Chapter 1

Digital Devices
1. TYPES OF DIGITAL DEVICES
❑Mainframe Computers
•very powerful
•used by large organizations for complex processing tasks such as
statistical analysis and bulk data processing.

❑Microprocessors
-used to control washing machines, televisions and other household
appliances.

Activity
1. Research the difference between a mainframe computer, a server and a
supercomputer.
Differences between a mainframe computer, a server and a
supercomputer
Mainframe Server Super

Use for large and is used for computer Used for storage as a
complex performs(service) maximum number of
mathematical users simultaneously
calculations

2. Create a list of the digital devices in your home that use

microprocessors.
Digital devices that use microprocessors.
- Televisions, DVD Players , ovens , washing machine, video
games etc.
2. PERSONAL COMPUTERS
- Common use in home and offices
- Many different shapes and sizes such as desktops , laptops.

(i) Desktops
- More space for components than laptops
- Upgrade them
- Can add additional components
- Usually need to have peripheral devices connected to it.
- Some desktops are all-in-one means they combine the monitor
with the PC hardware.

(ii) Laptops
- Include a keyboard, a screen, a track pad, and a rechargeable
battery
- Is a kind of a portal device
- Some laptops are called which is larger
than other laptops
- Have a bigger and better-quality screen and higher performance
levels

(iii) Single-board computers (SBC)

- Affordable computers used in education, embedded computing
projects and physical computing projects
- Raspberry Pi Zero is an example
- The unit itself costs very little and uses a cheap microSD card as
its storage.

3. MOBILE PHONES
- use a SIM card to connect to a mobile phone network
- SIM stands for
- is used to identify the subscriber to a mobile phone network
(i) Specialist phone
- Have specialist features to provide users with functions that
meet user needs.
- For example, an emergency button that is linked to a list of
emergency contacts
- Some phones meet users’ accessibility needs
- For example, the Alto2 ‘talking phone’ which is for blind and
partially signed people.

(ii) Smart phones

- are small computers with WI-FI and mobile phone connectivity
- It uses to make calls and access the internet
- It includes the features of other devices such as cameras, media
players and hand-held game consoles
- It has more advanced OS
- Applications (Apps) can be downloaded
- It has a touch screen to input information
- A virtual keyboard can be used for text, numbers and other
characters
- Smart phones use more power than other types of mobile phone
- They have a shorter battery life and need to be charged more
regularly than other mobile phones

(iii) Tablets
- Bigger than smart phones
- Have similar features
- It has a touch screen, apps and WI-FI connectivity
- Some has SIM card slots to allow internet connectivity using
mobile phone network

Activity-Emergency Button

Question- Discuss which group of people could need a phone with an

emergency button . How would this phone meet their needs?
 The elderly, people with sight loss, etc.
4. CAMERAS AND CAMCODERS
- The quality of image captured by the camera depends on the
quality of the lens, image processor and the resolution of the
sensor.
- A good lens allows light to travel through it.
- It allows the user to choose how much light can travel through it
- A good image processor can compensate for poor lighting
conditions.
- Digital images are made up of small dots called pixels
- Better-quality sensors can capture more detail.
- Produce images with a greater number of pixels.
- The sensor resolution of a camera is expressed as the number of
pixels that can be captured
- Some cameras use more than one sensor, each dedicated to
different color or wavelength of light.

Maximum Display Sizes of Different Resolutions

Resolution (number of pixels) Maximum display size of image

13 megapixel (1.3 million pixels) 1280 x 960

2 megapixel 1600 x 1200

3 megapixel 2048 x 1536

4 megapixel 2272 x 1704

8 megapixel and above 2560 x 1920

5.HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEMS

1.TELEVISIONS
-Display still and moving images on a screen.
-The quality of the image is set by the number of pixels –referred to as
screen’s resolution.

(a)High Definition (HD) Television Screens

-contain a larger number of pixels.
-The resolution of a television in pixels is stated as horizontal pixels x
vertical pixels.
-Television manufacturers do not specify the number of horizontal
pixels and instead refer only to the number of vertical pixels.

(b) Ultra High Definition (UHD) Television Screens

-Sometimes referred to as 4K or 8K
-They have a horizontal resolution of approximately 4,000 or 8,000
pixels.
-8K screens make each pixel impossible to tell apart even when users
are close to the screen
-Most televisions have built-in speakers which is small and limited
quality as the screen is very thin.
-Smart televisions use apps and can download and stream content from
the internet.

2.SOUND SYSTEMS
 -can produce loud, rich sound using high-quality speakers and
amplifiers.
- Some contain built-in amplifiers.
-Play music from CDs or from local storage or from personal devices
like smartphones, tablets with wired or wireless connections or from the
music stored online
3. PERSONAL VIDEO RECORDERS (PVR)
-Some satellite TV devices contain both a set-top box (STB) and a PVR.
-is a device that records broadcasted content so that it can be watched at
a later date.

4.BLU-RAY AND DVD PLAYERS

-Usually play DVD disks, but DVD players will not play Blu-ray disks
-Connect to televisions in order to play films and other content that is
stored on DVD or Blu-ray disks.
-can store HD movies, which have higher-quality picture and sound.
-Newer 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players can play 4K content on 4K
televisions.

6.GAMES CONSOLES
-Enable users to play video games on a television screen.
-Use controllers, which are often wireless to control the characters,
vehicles and/or objects in the game.
-Use motion sensors to allow the player to control the game with
gestures and body movements.
-Use virtual reality controllers and headsets to immerse the player in a
realistic gaming experience .
-Two types of Games Consoles:
(i) Modern Games Consoles
(ii) Handheld version of Games Consoles
(i)Modern Games Consoles
- Multifunctional
- have apps(to play music and movies) and connectivity(to access
internet)
- Some consoles also have disk drives to play films and other content on
DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray media.

(ii).Handheld Versions of Games Consoles

-Provide mobile gaming.
-It have a built-in screen and less storage than a full-size console
- reduced image and sound quality, reduced game complexity and
limited storylines in order to reduce the amount of data that needs to be
stored.

Question : Discuss the age ratings of popular games. Do you think these
age ratings are appropriate ? Do you think age ratings are necessary ?
Explain the reasons for your answer.
- Clash of Clans is rated 9+ on the App Store
- Have set the minimum age of the game to 13 and over because
it features a chat function and In-app purchasing

7.MEDIA PLAYERS
-Provide video and audio content to a TV
-Streamed directly from the internet or accessed from network or local
storage
-can be connected to a television directly or using a wired or wireless
network.
-using a remote control or, in some cases, a smartphone app.
-Media players offer output in 4K.
-Personal media players are compact, portable devices with local
storage.
-Use solid state flash memory storage.
Question: Smart televisions have the streaming and networking
functions of a media player built in. Do you think that smart televisions
are going to replace media players? Discuss your reasons for thinking
that this may or may not happen.

-Will replace because of its advanced extra features

-A separate streaming media player is always faster, easier to navigate
and update apps compared to a smart tv.
-It has fewer bugs and will give you more TV selection options.

8.NAVIGATION AIDS
➢Calculate the best route between two or more locations
➢Provide updates to the route.
➢Visual prompts and alerts to help drivers take the correct route.
Example
❖Specialist devices with audio alerts and waterproof and shockproof
cases are available for walkers, cyclists and runners.

Usage
❖Use information from GPS satellites to determine the exact location
of the device on Earth.
❖Use orientation sensors to know which way the devices is currently
pointing will display the user’s position and orientation on a map.

Differences between GPS and Navigation Aids

❖GPS does not need internet connectivity in order to work.
❖Navigation aids need internet connectivity in order to update map
data.
❖Smartphones are now replacing specialist in car navigation aids.
9.HOME AUTOMATION DEVICES AND SMART ASSISTANTS
-One type of emerging technology is a group of devices that can be used
to create smart homes.
-For example, home automation devices can connect a range of digital
devices which sense and control functions in the home, such as
temperature and lighting.

10.MUTIFUNCTIONAL DEVICES AND CONVERGENCE

Multifunctional Devices
Smart Phone
-A smartphone primary function is to make phone calls and can also be
used to take photographs or to function as a navigation aid, fitness
tracker, music player or handheld games console
-can perform such a range of different functions
Phablets
-Newer smartphones are getting bigger to look more like tablets and are
known ’phablets’. e.g Samsung Note series, Apple(6+,7+,…..)

Convergence
-Devices like smartphones often adopt technologies and features from
other types of device. This is called convergence.
-Convergence blurs the distinction between different types of device.

Question : Research the differences and similarities between

smartphones, tablet devices and touch screen laptops.
 Smart Phone Tablet Touch screen
laptop
Similarities Use touch Use touch Use touch
screen screen screen
Differences Mobile & Wi-Fi Mobile & Wi-Fi Wi-Fi
connectivity connectivity connectivity

11.FEATURES OF DIGITAL DEVICES

1. PORTABILITY
-Easy to carry and move around.
-Portability of a device relate to its size and weight.

2.PERFORMANCE
-A high-performance device performs its job or tasks quickly.
-A faster processor will increase performance.
-Faster RAM will also allow instructions to be loaded into the processor
more quickly.
-More RAM will allow the system to have more programs running at the
same time.
-Faster storage will enable faster loading of instructions to RAM.
-Faster storage means faster access to instructions in virtual memory.

12.USER INTERFACE

1. COMMOM LINE INTERFACE (CLI)

-Users enter text instructions
-Provides results or feedbacks as text.
-Found on older systems or for devices with limited storage
2.MENU-DRIVEN INTERFACE
-Displays a list of options a menu
-Trigger a command or display another menu with further options to
choose them.
-Easier to use
-But more time
-Used in many devices like ATMs, televisions, etc.
3. GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE (GUI)
-Controlled by a pointer on the screen
-Uses a screen made up of windows, icons and menus.

Features and Functions of GUI

-Windows are areas of the screen that are dedicated to applications or
operating system tasks.
-Icons are small images that represent an application. They can be
selected with the pointer to open the application.
-Menus provide options for tasks relating to the operating system or
open application.
-More memory and storage than a command line or menu-driven
interface.

4.VOICE INTERFACE
-Give a spoken commands to a device
-The device has voice recognition software which matches the spoken
words against a library of words to find a match.
Disadvantages of Using Voice Interface
-Sometimes the software cannot find a match or returns an incorrect
match which produces unwanted result.

Advantages of Using Voice Interface

-Hands-free operation is possible means that they are often used in
vehicles in order to improve road safety.

5.GUSTURE INTERFACE
-To control the device by swiping their finger or fingers across the
screen or by pinching their fingers together to zoom in or out.
-Found on devices with touch screen
13.CONNECTIVITY
-Devices can share data using wired or wireless connectivity
-Connectivity can be used to update software, back up files or play
media from one device to another.
-Different connectivity devices provide different speeds of data transfer
and levels of convenience.
Disadvantages of wired connectivity
✓more cost, messy, inconvenience and safety risks.
Advantages of wired connectivity
✓faster and more reliable
14.MEDIA SUPPORT

-Different devices can read data from and write data to different types of
media.
-Examples -SD, MicroSD, Flash Memory Cards, and DVD.