Keyboard

The keyboard was the one of the first peripheral to be used with computers and it is still the primary
input device for entering text and numbers. A standard keyboard includes about 104 keys.

Working style of keyboard

We might think the keyboard simply sends the letter of a pressed key to the computer but actually the
process is more complex than that. It follow the following step to complete the tasks.

Step 1 : Key is pressed on the keyboard.

Step 2 : the keyboard controller sends the scan code for the key to the keyboard buffer.

Step 3 : the keyboard controller sends an interrupt request to the system software.

Step 4: the System Software responds to the interrupt by reading the scan code from the keyboard
buffer.

Step 5 :The System Software passes the scan code to the CPU.

E.g. if you typed the letter ‘a’ the controller immediately issues an interrupt request. If you hold down
the shift key before typing the letter ‘a’ the controller waits until the whole key combination has been
entered.

The standard keyboard layout

1. The Alphanumeric keys :

A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and special characters

2. The Numeric keypad :

0-9, mathematical operations keys etc

3. The Function Keys :

F1 – F12

4. The modifier keys / Control Keys :

a. Shift : b. Ctrl : c. Alt :
5. The Cursor Movement Keys :
a. Arrow keys : b. Home / End : c. Page up / Page down
6. Special purpose keys :
a. Insert : b. Delete : c. ESC : d. Print screen : e. Tab : f. Caps Lock : g. Backspace: h. Enter
:
a. Space Bar: j. Scroll lock : k. Pause: l. Start /windows : m. Shortcut:

Mouse A mouse is a input device that rolls around on a flat surface and controls the pointer. The
pointer is an on screen object, usually an arrow that is used to select text, access menus and interact

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with programs, files or data that appears on the screen. Mouse can only be used under graphical
interface. Mouse is kept on a pad called mouse pad for the safety of the plastic ball which is present
below side of the mouse. Today we are using optical mouse instead of ball mouse. There is no working
difference in both type of mouse. The only difference is that optical mouse uses a light beam instead
of a ball.

Using the Mouse

There are usually the three buttons are present on the mouse – left, right and scroll button. With the
help of these button we can do the following tasks –

1. Clicking : it means the left button pressed and released after move the pointer on the item.
2. Double Clicking : it means point the item with mouse pointer and then press and release the
mouse button twice in rapid succession.
3. Dragging : Dragging an item means to position the mouse button and hold it down as you
move the mouse, the item is dragged along with pointer then drop the item in the new
position on the screen.
4. Right Clicking :It is used to open the shortcut menus.
5. Scrolling :we can use the scroll button for various purpose one of which is scrolling through
long document.

Trackball
It is also the input device and same as the mouse, but it is designed with a moveable ball on the top,
which can be rolled in any direction. Instead of moving the whole device you simply roll the moveable
ball on the top of the trackball. A trackball requires less space than a mouse because you do not move
the whole device. When space is limited a trackball can be an advantageous.

Trackpad
The trackpad also called a touchpad is a stationary pointing device that many people find less tiring to
use than a mouse or trackball. The movement of a finger across a small touch surface is translated
into pointer movement on the computer screen. The touch sensitive surface may be only 1.5 or 2 “
square, so that the finger never has to move far.Like mouse trackpads usually are separate from the
key board in desktop computers and attach to the computer through a cord. Trackpad include two or
three button that performs the same function as mouse buttons. One drawback of trackpads is that
they must be kept clean and dust free. Build up of dust and oils from the user’s finger can affect a
trackpad’s performance making it less sensitive to the touch.

Joystick
Joystick is also a general purpose input device and also used in windows based application. It consists
a stick that attached with base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling.Joysticks
are often used to control video games, and one or more push button whose state can also be read by
the computer. Joysticks are also used for controlling machines such as cranes, trucks etc.

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 Input Device

In computing, an input device is a piece of equipment used to provide data and control signals to an
information processing system such as a computer or information appliance. Examples of input
devices include keyboards, mouse, scanners, cameras, joysticks, and microphones.

Scanner
Definition: An image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner, is a device that optically
scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image

→Basically there are four types of scanner

1. Flatbed scanner – This types of scanner is usually found on a desktop.you put the document
On a glass pannel and a scan head moves below it .

2. Sheet bed scanner – with this scanner you place document into a fodder and they move
through the scanner while the scan head remains still .

3. Hand held scanner – In this case of scanner head is passed over the document.these scanner
don’t usually produce high quality images.

4. Photo scanner – This kind of scanner uses a photo multiplier tube to reproduce a very detailed
information.

• MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) – It is a character recognition system that

uses special ink and characters .

When a document that contains this ink needs to be read it passes through a machine, which

magnitize the ink and translates the magnetic information into characters. MICR technology is
used by bank numbers and characters found on the button of check are printed using magnetic
ink. To print magnetic ink we need a laser printer that accepts MICR toner. MICR provides secure,
High Speed methods of scanning and processing information

• OCR (optical character recognition) - it is a method of converting of scanned image

into text.

When a page is scanned it is typically stored as image file . When the image is displayed on
the screen we can’t read it. But for the computer it is just a series of black and white dots . The
computer doesn’t recognise any word on the image. In OCR processing, the scanned image or

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 bitmap is analysed for light and dark a reads in order to identify each alphabetic letter or
numeric digits. When a character is recognised it is converted into a ASCII code . Special circuit
boards and computer chip designed specially for OCR are used to speed the recognition
process. OCR can be very powerful tool to produce a text version of the scanned image. Once
a text file has been created, it becomes possible to learns a text search and locate any page
with a given word or set of words.

• OMR(optical mark recognition)-Optical mark recognition (also called optical mark reading
and OMR) is the process of capturing human-marked data from document forms such as surveys
and tests. They are used to read questionnaires, multiple choice examination paper in the form of
lines or shaded areas.

• BCR (Bar Code Reader)

A Bar Code reader is an electronic device which is used for reading printed barcodes. It is also
referred to as a point of sale or price scanner. This device directs a light beam across the bar
code while it measures the amount of light which is reflected back. Bar Code Reader is
basically used in shopping malls to detect the product details from the hidden code.

Voice Recognition
Voice recognition is a computer technology that utilizes audio input for entering data rather than a
keyboard. Speaking into the microphone produces the same result as typing words manually with a
keyboard. Voice recognition system is designed with an internal database of recognizable words or
phrases. The program matches the audio signature of speech with corresponding entries in the
database.

Digitizing Tablet
A digitizing tablet is a tool used to convert hand drawn images into a format suitable for computer
processing. Images are usually drawn on a flat surface with a wired or wireless pen or puck and then
appear on a computer monitor or screen.

Tablets typically support two modes of operations –digitizing mode i.e. wherever the tablet is touched
the screen is drawn in the exact same location. In contrast “mouse mode” moves the screen pointer
relative to any starting position on the tablet surface, just like an ordinary computer mouse.

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 Output Device -
 An output device is any electronic or electromechanical equipment connected to a computer
and used to transfer data out of the computer in the form of paste, images , sounds or other
media.Since more information from a computer is output in either a visual or audiotory
format
. The most common devices are monitor ,printer and speaker.

Monitor -. The term monitor is often used synonymsly with computer screen or display.
The monitor displays the video and graphical information generated by the computer through
the video Card. Monitors are very much similar to television but usually displays information
at a much higher resolution. New monitors have features that include different resolution ,
response time contrast differences , different brightness quality and different connector for
enhance their performance.

Modern monitors is typically a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) with LED
backlighting having replaced cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlighting. Older
monitors used a cathode ray tube (CRT). Monitors are connected to the computer via VGA,
Digital Visual Interface (DVI), HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, low-voltage differential
signaling (LVDS) or other proprietary connectors and signals.

Originally, computer monitors were used for data processing while television sets were used
for entertainment. From the 1980s onwards, computers (and their monitors) have been used
for both data processing and entertainment, while televisions have implemented some
computer functionality. The common aspect ratio of televisions, and computer monitors, has
changed from 4:3 to 16:10, to 16:9.

Computer monitors were formerly known as visual display units (VDU),

• Multiple technologies have been used for computer monitors. Until the 21 st century most used
cathode ray tubes but they have largely been superseded by LCD monitors.

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Cathode ray tube The first computer monitors used cathode ray tubes (CRTs).
Prior to the advent of home computers in the late 1970s, it was common for a video display
terminal (VDT) using a CRT to be physically integrated with a keyboard and other components
of the system . High-resolution CRT displays were developed for the specialized military,
industrial and scientific applications but they were far too costly for general use.

Liquid crystal display

Liquid-crystal display and Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display
There are multiple technologies that have been used to implement liquid crystal displays
(LCD).
TFT-LCD is a variant of LCD which is now the dominant technology used for computer
monitors.[5]

The first standalone LCDs appeared in the mid-1990s selling for high prices. As prices declined
over a period of years they became more popular, and by 1997 were competing with CRT
monitors. Among the first desktop LCD computer monitors was the Eizo L66 .

Organic light-emitting diode

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) monitors provide higher contrast, better color
reproduction and viewing angles than LCDs but they require more power when displaying
documents with white or bright backgrounds and have a severe problem known as burn-in,
just like CRTs. They are less common than LCD monitors and are often more expensive.

Measurements of performance
The performance of a monitor is measured by the following parameters:

Luminance is measured in candelas per square meter (cd/m2 also called a Nit).
Color depth is measured in bits per primary color or bits for all colors. Those with 10-bits or
more are HDR monitors, which can display more shades of colors (approx. 1 billion shades)
than traditional 8 bit monitors (approx. 16.6 million shades or colors).

Aspect ratio is the ratio of the horizontal length to the vertical length. Monitors usually
have the aspect ratio 4:3, 5:4, 16:10 or 16:9. Until about 2003, most computer monitors had a
4:3 aspect ratio and some had 5:4. Between Monitors with 16:9 and mostly 16:10 (8:5) aspect
ratios became commonly available.

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Display resolution is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be
displayed. For a given display size, maximum resolution is limited by dot pitch or DPI.

Dot pitch is, in CRTs, the distance between sub-pixels of the same color in millimeters. In
LCDs it is instead measured in pixels per inch or dots per inch (PPI or DPI), In general, the
smaller the dot pitch, or the higher the PPI or DPI, the sharper the picture will appear.

Refresh rate is (in CRTs) the number of times in a second that the display is illuminated.
(The number of times a second a raster scan is completed) In LCDs it is the number of times
the image can be changed per second. Measured in Hertz (Hz). Maximum refresh rate is
limited by response time. Determines the maximum number of frames per second (FPS) a
monitor is capable of showing.

Response time is the time a pixel in a monitor takes to go from active (white) to
inactive (black) and back to active (white) again, measured in milliseconds. Lower numbers
mean faster transitions and therefore fewer visible image artifacts such as ghosting.

Display lag is the time (measured in miliseconds (ms) it takes for a monitor to display an
image after receiving it.

Contrast ratio is the ratio of the luminosity of the brightest color (white) to that of the
darkest color (black) that the monitor is capable of producing simultaneously. For example, a
ratio of 20,000:1 means that its brightest white can be 20,000 times brighter than its darkest
black. Dynamic contrast ratio is measured with the LCD backlight turned off.
Power consumption is measured in watts.

Delta-E: Color accuracy is measured in delta-E; the lower the delta-E, the more accurate
the color representation. A delta-E of below 1 is imperceptible to the human eye. Delta-Es of 2
to 4 are considered good and require a sensitive eye to spot the difference.

Viewing angle is the maximum angle at which images on the monitor can be viewed,
without excessive degradation to the image. It is measured in degrees horizontally and
vertically.

Display size is usually by monitor manufacturers given by the diagonal, i.e. the distance
between two opposite screen corners.

The estimation of the monitor size by the distance between opposite corners does not take
into account the display aspect ratio, so that for example a 16:9 21-inch (53 cm) widescreen

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 display has less area, than a 21-inch (53 cm) 4:3 screen. The 4:3 screen has dimensions of 16.8
in × 12.6 in (43 cm × 32 cm) and area 211 sq in (1,360 cm2), while the widescreen is 18.3 in ×
10.3 in (46 cm × 26 cm), 188 sq in (1,210 cm2).

Display resolution
the most commonly sold resolution for computer monitors is 1920x1080.[14] Before 2013 top-
end consumer LCD monitors were limited to 2560x1600 at 30 in (76 cm).

Gamut
Every RGB monitor has its own color gamut, bounded in chromaticity by a color triangle. Some
of these triangles are smaller than the sRGB triangle, some are larger. Colors are typically
encoded by 8 bits per primary color. The RGB value [255, 0, 0] represents red, but slightly
different colors in different color spaces such as AdobeRGB and sRGB. Displaying sRGB-
encoded data on wide-gamut devices can give an unrealistic result.[15] The gamut is a
property of the monitor; the image color space can be forwarded as Exif metadata in the
picture. As long as the monitor gamut is wider than the color space gamut, correct display is
possible, if the monitor is calibrated. A picture that uses colors that are outside the sRGB color
space will display on an sRGB color space monitor with limitations.

• Analog and Digital Monitor

Analog- Analog is a traditional type of colored display screen that has been used for
years in television. In reality all monitors based on CRT(cathode Red tube) technology are
Analog. Some monitors how ever are called digital monitor because they accepts digital signal
from the video adapter. Some monitors can accept both digital and Analog signal. A digital
monitor is a monitor that accepts Digital rather than analog signal. The term digital refers only
to the type of input received from the video adapter. A digital monitor then translates the
digital signal into analog signal that control the actual display . Digital monitors are fast and
they produce clear images,they can’t display continuosly variable colour.

• Printer- in computing, a printer is a peripheral device which makes a

persistent representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output
is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for
printers.[2] The different types of printers include 3D printer, inkjet printer, laser
printer, thermal printer, etc.

History
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The first electronic printer was the EP-101, invented by Japanese company Epson and released in
1968.
The first computer printer designed was a mechanically driven apparatus by Charles
Babbage for his difference engine in the 19th century.
The introduction of the low-cost laser printer in 1984 with the first HP LaserJet.

Dot Matrix Printer is commonly used in work palace where physical impact with
the paper is important.it creates an image by a current heat which contain a matrix of
shorts pins arranged in one or more column. The printers can push any of the pins out in
any combination . by pushing out pins in various combinations the print head can create
alphanumerics characters.when pushed out from the matrix the pins strike upon the
ribbon which is placed between the print head and the paper.when the pins strike upon
the ribbon they press ink from the ribbon onto a piece of paper.its speed is near about 50-
500 words per min.

A daisywheel printer is an impact printer that uses wheel as an print head .this
printer had a disk on which all the various letters,numbers,and symbols are present when
the printer received a print job,it would spin around that disk and print out each and
every character similar to the way that a traditional typewriter that has one button for
each character that send out the pin to impact the ribbon and transfer ink to the paper In
the shape of the appropriate letter.

• Advantage
-Low maintenance
-Low cost
-Can create carbon copy
• Disadvantage
-Noisy
-No graphics
-Limited number of characters

Line printer is an impact printer.line printer can print one line at a time. They can
print 300-3000 line per min.it is also called bar printer. Ex-IBM 1403

• Two types of line printer.

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1.Drum printer- in the drum printer characters are raised in a cylindrical drum.
Values of all characters are stored in the printer buffer. When a character has to be
Printed the printer sends the information to the printer buffer. Then printer buffer is
rotated and when the code matched the character is printed by striking the hammer.
There is a carbon ribbon in between the drum hammer and paper so when the hammer
strikes an impression is produced .

2. Chain printer- An early line printer that used type slugs linked together in a
chain as its printing mechanism. The chain spins horizontally around a set of hammers.
When the desired character is in front of the selected print column, the corresponding
hammer hits the paper into the ribbon and onto the character in the chain. Chain and
train printers gave way to band printers in the early 1980s.

Inkjet printer- Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates

a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates.] Inkjet
printers are the most commonly used type of printer, and range from small inexpensive
consumer models to expensive professional machines. inkjet printers that could reproduce

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digital images generated by computers were developed, mainly by Epson, Hewlett-
Packard (HP) and Canon.

Laser Printer-Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It

produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by
repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively charged cylinder called a

"drum" to define a differentially charged image.[1] The drum then selectively collects
electrically charged powdered ink (toner), and transfers the image to paper, which is then
heated in order to permanently fuse the text, imagery, or both, to the paper. As with
digital photocopiers, laser printers employ a xerographic printing process. Laser printing
differs from traditional xerography as implemented in analog photocopiers in that in the
latter, the image is formed by reflecting light off an existing document onto the exposed
drum.

Advantage
1. Faster printing speed
2. Cleaning of laser is easy task

Disadvantage

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1.

Plotter- A plotter is a computer hardware device much like a printer that is used
for printing vector graphics. Instead of toner, plotters use a pen, pencil,marker, or another
writing tool to draw multiple, continuous lines onto paper rather than a series of dots like

a traditional printer. Though once widely used for computer-aided design, these devices
have more or less been phased out by wide-format printers. Plotters produce a hard
copy of schematics and other similar applications.

Advantages of plotters
• Plotters can work on very large sheets of paper while maintaining high resolution.

• They can print on a wide variety of flat materials including plywood, aluminum,

sheet steel, cardboard, and plastic.

• Plotters allow the same pattern to be drawn thousands of times without any image

degradation.

Disadvantages of plotters
• Plotters Plotters are quite large compared to a traditional printer.

• are also much more expensive than a traditional printer.

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*When was the first plotter invented?
The first plotter was invented in 1953 by Remington-Rand. It was used in conjunction with
the UNIVAC computer to created technical drawings.

Storage Device -

A storage device is any type of computing hardware that is used for storing,
porting or extracting data files and objects. Storage devices can hold and store
information both temporarily and permanently. They may be internal or external
to a computer, server or computing device.Ex- floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic
strip, optical storage device,blue ray disc, DVD-R, DVD+R, memory card,Cloud
storage,flash memory device,CD-R,OMR, punch card etc.

Sound Card-The sound card is an expansion card that allows the computer
to send audio information to an audio device like speakers or a pair of
headphones.A sound card is an rectangular in shape with numerous contacts on
the bottom of the card and multiple ports on the side for connection to audio
devices such as speakers. The sound card is installed in a PCI (Peripherals
component interconnect) slots on the motherboard.

Speaker-Speaker are one of the most common output devices used with
computer systems. Some speakers are designed to work specially with computer.
The purpose of speaker to produce audio output that can be heard by the
listener.Speakers convert electromagnetic waves into sound waves. The speaker
receives audio input from a device such as a computer or an audio receiver. This
input may be either in analog or digital form. Analog speakers simply amplify
(convert) the analog electromagnetic waves into sound waves. Since sound waves
are produced in analog form, digital speakers must first convert the digital input
to an analog signal, then generate the sound waves.

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Projector- A projector is an output device that projects an image onto a large
surface, such as a white screen or wall. It may be used an alternative to a monitor
or television when showing video or images to a large group of people.Projectors
come in many shapes and sizes. They can be mounted on ceilings or may be
freestanding and portable. Ceiling-mounted projectors are typically larger,
especially ones that project a long distance (such as 30 feet or more). These
projectors are commonly found in classrooms, conference rooms, auditoriums, and
places of worship.

Portable projectors can used wherever there is a bright surface (such as a white or
light colored wall). Most projectors have multiple input sources, such as HDMI
ports for newer equipment and VGA ports for older devices. Some projectors
support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well.

High-quality projectors used to cost thousands of dollars and the bulbs alone
could cost more than a hundred dollars.

Storage Device - It is also referred as storage media. A storage device are

hardware devices that are capable of storing information in a computer. The
storage devices come in several sizes and shapes and some are non removable
while other are removable. Storage hardware provides a capability to store data
and program instructions either temporarily or permanently, for quick retrieval
and use during computer processing.

Primary vs Secondary Storage

Primary Memory (Main Memory)

Primary memory holds only those data and instructions on which the computer is
currently working. It has a limited capacity and data is lost when power is switched

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off. It is generally made up of semiconductor device. These memories are not as
fast as registers. The data and instruction required to be processed resides in the
main memory. It is divided into two subcategories RAM and ROM.

 Characterstic of Main Memory

 These are semiconductor memories.

 It is known as the main memory.

 Usually volatile memory.

 Data is lost in case power is switched off.

 It is the working memory of the computer.

 Faster than secondary memories.

 A computer cannot run without the primary memory.

Secondary Memory

This type of memory is also known as external memory or non-volatile. It is slower

than the main memory. These are used for storing data/information permanently.
CPU directly does not access these memories, instead they are accessed via input-
output routines. The contents of secondary memories are first transferred to the
main memory, and then the CPU can access it. For example, disk, CD-ROM, DVD,
etc.

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Characteristics of Secondary Memory

 These are magnetic and optical memories.

 It is known as the backup memory.

 It is a non-volatile memory.

 Data is permanently stored even if power is switched off.

 It is used for storage of data in a computer.

 Computer may run without the secondary memory.

 Slower than primary memories.

Data Storage and retrieval method

1.Sequential Method

Here the records are arranged in the ascending or descending order of a key field
which may be numeric or alphabetic. Here to have an access to a particular record
each record must be examined until we get the desired record. This is more
flexible and more organised. In this method records are kept in some predefined
order. Retrieval is achieved by scanning the entries in the same order. E.g.
001,002,003……… etc. so if we want to record number 200 then the records 001 to
199 have to be scanned first.

Advantage

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 1. Simple to understand.

2. Easy to maintain and organised.

3. Loading a record requires only the record key.

4. Relatively inexpensive devices can be used.

5. The speed of processing the record is high.

Disadvantage

• Entire file must be processed.

• Transactions must be stored and placed in sequence prior to processing.

• Impossible to handle random inquiries.

2.Direct / Random file organization

A random file is a file where the records are placed at an address which is get by
the calculations performed on a key field. This calculation is called as hashing
algorithm. In this type of organization records are accessed directly from any
locations. For this computer performs the hashing algorithm on the key field of
the records, resulting in an address of a block and the computer stores the record
in that block.

Advantage.

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 • Records can be immediately accessed for updation.

• Several files can be simultaneously updated during transaction process.

• Transactions need not be stored.

• Very fast to handle random enquiries.

• Most suitable for interactive online application.

Disadvantage

• Data may be accidentally erased or over written, unless special precautions

are taken,

• Risks of loss of accuracy.

• Less efficient use of storage space.

• Expensive hardware and software required.

• High complexity in programming.

3.Indexed Sequential Method

In an indexed sequential access method system data is organised into records

which are composed of fixed length fields. Records are stored sequentially and a
separate file is kept for indexes. An indexed file system consists of a pair of files.
One holding the data and one storing an index to that data. The index file store

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the address of the records on the main file. There more than one index created for
a data file.

Advantage.

1.Permits efficient and economic use of sequential processing technique when the
activity rate is high.

2.Permits quick access to records in a relatively efficient way.

Disadvantage

1.Does not use the storage space efficiently.

2.Hardware and software are used relatively expensive.

Various Storage Device

Magnetic Tape(Cartridge Tape)

Magnetic tape is a plastic tape with magnetic coating. Magnetic tapes are cheaper
storage media. They are durable, can be written, erased and re –written.Large
organizations that need to back up their systems daily tend to use magnetic tapes
to store their data. Magnetic tapes can store up to one terabyte of uncompressed
data as much as can store on a hard disk. Magnetic tapes uses serial access to find
a piece of data. This means that to find a specific piece of data, the tape reader has

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to be start at the beginning of the tape and continue fast forwarding until it gets
to the piece of data that needed.

Magnetic Disks(Direct Access Storage)

The primary computer storage device, like tape, it is also magnetically recorded
and can be re- recorded over and over. Disks are rotating platters with a
mechanical arm that moves a read/write head between the outer and inner edges
of platters surface. This disks surface is divided into concentric tracks(circles within
circles). Tracks are further divided into sectors. Modern disks have more sectors in
the outer radius of the platter is greater than the inner radius.

FLOPPY Disk

Also called a diskette or winchester disks. It was introduced in 1972 by the IBM as
a low cost storage component for its personal computers. It is a flexible circular
component made up of high quality plastic material i.e. coated with a layer of
IRON OXIDE. This layer of oxide can be magnetised to write the data.The floppy is
covered with a rectangular thick plastic jacket for safely purpose and easy to
handle. This jacket have some hole for different purpose –

1.Central hole : on this hole the floppy is fixed with the spindle of drive.

2.Head access hole : From this hole the read / write head of the drive touches the
floppy either to write or read the data.

3.Index hole : From this hole the drive lense sense the floppy therefore it indicates
the 1st sector.

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4.Write protected notch or tab : By closing this notch we can prevent writing on
the floppy.

To access the data it is required to store it in an organized way. This organization

is done by logically divide the floppy into parts. These parts are called as tracks
and sectors.Tracks are concentric paths having a number to be identified. The first
track has the no. zero and the outermost track on a floppy may vary from 40 to
100.Sectors are small segments of the tracks. They are numbered from 1,2,3………
it could be upto 9,15 or 20. Data on floppy is stored as sector by sector and track
by track.

Floppies are available in three different sizes.----

1. 3.5 “ – this type of floppy is called micro disk. They are of high storage
density element and can store 1.44mb or 2.88mb of data.

2. 5.25” – these are called mini diskette but not in used today. Its storage
capacity varies from type to type. It is available in 1.2 mb of data.

3. 8” – it is also not in used today. Its storage capacity is 200KB.

Hard Disk - It is a high capacity, high speed rotational storage device. It

combines both the disk and drive. A hard disk may have two or more than two
disks stacked one over another. Each disk is called as platter i.e. made up of
metals and coated by a layer of cobalt oxide. The rigid metallic platters have a
very high density therefore harddisk store a very large amount of data. H.D.
used with mainframe and super computer have the strong capacity measured
in TB. Even hard disk used with modern computer upto 1 TB. It is available in
the size of 5”, 7”, 9”. Each of them has storage capacity varies from some MB
to Some GB.

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In HDD every platter has its own pair of read/write head attached with an arm
move from upward and downward. The stack are attached with a spindle
connected with a motor. The complete set is rotated by this motor with the great
speed.

The data on hard disk are also arranged like floppy i.e. it is also divided into tracks
and sectors. The no of tracks on a hard disk is ranged from 128 to 4096 but in the
hard disk there are more than one disk therefore the data accessing differs from
the floppy. One tracks on every surface of every platter is accessed by the heads
to read / write data after that it is move to the next track. The approach of data
accessing is called as cylinder on a HDD pack, depends upon the no. of track on a
surface. Data reading speed as well as data copy rate from hard disk to processor
is very fast, because its rotational speed is very fast.

It is much durable because it is made up of metallic substance. It provides more

data security because it is fixed and there is no possibilities to come in contact of
magnet, finger, touch, dust etc. that are the reason for data losting.

Zip drive A zip drive is a small portable disk drive used primarily for backing
up and achieving personal computer files. The trademark zip drive was developed
and is sold by Iomega corporations. Zip drives and disks come in two sizes – The
100 MB data size and 250MB data size. Zip drive became very popular in late
1990s however became less popular as users needed larger storage capacity’s
storage media. This drive was later replaced by larger and cheaper CD-R and CD-
RW drives and disks.

Optical Disks

Optical disks have tiny pits burned into a thin coating of metal or other material
deposited on disk. This pit pattern represent the stream of digital data used in

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encode images and sounds. When the optical disk placed in disk play back device a
beam of laser light is used to read the pit pattern and convert into audio visual
signal.

The optical disk contains spiral tracks to store data of multimedia applications.
These tracks are again divided into sectors to better organise the data. For reading
information optical disk has to be mounted on a optical disk drive which contains
a motor to rotate the disk and a lense that reflects the laser light. The capacity of
disk may range from 500 MB to 17 GB.

Compact Disk(CD)

The size of CD is 4.5”. information is stored on a CD by using a laser beam to each

pits into a thin metallic layer. CD-ROM was adopted from audio CDs developed in
mid 1970s by Sony and Philips with PC, it is used since mid of 1980s. There are
several form of CDs.

1. CD-R : This kind of CD have pre recorded data produced by the company
and can be used to play back only. To play such CD a drive having only
reading capabilities is required.

2. CD-W : This kind of CD can be used to write the users data ones after that it
can be read whenever we need to play this kind of CD we require a drive
having to both read / Write capability.

3. CD-RW : this is the CD which allows us to write, read, erase and again
rewrite the data.

DVD(Digital Versatile Disk)

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It has the same size as the CD but it is called versatile because it appears to design
it for use as auxiliary computer memory. DVD technology uses a higher frequency
and shorter wave length, laser is used to make each pits on the DVD. So the pits
are smaller. Furthermore the DVD spiral tracks are more dense so capacity is much
higher.

Like the CDs there are DVD-R,DVD-W, DVD-RW form available. To play different
kind of DVDs, separate drives are required.

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