ilbiscom's Blog

by andreas lee

Have you ever know what is contained by your computer? Computer is a complex machine that contains variety hardware and each of them has different function. As a computer user, you need to know about the hardware which work together make computer become a complex machine.

Currently, 6 types of hardware are consisted in a computer system but some advanced computers have a few more hardware. This article will explain the name of every hardware and their job in a computer system. I will explain step by step from the lower level based on their function.

1. Power Supply Unit

Power supply form is like rectangular box that supplies power to the other components. Its position is generally on the corner of CPU. To locate it, take a look on the back of computer where it is linked with the power cable.

Recent power supplies come with 50 watt increments, for instance 350 watts, 400 watts, 450 watts, etc.

2. Motherboard

Motherboard is the brain of a computer, also known as mainboard and system board. All components are connected to motherboard and through it, these hardware are work together.

3. Central Processing Unit (CPU)

CPU is the very important component. Its basic function is running all of computer programs. Sequence of numbers representing the programs that kept in computer memory.

It is also controlling and operating the other units operations in the computer system. Each hardware has their own specifications and these specifications are calculated to generate computer system performance. The faster the performance, the faster the data access while using computer.

CPU performance is also measured based on processor speed in gigahertz (GHz) which has developed more than 3.8 GHz today.

4. RAM (Random Access Memory)

RAM is a data storage form. There are different types of RAM with different speeds. When pay money for a RAM memory, you should choose the compatible type with your motherboard so it can work properly. The higher RAM installed in your computer, the higher speed will be delivered by the computer.

5. Hard drive

Hard drive is a place to save entirely files in a computer includes game applications, software, operating system, etc.

Recently, hard drive capacity size is getting larger along with the size of data and more than 1 TB capacity of internal hard drive has been invented. With that large hard drive capacity, you’re able to store a huge amount of data without being afraid the hard drive is full.

6. Cooling fan

The louder smooth sound heard when you use computer is coming from cooling fan. The cooling fan helps the computer system temperature keep in low level. Without it, the temperature is easily to get hot since the heat generated by the other hardware while they are running. It gets the heat out of the CPU in order to make computer works well in secured temperature.

For additional hardware, external hard drive is a stand alone hardware separate with those six components. This external device is must-have computer accessory since it can be a backup tool for your valuable files and it is easy to taken handy because of its weightlessness and portability.

Please check over on the other articles in SanDisk Cruzer Micro drive and Sony camcorders hard drive

Article Source: U Publish Articles

Voice Recognition and Response
Voice recognition and voice response (in their infancy) promise to be the easiest method of providing user interface for data entry and conversational computing, since speech is the easiest, most natural means of human communication.

Voice Recognition: These systems analyze and classify speech or vocal tract patterns and convert them into digital codes for entry into a computer system.
Used in work situations where operators need to perform data entry without using their hands to key in data or instructions, or where it would be faster and more accurate input.

Voice Response: These systems are more developed that voice recognition. Devices range from mainframe audio-response units to voice-messaging minicomputers to speech synthesizer microprocessors.
Used to guide operators through the steps of a task, and also used to allow computers to respond to verbal and touch-tone input over the telephone.

Optical and Magnetic Recognition

Optical scanning: An input device (scanner) that scans characters or images and generates their digital representations. They include optical character recognition (OCR) equipment that can read special-purpose characters and codes, and wands that are used to read data on merchandise tags and other media.

Magnetic Data Entry:  The machine recognition of characters printed with magnetic ink. Primarily used for check processing magnetic ink character recognition (MICR by the banking industry. Another form of magnetic data entry is the magnetic stripe technology used to machine read credit cards.

Storage Trends and Trade-Offs:  Data and information need to be stored after input, during processing, and before output.

Storage Trends: Away from paper documents stored in filing cabinets to computer-based information storage.

Storage Trade-Offs: As access speed increases, storage capacity decreases, and the cost per bit increases.

Semiconductor memories are used mainly for primary storage. Trade off is that a lose or interruption of electrical power results in lost data.

Magnetic disk, tape, and optical disk devices are used as secondary storage to enlarge the storage capacity of computer systems. Advantage is that the data is more secure than semiconductor memory as it is more permanent.

source: Business Computing

Video Input/Output

Video & Multimedia Input: Input can take the form of a video images captured with a TV receiver, camcorder, or VCR that can be digitized and compressed for storage on magnetic or optical disk.

Video Output: Video displays are the most common type of computer output. Most video displays use a cathode ray tube (CRT) technology.

Liquid crystal displays (LCD's) are commonly used for portable microcomputers and terminals. They use less electricity that the CRT and provide a thin, flat display.

Plasma display - use electrically charged particles of gas (plasma) trapped between glass plates. They are significantly more expensive than CRT and LCD units. However, they use less power and provide for faster display speed and better quality displays.

Printed Output
After video displays, printed output is the most common form of visual output for the user interface. Most computers use printers to produce permanent (hard copy) output in human-readable form.

Plotters: Are output devices that draw graphics displays on paper, they also produce printed paper output.

Impact Printers: Are printers that form characters and other images on paper through the impact of a printing mechanism that presses a printing element and an inked ribbon or roller against the face of a sheet of paper (e.g., dot matrix printers, high-speed line printers).

Non-impact printers Are printers which do not utilize a printing mechanism (e.g., laser printers and ink jet printers).

source: Business Computing

Pointing Devices
Pointing devices allow end users to issue commands or make choices by moving a cursor on the display screen. Pointing devices allow the user to easily choose from menu selections and icon displays using point-and-click or point-and-drag methods.

Icons - are small figures that look like familiar devices. e.g. file folder, wastebasket, calculator, calender etc. Using icons helps simplify computer use since they are easier to use with point devices than menus and other text-based displays.   Examples of pointing devices are:  1. electronic mouse 2. trackball 3. point stick 4. touch-sensitive screens

Electronic Mouse: is a device used to move the cursor on the screen, as well as to issue commands and make icon and menu selections.

Trackball: is a device used to move the cursor on the display screen.

Point Stick: is a small button like device, sometimes likened to the eraser head of a pencil. The cursor moves in the direction of the pressure you place on the trackpoint.

Touch-Sensitive Screens: is a device that accepts data input by the placement of a finger on or close to the CRT screen.

Pen-Based Computing:  End users can write or draw directly on a video screen or on other surfaces using a variety of pen like devices. Light pen and graphics pad technologies are being used in a new generation of pen-based personal computers and personal digital assistants that recognize handwriting.

Light Pen - A photo electronic device that allows data to be entered are altered on the face of a video display terminal.

Graphics Tablet - A device that allows an end user to draw or write on a pressure sensitive tablet and have their handwriting or graphics digitized by the computer and accepted as input.

source: Business Computing

Input/Output & Storage Devices

Peripherals - is the generic name for all input/output equipment and secondary storage devices that depend on direct connections or telecommunications links to the central processing unit of a computer system. Thus, all peripherals are online devices, that is, separate from, but can be electronically connected to and controlled by, a CPU. This is the opposite of offline devices, which are separate from and not under the control of the CPU.

Input/Output Hardware Trends
There are many hardware devices for input and output at the user interface between computer systems and end users.

Trend: Toward the increased use of direct input/output devices to provide a more natural user interface. Direct input/output devices drastically reduce the need for paper source documents and their conversion to machine-readable media.

Input: More and more data and instructions are entered into a computer system directly through input devices such as keyboards, electronic mice, pens, touch screens, optical scanning wands, etc. The most common user interface method for input is the keyboard.

Output: Direct output of information through video displays of text and graphics and voice response devices is increasingly becoming the dominant form of output for end users. The most common user interface method for output is the video display screen.

Computer Terminal Trends:  Computer terminals of various types are widely used for input and output.

Computer Terminals - a device that allows remote input to and output from a computer.

Visual Display Terminal (VDT) - a terminal that uses a keyboard for input and a TV like screen for visual output, or Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) terminal.

Dumb Terminals - have no processing capabilities. They can only perform input and output. There is now a trend away from them towards intelligent terminals.

Intelligent Terminals - have their own microprocessors and memory circuits.

Transaction Terminals - capture data from end users during a transaction and transmit it over telecommunications networks to a computer system for processing. Examples: ATM, retail point-of-sale (POS) terminals. 

source: Business Computing