Functional Components of a Computer

INPUT UNIT

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT

OUTPUT UNIT

MAIN MEMORY

INPUT UNIT
If CPU is the brain, Input Devices are like eyes and ears. We enter data and commands through input devices which convert it into binary form before passing it to the CPU. Common input devices keyboard, mouse. Other input devices Trackball, trackpad, stylus, touch screens, bar code readers, scanners, OCRs, microphones, digicams.

About the Keyboard

One of the first peripherals to be used with the computer. A standard keyboard has about 100 keys and each key sends a different signal. Keys are grouped as Alphanumeric alphabet keys, number keys, Tab, Caps Lock, Backspace and Enter. Modifier Shift, Alt and Ctrl Numeric Keypad like a calculators keypad. When Num Lock is active, it inputs numbers, when it is not it works like cursor keys. Function F1, F2 These can be given specific capability. Cursor Movement to move on the screen without using the mouse. Special Purpose Start, Esc, PrtScn, Pause, Scroll Lock, Delete, Insert.

Input using the Keyboard

A key is pressed

Keyboard controller converts key into its code

- then stores it in keyboard buffer System Software

System s/w passes on keycode to CPU

sends signal to system software which reads the buffer

When the operating system (OS) is notified that there is data from the keyboard, it checks to see if the keyboard data is a command like CtrlAlt-Delete on a Windows computer, which reboots the system.
Then, the OS passes the keyboard data on to the current application. The application determines whether the keyboard data is a command, like Alt-f, which opens the File menu in a Windows application. If the data is not a command, the application accepts it as content, which can be anything from typing a document to entering a URL to performing a calculation. If the current application does not accept keyboard data, it simply ignores the information. This whole process, from pressing the key to entering content into an application, happens almost instantaneously.

About the Mouse

Mouse is a pointing device. It moves on a flat surface and controls the pointer on the screen, which generally looks like an arrow. Used to select text, access menus and interact with programs and files. Lets you position the pointer anywhere on the screen quickly. Lets you choose commands from menus and dialog boxes. Use the mouse to point and Click, Double Click, Drag and Right Click

Using the Mouse

The Mechanical Mouse is most common. It has a rubber ball that protrudes through the base. This ball rotates when the mouse moves on a flat surface. Rollers and sensors inside the mouse send signals regarding its direction, distance and speed. Using this information, the pointer is positioned on the screen.

The Optical Mouse emits a beam of light from its underside. The lights reflection is used to judge the distance, direction and speed of movement.
Joystick is a stick that can be moved in different directions. Its movements are translated into movement of the object on the screen. Trackball works like an upside-down mouse. The ball is exposed and moved using the index finger or thumb. They require less space. Trackpads or Touchpads have a touch sensitive surface and moving a finger over it is translated into pointer movement on the screen. These are commonly seen in laptop computers.

The Light Pen is a pointing device shaped like a pen and is connected to a VDU. The tip of the light pen contains a light-sensitive element which, when placed against the screen, detects the light from the screen enabling the computer to identify the location of the pen on the screen.

Bar Code Readers read bar codes that are patterns of printed bars. The pattern is converted into numeric digits that the computer can understand.

Touch screens accept input by allowing the user to place the finger directly on the screen, which is touch sensitive, to make a choice. Scanners convert any printed image into electronic form by shining light onto the image and sensing the intensity of reflection at every point.
The software used by an OCR (Optical Character Reader) looks at each character and tries to match it with its assumption of how letters should look. It is extremely complex. The MICR(or Magnetic Ink Character Reader) reads characters that are printed using special magnetic ink. A special font has been set for these characters. They are commonly seen on cheques. For spoken input, Microphones are used.

A Digital Camera can store images digitally. These can be downloaded to the computer and manipulated using graphic software. The Web Camera works the same way but it is attached to the computer. Images captured by it can be sent over networks very fast and so it is used in video communication.
A Graphic Tablet or digitizing tablet has an electronic surface on which each point represents a point on the screen. An electronic pen is used to draw or write on it. A Smart Card contains a chip with confidential data, which cannot be read visually. They are similar to Credit cards. The Smart Card Reader is a special machine that can read such cards. Biometric Sensors are used to verify a persons identity by retina scanning, fingerprint id., face recognition, voice recognition etc. It is superior to passwords and keycards.

OUTPUT UNIT
The results of processing can be seen as text, numbers or graphics on the computer screen, as sound through the speakers or as hard copies from the printer. Monitor is the most commonly used output device. Monitors may be Monochrome display only one colour against a black background. Grayscale displays various intensities of grey against a white background. Colour can display between 16 and 16 million colours. Very common now.

More on Monitors
The typical monitor looks like a TV screen. It uses a large vacuum tube called CRT or Cathode Ray Tube.

An electron gun shoots a beam of electrons through a magnetic coil, aimed at the monitor. The back of the screen is coated by phosphors, chemicals that glow when struck by electrons. This coating is in the form of a grid of dots.
The electron gun aims at every dot (pixel) on the screen, starting from the top left corner and scanning to the right edge. The path it follows to scan is left to right and top to bottom. The circuitry controls the intensity of the beam.

In a colour monitor there are 3 electron beams instead of one. Each pixel includes 3 phosphors - red, green and blue, arranged in a triangle. Different colours are displayed by combining different intensities of these beams. CRT monitors provide a bright, clear picture at relatively lower cost and are commonly used with desktop computers.
Another type of monitor which is becoming very popular is the flat panel display (or LCD monitor) which was earlier used on portable computers. Using TFT ( thin-film transistor) technology, a monitor delivers crisp text, vibrant color and an improved response time for multimedia applications.

There is a separate, tiny transistor for each pixel on the display. As the transistors are so small, the amount of charge needed to control it is also small. Tiny transistors and capacitors are arranged in a matrix on the glass of the display. To address a particular pixel, the proper row is switched on, and then a charge is sent down the correct column. Thus only the capacitor at the designated pixel receives a charge. The capacitor is able to hold the charge until the next refresh cycle. A typical 17-inch TFT monitor has about 1.3 million pixels and 1.3 million transistors. A TFT monitor can have malfunctioning or "dead pixels". A dead pixel is a pixel whose transistor has failed, thereby creating no display image. On a solid black background, dead pixels will stand out as tiny dots of red, white or blue.

Speakers and Printers

A Speaker is essentially the final translation machine -- the reverse of the microphone. It takes the electrical signal and translates it back into physical vibrations to create sound waves. When everything is working as it should, the speaker produces nearly the same vibrations that the microphone originally recorded and encoded on a tape, CD, LP, etc.

Printers give output on paper. Printers are divided into 2 categories Impact and Non-Impact Printers In Impact printers, there is contact between print head and paper. They may be line printers or character printers. Dot matrix printers are impact character printers. In Non-Impact Printers there is no contact between the print head and paper. Examples are Inkjet printers, Laser Printers.

Dot matrix printers have a head that moves in horizontal direction. The printhead controller sends electrical signals which forces the appropriate wires to strike against the inked ribbon, making dots on the paper and forming the desired characters. The most commonly used printer heads has 9 print wires in one column.

An Inkjet printer places extremely small droplets of ink onto paper to create an image. The dots are extremely small (usually between 50 and 60 microns in diameter), they are tinier than the diameter of a human hair (70 microns)! The dots are positioned very precisely, with resolutions of up to 1440x720 dots per inch (dpi). The dots can have different colors combined together to create photo-quality images.

In Laser Printers a focused laser beam and a rotating mirror are used to draw an image of the desired page on a photosensitive drum. This image is converted on the drum into an electrostatic charge, which attracts and holds toner. A piece of electro statically charged paper is rolled against the drum, which pulls the toner away from the drum and onto the paper. Heat is then applied to fuse the toner to the paper. Finally, the electrical charge is removed from the drum and the excess toner is collected.
Plotter are mainly used for technical drawings and graphs. A Drum Plotter has paper mounted on a rotating drum and a pen that can move up, down, right or left. Movement of the drum and the pen are controlled by the computer. A FlatBed Plotter has a horizontal plotting surface over which the pen moves horizontally or vertically.

The CPU (Central Processing Unit)

CPU CU

ALU

The component of the computer that fetches the instructions and data from the memory and carries out the instructions in the form of data manipulation and numerical calculations is called the CPU. All the memory and the input/output devices must connect to the CPU. The CPU has 2 main parts the CU (Control Unit) and ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit).

The ALU performs all arithmetic (+, -, *, /) and logical (>, <, =, >=, <=, !=).
The CU controls and guides the interpretation and flow of data and instructions. The CU sends control signals so that operations can be carried out. Intel Corporation, AMD, Motorola are some important microprocessor manufacturers.

Memory - where data and instructions are stored.

Primary or Main Memory data and instructions must be in main memory to be executed. It can be of 2 types - RAM & ROM. RAM (Random Access Memory) is volatile, needs power to store data and instructions in use. Random implies that any part of it is accessible at any time. ROM (Read Only Memory) is non-volatile, holds data & instructions even when the computer is unplugged. The data & instructions are permanently stored at the factory and during normal usage, it can be read and used, not changed.

To keep the fastest CPUs running full speed, microprocessor engineers started inserting a few of the fast and small memories between the main large RAM and the microprocessor. The purpose of this smaller memory is to hold instructions that get repeatedly executed or data that is accessed often. This smaller memory is called cache. Now we have L1 and L2 cache for level one and level two. Secondary Memory is used to store large amounts of data, permanently. Examples of secondary storage devices are floppy, hard disk, magnetic tape, CD, DVD.