Components of

Computer System
 The
computer system has three
main components:
Hardware
Software
Peopleware /User
HARDWARE
What is hardware?
 It is the equipment associated with the
computer system.
 It is the physical component of the system.
 They are the electronic and mechanical
parts of the computer system.
 The major hardware components of a
computer system are:
 Processor
 Main memory
 Secondary memory
 Input devices
 Output devices
Microprocessor
 The microprocessor is an electronic device
about a one inch square, covered in plastic.
Inside the square is an even smaller square
of silicon containing millions of tiny
electrical parts.
 It is also referred to as the "brain" of the
computer system.
 The processor is sometimes called the
Central Processing Unit or CPU. A particular
computer will have a particular type of
processor, such as a Pentium or a SPARC
chip.
Main Memory
 The main memory is where programs and
data are kept when the processor is actively
using them.
 Main memory is sometimes called Random
Access Memory (RAM)
o RAM is measured in megabytes (MB). New
PCs are generally shipped with no less than
64MB of RAM; however, many can be fitted
with up to 512MB.
Secondary Memory
 The secondary memory is where programs
and data are kept on a long-term basis.

I/O Devices
 Input and output devices allow the
computer system to interact with the
outside world by moving data into and out
of the system.
INPUT Devices
 An input device is used to bring data into
the system. It accepts data or commands in
a form that the computer can use and send
the data or commands to the processing
unit.
 Input is the data that you out into the
computer system for processing.
 The following are some common ways of
feeding input data into the system:
 Typing on a keyboard
 Pointing with a mouse
 Scanning
Types of input
 Data is the raw facts given to the computer.
 Programs are the sets of instructions that
direct the computer.
 Commands are special codes or key words
that the user inputs to perform a task.
 User response is the user's answer to the
computer's question, such as choosing OK,
YES, or NO or by typing in text, for example
the name of a file.
Categories of input device
 Manual Input Devices - With a manual input
device the user must enter data into the
computer by hand. e.g. mouse, keyboard,
scanner.

 Direct Data Entry (DDE) Devices – It can

transfer information automatically from a
source document such as a form or barcode
into the computer. The user does not need
to manually enter the information. They are
used when large volumes of data must be
entered into the computer quickly.
MANUAL Input Devices
 KEYBOARD - It is the main input devicel
used by all computers. The keyboard
allows for user input and action with the
computer. Types of Keyboard are:
 QWERTY Keyboard – It is now the official
standard of computer keyboards.
 Dvorak keyboard – It is designed so that the
middle row of keys includes the most common
letters.
 Chiclet Keyboard- It is a keyboard with a small,
flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or
plastic keys that look like pieces of chewing
gum.
 Cordless keyboard Laser keyboard

Bluetooth Edge keyboard USB Wave keyboard

MANUAL Input Devices
 JOYSTICK – It is an input device used for
games and/or flight simulators. This device
is used to maneuver a particular item
throughout locations.
MANUAL Input Devices
 MOUSE - It is a pointing device which
allows the user to control a cursor to
manipulate data without complicated
commands.
 Mouse Technologies
 Mechanical Mouse - Mechanical Mice requires that the
mouse be set on a flat surface.
 Optical Mouse - Optical Mice require a special mouse
pad which has a grid pattern. A sensor inside the
mouse determines the movement by reading the grid
as the mouse passes over it while emitting a light
from an LED or sometimes a laser.
 Optical-Mechanical - The optical-mechanical hybrid
consists of a ball which rolls a wheel inside the
mouse. This mouse is now the most commonly used
mouse with PC and Macintosh computers.
MANUAL Input Devices
 Interfaces
 Bluetooth - It is an RF Technology (Radio Frequency, it
is one method used to transmit a wireless signal.) that
has the ability to connect to a computer with a cell
phone without needing any wires or special connectors.
 Infrared - Method of transferring data without the use

of wires.
 PS/2 Port – It is a mini DIN (type of connector) plug that

contains six pins used to connect a computer mouse or

keyboard however, it is starting to be replaced by USB.
 Serial Port - A connection or interface on the computer

used to connect a serial device to the computer.

 USB – Short for Universal Serial Bus. It is an external

bus that has the capability of transferring 12 Mbps,

supporting up to 127 devices.
MANUAL Input Devices
 Types of Mouse
 Cordless - Also known as wireless, cordless is the ability to
operate a device without any wires that may cause
constricted movement. Cordless computer hardware
devices commonly utilize such Infrared or Bluetooth.
 Foot mouse - A different type of idea that enables a user to
control the mouse with their feet.
 Touchpad - Also known as a glidepoint or trackpad, a
touchpad is found on the majority of portable computers.
A touchpad is operated by using your finger and dragging
it across a flat surface.
 Intellimouse - Also known as a wheel mouse or a scroll
mouse, Because of the wide popularity and great
functionality of this wheel, this type of mouse has become
a standard mouse used with all new computers.
 Trackball - Type of input device that looks like an upside-
down mouse. The onscreen pointer is moved by the
trackball with a thumb or finger.
 Gaming laser mouse
Wireless optical mouse
MANUAL Input Devices
 SCANNER – An input device that allows a user to
take an image and/or text and convert it into a
digital file, allowing the computer to read and/or
display the scanned object.
 Types of scanners available today:
 Flatbed Scanner – It is one of the most commonly used
and most recommended scanners. This scanner allows
the user to place a full piece of paper, book, magazine,
photo or any other object onto the bed of the scanner
and have the capability to scan that object.
 Sheetfed Scanner - Smaller than flatbed scanners; as the
name implies, you feed a document or photo into the
scanner rather than place it on top.
 Handheld Scanner - The handheld option allows the user
to drag over select sections of pages, magazines, books
and other objects scanning only sections.
Flatbed Scanner
Sheetfed Scanner

Sheetfed Scanner
Flatbed Scanner
MANUAL Input Devices
 LIGHT PEN - An input device that utilizes
a light-sensitive detector to select objects
on a display screen. A light pen is similar
to a mouse, except that with a light pen
you can move the pointer and select
objects on the display screen by directly
pointing to the objects with the pen.
MANUAL Input Devices
 MICROPHONE – It is a device which
allows you to record voices or sounds and
place them onto computers, generally as a
wav file.
MANUAL Input Devices
 GRAPHICS TABLET – It is device that is
highly accurate and enables an artist to
draw or sketch easier than they would be
able to do with a standard computer
mouse.
MANUAL Input Devices
 WEB CAMERA - A camera connected to a
computer or server that allows anyone
connected to the Internet to view still
pictures or motion video of a user.
MANUAL Input Devices
 TOUCH SENSITIVE SCREENS - A touch
screen is a computer screen or other
screen that you can touch with your finger
to enter information. These screens do a
similar job to concept keyboards.
Direct Data Entry Devices
 BARCODE READER - It is a device for
reading printed barcodes. Like a flatbed
scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens
and a photo conductor translating optical
impulses into electrical ones.
 A bar code is made up of a sequence of bars of
different widths. Different groups of bars are
used to represent different numbers.
 A printed bar code is therefore simply a way of
representing a number.
Direct Data Entry Devices
 MAGNETIC STRIPE CODES READER - It is a
device for reading magnetic stripe codes.
 Magnetic stripes are built into many plastic cards
such as cheque guarantee or credit cards.
 Magnetic stripe codes can also sometimes be found
on the back of railway tickets.
 SMART CARDS READER - It is a device for
reading points stored on the card.
 Petrol companies and supermarkets use smart
cards to store information about points that
customers earn when they buy goods. Every time
the customer buys something the number of points
stored on the card is increased. The customer can
then spend these points to buy goods.
Direct Data Entry Devices
 MAGNETIC INK CHARACTER
RECOGNITION (MICR) - Reads
characters printed in a special magnetic
ink into the computer. The main users of
MICR are banks. They use it to read
information from cheques into their
computers so that the cheques can be
cashed.
 OPTICAL MARK RECOGNITION (OMR) -
An optical mark reader reads marks made
by pencil on a printed form into the
computer.
Direct Data Entry Devices
 SENSORS - Sensors can be used to
measure physical quantities such as
temperature, light and pressure. The
measurements can then be stored for later
use (data logging) or used to control
devices such as heaters or fans (computer
control).
OUTPUT Devices
 An output device is used to send data out of
the system.
 MONITOR – It is an electronic device that is
used to see/display programs on a computer.
It is also known as a “display screen”.
 Two main types of monitors:
 The CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor, which is big and
heavy. It is the oldest technology used by monitors. It
looks like a television, but has a bigger display resolution
and often a higher frequency.
 The LCD (Liquid crystal display) monitor, which is thin,
flat, and lightweight. It is a newer technology than CRTs.
The quality can be the same or even better than a CRT,
but this type of monitor usually costs more than a CRT.
Output Devices
 PRINTER – It is an output device which
produces a hard copy (permanent human-
readable text and/or graphics) of documents
stored in electronic form, usually on physical
print media such as paper or transparencies.
 Types of printers:
 Impact printers – They use a print head containing
a number of metal pins which strike an inked
ribbon placed between the print head and the
paper.
 Dot matrix printer - The term DOT matrix refers to the
process of placing dots to form an image; the quality of
the image being determined by the dots per inch. It is a
type of printer that uses print heads to shoot ink or strike
an ink ribbon to place hundreds to thousands of little dots
to form text and/or images.
Output Devices
 Non-Impact printers – They are much quieter
than impact printers as their printing heads do
not strike the paper.
 Inkjet printer - For home computer users that prints
by spraying streams of quick-drying ink on paper. The
ink is stored in disposable ink cartridges; often a
separate cartridge is used for each of the major
colors. These colors are usually Black, Red/Magenta,
Green/Cyan, and Yellow (CYMK).
 Laser printer –Utilizes laser technology to print images
on the paper. Laser Printers use a laser beam and dry
powdered ink.
 Thermal printer - Characters are formed by heated
elements being placed in contact with special heat
sensitive paper forming darkened dots when the
elements reach a critical temperature.
Dot matrix Inkjet

Laser
Thermal
Output Devices
 SPEAKERS – A device connected to a
computer's sound card that outputs
sounds.
Output Devices
 PLOTTER - A device that draws pictures
on paper based on commands from a
computer. Plotters differ from printers in
that they draw lines using a pen.
Output Devices
 HEAD/EAR PHONE – It similar to
speakers, except they are worn on the
ears so only one person can hear the
output at a time.
Output Devices
 PROJECTOR - A device that enables an
image, such as a computer screen, to be
projected onto a flat surface. These
devices are commonly used in meetings
and presentations as they allow for a large
image to be shown so everyone in a room
can see.

Wall mounted projector

STORAGE Devices
 A storage device is a hardware device
designed to store information. There are
two types of storage devices used in
computers:
 Primary Storage – A storage location that holds
memory for short periods of times. For example,
RAM (Random Access Memory).
 Secondary Storage – A storage medium that
holds information until it is deleted or
overwritten. For example, Floppy Disk and Hard
disk.
FLOPPY DISK TECHNOLOGY
 A floppy disk is a round piece of flexible Mylar
plastic covered with a thin layer of magnetic
oxide and sealed inside a protective casing.
 Floppy disks are also referred to as “floppies”
or “diskettes”. The capacity is 1.44MB.
 Two additional storage systems use floppy disk
technology are:
 ZIP disks - manufactured by Iomega, and are
available in 100MB and 250MB versions.
 Super disks - manufactured by Imation, have a
capacity of 120MB. Although the increased
storage capacity is attractive, a standard floppy
disk drive will not read them. They require
special disk drives.
HARD DISK TECHNOLOGY
 Hard disk technology is the preferred type
of main storage for most computer
systems for three reasons.
 First, it provides lots of storage capacity.
 Second, it provides faster access to files than
floppy disk drives.
 Third, a hard disk is economical.
 The hard disk is sometimes called “fixed
disk”.
 Capacity:
 256MB 1-80GB
 512MB 120GB
CD TECHNOLOGY
 Today, most computers come equipped
with some type of optical drive – often
called CD-ROM drive.
 CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only
Memory) is based on the same technology
as the audio CDs that contain your favorite
music.
 The capacity of CD is 700-800MB.
 The device used to copy/burn files from
computer to CD is the “CD Writer”.
DVD TECHNOLOGY
 DVD (Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile
Disk) is a variation of CD technology that
was originally designed as an alternative
to VCRs, but was quickly adopted by the
computer industry to store data.
 Originally designed to provide enough storage
capacity for a full-length movie,
 DVD holds much more data than a CD –
about 4.7GB(4,700 MB) on a DVD
compared to 680MB on a CD.
USB TECHNOLOGY
 A USB flash drive is much popular because
of the size and the compactness. It actually
behaves as if it is the portable hard drive.
 The capacity, of USB in terms of the storage
that is available in the USB flash drives that
are currently available is up to 2 GB of
storage.