Unit 1 Introduction to Computers
Unit 1 Introduction to Computers
Internal
Project
Assigments
of each
Marks Work or
Lab Work
chapter
2 Be organized
directions.
and follow the
4
4
CHAPTER 1
INRODUCTION TO COMPUTER
SYSTEM
5
Characteristics of Computer
Computer is the powerful electronic device. It can use to
process large amount of data and information. The
characteristics of computer are given below:
a) Word Length:
A digital computer operates on binary digit 0 and 1. A
binary digit is called a bit. The number of bits that a
computer can process at a time in parallel is called its word
length. Word length of the computer varies such as 8, 16,
32 , 64 bits etc. It is the measurement of the computing
power of a computer i.e. the longer the word length, the
more powerful the computer is. When we talk of a 32 bit
computer, its means the word length is 32.
8
b) Speed:
The time taken to perform any task by computer
is called speed of computer. A microcomputer can
process millions of instructions per second over and
over again without any mistake. A modern computer
can execute millions of instructions in one second. The
speed of computer is affected by various factors such as
processor speed, clock cycle, size of RAM, etc.
9
c) Storage:
The physical space inside the computer where we can
store huge amount of data is called storage. Computers
have ability to store the results. Computer storage can be
divided as primary storage and secondary storage. Primary
storage is where CPU can directly interact. The data can be
stored in large volume using secondary storage devices like
magnetic disks, tape storage, etc. The storage in computer
is measured in terms of Nibble, Byte, Kilo Byte (KB),
Mega Byte (MB), Giga Byte (GB) and Tera Byte (TB).
11
d) Accuracy:
Computer’s physical circuits rarely make errors, if
the data and instructions are correctly fed. Most of the
errors occurring in computers are either hardware errors or
human errors. In addition of being fast, computers are very
accurate. The accuracy of computer is very high. Error in
computer is due to the user rather than technological
weakness. For instance, if the data we entered is wrong or
the instructions we have given are not proper, computer is
not going to give desired output. Computer error caused
due to incorrect input data or improper instructions are
often called Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO).
12
e) Diligence:
It is the capability of performing the same task
over and over again with the same speed, accuracy as
in the first time for a long period of time without
feeling it tired and bored. It can work for hours without
creating any error. If millions of calculations are to be
performed, a computer will perform every calculation
with the same accuracy.
13
f) Versatility:
The feature of computer to perform more than
one task having different characteristics is called
versatility of computer. It can carry out processes
ranging from simple mathematical calculations to
highly complex and logical evaluations for any
extended period of time. Computers are being used in
different areas for different purposes like in office,
banks, etc.
14
Components of Computer
The major components of computer are:
a. Hardware:
The physical component that makes up the computer
are called hardware. Eg: monitor, keyboard, mouse,
etc.
b. Software:
Software is a set of instructions that make the
computer to perform tasks. [i.e. it tells the computer what
to do.]
15
c. Data:
Data is the raw fact and figures often used to
produce the information as per the demand of the
user. Data can be letters, numbers, sound, images
or videos.
d. People:
People are users of the computer system and
are responsible for designing, building programs
and repairing computer system.
16
e. Procedure:
It us simply the way of doing thing. Computer
always performs the task based on the specific
procedure based on the nature of the task to be carried
on.
17
Computers
b) Digital computer:
The word Digital means discrete. It refers to binary
system, which consist of only two digits 0 and 1. Digital
data consists of binary digits represented by OFF (low) and
ON (high) electrical pulses.
In digital computers, quantities are counted rather
than measured. A digital computer represents the data in
digital signals and then processes it using arithmetic and
logical operations. Eg: calculators, personal computers, etc.
21
c) Hybrid computer:
The hybrid computer have best features of both
analog and digital computers. These computers contain
both the digital and analog components. In this, the user
can process both the continuous and discrete data. These
are used in scientific fields, hospitals to see the status of
health condition of patients, spaceships, etc.
22
2. Mainframe Computer:
Mainframe computers are also large, fast and
expensive computers, but they are smaller, slower and less
expensive than the super computers.
Mainframe the name itself describe that it is a cabinet
containing the central processing unit which controls a
large number of I/O hardware. The mainframe computers
support large database, vast I/O hardware, and
multiprogramming simultaneously. The mainframe
computer acts as a server and serves several users
simultaneously.
25
The mainframe
computers are specially used as
servers on the World Wide Web.
These type of computers are
used in large organizations such
as Banks, Airlines, and
Universities, etc. where many
users need frequent access of
same data, which is usually
organized into one or more
human databases.
Examples: IBM S/390, Control
Data CYBER 176 and Amdahl
580, etc.
26
ASSIGNMENT 1:
1. WRITE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
ANALOG AND DIGITAL COMPUTER.
2. WRITE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
SUPERCOMPUTER AND MAINFRAME
COMPUTER.
28
3. Minicomputer:
Mini computers are very popular among medium sized
computers. Mini computers offer facilities for faster
processing of voluminous information. Mini computers, of
course, are bigger than microcomputers but smaller than
most of their elders called mainframes.
They are smaller in size, have low processing speed and
also have lower cost than mainframe. These computers are
known as microcomputers because of their small size
compared to other computers at that time. The capabilities
of minicomputer are between mainframe and personal
computer.
29
4. Microcomputer:
The microcomputers are also known as personal
computers or simply PC because it is a single user
computer. It supports many higher level languages,
multimedia, graphics and games. It is popular among
students and professionals due to its small size, low
price and low maintenance cost and easy in operation.
In 1981, IBM announced its first IBM PC and in 1982
it lunched in the market for the first time.
31
Types of Microcomputer
1. Desktop
2. Laptop
3. Palmtop
33
1. Desktop
Desktop computers are full size computers that
are small enough to be used at a desk but too big to
carry around. These are the computers you see in
schools, homes and offices. In this, motherboard, hard
disk, video card and other components are assembled
into a large case. The monitor, keyboard and other
peripherals connect wirelessly or with wires.
In order to use printer , scanner, driver software of
those devices need to be installed.
34
2. Laptop
Laptops are portable, and they use less power and make less noise than
desktop models. Overall laptop and desktop computers are similar.
They have the same basic hardware, software and operating systems.
The primary difference is how their components fit together. A laptop,
however, is much smaller and lighter than even the most compact PC
tower. Its screen and keyboard are integral parts of the unit. A laptop
uses a small, flat design in which all the pieces it together.
Because of the laptop’s internet portability, components of the laptop
have to:
- Fit into a compact space
- Conserve power
- Product less than desktop components.
36
3. Palmtop
A small computer that literally fits in your palm.
Compared to full-size computers, palmtops are severely limited,
but they are practical for certain functions such as phone books
and calendars. Palmtops that use a pen rather than
a keyboard for input are often called hand-held computers
or PDAs. A palmtop computer is a personal computer or other
electronic device that has many of the same features as a
computer and fits in the palm of your hand.
The term "palmtop computer" was an early term used
when computers were big and cumbersome and small cell
phones and even smartphones were not yet invented. Today, this
term is rarely used to describe a computer that fits in your hand
because of the invention of the Smartphone.
37
2. Education:
Computers have also
revolutionized the whole
process of education.
Currently, the classrooms,
libraries, and museums are
utilizing computers to make
the education much more
interesting. Computer-aided
education and computer
based training packages are
making learning process
much more interactive.
39
4. Engineering/Architecture/Manufacturing:
The architects and engineers are extensively
using computers in designing and drawings. By using
techniques like virtual reality, architects can explore
house that have been designed. The manufacturing
factories are using computerized robotic arms in order
to perform hazardous jobs.
41
5. Entertainment:
Computers are finding greater use in the
entertainment industry. They are used to control the
images and sounds. The special effects, which
mesmerize the audience would not have been possible
without the computers. In addition., computerized
animation and colorful graphics have modernized the
film industry.
42
6. Communication:
E-mail is one of the
communication media in
which computers are used. Email
The advantage of this service
is that while transferring the
messages it saves time.
Moreover, the person who is
receiving the messages can
read the messages whenever
he/she is free and can save it,
reply it, forward it or delete it
from the computer.
43
7. Business Application:
Computers are mainly used for real-time
applications that require immediate response from the
computer. There are various concerns for which
computers are used such as in business forecasting, to
prepare bills and personal records, and as an aid to
management. Use of an e-mail and internet has
changed the ways of doing business.
44
8. Weather Forecasting:
Computer programs are used for weather forecasting.
The past and present data help to predict the climate.
9. Banking:
In the field of banking and finance, computers are
extensively used. When the different branches of the bank
are connected through the computer networks, the inter-
branch transactions, such as drawing cheques and making
drafts, can be performed by the computers without any
deal.
45
Input Device
• By the use of input device user can present the data to
the processing unit of computer. An input device may
read the data in the form of text, numbers, images,
audio or video, but the data given in any format is
converted to machine-readable form i.e. binary
format then only forwarded for processing.
• Examples: keyboard, mouse, microphone, scanner,
joystick, lightpen etc.
48
Types of Mice
Three types of mice are:
• Mechanical Mouse: Mechanical has a rubber
or metal ball on its underside that can roll in all
directions. Mechanical sensors with the mouse
detect the direction the ball is rolling and move
the screen pointer accordingly.
55
• Microphone: A microphone is a
device that translates sound vibrations
in the air into electronic signals or
scribes them to a recording medium.
Microphones enable many types of
audio recording devices for purposes
including communications of many
kinds, as well as music and speech
recording.
For example, when a microphone
is used to record a voice or music, the
information it records can be stored on
the computer and played back later.
Another great example of how a
microphone is an input device is with
voice recognition, which uses your voice
to command the computer at what task to
perform.
57
• Track ball
Trackball is the modification of mechanical mouse. It
contains rubber ball on its top. User can move the cursor
by rotating the ball with finger. It also contains two
buttons on the either sides similar to mouse. It was used
in older laptops.
• Track pad/Touch pad
Track pad is the modification of optical mouse, and touch
pad is further modification making it touch sensitive. It
contains a window with two buttons on the either sides.
User can also provide left click option by tapping the
window with the finger. It is mainly used in portable
devices like laptops, notebook, palmtop, etc.
58
• Joystick
Joystick is a hand held pointing device which is mainly used
for playing games. It is used for controlling objects, their
movement, direction and speed of movement. Modern
joysticks handle can move in any direction. When the handle
is moved, the electronic circuit in the base detects the
movement and sends corresponding binary signals to CPU.
• Light pen
Light pen is used for creating drawings, designs by directly
touching the screen. It is mainly used by designers, architects,
engineers, etc. it is used in monitor not having touch screen
facility. It is a pen shaped structure containing photo sensitive
tip which can capture light emitted from the monitor and mark
the position on the monitor.
59
• Touch screen
Touch screen is none of the common input device at present
mainly for portable computers. User can provide inputs by
directly touching the screen with the metallic pen (stylus),
finger or any pointed object. Touch screen is developed by
using either of the following technologies:
a) Pressure sensitive
b) Capacitive
c) Infrared
• Scanner
Scanner digitizes hard copy or printed images which can be
used in digital computers. Scanner copies the image and
draws a new digital image in its memory similar to hard copy
image.
60
• OMR
It stands for Optical Mark Reader. It is used for answer
sheet correction in multiple choice questions. With the
use of OMR answer sheet correction will be faster and
error free.
• BCR
It stands for Bar Code Reader. Bar codes are the
magnetic lines used for storing the information about the
product like manufacturing date, expiry date, company
name, etc. BCR is used to read the information stored in bar
codes. Bar codes are also used in security system.
62
Output Device
• Output device is a peripheral device that receives
information from the CPU and present the user in
the desired form.
• The computer system needs an output device to
communicate the processed information to the user.
• The output device translates processed data from a
machine-coded form to a form that can be read and
used by people.
• Eg: Monitor, printer, etc.
• The output normally can be produced in two ways:
either on a display unit or on paper i.e hard copy
and soft copy.
63
2. Gray-scale Monitors:
They are a special type of monochrome monitor
capable of displaying different shades of gray from a
very gray to black against a white or off-white
background, and are essentially a type of monochrome
monitor. It is used in low-end portable systems to keep
costs down. They are classified by the numbers of bits
they used to represent each pixel. 8 bit monitor
represents eacg pixel with 8 buts.
68
3. Color Monitors:
They are often called RGB monitor because they
accept three different separate signals- red, green , blue. All
color computer monitors are RGB monitors which consists
of a vacuum tube with three electron guns- one each for
red, green and blue at one end and the screen at the other
end.
They are often classified by the number of bits they
used to represent each pixel. For example, 24 bit monitor
represents each pixel with 24 bit. The more bits per pixel,
the more colors the monitor can display.
69
1. Monitor size:
The most important aspect of a monitor is the
screen size. Like televisions, screen sizes are measured
diagonally, in inches, the distance from lower left
corner to the upper right corner diagonally. The sizes of
the display determines monitor quality.
71
2. Resolution:
The maximum number of points that can be displayed
without overlap on a monitor screen is referred to as the
resolution. The resolution of a monitor indicates how densely the
pixels are packed. Pixel is short form for Picture Element. A
pixel is a single point in a graphic image. Graphic monitors
display pictures by dividing the display screen into thousands or
millions of pixels arranged in rows and columns.
The number of bits used to represent each pixel determines how
many colors or shades of gray can be displayed. Example: 8- bit
color monitor uses 8 bit for each pixel making it possible to
display 2 to the 8th power i.e. 256 different colors or shades of
gray.
72
3. Dot pitch:
It is the distance between the phosphor dots that
make up a single point on the display screen. It is one
of the principal characteristics that determine the
quality of display monitors measured in millimeters.
and a smaller number means a sharper image. In desk
top monitors, common dot pitches are .31mm, .28mm,
.27mm, .26mm, and .25mm. Personal computer users
will usually want a .28mm or finer. It is also known as
phosphor pitch.
73
4. Refresh rate:
Display monitors must be refreshed many times per
second. The refresh rate is the number of times per second
that the electron guns scan every pixel on the screen and is
measured in Hertz(HZ) or in cycles per second.
It is important because phosphor dots fade quickly
after the electron gun passes over them. Therefore, if the
screen is not refreshed often enough, it appears to flicker
which is the main cause of eyestrain.
74
5. Bandwidth:
It is the amount of data that can be transmitted in
a fixed amount of time. For digital devices, the
bandwidth is usually expressed in bits or bytes per
second and for analog it is expressed in Hertz.
6. Convergence:
It refers to how sharply an individual color pixel
on a monitor appears. Each pixel is composed of three
dots- red, blue and green. If the dots are badly
misconverged, the pixel will appear blurry.
75
Plasma Display
• It is a type of flat panel display used
for large TV displays. These thin
displays are created by sandwiching a
special gas such as neon or xenon
between two sheets of glass. When the
gas is electrified via a grid of small
electrodes, it glows. By controlling the
amount of voltage applied at various
points on the grid, each point acts as a
pixel to display an image.
• They are expensive but they provide
high-quality images and can be much
larger than LCDs. They are also used
as a large-screen television.
85
ASSIGNMENT
1.WRITE THE ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES OF CATHODE RAY TUBE
2.WRITE THE ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES OF LCD.
3.WRITE THE DIFFRENCES BETWEEN CRT AND
LCD.
4.WRITE THE ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES OF PLASMA
87
Printers
• Printers are one of the most popular output devices
available for personal computers.
• It is hard-copy output device that prints text or any
other information on paper.
• The first printers were actually typewriters are
teletypewriters that were adapted to print binary data.
These printers were often slow and noisy.
• Today, these are printers that print entire pages of text
and graphics at full speed.
88
1. Resolution:
All printers work by laying down tiny dots of ink,
toner. The dots are so small and close together that it seems
like solid images. The sharpness of text and image per inch
is called resolution. It is measured in linear dots per inch or
“dpi”.
2. Speed:
It is measured in either character per second (cps) or
pages per minute (ppm). Most printers have different cps or
ppm ratings for text and graphics because graphics usually
take longer time to print.
90
3. Duty Cycle:
It is generally expressed in pages per month,
refers to how long you can work printer before it
finishes its toner. Heavy duty cycle printers are
required for offices having large volume of printing
works.
91
Types of printer
Printers are classified as impact or non-impact printers,
depending on the method used to print the characters
on the paper.
Printer
1. Impact printer
• It creates an image by pressing an inked ribbon against
the paper, using pins or hammers to shape the image.
• A simple example of impact printer is typewriter, which
uses small hammers to strike the ribbon. Each hammer is
embossed with the shape of the alphanumeric character;
that shape is transferred through the inked ribbon onto the
paper resulting in a printed character.
• It makes a lot of noise while printing. They can produce
multiple copies of document at the same time.
• Example: Dot Matrix printer, Daisy Wheel printer, Line
printer
93
2. Non-impact Printer
• They use several technology for printing, such as
xerographic, electrostatic, electro sensitive, electro
thermal, ink jet and laser. These printers print a
complete page at a time and therefore are called as
“page printers”.
• These are the fastest of printers with speed
approximation 20,000 lines of print per minute.
• They are also much quieter than impact printer.
94
Differences
Impact printer Non-impact printer
It is based on electromechanical It is based on thermal, chemical,
mechanism. laser mechanism.
• When pushed out from the duster, the bulging pins’ ends strike
a ribbon, which is held in place between the print head and the
paper. When the pins strike the ribbon, they press ink from the
ribbon onto the paper. The more pins that a print head
contains, the higher the printer’s resolution. The lowest-
resolution dot matrix printers have only nine pins; the highest-
resolution printers have 24 pins.
• The speed of dot matrix printers is measured in characters per
second (cps). The slowest dot matrix printers create 50 to 70
characters per second; the fastest print more than 500 cps.
Although dot matrix printers arc not commonly used in homes,
they are still widely used in business.
99
Laser Printers
• It utilizes a laser beam to produce an image on a
drum.
• Laser technology is the latest development in
high speed and high quality printing.
• Laser printers are the standard for business
documents and available both as color and black
and white printers.
• Laser printers print one entire page at a time
and have better output quality than ink-jet.
104
Speakers
• Speaker amplifies sound output.
• A good pair of speakers connected to sound card will
give you loads of listening pleasure.
• Sound cards enable the computers output sound
through speakers connected to the board, to record
sound input from microphone connected to the
computer, and manipulate sound stored on a disk.
• The audio output of the computer system relayed
through the speakers.
107
108
Components of CPU
ALU Control
Unit
Does all the Controls and
computing checks
Registers
Workspace
RAM ROM
Functions of ALU:
• It accepts operands from registers.
• It performs arithmetic and logical operations.
• It results to register or a memory.
• The status of an ALU operation i.e. negative, carry,
zero, overflow is available for writing into Flag
register.
112
113
Registers:
• Registers are special temporary storage locations within
the CPU.
• They hold various types of information such as data,
instructions, addresses and the immediate results of
calculations when ALU performs the operation.
• Registers very quickly accept, store and transfer data and
instructions that are being used immediately.
• To execute an instruction, the control unit of the CPU
retrieves it from main memory and places it into a
register.
• The number and types in a CPU vary according to the
CPU’s design.
• Newer microcomputer have 32-bit registers.
116
2. Address Bus:
- It is a channel which transmits addresses of data (not the
data) from the CPU to memory.
- The address bus connects only the CPU and RAM and
carries only memory address.
- The address bus consists of 16,24, or 32 parallel signal
lines.
- The number of lines (wires) determines the amount of
memory that can be directly addressed as each line carries
one bit of the address.
- If the CPU has N address lines, then it can directly
address 2N address lines.
- For example, a computer with 32 bit address can address
4GB of physical memory.
122
3. Data Bus:
- Data bus is a channel across which actual data are
transferred between the CPU, memory and I/O devices.
- The data bus consists of 8, 16, 32 or 64 parallel signal
lines. Because each wire can transfer 1 bit of data at a
time, an 8 wire bus can move 8 bits at a time which is a
full byte.
- The number of wires in the bus affects the speed at which
data can travel between hardware components. The wider
the data bus, more data it can carry at one time.
- The data bus is bidirectional this means that the CPU can
read data in from memory or it can send data out to
memory.
123
Storage (Memory)
• Computer data storage, often called storage or
memory that holds digital data used for computing
for some interval of time.
• Storage of information is done in order to use them
later.
• According to the nature of storage computer memory
are classified as :
a) Primary memory
b) Secondary or Auxiliary memory.
124
Memory Hierarchy
• ASSIGNMENT
EXPLAIN MEMORY HIERARCHY DIAGRAM IN
YOUR OWN.
126
• The advantage of cache memory is that the CPU does not have
to use the motherboard’s system bus for data transfer so the
CPU retrieves data or instruction more quickly from cache
memory than it does from RAM or disk.
• To access the main memory CPU sends an address to it. In
response of this, the main memory sends data contained at the
specified memory address.
• On the other hand, cache memory uses parallel searching for
required data. It first compares the incoming address to the
address present in the cache. If the address matches, it is called
cache hit. If cache hit is success then the data is retrieved
from cache memory by the CPU. Then the corresponding data
is read by the CPU.
130
• If the address does not match it is said that miss has occurred.
Cache miss is the failure of retrieval of data from cache
memory by the CPU. When a miss occurs, data is read from
the main memory is also written to cache memory so that
when this specific address is accessed next time a hit occurs.
• Cache can be further classified into two categories:
Level 1 Cache (L1):
also known as primary cache or internal cache, is built
into the processor chip. It is a small fast memory area that works
together with the Level 2 cache to provide the processor much
faster access.
131
• The information stored on the RAM gets wiped off when the
power supply is turned off, increasing RAM improves the
system performance.
• RAM has the following characteristics:
- Data within the RAM can be read or modified, i.e. you can
either read from the RAM or write onto it. Hence it is called
read/write memory.
- The contents of the RAM are lost when the computer is
switched off. Hence RAM is said to be volatile.
134
Types of RAM
• The most common form of RAM used is built from
semiconductor integrated circuit which are either static
(SRAM) or dynamic (DRAM)
• SRAM (Static Random Access Memory):
- SRAM is a type of RAM that does not need to be refreshed as
often and retains a value as long as power is supplied.
- This memory is made up of flip-flops and it stores a bit as a
voltage.
- Each memory cell requires six transistors, therefore the
memory chip has low density but high speed. Since they retain
information for longer time, they are used as cache memory.
135
Types of ROM
• Masked ROM:
- The very first ROMs were hard wired devices that contained a
pre-programmed set of data or instructions. These kinds of
ROMs are known as masked ROM.
- The content if such ROMs have to be specified before chip
production.
• Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM):
- It is the type of ROM chip that is blank when new and must be
written with whatever data is necessary with a special device
called a PROM programmer or burner.
- Once the PROM has been programmed, the information
written is permanent and cannot be erased or deleted, so
PROM is the ROM that can be written once.
141
• Flash Memory:
- It is a special type of EEPROM which can be erased and
reprogrammed in blocks instead of single byte at a time.
- Many modern PCs have their BIOS stored on a flash memory
chip so that it can be easily be updated if necessary. Such
BIOS is sometimes called flash BIOS.
- It is used in digital phones, digital cameras, LAN switches,
etc.
144
ASSIGNMENT:
1. WRITE ANY 6 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SRAM AND
DRAM.
2. WRITE 6 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RAM AND ROM.
3. WRITE 5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROM AND
EPROM
4. WRITE 5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EPROM AND
EEPROM
145
ASSIGNMENT
WRITE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MEMORY.
148
Magnetic Tape
- It is one of the most popular sequentially access storage
mediums for large data.
- It consists of a thin tape with a coating of a fine magnetic
material.
- It is used for recording analog or digital data. Data is stored in
frames across the width of the tape. Magnetic tape is one-half
inch or one-quarter inch ribbon of plastic material on which
data is stored.
- The tape drive is an input/output device that reads, writes and
erases data on tapes.
- They are erasable, reusable and durable.
- It is not suitable for data files that are revised or updated
frequently because it stores data sequentially. It is still been
used by some banks to take backup.
149
Magnetic Disk
- These are the most widely used storage medium for
computers.
- It offers high storage capacity, reliability and the capacity to
directly accessing stored data.
- It holds more data in a small place and attain faster data
access speed. Data from magnetic disk can be accessed
randomly.
- They are flat circular plates of metal or plastic coated on both
sides with iron oxide.
- Input signals, which may be audio, video or data are recorded
on the surface of a disk as magnetic patterns or spots in spiral
tracks by a recording head while the disk is rotated by a drive
unit. The head is also used to read the magnetic imprsessions
on the disk.
151
ASSIGNMENT
1. Write the advantages, disadvantages of magnetic tape.
2. Write the advantages, disadvantages of magnetic disk.
3. Write notes on Floppy Disk.
153
Hard Disk
- It is the storage medium within the computer that stores and
provides relative quick access to large amount of data.
- It is a set of stacked (piled up ) disks called patters made up of
aluminum material that are coated with iron-oxide on both
sides.
- The disk is permanently sealed in a metal case due to the
sensitive operation they perform; the presence of even a small
dust particle can destroy the hard disk.
- A single hard disk usually consists of several platters. Each
platters require two read/ write heads one for each side. All the
read, write heads are attached to a single access arm so that
they cannot move independently. The platters are spaces
several millimeters apart.
154
- Each platter has a same number of tracks and nth track of each
platter taken together is called a cylinder.
- The storage capacity of the hard disk contains several GBs.
- The major drawback of hard disk is to achieve the optimum
performance, the read/ write head must be extremely close to
the surface of the disk.
155
Pendrive
- It is a portable USB flash drives consist of flash
memory media integrated into a self-contained unit
that connects to a computer or other device via a
standard USB port.
- USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a standard that
allows a wide array of devices to connect to a
computer through a common port.
- They are designed to be very small and very
portable. These devices can be used to transfer
different files from hard drive of one computer to
another. It also functions as portable hard disk.
- They are plug and play portable storage devices
that use flash memory and are light weight enough
to carry. To read from or write to a pen drive just
plug it into a USB and files can be read from or
written to the pen drive until it is plugged from the
USB port.
156
Memory Card
- A memory card sometimes called a flash memory card or a
storage card is a small storage medium used to store data such
as text, pictures, audio and video for use on small, portable
computing devices.
- It is used in digital cameras, mobile phones, music players,
etc.
- They offer high re-record-ability, power-free storage.
- They are available in variety of formats such as SD (Secure
Digital), SDHC ( Secure Digital High Capacity), etc.
157
Optical Disks
- They are a storage medium from which data is read and to
which it is written by lasers.
- These disks consist of a circular disks, which are coated with a
thin metal or some other material that is highly reflective. A
very fine laser bean is projected to the reflective surface to
read data from the disk. By detecting the light intensity
reflected from the surface, the information stored on the disk
can be accessed.
- It became preferred medium for music, movies and software
program because of its many advantages.
- It is compact, durable. lightweight and digital.
- It provides a minimum of 650 MB of data storage. Examples:
CD, DVD, Blu-ray, etc.
158
Blu-ray Disk
- It is an optical disk format designed to display high definition
video and store large amount of data. It is the successor to
DVD.
- The standard was developed collaboratively by Philips,
samsung, sony, LG.
- The format’s name comes from the fact that a blue laser reads
from and writes to the disk rather than the red laser of DVD
players.
- Single sided Blu-ray can store up to 27 GB and dual-layer can
store upto 50 GB.
- Its high capacity makes it the perfect media for distributing
high –definition movies.