Computer Hardware

Hardware

omputer hardware is defined as all of the physical components of the machine itself. The basic hardware of a computer includes the electronic circuits, microchips, processors, and the motherboard itself inside the computer housing. In addition, hardware typically includes devices are that peripheral to the main computer box such as input and output devices including the keyboard, mouse, printer, fax, and storage components such as the hard drive, Universal Serial Bus (USB) drive, floppy drives, tape drives, and so on. Typically, computer systems are composed of many different component parts that enable the user to communicate with the computer and with other computers to produce work. The group of required and optional hardware items that are linked together to make up a computer system is called its configuration. When computers are sold, many of the key components are placed inside a rigid plastic or metal case, which is called the box or the system unit.

A computer is a machine that uses electronic components and instructions to the components to perform calculations, repetitive and complex procedures, process text, and manipulate data and signals. Computer technology has evolved from huge electronic calculators developed with military funding during the WWII to palm-sized information processing machines available to virtually everybody. Today, computer processors are encountered in most areas of peoples lives. From the grocery store to the movie theater; from infusion pumps to physiologic monitors; from the bedside alarm clock to the automobile accelerator, computer processors are employed so widely that the late 20th century can accurately be described as the beginning of the information age. Computer hardware advances during the late 1900s have made possible many changes to the health care industry. The first operations to be modified were special administrative functions such as finance, payroll, billing, and nurse staffing and scheduling report. Later, the computer allowed fantastic changes in the practice of radiology and imaging, allowing noninvasive visualization of the human body that could only be performed in surgery. Computers are now pervasive throughout the health care industry. Their applications are expected to continue to expand and thereby improve the quality of health care while at the same time reducing some costs. Most important, the applications of computers to health care will greatly expand the diagnostic and therapeutic abilities of practitioners and broaden the options available to recipients of health care. Additionally, telemedicine is now being used to reduce the impact of distance and location of accessibility and availability of health care. None of these changes could have happened without tremendous changes in the machinery, the hardware, of computers.

Computer Hardware Fundamentals

The box or system unit of any computer contains a motherboard. The motherboard is a thin, flat sheet made of a firm, nonconducting material on which the internal components printed circuits, chips, slots, and so on of the computer are mounted. The motherboard is made of dielectric or nonconducting plastic material, and the electric conductions are etched or soldered

into the bottom of the board. The motherboard has holes or perforations through which the components can be affixed. Typically, one side looks like a maze of soldered metal trails with sharp projections (which are the attachments of the chips and other components affixed to the motherboard). On one side can be seen the microchips, wiring, and slots for adding components. The specific design of the components specially the CPU and other microprocessors is called the computers architecture. A computer has four basic components. At its most basic, a computer must consist of a CPU, memory, input and output controllers and a storage medium.

Central Processing Unit

The CPU is the brain of the computer. It consists of at least one arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) and a control unit. The ALU which controls the mathematical functions such the fundamental operations and other functions that test logic such as Boolean and relational operations or comparisons. The control unit carries out the machine language functions called fetch, execute, decode and store. For an extremely simplified example, when a command is given to add two numbers, the control unit fetches the instruction and numbers from their storage location and decodes the instruction so that the proper operations can be performed. These are called the fetch and decode cycles. Then, the control unit initiates the execute cycle, which sends the instruction to the arithmetic and logic unit. Finally, the control unit initiates the store cycle, which places the result of the instruction in a memory location. Memory includes the locations of the computers internal or main working storage. Memory consists of registers (a small number of very highspeed memory locations), random access memory (RAM), which is the main storage area in which the computer places the programs and data it is working on, and cache (a small memory storage area holding recently accessed data).

Memory
There are two types of memory in the computer. They are the read only memory (ROM) and the random access memory (RAM) Read Only Memory. ROM is a form of permanent storage. This means that data and programs in ROM can only be read by the computer, and cannot be erased or altered. ROM generally contains the programs, called firmware, used by the control unit of the CPU to oversee computer functions. In microcomputers, this may also include the software or programs used to translate the computers high-level programming languages into machine language (binary code). ROM storage is not erased when the computer is turned off. Random Access Memory. RAM refers to the working memory used for the primary storage. It is volatile and is used for temporary storage. RAM can be accessed, used, changed, and written on repeatedly. It contains data and instructions that are stored and processed by the computer programs called applications programs. RAM is the working area available to the CPU for all

processing applications. The computer programs are not permanent parts of the computer itself. They are loaded when needed, and they can be altered. The contents of RAM are lost whenever the power to the computer is turned off.

Input and Output

To do work, the computer must have a way of receiving commands and data from the outside and a way of reporting out its work. The motherboard has slots and circuit boards that allow the CPU to communicate with the outside world. Input and output devices are wired to a controller that is plugged into the slots or circuit boards of the computer. Some devices can serve as both input and output devices. Such devices as the hard drive on which most of the programs people use as well as their personal data are stored, the disk drive, the optical drive on which people store most of their personal data, and more recently, the USB flash drive serve to both receive and send information to the computer. Input devices. These allow the computer to receive information from the outside world. The most common input devices are the keyboard and the mouse. Others commonly seen on nursing workstations include the touch screen, light pen, voice and scanner. A touch screen is actually both an input and output device combined. Electronics allow the computer to sense when a particular part of the screen is pressed or touch. A light pen is a device attached to the computer that has a special software package that allows the computer to sense when the light is focused on a particular part of the screen. For both the touch screen and the light pen, a software package interprets the meaning of that screen location to the program. Voice systems allow the nurse to speak into a microphone to record data. Many other input devices exist. Some devices are used for security and can detect users fingerprints, retinal prints, voice prints or other personally unique physical characteristics that identify users who have clearance to use the system. In health care computing, some medical devices serve as input devices. For example, the electrodes placed on a patients body provide input into the computerized physiologic monitors. Output Devices. These allow the computer to report its results to the external world. Output can be in the form of text, data files, graphics, sound, or signals to other devices. The two obvious output devices are the monitor (display screen) and the printer.

Storage Media
Storage includes not only the main memory but also the external devices on which programs and data are stored. The most common stare devices include the hard drive, diskettes (which are becoming obsolete), and the optical drive. The hard drive and the diskettes are magnetic storage media. The CD and DVD drives are a form of optical storage. Optical media are read by a laser beam rather than by a magnet. Hard Drive. The hard drive is a peripheral that has a very high speed and high density i.e. it is a very fast means of storing and retrieving data as well as having a large storage capacity in comparison with other types of storage.

Diskettes. The floppy disk drive allows input and output from a diskette, which is a round magnetic disk encased in a flexible or rigid case. It allows the user to transport data and programs from one computer site to another. CD/DVD-ROM. The CD/DVD-ROM is a rigid disc that holds a much higher density of information than a diskette and has a much higher speed. Until the late 1990s, CD/DVD-ROMs were strictly input devices. However, new technology developed by Philips Corporation permitted the development of a new type of CD/DVD that could be written on by the user. These are called CD-R/W or DVD-R/W. USB Flash Drive. As demands for higher and higher density transportable storage rise, the popularity of the USB flash drive has also risen. A USB flash drive is actually a form of a small, removable hard drive that is inserted into the USB port of the computer. There are many names for it including a pen drive, thistle drive, pocket disk, a thumb drive, and so on. This device can store up to 32GB of data. It is highly reliable unlike the floppy disk and is small enough to transport comfortable in a pocket. Since the USB flash drive can store so much data in a package so much smaller than a CD-ROM, the convenience makes it work the higher price to many users. Of course, as the popularity increases, the prices are dropping. Other Output Devices. As computers became more and more standard in offices during the 1990s, more and more corporate and individual information was stored solely on computers. Even when paper backup copies were kept, loss of information on the hard drive was usually inconvenient at the least and a disaster at worst. Diskettes could not store large amounts of data, so people began to search for economical and speedy ways to backup the information on their hard drive. Other input devices developed to help with the backup problem included magnetic tape drives and Zip drives. Magnetic tape drives run magnetic tape which is similar to the tape in any music tape player. In the 1980s and the early 1990s, magnetic tape drives were a popular way to backup the hard drive data, but today, they are obsolete for home computer use. Zip drives are more similar to ordinary floppy disks but are of higher capacity. In 1996, Iomega Corporation announced its removable 100 Mb hard drive and disk product. This product, called a Zip drive greatly streamlined the backup process. Later, the company introduced its Jaz drive which can store 1 Gb of information. Zip and Jaz drives have been a popular way of diligent home users to backup data file during the mid to late 1990s. Unfortunately, these drives were not inexpensive and many users did not have them. Then, in the late 1990s, the price of home CD-ROMs that could be written on dropped dramatically. Writable CD-ROMs became generally available on home computers. Even people who were not diligent enough to purchase a Zip or Jaz drive could quickly backup their personal data file on the high density CD-ROMs, which were originally released only in the write once format. However, a write-many version was available soon for those who wised, although these were more expensive than the write once versions.

Rewritable CD-ROMs are now fairly inexpensive and so, the Zip and Jaz drives are no longer so important as backup drives as was the case in the 1990s.

Computer Power
The term bits and byte refer to how the machine stores information at the lowest or closest to the machine registers and memory level. Computers do not process information as words or numbers. They handle information in byte. A byte is made up of 8 bits.

Bits and Bytes

A bit (short for binary digit) is a unit of data in the binary numbering system. Binary means two, so a bit can assume one of two positions. Effectively, a bit is an on/off switch on equals the value of 1 and off equals the value of 0. Bits are grouped into collections of eight, which then functions as a unit. This unit describes a single character in the computer, such as a letter, a number, a special character or a non-printable character and is called a byte. There are 255 different combinations of 0 and 1 in an 8-character unit. That forms the basic limit to the number of characters that can be directly expressed in the computer. Thus, the basic character set hardwired into most PCs contain 255 characters. In the early days of PCs, this was a problem because it severely limited the images that could be produced. However, with the advent of graphics cards and additional character sets and graphics that the new technology allowed, virtually any image can be produced on a computer screen or printed on a printer. Even without graphics card, additional character sets can be created by means of programming techniques. The size of a variety of computer functions and components is measured by how many bytes they can handle or store at one time. Main memory today is very large as compared to that of even 10 years ago. Since the size of memory is an important factor in the amount of work a computer can handle, large main memory is another key measure in the power of a computer. In the early 1970s, the PCs on the market were typically sold with a main memory of 48 and 64K. In the late 1990s, the size of the main memory in computers sold to the public increased rapidly, and by the end of the 199, most computers were advertised between 32 and 18Mb of main memory. Today, PCs can have as much as 8Gb of RAM,
Table 1.1 Meaning of Storage Size Terms
Number of bytes 1,024 1,048,576 1,073,741,824 1,099,511,627,776 1,125,899,906,842,624 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 1,180,591,620,717,411,606,424 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 Term 1 Kilobyte (1 Kb) 1 Megabyte (1 Mb) 1 Gigabyte (1 Gb) 1 Terabyte (1 Tb) 1 Petabyte (1 Pb) 1 Exabyte (1 Eb) 1 Zettabyte (1 Zb) 1 Yottabyte (1 Yb) Approximate Equivalent 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 Approximate size in typed pages or other comparison 1/3 of a single spaced typed page 600 page paperback book Approximately 1 encyclopedia None available None available None available None available None available

Another important selling point of a computer is the size of the internal hard drive. The first drives sold for microcomputers in the 1970s were external devices that stored about 1,00Kb. At that time, few home computers had internal hard drives. When the sure turned on the computer, they had to be sure that the operating system diskette was in the disk drive or the computer could not work. This architecture severely limited the size and functionality of programs. Therefore, consumer demand for hard drives was such that their size grew exponentially while at the same time, cost of hard drive storage decreased exponentially. By the late 1999, home computers typically sold had between 6 and 20Gb of space on the hard drive. Applications programs have become so large that both the main memory and the secondary storage space have had to increase exponentially. The typical had drive sold with a microcomputer in 190 was 80-100Mb while the hard drive advertised in 199 typically ranged from 6 20 Gb.

Computer Speed
It takes the computer to perform the basic operations of the CPU (fetch, decode, execute and store). The CPU speed is measured in cycles per second which are called the clock speed of the computer. One million cycles per second is called 1 Megahertz (MHz). The original IBM PC introduced in 1981 had a clock speed of 7.44 MHz. In the late 1990s, Intel Corporation introduced its Pentium III processor, which had clock speeds of 550 MHz. Today, PC speeds are timed in GHz. In general, the higher the clock speed possessed by the CPU, the faster and the more powerful the computer. However, clock rate can be misleading, since different kinds of processors may perform a different amount of work in one cycle. For example, general purpose computers are known to as complex instruction set computers (CISC) and their processors are prepared to perform large number of different instruction sets. Therefore, a cycle in a CISC computer may take longer than that for a specialized type of computer called a reduced instruction set computer (RISC). Nonetheless, clock speed is one important measure of the power of a computer.

Overview of Descriptive Terms Used in Computing

The computer is generally described in terms of several major characteristics that have been generally explained automatic, electronic, and general purpose as well as in terms of speed, reliability, and storage capacity. The computer is automatic because it is self-instructed, i.e., it automatically processes data using computer programs called a software package. The computer is electronic because it uses micro electric components that are etched on silicon chips for its circuitry. This means that its basic building blocks are microminiaturized. The computers are general purpose machines because the user can program them to process all types of problems and can be solve any problem that can be broken down into a set of logical sequential instructions. Several purpose machines designed to do only a very few types of tasks have also been developed. An example of a special use is the RISC computer. The computer is also

characterized by its speed and split-second processing of large amounts of data, its reliability due to the silicon circuitry, and its ability to store larges amounts of data that can be retrieved quickly.

History of Computers
The first use of digital computer called the Mark I, was built in 1943 with funding from the U.S. Military and used in airplane and other complex engineering applications. At the same time, Bell Laboratories was working on the development of a computer, as were two scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, later founders of the Eckert-Mauchly Corporations. The prototype WWII military computers were very different from todays computers. First, they were big. A computer with much less power than an ordinary desktop computer of the 1990s took up an entire room. Second, there were relatively few operations they could perform as compared to todays computers. Essentially, they were giant and complex mathematical calculators. Third, they were difficult to program. In fact, they were programmed by the scientists getting to the back computer and changing the wires. This approach was slow, tedious, and impractical for a commercial machine. After the war, Eckert and Mauchly produced the first vacuum tube computer, the electronic numerical integrator and computer, more commonly known as the ENIAC. In 1950, Remington Rand Corporation bought Eckert and Mauchlys company and a year later, began to market the first large scale commercial computer system called the UNIVAC I. In 1955, the Sperry Corporation merged with Remington Rand, forming the giant Sperry Rand Corporation. That year, the very first commercial application was run when General Electric processed its payroll on a UNIVAC computer and the age of business computing was born. The American business establishment recognized the value of this machine that could do thousands of repetitive mathematical calculations. In response, companies such as Bell Labs, national Cash Registers (NCR), Burroughs, and IBM began to develop their business computer products. Today, these early computers are called the first generation computers. The UNIVAC and other first generation computers used vacuum tubes in their design. Those computers ran hot and thus required a great deal of cooling. Vacuum tubes hot easily, and then they get hot, they failed regularly. Given that those computers used many vacuum tubes, and the high and random failure rate of vacuum tubes, the early computers were a real challenge to keep operational. For the first generation of computers, the speed of the main processor was measured in access speeds (how fast the CPU could access commands entered through punched cards). Access speeds were measured in thousandths of a second (milliseconds). First generation computers were typically huge, but their power was much less than that of the average desktop computer on the 1990s. Main memory was less than 10 Kb of storage.

Second generation computers were introduced in the late 1950s. They included the IBM 1401 and 1620. They used transistors instead of vacuum tubes. This meant less heat, improved reliability and much greater speeds. Second generation CPU access speeds were measured in millionths rather than thousandths of a second (microseconds). They still were quite large, but transistors were smaller and more durable than vacuum tubes. They also allowed for the development of much more powerful computers. Third generation computers were introduced in the mid 1960s. These used microminiature solid state components. Third generation CPU access speeds were measured in billionths of a second (nanoseconds). The IBM 360 and 370 were the classic computers in this generation. They had about 110 Kb of main memory, and it was this generation in which hard disk drives were introduced. These hard disks were not encased in protective cases, so they were vulnerable to dust. Any magnetic media is vulnerable to dirt, even the diskettes sued today. However, today the hard drives are much better protected against dust than was the case in the 1960s. That is why pictures of computer rooms taken during the third generation era often show people in surgical type of garb. They were trying to keep the failure rate down by keeping the computer room as clean as possible.

The Role of the Modern Personal Computer

In November 1972, Intel Corporation introduced the first commercial microprocessor called the Intel 8088. This invention made the PC or microcomputer possible. Shortly thereafter, two teenage boys named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who shared an intense interest in electronics bough a microprocessor for US$25 and built a very simple computer they called the Apple. Like Henry Fords dream of brining automobiles to everyone, Jobs had a passionate dream of bringing computers to everybody. They failed to interest Wozniaks employer, Hewlett-Packard (HP_ Corporation, in their idea to build a small computer that people could have and use in their homes. At that time, according to legend, HP executives could not imagine why anyone would want such a machine in their home. They were focused more on business computing, with its billing and payroll processing, and peoples home finances simply didnt require such power. Not to be refused, the two Steves decided to pursue their dream anyway. They began building the machine in Steve Jobs garage, and in May 1976, they introduced their first computer at a meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club, at which Paul Terryl, President of the Byte Shop chain of stores ordered 50 units. At the time, Steve Jobs was 21 years old and Wozniak was 26. The Apple Computer company and the first PC were born. In 1999, Steve Jobs was chairman and CEO of Pixar, the computer animation studio that won an Academy Award for its work on the motion picture, Toy Story. At the same time that Jobs and Wozniak were working in the garage, IBM introduced the first fourth generation mainframe, the IBM 370. This was the first mainframe family that had printed circuit boards. This computer was so fast that the old measurement of speed was deemed unsuitable. Since a CPU processes instructions, the new CPUs speed was measured by the speed with which it could process instructions rather than access. Fourth generation computer CPU speeds were and still are today measured by instructions per second that they can process.

The IBM 370s CPU speed was measured in millions of instructions per second (MIPS). Todays mainframes are measured in billions of instructions per second (BIPS).

Supercomputers
The first supercomputer was developed by a computer engineer named Seymour Cray. Cray had been one of the architects of the UNIVAC. He left UNIVAC in 1957 to join in the development of a new company, Control Data Corporation (CDC), and continued his processor development work throughout until the 1960s. His work at CDC culminated in the production of the CDC 7600, a computer 10 times more powerful than the CDC 6600, often called the first supercomputer. Shortly thereafter, Cray and CDC parted ways over the development of a whole new concept in computer architecture that Cray wished to pursue. Unwilling to invest in this new concept, CDC did not agree to work with Cray to produce it. In 1972, Cray decided to go into business for himself so that his dream could be realized. The new company, Cray Research was the result of this split. Cray Researchs first product was the Cray I supercomputer. Most computer scientists consider the Cray I to be the first true supercomputer since its architecture was innovative and its power was orders of magnitude greater than anything that came before it.

Classes of Computers
Three broad classes of computers exist: the analog computer, the digital computer and the hybrid computer. Analog computers handle continuous input data, such as those found in the continuously changing electric patterns of the heartbeat. Digital computers handle input data that comes in at discrete points in time. The hybrid computer as suggested by its name is a computer that is able to process both kinds of signals. Analog Computer The analog computer operates on continuous physical or electrical magnitudes, measuring ongoing continuous or electrical magnitudes, measuring ongoing continuous analog quantities such as voltage, current, temperature and pressure. Selected physiologic monitoring equipment, which accepts continuous input/output signals, is in the analog class of computers. An example of these machines in the clinical setting includes heart monitors and fetal monitors. An analog computer handles data in continuously variable quantities rather than breaking the data down into discrete digital representations. Digital Computers The digital computer operates on discrete discontinuous numerical digits using the binary numbering system. It represents data using discrete values of all data. Its data are represented

by numbers, letters, and symbols rather than by waveforms such as on a heart monitor. Most of the computers used in the health care industry for charting and decision support are digital computers. Hybrid Computers The hybrid computers contain features of both the analog and the digital computer. It is used for specific applications, such as complex signal processing and other engineering-oriented applications. It is also found in some monitoring equipment that converts analog signals to digital ones for data processing. For example, physiologic monitors that are able to capture the heart waveform and also to measure the core body temperature at specific times of the shift are actually hybrid computers that have analog capability to capture waveforms of physiologic monitors (i.e. ECG, EEG, and so forth) and convert them into digital format suitable for analysis.

Types of Computers
Today, four basic types of computers are generally recognized. Each type of computer was developed as the computer industry evolved and each was developed for a different purpose. The basic types of computers include the supercomputer, the mainframe, the microcomputer and the handheld. They differ in size, composition, memory and storage capacity, processing time and cost. They generally have had different applications and are found in many different locations in the health care industry. Supercomputers The largest type of computer is the supercomputer. A supercomputer is a computational-oriented computer specially designed for scientific applications requiring gigantic amounts of calculations. The supercomputer is truly a world class number cruncher. It is designed primarily for analysis of scientific and engineering problems and tasks requiring millions or billions of computational operations and calculations. It is found primarily in areas such as defense and weaponry, weather forecasting and scientific research. The supercomputer is also providing a new source of power for the high-performance computing and communication (HPCC) environment. Mainframes The mainframe computer is the fastest, largest and the most expensive type of computer used in the corporate world for processing, storing and retrieving data. It is a large multiuser central computer that meets the computing needs especially the large amount of repetitive calculations of bills, payroll and the like of a large organization. A mainframe is capable of processing in BIPS and accessing millions of characters of data. Mainframes can serve a large number (hundreds) of users at the same time. In many settings, hundreds of terminals (input and output devices that may or may not have any processing power of their own) are wired directly into the mainframe. Typically, there are also phone lines into the computer so that remote users can gain access to the mainframe. As compared with a desktop PC, a mainframe has an extremely large

memory capacity and fast operating and processing time, and it can process a large number of functions (multiprocessing) at one time. Microcomputers (Personal Computers or PCs) While mainframe computers provide critical service to the health care industry, microcomputers are being used for an increasing number of independent applications as well as serving as a desktop link to the programs of the mainframe. Hospital nursing departments are using PCs to process specific applications such as patient classifications, nurse staffing and scheduling and personnel management applications. PCs are also found in educational and research settings, where they are used to conduct a multitude of special educational and scientific applications. Desktops are replacing many of the mainframe attributes. Desktops can serve as stand-alone workstations and can be linked to a network system to increase their capabilities. This is advantageous since software multiuser licensing fees are usually less expensive per user than having each user purchase his/her own copy. PCs are also available as portable, laptop, notebooks, netbooks or handheld computers. Handheld computers are now portable and notebook versions are smaller than the standard desktop PC. Handheld Computers Handheld computers are small, special function computers, although a few full function handheld computers were introduced in the late 1990s. Even though of smaller size than the desktop PC, some have claimed to have almost the same functionality and processing capabilities as the standard desktop PC. However, they are limited in their expansion possibilities, their ability to serve as full participants in the office network, and the peripherals they can support. More popular are the pal-sized computers, including the personal digital assistants (PDAs), which are the smallest of the handheld computers. The PDS is a very small special function handheld computer which provides calendar, contacts, and note taking functions, and may provide word processing, spreadsheet and a variety of other functions such as a dictionary. They are invaluable to the busy professional who must travel and wishes to conduct some work at home and on the road. They are particularly useful in that they can synchronize the users office calendar with the calendar on the handheld PC when one or the other had appointments added or changed. The current trend is that cellular phones are adding functionalities and are combining the functions of cell phones and palm-sized computer in one convenient package.

Common Hardware Peripherals

Keyboard The keyboard is the most common input device. It is similar to the keyboard of a typewriter and is connected to system unit with a USB cord. There are several different types of keyboard; however, regardless of the type, they all have similar sections of keys: the typewrite keys, function keys, numeric keypad, toggle keys, and special operation keys. Carpal tunnel syndrome has been a severe problem for many people whose job requires them to spend many hours a day

on a keyboard. In response, several different styles designed to reduce the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome have been introduced. Monitor The monitor is a display screen component of a terminal that allows the user to see images, programs, commands the user sends to the computer, and results of the computers work. Most PCs today come with monitors from 14 to 21 inches, although larger screens are available. The resolution or clarity of the monitor screen is related to the number of dots, pixels (picture elements), on the screen. Customers can order anything from a 14-inch viewing screen with a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels to 21-in. with a resolution of 1,600 x 1,280 pixels. As pixel counts rise, the sharpness and clarity of images and colors on the screen improve.

Mouse The mouse was introduced with a microcomputer as a new type of input device to replace the arrow keys on the keyboard. It is a hand-held controlled device that electronically instructs the cursor to move across the video display screen. Todays optical mouse is a newer type of mouse that uses light to detect movement. Introduced in the late 1990s, the optical mouse obsoleted the mechanical mouse that uses a trackball because their sealed bottom surfaces have no mechanical parts to absorb dust and dirt. They work by emitting light from an light emitting diode (LED) or light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation (laser), and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor detects the light reflections as the mouse is moved. The early optical mouse required a special mouse pad, but modern devices can be rolled over traditional pads, as well as over almost any surface other than glass or mirror. A laser-driven optical mouse is even more tolerant of their surface than LED mice.

Track Pad The track pad was developed by the makers of laptop computers for use in place of a mouse. A mouse is not practical for use in an airplane or other travel locations. The track pad is a flat, rectangular depression on the keyboard that senses pressure and movement of the users finger. The user simply drags a finger around the track pad to move the cursor on the screen. A slight tap on the track pad works as a left click on the mouse or pressing the Enter key on the keyboard. Light Pen or Touch Screen A light pen is a photosensitive device that responds to light images when placed against a monitor screen. When the pen comes in contact with the display screen, it highlights the item and sends the data to the computer. Touch screens involve the use of a special filter on a monitor screen that allows the screen to detect the pressure of the users finger on a particular position of the screen. That pressure can signal the computer to initiate an action (similar to a mouse click) or can function to let the user select a particular item in the screen, such as on a menu. Sensors on the screen pinpoint the X and Y axis location touched by the user. Optical Character Recognition Optical character recognition (OCR) is a specialized computer input medium that allows data to be read directly from a form or document. An electronic optical scanning device, called a wand reader, or a bar code reader reads special marks, bar codes, numbers, letters or characters. The scanner used in the grocery store uses a special type of OCR. Such a device converts optical marks, characters, and bar codes into electrical signals that become computer input. OCRreadable codes include those outlined areas on an answer sheet of a nursing state board examination, which are filled up with a pencil. The bar codes, called the universal product code (UPC) or the zebra-striped bars, are another example. Ten bars, about 1 in. long, signify

different numbers to code grocery or medical items. If read with a special scanning device, they can become input into some hospital inventory systems, similar to the way product codes read in the grocery check- out line become input into the stores inventory control system. Magnetic Ink Character Recognition Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) is another medium for reading characters by a computer. Here, the characters are made of magnetized particles printed on paper. An MICR reader can examine the shape of the magnetic ink characters and convert them into binary code for computer input. The most common example of an MICR is the magnetized characters imprinted on checks, which most banks use. Voice Synthesizer A voice synthesizer allows users to input data into the computer by speaking into a connected microphone. Also known as a speech synthesizer, it digitizes the sound for processing by the CPU. Although automatic recognition of the human voice is not yet perfected, voice input is used in situations requiring only a few spoken words, and it is becoming a common medium for all computer users. The study of neural networks (many processors working in parallel in a single computer) offers one hope of improving the performance of voice recognition technology. Imaging The field of imaging exploded in the 1980s and 1990s with the enormous development of medical imaging. Many of the advanced imaging technologies such as the computerized axial tomography (CAT scan) and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are computer enhanced imaging technologies. Several different types of image input devices are available that primarily transform images from various types of graphics into digital form, which the computer can accept, represent on the screen and process. Many types of graphic images on paper such as xrays can be scanned as computer input and/or digitized for computer use. Digital Versatile Disk While DVD began as digital video disk, it is now commonly and more correctly referred to as digital versatile disk to better reflect its capabilities of playing audio and multimedia as well as video. A DVD looks and feels like a CDROM but holds much more information and contains many more multimedia features. DVD technology is in the process of replacing the older CDROM technology. This technology was developed to support high resolution and dense applications such as placement of motion pictures on CDs. Click here for more information.

Printers The printer, the most important output device, converts information produced by the computer system into printed form, rendering data in the binary code into readable English. The major

types of printed output include printed hard copy (paper), microfilm (microfiche), photographs (photo paper) and graphic copy. The printers output, known as hardcopy, is output produced on paper. Most printers sold today are laser printers or jet printers either inkjet or bubble jet printers. Laser printers offer a substantial increase in output quality and speed over jet printers. The laser printers engine is composed of an integrated system of electronic and chemical parts that work together with optical processors to produce the printed images. The laser printers generally use fonts or typefaces as their printing elements, making documents look like they were typeset. They are also used for printing graphic images and illustrations. The inkjet and bubble jet printers fire small bursts of ink on the paper. The principal difference between bubble jet and inkjet printers is that bubble jet printers use special heating elements to prepare the ink, whereas inkjet printers use piezoelectric crystals to ionize the ink. Modems The modem is a communication device used to connect a terminal with a mainframe or another computer. A modem (modulating and demodulating device) translates digital data into waves (analog) for transmission over the communication lines to the computer system and converts the waves back to their original digital form for input into the computer. Modems connect the user with a remote computers CPU, enabling communication through telephone lines. By dialing the remote computers modem, data can be both sent and received from outside sources. Modems, therefore, facilitate the function of both input and output devices and link remote computers to network of computers. Modems are described by the rate of communication transmission or line transfer measured in bits per second (bps). Routers A router is a network device that forwards bits of data, called packets, from one network to another. Based on internal routing tables, routers read each incoming packet and decide how to forward it. The destination address in the packets determines which line (interface) outgoing packets are directed to. In large-scale enterprise routers, the current traffic load, congestion, line costs and other factors determine which line to forward to. Most routers in the world sit in homes and small offices and do nothing more than direct Web, email and other Internet transactions from the local network to the cable or DSL modem, which is connected to the internet service provider (ISP) and the Internet. Sitting at the edge of the network, they often contain a built-in firewall for security, and the firewall serves all users in the network without requiring that the personal firewall in each computer be turned on and configured.

Basics of Computer Network Hardware

A network is a set of cooperative interconnected computers for the purpose of information interchange. The networks of greatest interest include local area networks (LANs), wide area network (WANs), and the Internet, which is a network of networks. A LAN usually supports the interconnected computer needs of a single company or agency. The computers are physically located close to each other, and generally, only members of the company or agency have legitimate access to the information on the network. WANs support geographically dispersed

facilities, such as individual grocery stores in a national chain. A subset of WAN includes the metropolitan area networks (MANs) that support and connect the many buildings of local governmental agencies or university campuses. The most important components of network hardware are the adapter or the network interface card (NIC), cabling, the hub and the server. The most important concepts in network hardware are architecture and topology.

Network Hardware The role of hardware in a network is to provide an interconnection between computers. For a computer to participate in a network, it must have at least two pieces of hardware: 1. Network adapter or network interface card (NIC). An NIC is a computer circuit board or card that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to a network. PCs and workstations on LANs typically contain an NIC specifically designed for the LAN transmission technology such as the Ethernet. NICs provide a dedicated, full time connection to a network. Most home and portable computers connect to the Internet through modems on a DSL or broadband connection. The DSL modem provides the connection interface to the ISP 2. Communications medium (cabling). The communications medium is the means by which actual transfer of data from one site to another takes place. Commonly used media include the twisted pair cable, coaxial cable, fiber optics, telephone wires, and satellites. Most of the time, the choice of communication medium is based on the following: a. Distance. Relatively short distances are required for coaxial and twisted pair cables. For much longer distances, fiber optics, telephone lines and satellite transmission are used. b. Amount of Data Transfer. Large amounts of data (especially video) are best handled with coaxial cables and compressed video and through satellite communications. Smaller amounts of data or serial (nonvideo) streams are best handled through the other wire types, such as the twisted pair copper wire and optical fiber, and less expensive. c. How often the transfer is needed. Coaxial works best for locally wired networks that are used constantly by very limited number of users. Telephone wires work well for the relatively high usage public networks (like the Internet) but are more likely to get overloaded when many users try to use the system at the same time. d. Availability. Availability depends on cost, transmission speed, number of users (who might clog up the system), weather conditions (satellite) and so on. Telephone Line Communications Specialized lines called integrated services digital network (ISDN) lines are sued to carry communications across phone lines. ISDN is a set of communications standards for optical fibers that carry voice, digital and video signals across phone lines. There are a variety of types of ISDN connections, each having a different bandwidth. The bandwidth controls how fast the signals can be transmitted across the phone lines. The first was DS0, which stands for digital

service zeroth level, that transmitted at 64 kilobytes per second. Today, those have been replaced with T-Lines, which are used to handle the high-speed transmission needed for network communications. The American Bell Telephone company introduced the T-carrier system in the 1960s because increasing phone usage was overloading the DS lines. There are four bandwidths available for T-lines, ranging from 1.54 Mbps and 24 channels of the T-1 line to 274.1 Mbps speed and 4,032 channels of a T-4 line. Many ISPs still pass information through T-1 lines. However, with the increasing use of the Internet, more and more problems with slow transmission have created demands for even faster lines. The T-3 line has a transmission sped of about 447.36 Mbps, and most large ISPs have had to move their customers to T-3 lines in order to provide adequate customer service. Cable Modem For many people, telephone modems have proven much too slow a medium for their Internet connection and many have moved to cable modem for their home Internet connectivity. Cable modem uses the same type of connection that cable TV uses. The interesting thing is that a TV uses very little bandwidth of the cable connection, so the same cable that brings a user cable TV service can be used to bring high-speed Internet service, A coaxial cable can carry hundreds of Megahertz but the cable TV takes up only about 6 MHz, The Internet connection takes up only about 2 MHz upstream and about 5-6 MHz downstream. Thus, even with both TV and Internet connections, the household cable line is far from overloaded. In general, the user will have to add an external cable box to the computer configuration. That cable box contains a tuner, a demodulator, a modulator, a MAC and a network hardware. The tuner receives the signals and it passes them to the demodulator. The demodulator takes radio and analog information and converts it to digital data, performs data correction functions, checks for problems in transmission and finally, passes the signal to the modulator. The modulator works with upstream traffic to convert digital signals into radio frequency signals. The MAC, sitting between the upstream and downstream components, acts as an interface between the various parts of the network protocols. A cable modem can serve up to 1,000 users at a time although at that point, performance may begin to degrade. Should that happen, all the cable network company needs to do is simply add a new channel and half the number of users per channel. A cable network can achieve speeds of up to 30 40 Mbps, which is far faster than the maximum speed of a telephone modem connection. Servers The concept of a server is very important when networks are discussed today. For a network to exist, there must be a server. Most networks today use the client-server approach. In a pure client-server approach, one computer is the core or server computer that receives requests from the client (user) computer and fulfills those requests. For example, when the user requests a site on the Internet, the server receives the requested encodes it, and sends the link onto the correct Internet address.

1. In general, a server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs in the same computer or in other computers on a network. 2. The computer that runs the server program is also frequently referred to as the server (although the server computer may contain a number of server and client programs). 3. In the client-server programming model, a server is a program that awaits and fulfills requests from client programs in the same or other computers. A given application in a computer may function as a client with request from services from other programs and a server or request from other programs.

Architecture In informatics, architecture refers to the overall physical structure, peripherals, interconnections within the computer. Computer architecture can be divided into five fundamental components: 1. input/output 2. storage 3. communications 4. control and 5. processing These are called the computers subsystems. When networks are discussed, architecture refers to how communication among the various computers in the network is accomplished. Broadly speaking, there are two types of network architectures: 1. Broadcast. Here, the communication is done by transmitting the same information to all the computers in the network that are expected to respond to it. This is typically used in LANs. 2. Point-to-point. The computer for which information is intended is identified first, and the communication is only to that particular computer. This is physically used in dial up networking, such as an individual who dials up the network through his or her ISP. Topology Topology defines how the network computers in a LAN are interconnected within a physical geographic area and describes their physical interconnection. Several possible topologies are the following: 1. Bus. A bus is a network topology or circuit arrangement in which all the node computers are directly attached to a line. Therefore, all communications travel through each of the node computers. Each computer has a unique identity and can recognize the transmission sent to it. In this fashion, all computers are connected in parallel to each other. The big advantage of this topology is that if one computer fails, other computers can still access the information. However, if the line breaks, the communication in the entire line segment is broken. 2. Star. This is a centralized structure where all computers are connected through a central computer called a server. If this central computer fails, information cannot be sent or received by any of the computers connected to that server.

3. Ring. Originally, all LAN computers were connected in a ring fashion with wires or cables that directly connected all the computers together. If one computer failed, none of the computers could communicate and share the resources. That topology has been replaced by the token ring network protocol. Token rings work by having the server pass a marker or token to the computer that is next in line to communicate. No computer can send or receive data unless it is the target of the token. In this way, collisions between two workstations that wish to transmit information at the same time are avoided. It should be noted that, generally, the token is passed so rapidly that the LAN users may never know they had to wait. A token ring structure can support networks in which the computers are up to 124 miles apart. a. Hub. A hub is form of a ring topology. It consists of backbone or main circuit, attached to a number of outgoing lines. Each of the outgoing lines can support a number of ports to which devices can be attached. Generally, hub LANs are used for a relatively small number of connected workstations. In the hub, all computers are connected to a central hub processor that contains the network software and provides for communication among the various computers on the network. For a computer to talk to one or more of the other computers on the network, it must first go through the hub. b. Arcnet. Another type of ring topology used for LANs is the arcnet. It uses what is called a token-bus system for managing line sharing among all the users on the network. It works well for LANs in which all the links are physically near each other. While not as powerful as some other topologies. It is by far the least expensive.