CDC 2019

1. EXPLAIN IN DETAIL ANY 20 INPUT DEVICES

2. EXPLAIN IN DETAIL ANY 5 OUTPUT DEVICES

PRINTERS

It produces output on paper i.e. hard copy or on other print-key media. The 2 types of
printers are impact and non-impact.

Impact printers
 The printing device being a series of pins have a direct impact on the paper.
 The pins form characters on the paper by pressing a printing element and an inked ribbon
against paper. An example of such a printer is the Dot Matrix.
 The printers are reasonably fast, inexpensive and can produce both text and graphics.
 They also accommodate various paper sizes but are however noisy.

Non-impact printers
 These are quieter printers and examples include LaserJet and inkjet printers.
 The Laser printers are a more popular choice for business use.
 They use a printing technique similar to that used in a photocopying machine.
 A laser beam is used to form an image onto the paper using toner.
 The print quality is high. Lasers are fast, and quiet. They print graphics but are more
expensive.
 The ink-jet printers are mainly colour printers which mix ink depending on the image
colour and spray it onto the paper.
 The toner has the 4 basic colours.
 They are slow, expensive and have a high print quality.

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN IMPACT AND NON-IMPACT PRINTERS

IMPACT PRINTERS NON-IMPACT PRINTERS

1  It produces print on paper by striking  It produces print on paper with a non-striking

mechanism. mechanism
2  It uses pins, hammers or wheel to strike  It uses laser, spray of special ink, or heat and
against an inked ribbon to print on a paper.. pressure to print on paper.
3  Normally impact printers use continuous  Non-Impact printers normally use individual
paper sheet. paper sheets.
4  Impact printers are normally less expensive.  Non-Impact printers are more expensive.

5  Print quality of impact printers is lower than  Print quality of Non-Impact printers is higher
those of non-impact printers.. than those of impact printers.
 Impact printers use special inked ribbons to
6  Non-Impact printers use toner or cartridge for
produce print on paper when print head
printing on paper.
strikes.
7  Impact printers are low speed printers. They  Non-Impact printers are very fast, they can print
consume a lot of time to print a document. many pages per minute.
 Non-Impact printers do not make a noise
8  Impact printers are very noisy because they
because they do not use striking mechanism in
strike print head.
which print head strikes on ribbon and paper etc.
9  Examples of Impact printers are Dot matrix  Examples of Non-Impact printers are laser
and daisy wheel printers. printers and inkjet printers.
10  Impact printers use old printing  Non-impact printers use latest printing
technologies. technologies.

EXAMPLES

Impact printers Non-impact printers

Dot matrix Laser
Daisy wheel printers Inkjet
Line printers LED
Chain printers Thermal
Magnetic
Electrostatic
Xerographic

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NON-IMPACT PRINTERS

1 - LASER PRINTERS:

How it works:  These print individual pages and work in a similar

way to photocopiers.
 A drum is charged to match the image and powdered
ink (toner) sticks to the surface. The toner is then
transferred to the paper and fixed by heat and pressure.
 A school or business printer would have a typical
speed of 10 to 20 pages per minute (ppm).

Suitable uses:  Common wherever fast, high quality printing is required.

Disadvantages:  Non-colour laser printers are more expensive than ink-jet printers (but the
difference is narrowing).
 Colour laser printers are considerably more expensive. (but their speed and
high quality output means they are becoming more popular).
Advantages:  They are quiet and fast and produce high quality printouts.
 Running cost are low because although toner cartridges are expensive to
replace, they last a long time.

A type of printer that utilizes a laser beam to produce an image on a drum. The light of the laser alters the
electrical charge on the drum wherever it hits. The drum is then rolled through a reservoir of toner, which
is picked up by the charged portions of the drum. Finally, the toner is transferred to the paper through a
combination of heat and pressure

2 - INK-JET PRINTERS:

How it works:  The print head contains tiny nozzles through which
different coloured inks can be sprayed onto the
paper to form the characters or the graphic images.
 The ink is forced out by heat or by tiny
piezoelectric crystals which change shape when an
electric current is applied across them.

Suitable uses:  A popular choice for home use where small amounts of printing are done and
photographic quality colour printing is needed.
Disadvantages:  The ink cartridges can be expensive so running costs can be high.
 The printing speed is slow compared to a laser printer.
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Advantages:  These printers are relatively inexpensive and produce high quality black and
white or photographic quality borderless colour printing.

A type of printer that works by spraying ionized ink at a sheet of paper. Magnetized plates in the ink's
path direct the ink onto the paper in the desired shapes. Ink-jet printersare capable of producing high
quality print approaching that produced by laser printers

IMPACT PRINTERS

1 - DOT MATRIX PRINTERS:

How it works:
The print head travels from
side to side across the paper
and is made up of numerous
pins which are pushed out to
form the shape of each
character
The pins hit an ink ribbon against the paper so the
characters are printed out.
The paper is usually continuous with holes down
each side and perforations so the pages can be easily
separated by tearing.
Because the pins make an impact against the paper
the characters can be printed through several layers
of self-carbonating paper to produce duplicate
copies.

Suitable uses:  Limited to situations where duplicate copies are needed and the quality is not
too important.
 Typical uses might be in warehouses where duplicate copies of orders need to
produced quickly and cheaply.

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Disadvantages:  The printing quality is low - these printers produce low to medium quality black
and white printing and can only print low resolution graphics.
 Because of the impact of the pins against the paper, these printers can be quite
noisy.
Advantages:  The purchase cost is low and the running costs are very low.
 They can print fairly quickly, particularly if you remember that multiple copies
are being printed in one print run.
 They are robust and can operate in harsh environments.
 If several sheets of self-carbonating paper are placed into the printer then the
impact will produce duplicate copies.

A type of printer that produces characters and illustrations by striking pins against an ink ribbon to print
closely spaced dots in the appropriate shape.

Advantages
-Can print to multi-page forms-
-Moderately priced
-Multi-pass ribbons (saves money)
Disadvantages
-Noisy operation
-Low-quality output
-Slow print speed
-Multi-pass ribbons (decrease in quality with each pass)

2. DAISY WHEEL PRINTERS

Head is lying on a wheel and pins corresponding to characters are like petals of Daisy (flower name) that
is why it is called Daisy Wheel Printer. These printers are generally used for word-processing in offices
which require a few letters to be sent here and there with very nice quality.

Advantages
 More reliable than DMP
 Better quality
 The fonts of character can be easily changed
Disadvantages
 Slower than DMP
 Noisy
 More expensive than DMP

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Features or factors to consider when you want to buy a printer

1. Print quality, for example the print from dot matrix printers varies with the number of pins
and even the best are inferior to laser printers.
2. Character formation, whether made from dots as in matrix printer, or full characters as with
daisywheel or laser printer
3. Multi-part, i.e. whether several copies can be printed at once, as with an impact printer.
4. Fonts or type style; early computer users were satisfied with any quality whatsoever, but the
advances into areas such as word processing and desk top publishing have stimulated a demand for
varying typefaces or fonts within the same document
5. Letter quality, whether the quality is equivalent or superior to that of a good typewriter and so
acceptable for the word processing of mail. Some printers have a choice of two print modes, draft
quality and letter quality.
6. Speed, in terms of characters per second.
7. Graphics capabilities.
8. Flexibility, for example is it suitable for one task only, such as good letter quality but not graphics, as
with daisywheel printers, or good graphics but slow speed and indifferent letter quality, as with some
dot matrix printers.
9. Sheet feeding, in terms of single sheets, friction feed or sprocket feed.
10. Capital cost or what it costs to buy.
11. Running cost or what it costs in ribbons, print toner, special stationery & maintenance.
12. Compatibility with standard packages; many programs support a range of printers by generating the
correct control characters for fonts, features like italics and underline, and for graphics.
13. Robustness; some very cheap printers are ideal at home but would not last very long in an office.
14. Reputation of the manufacturer as a supplier of printers.

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INPUT/ OUTPUT DEVICES (IO Devices)

Alternatively referred to as an IO device, an input/output device is any hardware used by a

human operator or other systems to communicate with a computer. As the name suggests,
input/output devices are capable of sending data (input) to a computer and receiving data from a
computer (output).

Examples of input/output devices

1. CD-R/RW, DVD, and Blu-ray drive

2. Digital camera
3. Floppy diskette drive
4. Hard drives
5. Modem
6. Network adapter
7. SD Card
8. Touch screen
9. USB thumb drives
10. Headsets (Headset consists of Speakers and Microphone. Speaker act Output Device and
Microphone act as Input device)
11. Facsimile (FAX) (It has scanner to scan the document and also have printer to Print the
document)

STORAGE DEVICES
 Alternatively referred to as digital storage, storage, storage media, or storage medium,
a storage device is any hardware capable of holding information either temporarily or
permanently.
 There are two types of storage devices used with computers: a primary storage device,
such as RAM, and a secondary storage device, like a hard drive.
 Secondary storage can be removable, internal, or external storage.
 Without a storage device, your computer would not be able to save any settings or
information and would be considered a dumb terminal.

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Examples of computer storage

MAGNETIC STORAGE DEVICES

Today, magnetic storage is one of the most common types of storage used with computers and is
the technology that many computer hard drives use.

 Floppy diskette
 Hard drive
 Super Disk
 Tape cassette
 Zip diskette

OPTICAL STORAGE DEVICES

Another common storage is optical storage, which uses lasers and lights as its method of reading
and writing data.

 Blu-Ray disc
 CD-ROM disc
 CD-R and CD-RW disc
 DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW disc

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FLASH MEMORY DEVICES

Flash memory has started to replace magnetic media as it becomes cheaper as it is the more
efficient and reliable solution.

 Jump drive or flash drive

 Memory card
 Memory stick
 SSD

ONLINE AND CLOUD

Storing data online and in cloud storage is becoming popular as people need to access their data
from more than one device.

 Cloud storage
 Network media

PAPER STORAGE

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Early computers had no method of using any of the above technologies for storing information
and had to rely on paper. Today, these forms of storage are rarely used or found.

 OMR
 Punch card

When saving anything on a computer, it may ask you for a storage location, which is the area in
which you would like to save the information. By default, most information is saved to your
computer hard drive. If you want to move the information to another computer, save it to a
removable storage device such as a flash drive.

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*CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS*

Major classes or categories of computers

1. Supercomputer
2. Mainframe Computer
3. Minicomputer
4. Microcomputer

*SUPERCOMPUTER*

 The most powerful computers in terms of performance and data processing are the
Supercomputers.
 These are specialized and task specific computers used by large organizations.
 These computers are used for research and exploration purposes, like NASA uses
supercomputers for launching space shuttles, controlling them and for space exploration
purpose.
 The supercomputers are very expensive and very large in size.
 It can be accommodated in large air-conditioned rooms; some super computers can span an
entire building.

*Uses Of Supercomputers*
 Space Exploration
 Earthquake studies
 Weather Forecasting
 Nuclear weapons testing

*MAINFRAME COMPUTER*

 Although Mainframes are not as powerful as supercomputers, but certainly they are quite
expensive nonetheless, and many large firms & government organizations uses Mainframes
to run their business operations.
 The Mainframe computers can be accommodated in large air-conditioned rooms because of
its size.
 Super-computers are the fastest computers with large data storage capacity,
 Mainframes can also process & store large amount of data.
 Banks educational institutions & insurance companies use mainframe computers to store data
about their customers, students & insurance policy holders.

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*MINICOMPUTER*

 Minicomputers are used by small businesses & firms.

 Minicomputers are also called as “Midrange Computers”.
 These are small machines and can be accommodated on a disk with not as processing and
data storage capabilities as super-computers & Mainframes.
 These computers are not designed for a single user.
 Individual departments of a large company or organizations use Mini-computers for specific
purposes. For example, a production department can use Mini-computers for monitoring
certain production process.

*MICROCOMPUTER*

 Desktop computers, laptops, personal digital assistant (PDA), tablets & smartphones are all
types of microcomputers.
 The micro-computers are widely used & the fastest growing computers.
 These computers are the cheapest among the other three types of computers.
 The Micro-computers are specially designed for general usage like entertainment, education
and work purposes.
 Well known manufacturers of Micro-computer are Dell, Apple, Samsung, Sony & Toshiba.
 Desktop computers, Gaming consoles, Sound & Navigation system of a car, Netbooks,
Notebooks, PDA’s, Tablet PC’s, Smartphones, Calculators are all type of Microcomputers.

*The main differences among the above computer types are in*:

 Processing speed,
 Memory capacity
 Number and capabilities or peripheral devices that can be attached to the computer
 Usage.

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*COMPUTER APPLICATIONS*

a) Business- for administration, payroll and accounting.

b) Government- keeping database records.
c) Education- Record keeping, accounting and training in the classroom.
d) Health- Record keeping, life-support systems.
e) Sport- fitness monitoring.
f) Art and Design- desktop Publishing, technical graphics, Computer Aided Design.
g) Homes- PCs for home accounts, games, e-mail, online shopping, home education etc.
h) Banks- Record keeping and updating, on-line Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).
i) Supermarkets- Electronic point Of Sale Machines (EPOS) – tills.

*FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN YOU WANT TO PURCHASE OR BUYA

COMPUTER*

1. *COST*; how much can I afford to pay for a computer? Prices of personal computers
range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. Faster and more feature-rich PCs are
usually more expensive.

2. *AREA OF USE*; where will my new PC be used? If you will be using it only in your
home or office, a desktop computer will be suitable. However, if you will need to take it
with you, you should consider purchasing a laptop (notebook) computer.

3. *APPLICATIONS PACKAGES*; Which application packages will I run on my

computer? Make a list of applications for which you plan to use your PC. For example, will
you use your PC to prepare letters and reports? Analyze numeric and financial data? Prepare
visual presentations? Access the Internet? Listen to music? Create and work with graphics?

4. *DURATION*; How long will I keep this computer?Try to estimate the length of time
(years) you will use your computerbefore BUYING the next one. If you expect use your PC
for several years or if you think you may later want to add new applications, CONSIDER one
that is expandable, so you can add new components, such as a modem, printer, or add-on
boards. Make sure the PC has expansion slots so you can connect these devices to your PC.

5. *MANUFACTURER AND SELLER REPUTATION*. Check out the manufacturers

and seller’s reputations.Talk with friends, co-workers, classmates, teachers, and others
about their PCs. Ask about the performance of their PCs and get recommendations from
persons you trust. Eventually you may need to have your PC serviced. Ideally, the vendor has

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a service department that can repair your PC. If not, you may need to locate a third-party to
provide this service. Reputable computer manufactures include:
1. Hewlett-Packard 2. Apple 3. Sun Microsystems 4. Dell 5. Panasonic 6.Sony 7.Toshiba
8. Shuttle 9. IBM 10. Samsung Electronics 11. Hitachi 12. Fujitsu Siemens

6. *WARRANTIES & GUARANTEES*

7. *PC ARCHITECTURE*. PC architecture refers to the design and construction of the PC

and its system unit, and not all architectures are the same. For example, the architecture of an
Apple Macintosh differs from that of an IBM or compatible PC. Therefore, software written
for an Apple Macintosh PC may not run on an IBM or IBM-compatible PC. Although some
users prefer a Macintosh PC, more software is available for IBM and IBM-compatible PCs.

8. *MICROPROCESSOR SPEED*. Selecting the right microprocessor is extremely

important. Processing speed, measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz), is probably
the first consideration. The higher the number of MHz or GHz, the faster the processor will
manipulate data. If speed is important, consider choosing a microprocessor with a speed of 2
GHz or more. PCs containing microprocessors with speeds up to 10 GHz and higher are
available.

9. *MAIN MEMORY* (RAM). Main memory (RAM) is needed for the temporary storage of
programs and data while the data is being processed. Some application software requires a
considerable amount of RAM to function properly, and newer software versions usually
require more RAM than older versions. Typical PCs now come with 2 gigabytes (GB), 5GB,
or more of RAM. Make certain the PC has sufficient RAM to run the software you will be
using.

10. *SECONDARY STORAGE* (ROM). What type(s) and amounts of secondary storage are
you likely to need? Typical computers come with a floppy disk drive, cd drive, USB port/
drive and a hard disk drive already installed. A hard disk drive contains one or more rigid
storage platters and provides for the permanent storage of considerably more data. However,
the disk itself cannot be removed from the drive.

The STORAGE CAPACITY of a hard disk is an important consideration because it is used to

store all system and application software. Typical hard disk capacities are 100, 200, 500GB
or 2TB and more. Be certain the PC you are considering has sufficient secondary capacity for
your needs

11. *PORTS*. The number of ports (slots) available inside the system unit determines the
number of add-on boards that can be installed inside the system unit. For example, you

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cannot connect a printer to your computer unless your computer is equipped with an
appropriate port (slot).

12. *INPUT DEVICES*. Typical input devices are a keyboard and a mouse, although other
kinds of input devices are available.

13. *OUTPUT DEVICES*. Output devices produce output in either soft copy or hard copy
form. Most PCs come with a monitor (for soft copy output), but you may have to purchase a
hard copy device, such as a printer, separately.

14. *MONITORS*.

 Resolution refers to the clarity of the text and images being displayed. Before making a
purchase, carefully evaluate the monitor’s resolution.
 Monitor size is another important consideration.

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