Referat Hardware Computer

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Hardware Computer I INTRODUCTION Hardware (computer), equipment involved in the function of a computer. Computer hardware consists of the components that can be physically handled. The function of these components is typically divided into three main categories: input, output, and storage. Components in these categories connect to microprocessors, specifically, the computer s central processing unit (CPU), the electronic circuitry that provides the computational ability and control of the computer, via wires or circuitry called a bus. Software, on the other hand, is the set of instructions a computer uses to manipulate data, such as a word-processing program or a video game. These programs are usually stored and transferred via the computer s hardware to and from the CPU. Software also governs how the hardware is utilized; for example, how information is retrieved from a storage device. The interaction between the input and output hardware is controlled by software called the Basic Input Output System software (BIOS). Although microprocessors are still technically considered to be hardware, portions of their function are also associated with computer software. Since microprocessors have both hardware and software aspects they are therefore often referred to as firmware. II INPUT HARDWARE Input hardware consists of external devices—that is, components outside of the computer s CPU—that provide information and instructions to the computer. A light pen is a stylus with a light sensitive tip that is used to draw directly on a computer s video screen or to select information on the screen by pressing a clip in the light pen or by pressing the light pen against the surface of the screen. The pen contains light sensors that identify which portion of the screen it is passed over. A mouse is a pointing device designed to be gripped by one hand. It has a detection device (usually a ball) on the bottom that enables the user to control the motion of an on-screen pointer, or cursor, by moving the mouse on a flat surface. As the device moves across the surface, the cursor moves across the screen. To select items or choose commands on the screen, the user presses a button on the mouse. A joystick is a pointing device composed of a lever that moves in multiple directions to navigate a cursor or other graphical object on a computer screen. A keyboard is a typewriter-like device that allows the user to type in text and commands to the computer. Some keyboards have special function keys or integrated pointing devices, such as a trackball or touch-sensitive regions that let the user s finger motions move an on-screen cursor. An optical scanner uses light-sensing equipment to convert images such as a picture or text into electronic signals that can be manipulated by a computer. For example, a photograph can be scanned into a computer and then included in a text document created on that computer. The two most common scanner types are the flatbed scanner, which is similar to an office photocopier, and the handheld scanner, which is passed manually across the image to be processed. A microphone is a device for converting sound into signals that can then be stored, manipulated, and played back by the computer. A voice recognition module is a device that converts spoken words into information that the computer can recognize and process. A modem, which stands for modulator-demodulator, is a device that connects a computer to a telephone line or cable television network and allows information to be transmitted to or received from another computer. Each computer that sends or receives information must be connected to a modem. The digital signal sent from one computer is converted by the modem into an analog signal, which is then transmitted by telephone lines or television cables to the receiving modem, which converts the signal back into a digital signal that the receiving computer can understand. III OUTPUT HARDWARE Output hardware consists of external devices that transfer information from the computer s CPU to the computer user. A video display, or screen, converts information generated by the computer into visual information. Displays commonly take one of two forms: a video screen with a cathode ray tube (CRT) or a video screen with a liquid crystal display (LCD). A CRT-based screen, or monitor, looks similar to a television set. Information from the CPU is displayed using a beam of electrons that scans a phosphorescent surface that emits light and creates images. An LCD-based screen displays visual information on a flatter and smaller screen than a CRT-based video monitor. LCDs are frequently used in laptop computers. Printers take text and image from a computer and print them on paper. Dot-matrix printers use tiny wires to impact upon an inked ribbon to form characters. Laser printers employ beams of light to draw images on a drum that then picks up fine black particles called toner. The toner is fused to a page to produce an image. Inkjet printers fire droplets of ink onto a page to form characters and pictures. IV STORAGE HARDWARE Storage hardware provides permanent storage of information and programs for retrieval by the computer. The two main types of storage devices are disk drives and memory. There are several types of disk drives: hard, floppy, magneto-optical, and compact. Hard disk drives store information in magnetic particles embedded in a disk. Usually a permanent part of the computer, hard disk drives can store large amounts of information and retrieve that information very quickly. Floppy disk drives also store information in magnetic particles embedded in removable disks that may be floppy or rigid. Floppy disks store less information than a hard disk drive and retrieve the information at a much slower rate. Magneto-optical disc drives store information on removable discs that are sensitive to both laser light and magnetic fields. They can typically store as much information as hard disks, but they have slightly slower retrieval speeds. Compact disc drives store information on pits burned into the surface of a disc of reflective material (see CD-ROM). CD-ROMs can store about as much information as a hard drive but have a slower rate of information retrieval. A digital video disc (DVD) looks and works like a CD-ROM but can store more than 15 times as much information. Memory refers to the computer chips that store information for quick retrieval by the CPU. Random access memory (RAM) is used to store the information and instructions that operate the computer s programs. Typically, programs are transferred from storage on a disk drive to RAM. RAM is also known as volatile memory because the information within the computer chips is lost when power to the computer is turned off. Read-only memory (ROM) contains critical information and software that must be permanently available for computer operation, such as the operating system that directs the computer s actions from start up to shut down. ROM is called nonvolatile memory because the memory chips do not lose their information when power to the computer is turned off. Some devices serve more than one purpose. For example, floppy disks may also be used as input devices if they contain information to be used and processed by the computer user. In addition, they can be used as output devices if the user wants to store the results of computations on them. V HARDWARE CONNECTIONS To function, hardware requires physical connections that allow components to communicate and interact. A bus provides a common interconnected system composed of a group of wires or circuitry that coordinates and moves information between the internal parts of a computer. A computer bus consists of two channels, one that the CPU uses to locate data, called the address bus, and another to send the data to that address, called the data bus. A bus is characterized by two features: how much information it can manipulate at one time, called the bus width, and how quickly it can transfer these data. A serial connection is a wire or set of wires used to transfer information from the CPU to an external device such as a mouse, keyboard, modem, scanner, and some types of printers. This type of connection transfers only one piece of data at a time, and is therefore slow. The advantage to using a serial connection is that it provides effective connections over long distances. A parallel connection uses multiple sets of wires to transfer blocks of information simultaneously. Most scanners and printers use this type of connection. A parallel connection is much faster than a serial connection, but it is limited to distances of less than 3 m (10 ft) between the CPU and the external device. Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. 쥁@