Computer Systems

Peripherals and
Interfaces
Peripherals

 Peripherals are any device that can be

attached to a CPU, e.g. hard disk, mouse,
printer.

 Peripherals are slow. They hold up the CPU

from carrying out its’ tasks.

 For Example - playing a game and it needs to

load the next level. The level is being read
from the CD and written to memory.
Interfaces
 What is an interface?
The interface is the combination of
hardware and software needed to link the
CPU to the peripherals and to enable them
to communicate with the CPU despite all
their differing characteristics.

The hardware is the bit you connect the cable

into e.g. USB, parallel, Firewire.

The software is the driver disk that you usually

need to install when you get the device, e.g.
printer driver.
Interfaces
 Computer peripherals all have different
characteristics. For example, they may:

Have different data transfer rates;

Use a wide variety of codes and control signals;

Transmit data in serial or in parallel form;

Even work at higher voltages than the CPU; &

All operate at much slower speeds than the CPU.

 Interfaces
 The main functions of an interface that you need to know
about are:

 Buffering;

 Converting data to and from serial and parallel forms;

 Converting data to and from analogue and digital forms;

 Voltage conversion;

 Protocol conversion; &

 Handling of status signals.

Interfaces
 Buffering:
This is an area of RAM within the interface which
stores the data while in transit between the
processor and the peripheral.

The interface uses the buffer to temporarily

store the data it is working with.

It also uses the buffer to compensate for the

differences in speed between the peripherals and
the CPU by temporarily storing incoming data so
that the faster CPU can process it in manageable
blocks rather than waiting for the slower
peripheral.
 Interfaces
 Converting data to and from serial and parallel
forms:
Data transmission is the passing of data from one
device to another.
A serial interface uses serial data transmission;
A parallel interface uses parallel data
transmission.

Serial data transmission - is when data is

transmitted along a communication channel one bit
after another in sequence. Very slow but efficient
over long distances.
Interfaces
Parallel data transmission - transmit
several bits of data simultaneously across a
series of parallel channels, often transmitting
16 at 32 bits at a time. Very fast but only
suitable for short distances.

The buses internal to the processor are

parallel channels. Any data coming from a
serial device has to be sent to an interface
which buffers the data then converts it to
parallel form before it is passed to the
processor.
 Interfaces

Interface 0 0

1 1

0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0

Serial data format 1 1

0 0

1 1

Parallel data format

 Interfaces
 Converting data to and from analogue and digital
forms:
Analogue signals – many electrical signals are analogue
signals. These signals vary between two limits. Analogue
signals that are sent in from peripherals to the digital form
that the CPU can handle. If you could see an analogue signal
it would look roughly like this:
Interfaces
Digital signals – computers can only work with digital
signals, which have only two values – on or off. A digital
sifnal therefore consists of a series of ‘ons’ and ‘offs’. An
on signal is represented by a 1 and an off by a 0

0 1 1 0 0 1 1
 Interfaces
ADC and DAC
A computer is connected to a peripheral
by an interface. This interface has to be
able to change the digital signals from the
computer to an analogue signal that the
other device can understand. This is done
by a DAC – Digital to Analogue Converter.

Signals can be changed in the other

direction by an ADC – Analogue to Digital
Converter.
 Interfaces

 Voltage Conversion
Peripherals send data using a different voltage
from that used by the processor and its
associated components on the motherboard of the
computer.

An interface is used to compensate for these

differences.
 Interfaces
 Protocol Conversion
A protocol is a standard that enables the connection,
communication and data transfer between computers or
between a computer system and a peripheral. Protocol
conversion means ensuring that the protocols used by the
peripheral can be understood by the computer it is
attached to and vice versa.

 Handling of Status Signal

The purpose of the status information is to show whether
or not a peripheral device is ready to communicate. This
information is used to inform the user of a problem
requiring attention. Some printers
Buffers and Spoolers
 Buffers and spoolers are terms generally
associated with printers.

 The terms are not dedicated to printers but

that is the context that will be described.
Buffers and Spoolers
 What is a Buffer?

A buffer is an area of memory used for the transfer

of data between a computer and a peripheral.

A buffer provides temporary storage of data.

Using a buffer provides a link between a device and

the processor and helps compensate for any
differences in their working speeds.
Buffers and Spoolers
 Why use buffers?

Peripherals operate at much slower speeds than the

CPU. Using buffers helps the computer system
compensate for the differences in operating speeds
between CPU and its peripherals.

When transferring data out to a peripheral such as a

printer, the processor can transfer it faster into the
buffer and the buffer will send it to the printer at a
speed that the printer can cope with.
Buffers and Spoolers
 Why use buffers?

The use of buffers reduces the frequency with

which the CPU is interrupted to deal with input.
Data from a keyboard is stored in a buffer until
there is a larger amount of data for the CPU to
process.
Buffers and Spoolers
 Spoolers

Spooling is another technique used in the transfer of

data to a slow peripherals. In this case the data
intended for the peripheral, the best example is a
printer, is transferred to storage, often a hard disk.
Then when the processor is idle it will transfer the
data to the printer at an acceptable speed. This is
also called background printing.

This frees up the much faster CPU to process other

tasks. Spooling is another possible method of
improving system performance.
Buffers and Spoolers
 Buffer v’s Spooler

If the CPU is very busy and doesn’t get much idle
time then spooling can be a very slow process.

 Spooler v’s Buffer

A buffer is limited by the amount of RAM

whereas a spooler uses backing storage which
has a very large capacity.

 Use BOTH for optimum efficiency.

Current Interface Trends
and Wireless Comms.
 New interfaces are continually being
developed.
One focus of development is to increase the
speed at which interfaces allows the
peripheral and computer to communicate.
Another aim is to allow wireless
communication between peripheral devices
and the CPU.
Increasing Interface Speeds

 Interface speeds are measured in Megabits

per second (Mbps).
Do not confuse Megabits and Megabytes

Manufacturers normally use Megabits per

second in their advertising as this allows
them to print larger numbers on their
advertisements.
Increasing Interface Speeds

One example of increasing interface

speeds is the development of the USB 2
and the Firewire 800 interfaces.

The USB 2 improves upon the maximum 12

Mbps speed of the USB 1 interface by 40
times to 480 Mbps.

The Firewire 800 interface provides 800

Mbps, double the speed of the Firewire 400
interface.
 Interface Standards
Interface Description

RS232 Recommended Standard (Serial)

SCSI Small computer Systems Interface ( Parallel)
IDE Integrated Drive Electronics
SATA Serial Advanced Technology Attachment – up to 1.5Gbps
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers e.g. firewire
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface
PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect
PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
USB1 & 2 Universal Serial Bus

 The use of interface standards by a computer manufacturer means that their

computers will be able to connect to peripherals using the same standards.

 The use of interface standards by peripheral manufacturers means that their

peripherals will connect to a computer which uses the same standards.

 Makes them COMPATABLE!!!

The latest Interfaces
Interface Description Transfer Speeds

USB1 Universal Serial Bus Fast transfer rate:

A means of connecting 12 MBPS for fast
external devices devices

USB2 An improvement of the Up to 480 Mbps

USB.

Firewire A high speed serial interface In its latest version,

used for connecting audio/ IEEE 1394b, up to a
visual and multimedia max of 800Mbps.
applications like digital 3.2Gbps are under
camcorders. Development.
 Wireless Communication
 Current trends in wireless communication include
the standards WiFi and Bluetooth.

 Bluetooth and WiFi both use radio waves at the

same frequency.

Radio waves can pass through most materials

and walls, and devices do not need to be pointing
at one another, unlike, infrared data
transmission (TV remote control).
 Wireless Communication

Bluetooth
Bluetooth can make short-range links between personal
devices, such as mobile phones and headsets, palmtops
(PDA) and laptop (notebook) computers.

Bluetooth is also used for wireless keyboards and mice.

It is expected that later versions of Bluetooth will be

able to transmit data at a speed of 2 Mbps and for
longer distances
 Wireless Communication

WiFi
WiFi stands for the Wireless Fidelity Alliance.

The main use for WiFi is in wireless local area

networking (WLAN). WiFi devices have typical ranges
from 15 to 50 meters and typical data transfer rates
from 5 to 20 Mbps.
 Solid State Storage Devices
 A solid-state storage device contains no moving
parts.

Examples include flash cards and USB flash memory

 Both of these types of device contain the same type of

backing storage medium, namely flash ROM.

 The effective difference between them is that they use

different interfaces to connect to a computer system or
another peripheral.
 Flash Cards
 Flash cards are used mainly for data storage in cameras,
although they can hold any type of program or data file.

 There a number of different standards of flash cards.

 Each digital camera normally uses only one type of flash

card

 Specialised card readers have been developed which have

‘slots’ to fit all the different varieties of flash cards.
 So called ‘all-in-one’ devices (printer, scanner, photocopies) have
slots into which flash cards may be placed. This allows documents
to be printed directly from the card, without a computer system
having to be connected.
 USB Flash Memory

 There are two types of

 USB Flash Memory, according to the type of
interface being used.
The are USB 1 and USB 2.

 Most of these devices are now compatible with

USB 2.

 USB2 devices are always backwards compatible.

In this case the speed of access will be USB 1
 Features and Advantages of
Solid-State Storage Devices
 Solid-state storage devices are small.
 Flash cards can fit inside the camera.
 USB flash memory can fit on key rings and in
watches.
 Solid-state storage devices are robust because
they have no moving parts.
This means that they are ideal for wearing because they
are unaffected by vigorous movement.
iPods take advantage of this feature of Solid-state
storage devices.
Features and Advantages of
Solid-State Storage Devices

Solid-State storage devices use less

power than hard disk drives.
This lower power requirement means that a
music player which uses solid-state storage
will play music for a longer time relative to a
hard disk-based music player with the same
battery capacity.
 Features and Advantages of
Solid-State Storage Devices

 Solid-state storage devices are available in a range of

capacities, from 256 Mb to 8 Gb (at the time of writing).

 USB flash memory has now replace floppy disk as a

convenient, portable storage medium, which can fit into
almost any modern computer system.

 USB flash memory is used for security applications.

One type has fingerprint recognition and another type
works with security software to prevent a computer system
from starting up unless the USB flash memory is plugged in.
Developments in Backing
Storage Devices

Increased capacity
DVD
The DVD-Recordable format capacity was
increased with the introduction of the dual
layer DVD-R disk with a capacity of 8.4 Gb
(Single –layer DVD-R capacity is 4.7 Gb)

Most computers now incorporate this dual

layer drive.
Developments in Backing
Storage Devices

Blu-ray
Blu-ray disc (BD) is the name of the next
generation optical disc format.

The format was developed to enable

recording, rewriting and playback of high-
definition video (HD).

The format may become a standard for PC

data storage and high-definition movies.
 Developments in Backing
Storage Devices

Increased read and write speeds

 Faster interfaces are constantly being developed, e.g. USB 2, Firewire
800, with speeds of 480 Mbps and 800 Mbps, respectively

Reduced Physical Size

 In 2004, Guinness World Records certified that Toshiba’s 0.85 inch
diameter hard disk drive as the smallest hard disk drive in the world.

Lower Cost Per Unit of Storage

 In 1995, a 100 Mb capacity hard disk drive cost £300. In 2005, a 100
Mb capacity ZIP drive cost £5, and a 512 Mb USB flash memory cost
£25.
Developments in Backing Storage
Devices
Implications of Development Trends
 One implication may be that new peripherals and media may not
work with old ‘legacy’ hardware.
 An older computer may not have a USB port, or if it does, it may
not be USB 2, only USB 1.
 A DVD re-writer may not be able to read or write to new disk
formats.
 Care must also be taken with archived data, to make sure that it
is regularly copied to a current storage format so that it can
always be accessed.

 In 2004 we say some electrical stores discontinue the sales of

VHS video recorders in favour of DVD.

 Digital video cameras, which record directly to DVD instead of

tape are now common.
Be Ready for Next Quiz!
The End
 Quiz II

What are Peripheral Devices? Give

examples.
What is a Buffer? Write its
applications.