it refers to memory that is accessed like RAM but is uneasy that to change. When a computers power is turned on, the BIOS initializes all the devices in the system and performs some self-diagnostic tests.Then it performs its most important task, which is loading the operating system. Acording to Spraul(2005),the BIOS isnt capable of loading the operating system on its own. Instead, it retrieves a program from a special location on the primary hard drive called the boot sector. This short program is part of the operating system, and its job is to retrieve the rest of the operating system into memory.

When a computer is turn on it is often seen that there use to be a few seconds of plain-looking text. During this time, the BIOS is running. A few seconds later the screen displays the logo of the operating system (likeWindows XP). Thats the program from the boot sector. Finally the full operating system is loaded and the programs can begin to be running. In most PCs, the BIOS has 4 main functions: POST - Test computer hardware, ensuring hardware is properly functioning before starting process of loading operating system. Bootstrap Loader - Process of locating the operating system. If capable operating system located, BIOS will pass the control to it. BIOS - Software / Drivers that interface between the operating system and the hardware When running. BIOS / CMOS Setup - Configuration program that allows the user to configure hardware settings including system settings such as computer passwords, time, and date.

(B)

RAM

The main memory in a computer is made of RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory. The term random access means that the data in the memory can be accessed in any order.RAM is made of capacitors, which are devices that store small electrical charges. Each capacitor stores one bit. If the capacitor is mostly charged, its considered a 1 bit, and if its close to empty, its a 0. There are two categories of RAM. Dynamic RAM uses capacitors that must be recharged periodically. Static RAM uses capacitors that hold their charge indefinitely. Static RAM is faster because it doesnt have to waste time with the periodic recharge, but dynamic RAM is much cheaper to make. Because main memories are so large, they use dynamic RAM. RAM is divided into cells of memory called words, which may be a single byte (eight bits) or multiple bytes. Each words location in RAM is specified by a unique address, which is just a whole number that starts from 0.

(C)

CMOS

CMOS is short for Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. CMOS is an on-board semiconductor chip powered by a CMOS battery inside computers that stores information such as the system time and date and the system hardware settings for the computer.

The above right picture contains other examples of batteries that may be used in computers to power the CMOS memory.The most common battery is the coin cell battery (lithium battery), usually about the size of a U.S. Nickel.The standard lifetime of a CMOS battery is around 10

Years. However, this can vary depending on the use and environment that the computer resides (Jargon 2007)

(D)

Cache

While all that Is essential to make a CPU are the ALU, CU, and registers as earlier stated, most CPUs devote a large percentage of their real estate to another set of components, called the cache. This is fast-access memory that is used for faster retrieval than is possible from main memory.The Cache access is faster than main memory for two reasons. First, because the cache memory is inside the CPU, the data doesnt have as far to travel as data from main memory. And second, cache memory is made from faster static RAM, not dynamic RAM(Spraul 2005). According to Anton Cache is essential to the performance of current CPUs. Retrieval from main memory is too slow relative to the CPUs clock speed. If the CPU had to wait for every piece of data to come from RAM, it would spend most of its time idling. Because early CPUs did not have caches, the speed of early computers was limited by the speed of main memory access, not the power of CPU. For cache to be effectual,the right data has to be in the cache when the CPU needs it, because cache can only hold a fraction of the data in main memory.The CPU has sets of laws to determine which items in RAM are to be held in cache at any given time. These rules are based upon the principle of locality, which says that when a particular address in memory is accessed, its likely that nearby addresses will be accessed soon. Using this principle, when an address is requested and the data is not currently in cache, the CPU retrieves the requested address and all the addresses around it in a block and puts them all in cache.

2. DEVICE INTERFACES
Various devices have different methods of communication with the computer. A particular devices method of communication is known as its interface. Many of the extra chips on a motherboard are actually translators for a certain kind of interface while other Components have some other different interface. Having different interfaces may seem an inefficient way to make a computer rather than having interface agree on the same language Anyways there are two reasons why different devices have different interfaces. First, the interfaces are optimized to the needs of the devices that use them forexample a hard drive has to transmit a tremendous amount of data in a short time, but the keyboard sends only a handful of bytes to the computer every second.Hence any interface fast enough for the hard drive would be serious overkill for a keyboard. The Second reason of having varying interfaces is, just like with CPUs, designers have to be aware of backwards compatibility.When someone introduces a new keyboard interface that requires users to purchase new keyboards, even though the old interface and keyboard worked fine, users will complain. Some common interfaces used in computers today include USB, Firewire, IDE, and SCSI.

(a)

Serial port

In computing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time. In most of the history of personal computers, data are transferred

through serial ports connected the computer to devices such as terminals and various peripherals. While such interfaces as Ethernet, FireWire, and USB all send data as a serial stream. Webopedia (2003-09-03). Serial ports are used in applications such as industrial automation systems, scientific instruments, shop till systems and some industrial and consumer products. Server computers may use a serial port as a control console for diagnostics. Network equipment (such as routers and switches) often use serial console for configuration. Serial ports are still used in these areas as they are simple, cheap and their functions are highly standardized and widespread. A serial port also requires very little supporting software from the host system. The most common serial port on computers is a 9-pin male connector. It is usually located on the back of the computer, indicated by a symbol or named Serial Port, COM Port, or I/O Port. The (two) figures below (a) and (b), represent serial ports at the back of the computer

(a)

(b) The 9-pin male connectors serial ports on the back of a PC

(b)

Parallel

Parallel port is a simple and inexpensive tool for building computer controlled devices and projects. The simplicity and ease of programming makes parallel port popular in electronics world. The parallel port is often used in Computer controlled robots, Atmel/PIC programmers, home automation and many more. If a printer is connected to a computer, there is a good chance that it uses the parallel port. Although USB is becoming increasingly popular, the parallel port is still a commonly used interface for printers. When a PC wants to send data to a printer, it sends it either through a parallel port, a serial port or a network connection. When using a parallel port, the computer sends the data 1 byte at a time. With each byte sent out, it sends a handshaking signal so the printer can latch the byte.

(c)

USB

USB which stands for Universal Serial Bus, is an interface for external components, like mice,keyboards, and printers. The word serial means that USB uses serial transmission, in which bits are sent one at a time along the same wire. In contrast, parallel transmission sends bits in groups, like one byte at a time, 5

by having a wire for each bit that is sent. Parallel transmission would seem to be faster, but because it is more complicated, the overhead often outweighs the benefits. The USB interface can transmit at a rate of 12 Mega bits per second (Mbps). USB allows multiple devices to share the same interface this is known as chaining. In the case of USB, up to 127 devices can chain onto one interface. That is, if a computer has one USB socket on the back of the case, up to 127 devices can communicate with the computer through that one socket. This chaining means the devices form a bus, just like the ones on the motherboard, only one that can change over time. To allow for the physical connection of so many devices, some larger devices like printers may have both an outgoing socket and an incoming socket, but since some devices, like mice, wont have any incoming sockets, users can purchase USB hubs, which are set of extra incoming sockets. One special feature of USB is that it allows hot-swapping, which means devices can be safely plugged or unplugged while the computer is running. The USB interface can alert the computers operating system when a device is connected or disconnected from the system (Marshall 16 April 2011).

(d)

Firewire

Firewire is a type of high-speed serial bus developed by Apple. It is also know as IEEE 1394, after its official standards designation. Its much faster than USB, transmitting data up to 400 Mbps. This speed is necessary because Firewires intended use is connecting computers with video devices like camcorders and digital cameras, where video data is large. The speed of the interface is also good for devices like portable hard drives. Like USB, Firewire allows hot-swapping and can chain up to sixty-three devices.

IDE
IDE which stands for Integrated Drive Electronics, is a standard interface for connecting hard drives and Optical drives. The name was chosen originally because the hard drive contains its own interface hardware, whereas previous hard drives had separate interface cards that had to be installed in the computer first. IDE has been outdated by EIDE, or Enhanced IDE, which allows for faster data transmission and larger hard drives. According to Spraul, a single IDE interface on a motherboard, known as a port, can support two drives and if two drives are on the same port, one drive must be designated a master and the other a slave. Usually this is done by setting switches on the drives themselves. Because many computers have more than two drives, motherboards using IDE have at least two ports.

SCSI
SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface and is another standard interface for hard drives and optical drives.Drives are built for particular interfaces, hence ahard drive made for IDE will not work on a SCSI interface. On the other hand SCSI interfaces and drives are more expensive than their IDE counterparts but, perform better. SCSI interfaces can support up to seven devices.Both SCSI and IDE use parallel transmission.

(e)

Network card

A network card is an expansion card which installs into a computer and enables that computer to physically connect to a local area network. It acts as the interface between a computer and a network cable.The most common form of network card in current use is the Ethernet card. Other types of network cards include wireless cards and Token Ring network cards. 6

A network card which is the physical interface between the computer and cable, converts the data sent by the computer into a form which can be used by the network cable, transfers that data to another computer and controls the dataflow between the computer and cable. It also translates the data coming from the cable into bytes so that the computer's CPU can read it. This is why a network card is an expansion card inserted into an expansion slot. Other terms for network card include network adapter, network interface card and NIC. A network interface controller (also known as a network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter and by similar terms) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. The network interface controller implements the electronic circuitry required to communicate using a specific physical layer and data link layer standard such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Token Ring. This provides a base for a full network protocol stack, allowing communication among small groups of computers on the same LAN and large-scale network communications through routable protocols, such as IP. Every Ethernet network controller has a unique 48-bit serial number called a MAC address, which is stored in read-only memory carried on the card for add-on cards. Each computer on an Ethernet network must have at least one controller and each controller must have a unique MAC address. Network cards are becoming much more-rare as most motherboards now include network interfaces.

3. Expansion slot
An expansion slot is an opening in a computer where a circuit board can be inserted to add new capabilities to the computer. Nearly all personal computers except portables contain expansion slots for adding more memory, graphics capabilities, and support for special devices. The boards inserted into the expansion slots are called expansion boards, expansion cards , cards , add-ins , and add-ons. Expansion slots for PCs come in two basic sizes: half- and full-size. Half-size slots are also called 8-bit slots because they can transfer 8 bits at a time. Full-size slots are sometimes called 16-bit slots. Further more, modern PCs include PCI slots for expansion boards that connect directly to the PCI bus. Expansion slots are located on the motherboard, and openings on the back of the computer allow the ports on the cards that go in the slots to be accessed. The primary purpose of an expansion card is to provide or expand on features not offered by the motherboard. The diagram below represents the I/O expiation card of a PCI digital.

Example of a PCI Digital I/O Expansion Card.

The expansion card (also known as expansion board, adapter card or accessory card) in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard to add functionality to a computer system. One edge of the expansion card holds the contacts (the edge connector) that fit exactly into the slot. They establish the electrical contact between the electronics on the card and on the motherboard.

a) PCL SLOTS
A PCI or Peripheral Component Interconnect slot is an interconnection system between a microprocessor and attached devices in which expansion slots are spaced closely for high speed operation. The PCL slot used to connect additional extension cards to a PC. Sound cards, TV tuners or modems are some examples of devices that use PCI slots. PCI slots are designed according to the specifications of the PCI Special Interest Group, a group created in 1992 and supported by industryleading computer manufacturers, aimed to promote PCI as an industry-wide standard. There are three types of PCI standards: Conventional PCI, PCI-X and PCI Express. Conventional PCI and PCI-X share the same architecture but have different features and specifications. PCI-X is backward compatible with Conventional PCI. PCI Express slots are the fastest among the family of PCI slots, ideal for the high bandwidth requirements of graphic cards.(Anton 2005) The PCI slots have the advantage of allowing the user to upgrade or expand the computer's functionality quickly and easily, without the need of expensive hardware replacements. Addition of sound cards or video cards is possible by simply plugging them into a PCI slot instead of upgrading the whole mainboard. Also, in most cases, there are multiple PCI slots on a mainboard, giving the user,the possibility of adding multiple expansion cards working simultaneously. The PCI slots can be compared to the USB slots, as they have pretty much the same role, with the difference that USB ports are external connectors, while PCI slots are internal connectors. PCI Express slots are used for connecting high-performance graphic cards to a computer, and represent a successor to the AGP slots.

b) AGP SLOTS
An AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slot is a connector on the motherboard specifically designed for use with a video card. The AGP slot provides the fast connection and bandwidth that a video card needs to communicate with the processor and your display. An AGP is a high-speed 32-bit port from Intel for attaching a display adapter to a PC. It provides a direct connection between the card and memory, and only one AGP slot is on the motherboard. AGP was introduced as a higher-speed alternative to PCI display adapters, and it freed a PCI slot for another peripheral device. The brown AGP slot is slightly shorter than the white PCI slot and is located about an inch farther back. AGP was superseded by PCI Express. The diagram below illustrates an AGP and a PCL slots 8

AGP and PCI Slots The brown AGP receptacle sits a little farther back from the outside edge than the white PCI slots. There is one AGP slot on the motherboard for the display adapter (graphics card) only. AGP, or Advanced Graphics Port allows the use of a high speed graphics card which can considerably improve performance of the computer video. The AGP slot only provides the possibility of improved graphics.

c) PCIE
PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), sometimes abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards. PCIe has numerous improvements over the aforementioned bus standards, including higher maximum system bus throughput, lower I/O pin count and smaller physical footprint, better performance-scaling for bus devices, a more detailed error detection and reporting mechanism, and native hot plugging. More recent revisions of the PCIe standard support hardware I/O virtualization. The PCIe electrical interface is also used in a variety of other standards, most notably ExpressCard, a laptop expansion card interface. PCI Express is used in consumer, server, and industrial applications, as a motherboard-level interconnect and as an expansion card interface for add-in boards. From consumer laptops and desktops to enterprise data servers, the PCIe bus serves as the primary motherboard-level interconnect, connecting the host system processor with both integrated-peripherals and add-on peripherals. The key difference between PCIe bus and the older PCI is the bus topology is that tha PCI uses a shared parallel bus architecture, where the PCI host and all devices share a common set of address/data/control lines. In contrast, PCIe is based on point-to-point topology, with separate serial links connecting every device to the root complex . Due to its shared bus topology, access to the PCI bus is arbitrated and limited to 1 master at a time, in a single direction. Furthermore, PCI's clocking scheme limits the bus clock to the slowest peripheral on the bus . In contrast, a PCIe bus link supports full-duplex communication between any two endpoints, with no inherent limitation on concurrent access across multiple endpoints.

4. Storage Devices
The most Common storage devices include a tape drive, floppy drive, hard drive, and optical drive. The purpose of a storage device is to allow the writing and reading of data organized into collections called files.

A) Hard Drive
Hard drives are very similar to floppy drives. A hard drive, as its name implies, stores data on a rigid magnetized disk or set of disks. Hard disks pack data much more densely than floppy disks. Because a single hard drive unit may contain multiple disks, the storage capacity is much greater. Where a single floppy disk may contain several megabytes of data, a hard drive can store 100 gigabytes of data or more, which means one hard drive is equivalent to tens of thousands of floppy disks. Hard drives are also much faster at writing and retrieving data. To achieve this higher density and performance, hard drives spin thousands of times per minute, and use a faster and more precise mechanism for controlling the arm the heads ride on. One measure of a particular hard drives performance is seek time, which is the length of time needed to move the heads over a specified track (Anton 2005). Although tech nically a hard disk would be a disk inside the hard drive, in common use hard disk and hard drive are used interchangeably to refer to the entire device, not a particular disk inside the device. This is probably because hard drives are sealed. The media is not only not removable, but also cant be seen without opening the drive casing. Hard drives are sealed because the data is so precisely aligned than any dust that fell on a disk could ruin the data stored there. Hard drives are the central storage device on computers nowadays , and their capacity seems to double every couple of years. One problem larger drives have exacerbated is fragmentation, which is the state where files have been split up into small pieces across the disk. When a hard drive is new, the disk is one big block of unused storage, and files can be stored contiguously on the disk, perhaps all on the same track. Over time, as files are stored and erased, they split up the leftover space into smaller and smaller chunks. Eventually individual files are too big for any one chunk and have to be split up and spread across multiple tracks. Fragmentation is one reason why computers that have been in use for a long time seem to have slowed down from when they were bought. The closer a hard drive gets to capacity, the more fragmentation occurs. A program called a defragmenter carefully shuffles the file fragments around to get them all contiguous again, improving performance (Spraul 2005).

B) Floppy Drive
A floppy disk is a flexible circle of plastic that stores data magnetically (like a tape drive). These days floppy disks are stored in rigid shells; its the disk inside thats floppy, not the casing. According to Spraun, the earliest floppy disks were ten inches in diameter, while current disks are three and a half inches; yet because they pack the data more densely, they store more overall. A floppy drive is a device to read and write floppy disks. Like a tape drive, a floppy drive has electromagnetic heads, but in a tape drive the head stays still and the tape is pulled past it. In a floppy drive, the disk spins but the heads move too. The heads are on an arm that hovers over the disk and can move the heads from the inside edge to the outside edge of the disk, something like the needle arm of a phonograph, except that the heads on a floppy drive do not touch the disk. A special electric engine called a stepper motor is used because it can be instructed to rotate an exact number of times. This method allows the heads to be precisely placed (Anton 2005). 10

A disk is organized into tracks, which are concentric circles that separate the data, like the lanes on a running track. Each track is divided into segments called sectors. To read a particular sector, the disk is spun and the arm is moved to place the heads over the sectors track. Then the drive waits until the spinning of the disk has brought the desired sector under the head. Floppy disks are an example of removable media (or removable storage), which refers to storage devices that can be easily taken out of the computer and taken elsewhere.The floppy disk is a randomaccess device which are commonly, used to back up small amounts of data and to transfer data from one computer to another.

C) Optical Drive
An optical drive reads data using a laser and light sensor. Bits are represented on an optical disc by placing bumps on the surface. The laser light reflects differently off the bumps and smooth parts of the disc to produce the binary 1 and 0 signals. An optical disc used for storing computer data is called a CD-ROM. A CD reader in a computer system is known as a CD-ROM drive. In both cases the ROM stands for read-only memory, which means storage data that can be read but not altered. CD-ROM drives can read and play music CDs but are mainly used to install software on CD-ROMs. Installation refers to a process where software is copied onto the hard drive and registration steps are taken to connect the software to the operating system, including making the new software appear in the operating systems list of programs. Early CD-ROM drives read data at the same speed as a music CD player, which by computer standards is very slow. Logically, this meant that reading the entire disc would take seventy-four minutes! Current CD-ROM drives can read about fifty times faster than a CD player and are able to read the outer part of the disc at about the same speed as theinner part (Spraul 2005). While CDs and CD-ROMs are manufactured with the bumps in place, another technology allows users to make discs with their own computers. A CD-RW drive, or computer disc read/write drive, can read discs and create discs using specially made blanks. The blank discs are quite different from ordinary CDs. They contain a special dye that is initially clear but darkens when heated. A CD-RW contains a more powerful laser that is used to heat up the dye in different spots to make reflecting and nonreflecting areas that can be read like a regular CD. Because of the heat involved in the dye process, creating a CD in this way is known as burning. Some blanks are called CD-Ws (W for write-only) and can be used only once because after the dye has darkened, theres no way to make it clear again. Other blanks are called CD-RWs (RW for read/write), which use a substance that is heated to one of two temperatures. Heated to one temperature, that spot on the CD is reflective when it cools; heated to another, it is opaque. The DVD, a more recent invention, works along the same principles. A DVD is an optical disc of much greater capacity than a CD-ROM, and a DVD drive is a device in a computer system for reading DVDs. The name DVD originally stood for Digital Video Disc because it was developed to store movies digitally, but later the name was changed to Digital Versatile Disc because any kind of data can be stored on a DVD, just like a CD. A basic DVD can hold about 4.7 gigabytes of data, which is about six times as much as a CD-ROM. Some DVDs have two layers of data. The bottom layer is like that on a CD-ROM, a shiny surface with smooth spots and bumps. Above that is a semitransparent layer thats more like a CD-RW, with lighter and darker spots. Having both layers allows the capacity to almost double to around 8 gigabytes. sometimes a 17 gigabyte capacity listed for DVDsfor a double-sided DVD that uses two layers on each side can be seen. Because most DVD readers can only read one side, though, the user has to eject the DVD, flip it over, and put it back in the reader. From a users point of view having a double-sided DVD isnt better 11

than having two single-sided DVDs. As with CDs, blank DVDs and DVD burners are also available and work along the same principles.

D) DVD DRIVES
DVD Drives are computer input devices that play, read and write DVDs. They have the ability to playback DVDs on the computer.DVD drives Similar to the DVD players that connect to a TV or home theater, they come in a variety of speeds and options. A DVD-R is a write-once format: once the data have been burned onto the DVD platter, the disk is forever frozen with that information. DVD-RW obviously has significant advantages over DVD-R. DVDRAM is even more flexible, however, since it let the user to erase and rewrite sections of an existing DVD, which something cannot do with DVD-RW. Furthermore DVD+RW came before DVD+R. The plus formats have the same data storage capacity as the minus formats , but DVD+RW offers faster writing, better internal linking and support for drag-anddrop desktop files, which makes it easy to compose the contents of a disk. DVD+R is a write-once format intended to be more compatible with more DVD players, though at this point it seems to be about even with DVD-R, which remains the most compatible computer-burned DVD format. DVD-R is a write-once format, just like CD-R, and data can not just be erased once it's written. DVD-RW is rewritable, so it ca be used it somewhat like a 4.7GB floppy disc, for all intents and purposes. In general, DVD-R for is often used for archival purposes -- stuff that isn't going to change, and DVD-RW for more fluid data. DVD-RW discs are more expensive than DVD-R discs. DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Time Warner in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than compact discs while having the same dimensions. Pre-recorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically stamp data onto the DVD. Such discs are known as DVD-ROM, because data can only be read and not written nor erased. Blank recordable DVDs (DVD-R and DVD+R) can be recorded once using a DVD recorder and then function as a DVD-ROM. Rewritable DVDs (DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM) can be recorded and erased multiple times. DVDs are used in DVD-Video consumer digital video format and in DVD-Audio consumer digital audio format, as well as for authoring AVCHD discs. DVDs containing other types of information may be referred to as DVD data discs.

E) Memory stick/flash ram

A Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998 and is also used in general to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity and faster file transfer speeds; Memory Stick Duo, a small-form-factor version of the Memory Stick (including the PRO Duo); and the even smaller Memory Stick Micro (M2). A Memory Stick PRO-HG, a high speed variant of the PRO to be used in high definition still and video cameras was added in 2006 by Sony. 12

Memory Sticks are used as storage media for a portable device, in a form that can easily be removed for access by a personal computer. The Sticks include a copy protection mechanism used by the robot, allowing users to write programs. These are referred to as programmable or programming. Only 8 MB and 16 MB versions are available. Memory Stick PRO The Memory Stick PRO, was introduced in 2003 as a joint effort between Sony and SanDisk, is said to be the longer-lasting solution to the space problem. Most devices that use the original Memory Sticks support both the original and PRO sticks since both formats have identical form factors. Some readers that were not compatible could be upgraded to Memory Stick PRO support via a firmware update. Memory Stick PROs have a marginally higher transfer speed and a maximum theoretical capacity of 32 GB, although it appears capacities higher than 4GB are only available in the PRO Duo form factor. High Speed Memory Stick PROs are available, and newer devices support this High Speed mode, allowing for faster file transfers. All Memory Stick PROs larger than 1 GB support this High Speed mode, and High Speed Memory Stick Pros are backwards-compatible with devices that don't support the High Speed mode. High capacity memory sticks such as the 4 GB versions are expensive compared to other types of flash memory such as SD cards and Compact-Flash. Maximum available capacity is 1GB. Memory Stick Duo The Memory Stick Duo was developed in response to Sony's need for a smaller flash memory card for pocket-sized digital cameras, cell phones and the PlayStation Portable. It is slightly smaller than the competing Secure Digital (SD) format and roughly two thirds the length of the standard Memory Stick form factor, but costs more. Memory Stick Duos are available with the same features as the larger standard Memory Stick, available with and without High Speed mode, and with and without MagicGate support. The Memory Stick PRO Duo has replaced the Memory Stick Duo due to its 128MB size limitation, but has kept the same form factor as the Duo. A simple adapter allows Memory Stick Duo to be used in devices designed to accept the original Memory Stick form factor

Flash memory (sometimes called "flash RAM") is a type of constantly-powered

nonvolatile memory that can be erased and reprogrammed in units of memory called blocks. It is a variation of electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) which, unlike flash memory, is erased and rewritten at the byte level, which is slower than flash memory updating. Flash memory is often used to hold control code such as the basic input/output system (BIOS) in a personal (Spraul 2005) When BIOS needs to be changed (rewritten), the flash memory can be written to in block (rather than byte) sizes, making it easy to update. On the other hand, flash memory is not useful as random access memory (RAM) because RAM needs to be addressable at the byte level. Flash memory gets its name because the microchip is organized so that a section of memory cells are erased in a single action or "flash." The erasure is caused by Fowler-Nordheim tunneling in which electrons pierce through a thin dielectric material to remove an electronic charge from a floating gate 13

associated with each memory cell. Intel offers a form of flash memory that holds two bits (rather than one) in each memory cell, thus doubling the capacity of memory without a corresponding increase in price. Flash memory is used in digital cellular phones, digital cameras, LAN switches, PC Cards for notebook computers, digital set-up boxes, embedded controllers, and other devices.

5. POWER SUPPLY
Power supply is a system that converts AC current from the wall outlet into the DC currents required by electronic circuits. A computer power supply converts AC into multiple DC voltages. For example, 12 volts is commonly used for drives, while 3.3v and 5v are used by the chips and other motherboard components. Switching Power Supplies Power supplies known as "switching" power supplies are commonly used. Their name is derived from the type of circuit used to change the voltage. A power supply is a hardware component that supplies power to an electrical device. It receives power from an electrical outlet and converts the current from AC (alternating current) to DC (direct current), which is what the computer requires. It also regulates the voltage to an adequate amount, which allows the computer to run smoothly without overheating. The power supply is an integral part of any computer and must function correctly for the rest of the components to work. The power supply can be located on a system unit by simply finding the input where the power cord is plugged in. Without opening the computer, this is typically the only part of the power supply to be see. If a power supply was to be removed, it would look like a metal box with a fan inside and some cables attached to it. Of course, it should never made to be removed , hence it's best to leave it in the case. While most computers have internal power supplies, many electronic devices use external ones. For example, some monitors and external hard drives have power supplies that reside outside the main unit. These power supplies are connected directly to the cable that plugs into the wall. They often include another cable that connects the device to the power supply. Some power supplies, often called "AC adaptors," are connected directly to the plug (which can make them difficult to plug in where space is limited). Both of these designs allow the main device to be smaller or sleeker by moving the power supply outside the unit (Antone 2005). Since the power supply is the first place an electronic device receives electricity, it is also the most vulnerable to power surges and spikes. Therefore, power supplies are designed to handle fluctuations in electrical current and still provide a regulated or consistent power output. Some include fuses that will blow if the surge is too great, protecting the rest of the equipment. After all, it is much cheaper to replace a power supply than an entire computer. Still, it is wise to connect all electronics to a surge protector or UPS to keep them from being damaged by electrical surges.

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a) INPUT DEVICES
An input device is any peripheral (piece of computer hardware equipment) used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system (such as a computer). Input and output devices make up the hardware interface between computer as a scanner or 6DOF controller. Some common input devices include a keyboard, mouse, scanner, digital camera, and gamepad. Many input devices can be classified according to:

Modality of input (e.g. mechanical motion, audio, visual, etc.) the input is discrete (e.g. key presses) or continuous (e.g. a mouse's position, though digitized into a discrete quantity, is fast enough to be considered continuous) the number of degrees of freedom involved (e.g. two-dimensional traditional mice, or threedimensional navigators designed for CAD applications)

Pointing devices, which are input devices used to specify a position in space, can further be classified according to:

Whether the input is direct or indirect. With direct input, the input space coincides with the display space, i.e. pointing is done in the space where visual feedback or the cursor appears. Touch-screens and light pens involve direct input. Examples involving indirect input include the mouse and trackball. Whether the positional information is absolute (e.g. on a touch screen) or relative (e.g. with a mouse that can be lifted and repositioned)

Direct input is almost necessarily absolute, but indirect input may be either absolute or relative. For example, digitizing Graphics tablets that do not have an embedded screen involve indirect input and sense absolute positions and are often run in an absolute input mode, but they may also be setup to simulate a relative input mode where the stylus or puck can be lifted and repositioned. THE TABLE BELOW ILUSTRAITES VARIOUS PERIPHERAL (INPUT DEVICES) WHICH PROVIDE DATA AND CONTROL SIGNAL TO THE COMPUTER Camera most cameras like this are used during live conversations. The camera transmits a picture from one computer to another, or can be used to record a short video. Compact Disc (CD) - CDs store information. The CD can then be put into another computer, and the information can be opened and added or used on the second computer. Note: A CD-R or CD-RW can also be used as an OUTPUT device. Keyboard - The keyboard is a way to input letters or numbers into different applications or programs. A keyboard also has special keys that help operate the computer.

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Mouse - The mouse is used to open and close files, navigate web sites, and click on a lot of commands (to tell the computer what to do) when using different applications. Digital Camera - A digital camera can be used to take pictures. It can be hooked up to a computer to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer. Some digital cameras hold a floppy disk, and the floppy disk can be taken out of the camera and put directly into the computer.

Drawing Tablet - A drawing tablet is similar to a white board, except you use a special pen to write on it and it's connected to the computer. Then the word or image you draw can be saved on the computer.

Microphone - A microphone is used to record sound. The sound is then saved as a sound file on the computer.

Scanner - A scanner is used to copy pictures or other things and save them as files on the computer. Disk Drive - A disk drive can hold a CD or a floppy disk. It reads the information on the disk so that the computer can use it. Joystick - A joystick is used to move the cursor from place to place, and to click on various items in programs. A joystick is used mostly for computer games.

Touch Screen - A touch screen is a computer screen or other screen that you can touch with your finger to enter information. Examples of touch screens include a smart board, a microwave, a dishwasher, or an ATM at a bank.

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Bar Code Scanner - A bar code scanner scans a little label that has a bar code on it. The information is then saved on the computer. Bar code scanners are used in libraries a lot.

5.1 Keyboard
Keyboard is the most common input device, which is like a typewriter. The earliest keyboards had only the same keys that a typewriter does, just the letters, numbers, and other printable symbols. Over time, keyboards have gained more functionality. Most have an area on the right called a numeric keypad, which puts all the number keys together to allow fast entry of numeric data. In addition, many keyboards now have additional keys for common tasks, such as playing music or opening the users favorite program. While keyboards have grown more complex, the technology behind them works on simple principles. Each key is just an electrical switch. The keyboard can signal which key is pressed by assigning each key a binary pattern and transmitting that pattern to the computer (Anton 2005). KEYBOARD AND KEYPAD DESIGN The keys on a typewriter or keyboard are in an order where the letters on the top row spell QWERTY. Early typewriters would easily jam when operators typed letters next to each other too quickly. As a result, the keys were laid out so that those keys often struck in succession were not next to each other. In essence, the keys are arranged to slow typists. You can purchase keyboards with other layouts, like the Dvorak layout, which is intended to speed typing, not slow it down.

5.2 Mouse
The second most common input device is the mouse, which is a device that moves a cursora small arrow or other pointing shapeon the screen as it is moved. It also has one or more buttons to allow further input. Newer designs may also have a wheel that can be rolled up and down. In most programs that display pages of text, rolling the wheel moves the text up and down in unison. Mice track their positions in multiple ways. The most common design has a rubber-covered ball on the bottom and as the mouse is slid across the desk, the ball rolls. Inside the mouse, the ball is rubbing against two rollers. One roller tracks the updown movement of the mouse; the other tracks the left-right movement. After the mouse transmits the movement of these rollers to the computer as a binary number, the computer uses this data to determine where the mouses cursor should appear on the screen. This design is simple, but has some problems. First, the ball doesnt roll very well on some surfaces. The surface needs to be smooth enough so the ball doesnt skip, but not so smooth that the ball slides without turning. Most users employ a square of specially designed material called a mouse pad for this reason. Second, the rolling ball tends to pick up all the dirt and lint on the desk or pad and carry it inside, where it lodges on the rollers. The mouses tracking gets steadily worse until it is cleaned. An improved design is the optical mouse, which tracks the mouse position using an optical sensor, not a rolling ball. Hundreds of times per second, the mouse takes a picture of whats beneath it, and by comparing this picture to the previous one, determines how far it has moved and in what direction. Because an optical mouse has no ball, it rarely needs to be cleaned and can be used without a mouse pad. 17

5.3 Light pen

A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's CRT TV set or monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy. It was long thought that a light pen can work with any CRT-based display, but not with LCD screens, projectors and other display devices. However, in 2011 Fair-light Instruments released its Fair-light CMI-30A, which uses a 17" LCD monitor with light pen control. A light pen is fairly simple to implement. Just like a light gun, a light pen works by sensing the sudden small change in brightness of a point on the screen when the electron gun refreshes that spot. By noting exactly where the scanning has reached at that moment, the X,Y position of the pen can be resolved. This is usually achieved by the light pen causing an interrupt, at which point the scan position can be read from a special register, or computed from a counter or timer. The pen position is updated on every refresh of the screen. Since light pens operate by detecting light emitted by the screen phosphors, some nonzero intensity level must be present at the coordinate position to be selected, because otherwise the pen won't get triggered. The user is also required to hold his or her arm in front of the screen for long periods of time or to use a desk that tilts the monitor; the light pen fell out of use as a general purpose input device.

5.4 A touch-screen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a
touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touch-screens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus. Touch-screen is common in devices such as all-in-one computers, tablet computers, and smart-phones. The touch-screen has two main attributes. First, it enables one to interact directly with what is displayed, rather than indirectly with a cursor controlled by a mouse or touchpad. Secondly, it lets one do so without requiring any intermediate device that would need to be held in the hand. Such displays can be attached to computers, or to networks as terminals. They also play a prominent role in the design of digital appliances such as the personal digital assistant (PDA), satellite navigation devices, mobile phones, and video games.

5.5 DIGITISING TABLET

A graphics tablet (or digitizer, digitizing tablet, graphics pad, drawing tablet) is a computer input device that allows one to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way one draws images with a pencil and paper. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten signatures. It can also be used to trace an image from a piece of paper which is taped or otherwise secured to the surface. Capturing data in this way, either by tracing or entering the corners of linear poly-lines or shapes is called digitizing. A graphics tablet (also called pen pad or digitizer) consists of a flat surface upon which the user may "draw" or trace an image using an attached stylus, a pen-like drawing apparatus. The image generally does not appear on the tablet itself but, rather, is displayed on the computer monitor. Some tablets, however, come as a functioning secondary computer screen that can be interacted with images directly by using the stylus. 18

Some tablets are intended as a general replacement for a mouse as the primary pointing and navigation device for desktop computers. General uses Graphics tablets, because of their stylus-based interface and ability to detect some or all of pressure, tilt, and other attributes of the stylus and its interaction with the tablet, are widely considered to offer a very natural way to create computer graphics, especially two-dimensional computer graphics. In East Asia, graphics tablets, or pen tablets as they are known, are widely used in conjunction with input method editor software (IMEs) to write Chinese, Japanese, Korean characters (CJK). The technology is popular and inexpensive and offers a method for interacting with the computer in a more natural way than typing on the keyboard, with the pen tablet supplanting the role of the computer mouse. Uptake of handwriting recognition among users of Latin script has been slower. Educators make use of tablets in classrooms to project handwritten notes or lessons and allow students to do the same, as well as providing feedback on student work submitted electronically. Online teachers may also use a tablet for marking student work, or for live tutorials or lessons, especially where complex visual information or mathematics equations are required. Tablets are also popular for technical drawings and CAD, as one can put a piece of paper on them without interfering with their function. Finally, tablets are gaining popularity as a replacement for the computer mouse as a pointing device. They can be more intuitive to some users than the mouse, as the position of the pen on the tablet typically corresponds to the location of the pointer on the GUI shown on the computer screen. Those artists using the pen for graphics work will as a matter of convenience use the tablet and pen for standard computer operations rather than put down the pen and find the mouse. Graphics tablets are available in various sizes and price ranges; A6-sized tablets being relatively inexpensive and A3-sized tablets being far more expensive. Modern tablets usually connect to the computer via a USB interface.

5.6 A microphone
Microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, tape recorders, karaoke systems, hearing aids, motion picture production, live and recorded audio engineering, FRS radios, megaphones, in radio and television broadcasting and in computers for recording voice, speech recognition and for non-acoustic purposes such as ultrasonic checking or knock sensors. Microphones are a type of transducer - a device which converts energy from one form to another. Hence they convert acoustical energy (sound waves) into electrical energy (the audio signal). Different types of microphone have different ways of converting energy but they all share one thing in common: The diaphragm. This is a thin piece of material (such as paper, plastic or aluminium) which

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vibrates when it is struck by sound waves. In a typical hand-held mic like the one below, the diaphragm is located in the head of the microphone. Location of Microphone Diaphragm

When the diaphragm vibrates, it causes other components in the microphone to vibrate. These vibrations are converted into an electrical current which becomes the audio signal. Furthermore, at the other end of the audio chain, the loudspeaker is also a transducer - it converts the electrical energy back into acoustical energy. There are a number of different types of microphone in common use. The differences can be divided into two areas: (1) The type of conversion technology they use This refers to the technical method the mic uses to convert sound into electricity. The most common technologies are dynamic, condenser, ribbon and crystal. Each has advantages and disadvantages, and each is generally more suited to certain types of application. (2) The type of application they are designed for Some mics are designed for general use and can be used effectively in many different situations. Others are very specialised and are only really useful for their intended purpose. Characteristics to look for include directional properties, frequency response and impedance.

5.7 Webcam
A webcam is a video camera which feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera for the World Wide Web gave the webcam its name. Other popular uses include security surveillance and computer vision. Webcams are known for their low manufacturing cost and flexibility, making them the lowest cost form of video telephony. They have also become a source of security and privacy issues, as some built-in webcams can be remotely activated via spyware. Webcams can be used to take Video clips and still pictures.

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6. Output Devices
Common output devices include a monitor, printer, and speaker.

A monitor, the most important output device, is a computer display screen. Early monitors displayed
white or a single color on a black background, but current monitors can display as many colors as the human eye can distinguish. There are two kinds of monitors: CRT and LCD. A CRT is a cathode ray tube monitor, which means it works like a television. At one end of the tube is a device that produces a stream of electrons. At the other end is a screen that has been coated with substances that briefly glow different colors when struck by electrons. A device that aims the electron beam scans the screen left to right, top to bottom, and the beam is turned on or off to make some of the screen glow or not. CRT screens are inexpensive, but because the electron beam has to be shot from well behind the screen, monitors of this type tend to be very deep and thus take a lot of space on the desktop. Also, CRT screens are gently curved instead of flat, which means that the images they display appear to bend at the edges. An LCD is a liquid crystal display. Liquid crystal, as the name implies, has properties of both a liquid and a solid. The important feature for its use in monitors is that it turns solid when exposed to an electrical current, and it is opaque when in the solid state but clear when in the liquid state. A two-color LCD display uses a grid of liquid crystal cells in front of a bright light source, and current is sent to the cells that should be darker. More advanced displays can vary the level of transparency to make a gray-scale image. For a colour display, filters are placed over the display to divide it into red, green, and blue columns.LCD monitors were originally designed for laptop computers, where a CRT was too big to be practical. Now, they are gaining popularity with desktop computers because they take up less space and the screens are perfectly flat.

6.1 DATA PROJECTOR

Data Projector is a device that projects computer output onto a white or silver fabric screen that is wall, ceiling or tripod mounted. It is widely used in classrooms and auditoriums for instruction and slide presentations A data project is used to project the contents of a computer screen onto a big screen or wall so that a large audience can see the information. Data projectors are particularly popular for use with presentation software. The most ever-present use of a data projector is for presentations in business meetings or classrooms. Presentation software allows a user to create slide shows of photos, type written information and display graphs. Teachers in high school and college make extensive use of data projectors to give notes or lectures, as do businesspeople making presentations to coworkers or clients. A computer projector works by transferring a signal through a VGA cable from the computer to the projector in order to display the image output onto a screen. In the audio-visual (AV) world, projectors project light, either through a filter that creates the screen image, or from digital data provided by a computer. Digital data projectors utilize one of three different technologies to mirror a computer's monitor. Each technology works and each has its benefits and disadvantages.

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Portraits of some common Projectore

There are two types of projectors: The two types of projectors are LCD and DLP.

6.1a.LCD:
LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. The way this places an image on a screen is fascinating and not nearly complex. A bulb is set up to shine a fairly powerful light through a prism. The prism splits the light into its component colors and these are sent through small LCD screens. The screens themselves are sent signals to allow just so much of the light through at specific pixel locations. The light is then beamed through a lens onto a screen where the images can be seen by the human eye.

DLP: Digital Light Processing is a bit more complex. This time the light is shined through a spinning
colour wheel onto a chip that is mounted with hundreds of thousands of tiny mirrors. The mirrors are turned off or on by electronic impulses according to the need for the color at that moment. Even though only one color is shown at a time, one color follows another so quickly that the primary colors seem to blend into the appropriate color. The image appears to be constantly lit, when in fact small parts of it are constantly flickering. This technology was developed by Texas Instruments .

6.2 Printer
Printers output text or images to paper. Different types of printers exist for different needs. A printer used for a term paper should be fast, while a printer for photographs must print in high-quality color. A dot-matrix printer works by pressing an inked ribbon against the paper with a set of pins. The ribbon used is like that in a typewriter. As the print head moves across the paper, pins on the head fire out, pressing the ribbon against the paper to make a dot. These dots make up the image on the paper. As the print head reaches one side of the paper, the paper is advanced the height of the print head, and the print head continues in the opposite direction. Dot-matrix printers, which are inexpensive to purchase and operate, are very fast, but the output quality is poor because its easy to see the dots in the image. They are often used by companies for items like billing statements, which are printed in bulk.

An ink-jet printer works by spraying ink at the paper. It is much slower than a dot-matrix printer
because it makes more passes to produce the same size image, but it has several advantages. It produces a better-looking image than a dot-matrix printer because the image is not made of distinct dots. Also, some ink-jet printers can print in color, with red, yellow, and blue inks in separate reservoirs and a separate black ink reservoir because producing black by mixing all three colors wastes a lot of ink. Ink-jet printers are inexpensive to purchase, but their cost per page of use is higher than a dot-matrix. Also, the images they produce can smear if the paper is handled soon after printing because the ink is still wet. These are the default printers for home users and for business users who only print occasionally. 22

A laser printer works using electrostatic principles to transfer ink to the paper. Its not as complicated as it sounds. A drum inside the printer rotates past a laser beam that is scanning back and forth. The drum is made of a material that becomes electrostatically charged where it is struck by the scanning laser. Anyone who has taken clothes from a hot dryer knows that static electricity can make things stick together. Thats how it is used here. The drum is sprayed with toner, which is a powder form of ink that has been given the opposite charge of the drum. The toner sticks where the laser hits on the drum. A piece of paper is then rolled against the drum, transferring the toner to it. If the process stopped at this point, the image wouldnt stay on the paper long because theres only static electricity holding the toner in place. The last stage in the cycle is the fuser, which is a set of very hot rollers that melt the toner into the paper. If youve ever wondered what a laser printer is doing when you turn it on and a blinking light indicates it isnt ready yet, it is waiting for the fuser to reach the right temperature. The print quality of laser printers is excellent. Although they are more expensive than ink-jet printers for an initial purchase, the cost of ink can be less because expensive toner cartridges last much longer than ink-jet cartridges. Also, because the ink is fused into the paper, rather than sprayed on wet like an ink-jet, the image doesnt smear. In addition, laser printers are fast. They are often used for business communications, where print quality counts, although prices have gone down enough that home users who want higher quality purchase them also. While most laser printers produce black-and-white output, some can produce color. These printers work by running the paper through the whole process four times, one pass each for red, yellow, blue, and black toner. Color laser printers are very expensive. For high-quality color printing, though, few printers can match a dye sublimation printer. A dye sublimation printer works by heating a ribbon so that the solid ink inside turns into a gas and then seeps into the paper. The ribbon has strips of different color inks in it to produce the different colors and has a back-and-forth print head like a dot-matrix or ink-jet printer.Print quality is excellent with dye sublimation printers. In many cases the result is indistinguishable from a traditional photograph. Because the ink seeps into the paper as a gas and then dries, it tends to spread out a little so that the adjacent colors mix together (Anton 2005). In contrast, a color ink-jet printer makes little dots of different colors. If you stand away from the image, the colors mix together, but move too close and the painting becomes just a bunch of dots. Dye sublimation makes a smoothly colored image. However, dye sublimation printers are very expensive. They are only needed for professional quality photographic printing.

6.3 PEN PLOTTER

A plotter is a computer printing device for printing vector graphics. According to V. Anton In the past, plotters were widely used in applications such as computer-aided design, though they have generally been replaced with wide-format conventional printers, and it is now commonplace to refer to such wide-format printers as "plotters," even though they technically aren't. Pen plotters print by moving a pen or other instrument across the surface of a piece of paper. This means that plotters are restricted to line art, rather than raster graphics as with other printers. Pen plotters can draw complex line art, including text, but they do so very slowly because of the mechanical movement of the pens. Pen plotters are often incapable of creating a solid region of colour, but can 23

hatch an area by drawing a number of close, regular lines. This was often the fastest way to efficiently produce very large drawings or color high-resolution vector-based artwork when computer memory was very expensive and processor power was very limited. Usually, printers were primarily used for printing text. This made them fairly easy to control; simply sending the text to the printer was usually enough to generate a page of output. Anyways this is not the case when drawing line art on a plotter, where a number of printer control languages are created to send the more detailed commands like "lift pen from paper", "place pen on paper", or "draw a line from here to here". Pen plotters have essentially become out of date, and have been replaced by large-format inkjet printers and LED toner based printers. Such printers are often still known as plotters, even though they are raster devices rather than pen based plotters. The newer plotters still understand vector languages. This is because the language is an efficient way to describe how to draw the file using just text commands. Early pen plotters, example the Calcomp 565 of 1959, worked by placing the paper over a roller that moved the paper back and forth for X motion, while the pen moved back and forth on a track for Y motion. The paper was supplied in roll form and had perforations along both edges that were engaged by sprockets on the rollers. Plotters are used primarily in technical drawing and CAD applications, where they have the advantage of working on very large paper sizes while maintaining high resolution. Another use has been found by replacing the pen with a cutter, and in this form plotters can be found in many garment and sign shops. Another application of plotters is in creating tangible images for visually handicapped people on special thermal cell paper. Unlike other printer types, pen plotter speed is measured by pen speed and acceleration rate, instead of by page printing speed. A pen plotter's speed is primarily limited by the type of pen used, so the choice of pen is a key factor in pen plotter output speed. Indeed, most modern pen plotters have commands to control slewing speed, depending on the type of pen currently in use. There are many types of plotter pen, some of which are no longer mass produced. Technical pen tips are often used, many of which can be renewed using parts and supplies for manual drafting pens. Early HP flatbed and grit wheel plotters used small, proprietary fiber-tipped or plastic nib disposable pens. One type of plotter pen uses a cellulose fiber rod inserted through a circular foam tube saturated with ink, with the end of the rod sharpened into a conical tip. As the pen moves across the paper surface, capillary wicking draws the ink from the foam, down the rod, and onto the paper. As the ink supply in the foam is depleted, the migration of ink to the tip begins to slow down, resulting in faint lines. Slowing the plotting speed will allow the lines drawn by a worn-out pen to remain dark, but the fading will continue until the foam is completely depleted. Also, as the fiber tip pen is used, the tip slowly wears away on the plotting medium, producing a progressively wider, smudged line.

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Ball-point plotter pens with refillable clear plastic ink reservoirs are available. They do not have the fading or wear effects of fiber pens, but are generally more expensive and uncommon. Also, conventional ball-point pens can be modified to work in most pen plotters.

6.4 3D printer
A 3D printer is a machine (of the form of additive manufacturing technology) that uses rapid prototyping technology to create a tangible three-dimensional object based on a design made through computer software. In other words, a 3D printer converts digital data from a computer-aided design (CAD) application or 3D animation and graphics design program into a real-world three-dimensional model. The advent of 3D printing is a huge advantage in industries involving property developers, inventors, ad agencies, artists, architects, product developers, and even students and professors in the academe. By means of 3D printing, it has become easier to create prototype models before proceeding to the processing of final products. A 3D printer works by taking a 3D computer file, using and making a series of cross-sectional slices. Each slice is then printed one on top of the other to create the 3D object. A 3D printer can help in cleaning the environment. This can be made possible by the fact that recycling waste products can be done by 3D printing. Normally, 3D printers can produce objects made out of plastic and metal. If we can pulverize these waste products made out plastic and metal into finer material that can be used by 3D printers in printing new objects, then we have a new recycling technique at hand. Imagine creating new three-dimensional objects from old waste material. This is better than the present approach in recycling wherein waste products are just re-used as is or slightly modified to perform a new function. With 3D printing, the waste products can be made into something new as long as they share the same basic component material. This will surely help in saving the environment. By using 3D printers to manufacture new products out of waste products, it is a possibility to set up a business in the future for the mass-manufacturing of recycled products through 3D printing. Aside from saving the environment, using a 3D printer in recycling glass and other waste products seems a profitable venture. 3D printing can be used in the near future to save the environment. Although it is not yet commonly used now, the features of the 3D printer allow it to be an important invention that can reinforce the recycling process of many materials. With the 3D printer, it will soon be possible to make something really new out of an old waste material.

7. MODEMS
A modem (modulator-demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog signals, from driven diodes to radio. The most familiar example is a voice band modem that turns the digital data of a personal computer into modulated electrical signals in the voice frequency range of a telephone channel. These signals can be 25

transmitted over telephone lines and demodulated by another modem at the receiver side to recover the digital data. Modulation is the process of changing the form of the signal carrying the information. The demodulation process does the task of extracting information from the signals that are modulated. Analog signals can be transmitted by using devices such as a radio or a diode. Modems are generally classified on the basis of two criteria,

Data sent per unit time Change in the state of the signal per unit time

According to Spraun Modems were first used in the '60s decade, for connecting computers over a network of telephone lines. The period is also known as the age of time-share computers, since the computers had to buy time in order to connect to the network by means of a modem which had a speed of 300 bits/second. The modem operate in the following manner: A computer sends information in the form of digital signals. But the information over the telephone lines needs to be transmitted in the form of analog signals. To solve this problem, the functionality of a modem comes into play. It converts the digital signals into analog signals. These analog signals are carried over the telephone lines. When these signals reach another computer, the analog signals are converted back to the digital form by its modem. In addition to converting digital signals into analog signals, the modems carry out many other tasks. Modems minimize the errors that occur while the transmission of signals. They also have the functionality of compressing the data sent via signals. Modems also do the task of regulating the information sent over a network. Modems are classified on the basis of different criteria such as the place where they are installed, the manner in which they accept information and the way they transmit signals. Based on these criteria, modems are divided into the following types. Modems have an important role to play in computer networking. Broadband USB modems have proven useful for laptops. With improvement in technology, the modems are becoming advanced and refined in their working. Facilities like satellite internet are provided by the means of satellite modems. In this age of information technology the use of high speed internet access like the broadband and in turn modems, is bound to grow.

Dial-up Connections
Home users originally connected to the Internet through ordinary phone lines, known as voice lines in the industry, and often still do. The phone system works on analog principles: As a person talks on one end, the voice vibrates a speaker coil, which produces an electrical level that varies as the vibrations vary. On the other end, the electricity is applied to another speaker coil, which produces the same vibrations in the air at that location, reproducing the sound of the original voice. Except for using electricity, the process is the same as the childhood game where two tin cans are connected by a string. Because computers communicate digitally and phone lines are analog, a conversion is required. 26

When someone uses a dial-up connection, a modem must exist in the computer system and at the other end of the connection. An Internet Service Provider, or ISP, actually provides the connection to the Internet. Each message sent over a dial-up connection is digital until it gets to the senders modem, where it is converted to analog, transmitted over the phone line to another modem, which converts it back to a digital message, reformats it to the Internets protocol, and starts it on its way to its ultimate destination. Phone lines do not support a high range of frequencies, which is why people heard over a phone once sounded like they were in a box. This low-frequency range results in low bandwidth. Dial-up connections can only support a speed of 56 kilobits per second, which means it would take more than a day to transmit the contents of a CD-ROM. Even this speed is only available in one direction from the Internet to the users computer. In the other direction, the speed is only 33 kilobits per second. The term downstream refers to the direction from the Internet to the users computer, and upstream refers to the direction from the users computer to the Internet. In many methods of communicating with the Internet, the downstream bandwidth is much higher than the upstream bandwidth. In many applications this is no problem, but some applications, such as video conferencing, require the same bandwidth in both directions. The weakness of a dial-up connection comes from its use of analog phone equipment, not the wires used for phone lines. A DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, transmits data digitally over normal phone lines and thus allows much higher data transfer speeds. Unlike a dial-up connection, which is available to anyone with a phone line, DSL requires that the phone company install special equipment. A phone line is a pair of wires leading from a home or office to a building known as a central office, or CO, and each pair from the CO to a phone is known as a local loop. The DSL equipment must be installed at a CO to provide DSL service to all the lines that connect to that CO so the line never passes through analog switches. The performance of DSL is heavily dependent on the length of the local loop. The longer the wire, the more the signal degrades, and if the speed isnt lowered, too many errors occur for the connection to be useful. Therefore, the closer the home or business is to a CO, the better the DSL will perform. Unlike a dial-up connection, because DSL uses a higher range of frequencies than is used for voice communication, it doesnt tie up the phone line. Someone can talk on the phone while the DSL is in use without any interference between the two. DSL comes in different bandwidth arrangements. DSL for home use is usually ADSL, where A stands for asynchronous, which has a much higher downstream bandwidth than upstream bandwidth. This arrangement makes sense for home users because the most common home use of the Internet is the Web, where lots of data in documents is sent down to the users computer but little data is sent back up. A Typical ADSL service offers a 1.5-megabits-per-second downstream (equivalent in that direction to a T1 line), and a 256-kilobits-per-second upstream, which, although slower, is still about eight times faster than a dial-up connections upstream(Spraul 2005). DSL services intended for business use offer even higher downstream rates, such as 3 megabits per second or more. At these speeds, they are a good alternative to a T1 line.

8. Wireless
Wireless refers to the transition of data via electromagnetic waves through the air. These waves are categorized based on their frequency. Lower frequency waves are called radio waves; these include the frequencies used by AM and FM radio as well as those used by broadcast television. Higher frequency waves are called microwaves. Wireless technology is not a general replacement for wires or fiber. Any time wire or fiber is practical; it is a better choice than wireless, which is used in special situations like 27

long distance transmission. In fact, the long distance telephone network relies on microwave transmission towers. Another situation is broadcasting, which refers to sending out a single message to multiple receivers at once. Unlike wires and fiber, which direct a signal to a particular destination, wireless transmissions are unguided. They may be aimed in a specific direction, but they are still broadcast to a wide area. The advantage is that any receivers in the broadcast area can get the message. This approach is more efficient than sending the same message to each receiver individually. Another reason for use wireless is mobility. In a wired network, nodes can only be where the wires are. In a wireless network, the nodes can be anywhere in the transmission area. Wireless has a couple of problems that the other media do not. One problem is that air is the conduit for the transmission, and the characteristics of the air are constantly changing. The other problem relates to security. Because the messages are broadcast, they are easily intercepted. This makes the security built into the protocol especially important (Anton 2005).

8.1 Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a network protocol for short-range wireless communication. It is an open standard, which means any company can make Bluetooth-enabled products. It is named in honor of Harald Bluetooth, king of Denmark in the tenth century who united Denmark and Norway a millennium ago. Other wireless networking technologies existed before Bluetooth, but they had a different design goal, such as putting a permanent network in place in a building where it was not feasible to run a lot of cabling. Bluetooth networks are not intended to last very long, but instead are created spontaneously and disappear quietly. Previously, wireless networks connected the same sorts of devices as wired networks, such as desktop computers and printers. Bluetooth, though, appears in hand-held devices like cell phones, television remotes, and personal digital assistants. There is even a Bluetooth-enabled pen; when the user writes, nothing shows up on the paper, but the writing can later be transmitted to a computer for storage. Most networks are installed by skilled technicians, but Bluetooth cant work that way. As a consequence, Bluetooth networks have to install themselves. As long as a Bluetooth device is turned on, it is constantly seeking other Bluetooth devices. Each device sends out radio waves in the same frequency range used by cell phones, garage door openers, and others. The signal uses very little power, which limits the range to about thirty feet. When two Bluetooth devices sense each others presence, they form an ad hoc network called a piconet. One device is designated a master, and the other device a slave. The master drives all the communication in the piconet. If other Bluetooth devices come into range, they can be added to the piconet as additional slaves; up to seven slaves can be attached to a single master. If even more devices come into range, multiple piconets can link together, with the master of one piconet playing the role of slave in another, an arrangement known as a scatternet. When the devices fall out of range with each other, the piconets and scatternets dissolve.

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INDEX
A AGP 9 ALU 4 B Bibliography 31 Bios 3 Bootstrap loader 3 Bluetooth 28 Bar code scanner 17 C Cache 3 CRT 21 CDs 11, 14 CPU 3 CMOS 2 D Dial-up connection 27 DSL 27 DLP 20 Dot matrix printer 23 Data Projector 22 Digitizing Table19 Disk Drives 16 DVD Drive 12 E Expansion slot 7 F Floppy Drive 10 Fire wire 6 Flash memory 12 G H Hard Drive 10 I Introduction 2 ink-jet Printer input Drive 15 IDE 6 J Joy stick 1 Key board L Light pen Laser printer 23 M Monitor 21 Mouse 15, 17 Memory Stick 12 Microphone 15 modem 26 N Network card 6 O Output device 21 Optical Drive 11 P Power supply 14 Parallel 5 PCL slot 8 PCIE 9, pen-plotter 24 Q R Register 2, Ram 12 S Storage device 10 SCSI 6 Serial port 4 Scanner 15 T touch screen 18 U USB V W Webcam 21 wireless 28 x Y Z -

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anton Spraul V. (2005).Computer Science Made Simple; American College of Computer and Information Science: Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Brain Marshall "How USB Ports Work" 01 April 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. Brain, Marshall, How computer mice work, 2004.http://www. howstuffworks.com/
mouse.htm.

Brain Marshall How parallel port works May 9 2010.http://www.ask.com/web? qsrc=2417&o= 13170 &l=dis&q=what+is+a+Parallel+in+computer+ Brain Marshall How hard disks work16 April 2011.<http://www.howstuffworks. com/usb.htm> Jeff TysonSerial Port Guide December7th,2009.http://www.carlmcmillan.com/Serial/
serialportguide.htm

Jeff Tyson How the parallel port works20 2011. http://www.howstuffworks.com/ parallelport.htm Kinder/Garden: Saving the Environment through 3D Printing April 3rd, 2010 at 11:04 amhttp://www.myofficeportal.org/saving-the-environment-through-3d-printing.htm Micron Technology, Inc. What is an AGP slot? How do I tell if I haveone2011.http://www. crucial. com/kb/answer.aspx?qid=3994 University of Washington Alternative Pointing Systems for Mobility Impaired PeopleJune 21 2007. http://www.axistive.com/alternative-pointing-systems-for-mobility-impairedpeople.html

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