TITLES: HARD DISK. PRINTERS. SCANNERS.

SUBMITTED TO: SIR FAHEEM

SUBMITTED BY: HAFIZ MUHAMMAD OMER HASSAN

ROLL NO: 14

SESSION: 2010-2011 (1ST SEMESTER MORNING)

QUAID-E-AZAM COLLEGE OF COMMERCE

TOPIC: Hard Disk & Its functions

HARD DISK:
A magnetic disk on which you can store computer data. The term hard is used to distinguish it from a soft, or floppy, disk. Hard disks hold more data and are faster than floppy disks. A hard disk, for example, can store anywhere from 10 to more than 100 gigabytes, whereas most floppies have a maximum storage capacity of 1.4 megabytes. A single hard disk usually consists of several platters. Each platter requires 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. Each platter has the same number of tracks, and a track location that cuts across all platters is called a cylinder. For example, a typical 84 megabyte hard disk for a PC might have two platters (four sides) and 1,053 cylinders. In general, hard disks are less portable than floppies, although it is possible to buy removable hard disks.

How hard disks work

HOW DOES A HARD DISK WORK?
If you are to dismantle the hard disk drive by opening the top casing (after removing all the necessary screws), the first thing you'll see is a spindle holding one or a number of mirror-like hard rotating platters (commonly called data platter). The platters could be made to spin at an extremely high speed, technically between 5,400 to 10,000 revolutions per minute (RPM). An extremely thin magnetic coating is layered onto the surface of the platter that is polished to mirror-type smoothness.

The platter is usually made of glass or ceramic (modern platter may use titanium). Unlike a floppy disk, the platter cannot be bent or flipped and hence we coin it as "hard disk" or "hard drive". Commonly a hard disk contains 1 to 10 identical platters that are stacked in parallel to form a cylinder. There is usually

one Read Write (RW) head designated per platter face, and each head is attached to a single actuator shaft which moves all heads in unison and performs a uniform synchronous motion during reading or writing of data.

Data on a hard disk is stored in microscopic areas called magnetic domains on the magnetic material. Each domain stores either a 1 or 0 value. Similar to a floppy disk, a hard disk records its data in concentric circles or tracks, which are numbered from the outermost edge to the innermost edge of the platter. These tracks are further subdivided into smaller units called sectors which typically store 512 bytes of data each. Zoning may be needed to further optimize the data storage as the outer circumference would normally pack more sector units than the inner circumference.

Read Write Head

The RW head is the key component that performs the reading and writing functions. It is placed on a slider which is in term connected to an actuator arm which allow the RW head to access various parts of the platter during data IO functions by sliding across the spinning platter.

The sliding motion is derived by passing a current through the coil which is part of the actuator-assembly. As the coil is placed between two magnets, the forward or backward sliding motion is hence derived by simple current reversal. This location of the platter (just like the landmark along the road) is identified and made possible by the embedded servo code written on the platter.

FLYING HEIGHT
To write a piece of information to the disk, an electromagnetic flux is transmitted through the head which hovers very closely to the platter. The RW head suspends on a thin cushion of air which the spinning platter induces. This designed distance between the head and platter is called the flying height. It can literally measure to a few millionths of an inch. A good analogy is to try to imagine flying a Boeing 747 with about 6 inches above ground level.

It is therefore easy to understand that if the RW head happens to "knock" on the spinning platter out of design specification, a Read Write head crash occurs.

READ WRITE FUNCTION OF DISK

As the head writes data onto the disk, it changes its magnetic polarization to induce either a one or zero value. During a read request, data is interpreted when the magnetic fields on the platter brings about an electrical change (as a result of change in electrical resistance of some special material property) in the read-head that passes over it. These electrical fields are then encoded and transmitted to the CPU to be processed and read by the system.

PARKING OF RW HEAD
When the computer is switched off, the head is usually pulled to a safe parking zone to prevent the head from scratching against the data zone on platter when the air bearing subsides. This process is called a parking and different techniques have been implemented in various hard disks to handle the take offs and landings. In a Ramp load/unload design, a lifting mechanism parks the head

outside of the platter onto a "parking bay" prior to a shutdown. It then automatically unpacks and relocates itself above the disk platter when the platter spins up to appropriate rotational speed.

HARD DISK CONTROLLER PCB BOARD

A hard disk also contains a PCB controller circuit board that regulates data traffic. It ensures massive data to be streamed in and out of the disk smoothly. A logic board that sits under the drive controls and connects the spindle, head actuator, and various disk functions of the disk. Embedded with a microcontroller, it executes self-diagnostics test and cleans up data working area in the memory and all internal chip bus in the hard drive when it powers up.

HARD DISK PARTS OVERVIEW

TODAY'S DISK AND DATA

Storage capacity is measured in terms of GB (Gigabyte). 1 Gb roughly equals to 1000 MB (Megabyte). A typical desktop machine purchased today carries a hard disk of at least 80 to 400 gigabyte. Computer data is stored onto the disk logically in the form of files or simply, a string of bytes. When a program requests for a file, the hard disk retrieves its bytes and sends them to the CPU to be processed. There're two popular ways to measure the performance of a hard disk:
Data Rate

Data rate is also known as data transfer rate or throughput. It refers to the

speed with which the data can be transmitted from one device to another. Data rates are commonly measured in megabytes (MB) per second. The data rates for a typically hard disk ranges between 5 to 40 megabytes per second.
Seek Rate

Seek time refers to the total span of time between a file request by the CPU to the point when the first byte of the file is sent to the CPU. This is one of the several delays associated with reading or writing data on a computer's disk drive. In order to read or write data in a particular place on the disk, the read/write head needs to maneuver to the precise location of the disk platter. This process is known as "seeking", and the time it takes for the head to move to the right place is referred to the "seek time". A typical seek time for a hard disk is about 9 to 15.

S.M.A.R.T
Majority of all hard disk today support a technology known as S.M.A.R.T. (SelfMonitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) which helps to predict imminent disk failures so that users can be alerted to take preventive actions before the disk fails completely.

TOPIC: PRINTERS, Its Types & Its Functioning

Printers:
are basically a peripheral that is used to produce a hard copy of documents stored in an electronic form, on the computer. Printers are local peripherals and are attached to the computer via a printer cable. There are many types of computers based printers on differences in technology. Printers can be categorized as follows:

Toner -based printers:

Are actually Laser printers that use Xerographic technology.

HOW DO TONER-BASED PRINTERS WORK?

An electrostatic charge is distributed evenly around a light-sensitive device in the printer called a drum. The image or text that is to be printed on the paper or board is then projected on the drum through some form of light source. This light source keeps the static charge on the drum to stay on the drum. Any portion of the drum that is not lighted will loose the electrostatic charge that was distributed when the printer was started. The paper or board is then fed. The toner, being in powder form, is immediately caught on the drum and then transferred onto the paper. There are two kinds of toner-based printers that are available in the market today. The most common is the laser printer. These use laser beams that precisely lights the drum surface during the printing process. Because of this, it is able to produce high quality text and images. The other kind of toner-based printer is the LED printer. The only difference between this kind of printer and a laser printer is the light source. Instead of using laser beams, these printers use LED light to project the image and text onto the light-sensitive drum. Common Brands of Toner-Based Printers The most common brands of toner-based printers used today are: Hewlett-Packard Canon Epson Brother Lexmark

Liquid Inkjet printers:

These printers operate by propelling small sized droplets of liquid ink on the page.

WHAT IS A LIQUID INKJET PRINTER?

Liquid inkjet printers are those that use nozzles to spray miniscule droplets of colored ink from the cartridge onto the papers surface. There are two kinds of liquid inkjet printers depending on the printer head used. The first is the fixedhead type. This kind of inkjet printer has a built-in printer head which is designed to last the entire lifespan of the printer. The second type of liquid inkjet printers are those equipped with a disposable head. This means that each time that the ink cartridge needs to be replaced the printer head would need to be replaced as well. This makes this kind of inkjet printer more costly. Common brands of liquid inkjet printers The most common and most popular liquid inkjet printer brands in the United States today are: Hewlett-Packard Canon Epson Brother Xerox Lexmark

Solid Inkjet printers:

These printers use a thermal transfer technology. The printing process looks as follows:
1. The maintenance roller applies a layer of silicone oil to the heated drum for reliable ink release 2. The print head applies all colors at the same time on the rotating drum. 3. A sheet of paper is rapidly fed between the rotating drum and a transfix roller, transferring the ink to the paper. 4. The ink penetrates and solidifies very fast with the paper minimizing the risk for smearing problems. The ink fuses with the paper by heat and pressure. 5. If the printer is set to print in duplex, the paper is feed back into the duplex paper path. The paper takes one more turn in the printer and gets printed on the other side.

Dye-sublimation printers:

These kinds of printers use heat to transfer dye to another medium such as page or plastic card.

HOW DYE-SUBLIMATION PRINTERS WORK?

The most common process lays one color at a time, the dye being stored on a cellophane ribbon that has each color on a separate panel. Each colored panel is the size of the medium that is being printed on; for example, a 6" by 4" dye sub printer would have four 6" by 4" panels. During the printing cycle, the printer rollers will move the medium and one of the colored panels together under a thermal printing head, which is usually the same width as the shorter dimension of the print medium. Tiny heating elements on the head change temperature rapidly, laying different amounts of dye depending on the amount of heat applied. After being heated into a gas, the dye diffuses onto the printing medium and solidifies. After the printer finishes covering the medium in one color, it winds the ribbon on to the next color panel and partially ejects the medium from the printer to prepare for the next cycle. The entire process is repeated four times in total: the first three lay the colors onto the medium to form a complete image, while the last one lays the laminate over top. This layer protects the dye from resublimating when handled or exposed to warm conditions.

Inkless printers:
These printers do not use ink for printing. They use the thermal and UV technology.

Daisy wheel printers:

These printers function on the principle of typewriters.

How daisy-wheel printer works?

A type of printer that produces letter-quality type. A daisy-wheel printer works on the same principle as a ball-head typewriter. The daisy wheel is a disk made of plastic or metal on which characters stand out in relief along the outer edge. To print a character, the printer rotates the disk until the desired letter is facing the paper. Then a hammer strikes the disk, forcing the character to hit an ink ribbon,

leaving an impression of the character on the paper. You can change the daisy wheel to print different fonts. Daisy-wheel printers cannot print graphics, and in general they are noisy and slow, printing from 10 to about 75 characters per second. As the price of laser and ink-jet printers has declined, and the quality of dot-matrix printers has improved, daisy-wheel printers have become obsolete.

Dot-Matrix printers:
In this kind of printer, small dots of ink are used to form a larger image.

How Dot Matrix Printer Works?

Identification
1. The dot matrix printer is an impact printer that makes the image of each letter through tiny wire-like pins pressing into a ribbon that strikes against the paper. Ink transfers to the paper at the point of impact. The mechanism is similar to an old-fashioned typewriter, which had hammers striking the ribbon. The dot matrix printer pins can be envisioned as many tiny hammers on a magnetized print head.

Method
2. The electromagnet keeps the pins in place until a charge is made to a coil wrapped around the print wire, momentarily eliminating the magnetization and allowing the pin to spring forward. The pins print a pattern, or matrix, of dots on the paper, which creates letters and other characters as the print head moves across the page on a track. Each time the print head scans the page, it prints a slightly lower part of the line, until all the characters are completely formed.

Paper
3. The printer advances the paper, typically on a tractor feed, to begin each successive line of print. The tractor consists of sprockets on each end of the printer's roller bar, and dot matrix printer paper commonly has perforated edges with a row of holes to fit over the sprocket teeth, so the paper can move along with the roller.

Line Printers:
This kind of printer prints an entire line of text at one time.

HOW

LINE

PRINTERS

WORK?

During printing process the print-shuttle vibrates in horizontal direction with high speed while the print hammers are fired selectively. So each hammer may print a series of dots in horizontal direction for one pass of the shuttle, then paper advances at one step and the shuttle prints the following row of dots. Line matrix printers are the right solutions for high-volume impact printing and are superior in speed, reliability and quality. As price-performance leaders, line printers cost less to service and less to use. The fastest line matrix printers available on the market are Tally T6218 and Printronix P5220, with a claimed print speed between 1800 and 2000 lines per minute (lpm).

Pen-based Plotters: It used the vector graphics technology and

operates by moving a pen on surface of paper.

HOW PEN BASED PLOTTERS WORK?

Device that draws pictures or diagrams under computer control. Plotters are often used for producing business charts, architectural plans, and engineering drawings. Flatbed plotters move a pen up and down across a flat drawing surface, whereas roller plotters roll the drawing paper past the pen as it moves from side to side.

TOPIC: SCANNER

SCANNER:
A scanner is an electronic device that scans printed or handwritten text documents, images, or a particular object to convert them into a digital file format. Most of the scanners use CCD, (charge-coupled device) or CIS, (Contact Image Sensor) as the image sensors. The common types of scanners we see today are flatbed scanners, handheld scanners, sheetfed scanners, etc.

Flatbed Scanner
A flatbed scanner is made up of a glass pane and a moving optical CIS or CCD array. The pane is illuminated with the help of bright light planted underneath it. The image which is to be scanned is then placed on the glass pane. The sensor and the source of light move across the glass pane to scan the document and produce its digital copy.

Sheetfed Scanner
In sheetfed scanners, the document that is supposed to be scanned is fed into the horizontal or vertical slot provided in the scanner. The vital components of sheetfed scanner are the sheet-feeder, scanning module and calibration sheet. Such scanners are most often used to scan single page documents. It cant be used to scan thicker objects, like books, which turns out to be its major drawback.

Handheld Scanner
A handheld scanner is a small manual scanning device which is moved over the object that need to be scanned. For instance, if a document needs to be scanned, the handheld scanner has to be dragged over the document. Using a handheld scanner can prove to be a cumbersome task, as the hand needs to be steady all the time. Slight movement of the hand can lead to distortion of the image. One of the most utilized handheld scanner is the barcode scanner, typically used in shopping stores to valuate goods.

Photo Scanner
Photo scanners are mostly used to scan photographs. High resolution and color depth are the most vital requirements for scanning photographs, and photo scanner provides the same. If the motive of buying a scanner is to digitize film negatives and slides, then the photo scanner is the best option. They are specially designed to work on slides and negatives. The in-built software in some photo scanners can also help in cleaning old photographs.

Film Scanner
A film scanner is utilized to scan photographic films directly into a computer. The photographer has direct control over certain aspects, such as cropping, ratio of original image on the film, etc. Some film scanners have specialized softwares through which it is possible to minimize scratches and improve color quality. Low-

end film scanners most often accept 35 mm film strips while the high-end scanners have interchangeable film loaders which can accept 35 mm strips or 120 mm ones, or individual slides.

Portable Scanners
Being small in size, portable scanners can be easily carried with oneself anywhere. Some scanners are as small as your PDAs, hence, can be easily carried in the pockets. Such scanners are useful for text document scanning. The drawback of these scanners is their limitation as far as resolution is concerned. They cannot be used for scanning photographs or other such applications which require high resolution scanning. These were the different types of scanners being widely used today. Over the last few years, these machines have become an important element of computer technology, wherein vast amount of data is required to be converted to digital format everyday.