Types Of Peripheral Devices

What is Information Technology (IT)? Information Technology can be known as being the study, design, development, implementation support and management of any computer based information systems. This relates particularly to software applications and computer hardware. Information Technology deals with using electronic computers and software to convert, store, protect, process, retrieve with security or transmit any information. Everything from data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, software design, database design and management and administration of systems is included in the term of information technology.

Information Technology is very important and useful in our daily life and many fields. In 21st century is known as Information Technology era, whereby computer is an important device in many fields. During the past, users are only using desktop which the size of the monitor is big, thick, and cannot carry everywhere but in 21st century computer are designed with more thinner and small size. Furthermore, laptop and notebook also being release with easy carrying and convenience to bring everywhere.

Besides that, previously users are using diskette to store their document and data, which provide limited space for users to store their documents. However, nowadays many different types of storing devices are produced like external hard drives, thumb drive, rewritable CD’s, and so on. These storing devices are able to allow users to store more of their document and data, even provide more space for users to store media file such as songs and videos.

Define Question 1

What are peripheral devices? Peripheral devices are the devices that are connected to a computer internally such as CD-ROM or internal modem and external scanner, printer and Zip drive. They can be externally such as keyboard, mouse, printer, and external modem.

Answer for Question 1

There are several types of peripheral devices such as monitor, mouse, keyboard, scanner, webcam, speakers and printer.

One of the types of peripherals device is monitor. Monitor is a display device that is packaged as a separate peripheral. Some monitors have a tilt-and-swivel base that allows users to adjust the angle of the screen to minimize neck strain and reduce glare from overhead lightning. Monitor is the most important piece of equipment necessary for a user to operate the machine. The monitor displays the computer’s user interface and open programs, allowing the user to interact with the computer, typically using the keyboard and mouse. Monitor controls permit users to adjust the brightness, contrast, positioning, height, and width of images. Previously, the computer monitor was built using cathode ray tubes (CRTs), which made them rather heavy and caused them to take up a lot of desk space. Nowadays, monitor is built using LCD technology and is commonly referred to as flat screen displays,

A mouse is a pointing device that fits under the palm of your hand comfortably. Generally, users use mouse to move the pointer on the screen to an object such as button, a menu, an icon, a link, or text. The mouse is the most widely used pointing device on desktop computers. With a mouse, users control the movement of the pointer, often called a mouse pointer in this case. A mouse connects to a computer in several ways. A newer type of mouse, called an air mouse, is a motion-sensing mouse that allows users to control slide shows, media players, and objects by moving mouse in predetermined directions through the air. Air mouse is similar like a remote control. Many types connect with a cable that attaches to a serial port, mouse port, or USB port on the system unit. A wireless mouse is a battery-powered device that transmits data using wireless technology, such as radio waves or infrared light waves. Some users prefer a wireless mouse because it frees up desk space and eliminates the clutter of a cord.

A keyboard is an input device that contains keys users press to enter data and instructions into a computer. Desktop computer keyboards typically have from 101 to 105 keys. All computer keyboards have a typing area that includes the letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks, numbers, and other basic keys. Keyboards for smaller computers such as notebook computers contain fewer keys. Many desktop computer keyboards also have a numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard. Keyboards are also often have a WINDOWS key(s) and an application key. When pressed, the WINDOWS keys display the Windows Start menu, and the APPLICATION key display an item’s shortcut menu. Most of today’s desktop computer keyboards are enhanced keyboards. An enhanced keyboard has twelve or more function keys; it also has a set of arrow, two ALT keys, and two CTRL keys. Function keys, which are labeled with the letter F followed by a number, are special keys programmed to issue command to a computer. The command associated with a function keys may vary, depending on the program with which users are interacting. Modern keyboards also come equipped with special buttons located outside the normal keys that control volume, email function, and the computer’s main media player. Keyboards are connected either through a hard wire or via a USB adapter.

An optical scanner usually called a scanner. A scanner is a light-sensing input device that reads printed text and graphic and then translates the result into a form the computer can process. Scanner is a device that captures images from photographic prints, posters, magazine pages, and similar sources for computer editing and display. Scanner translates images of text, drawings, and photos into digital form. The images can then be processed by a computer, displayed on a monitor, stored on a storage device, or communicated to another computer. Scanner usually comes with software, such as Adobe’s Photoshop product, that lets users to resize and otherwise modify a captured image. There are four types of scanners which are flatbed, pen, sheet-fed, and drum.

A Web cam, also called a PC video camera, is a type of digital video camera that enables a home or small business user to capture video and still images, send e-mail with attachments, add live images to instant messages. The term webcam is a combination of “Web” and “video camera”. Webcams have the ability to broadcast live images over the Internet, make video telephone calls, or chat rooms. During a video telephone call, both parties see each other as they communicate over the Internet. Webcams connect through a hard wire or through a wireless connection via a USB adapter. In some modern laptop and netbook computers, small webcams are built the top of the screen. Webcams can be also used for video chat sessions with other user. Instead of broadcasting the video on the Web, users can set up a video chat session with one or more friends and have a conversation with live audio and video. Examples of video conferencing software include CUworld, Live Meeting, and WebEx.

The speaker receives audio input from a device such as computer or an audio receiver. Speakers are one of the most common output device used with computer systems. Speakers are transducers that convert electromagnetic waves into sound waves. This input may be either in analog or digital from. Analog speakers simply amplify the analog electromagnetic waves into sound waves. A speaker system’s ability to accurately reproduce sound frequencies is a good indicator of flow clear the audio will be. The sound produced by speakers is defined by frequency and amplitude. Speakers typically come in pairs, which allow them to produce stereo sound. This means the left and right speakers transmit audio on two completely separate channels. By using two speakers, music sounds much more natural since our eras are used to hear sounds from the left and right at the same time. High-fidelity stereo sound is becoming more important as computer and communications technologies continue to merge.

A printer is a device that converts computer output into printed images, accepted text and graphic output from a computer and transfer the information to paper. Personal computer printer can be distinguished as impact or non-impact printer. Early impact printer worked something like an automatic typewriter, with a key striking an inked impression on paper for each printed character. The best-known non-impact printer is the inkjet printer, of which several makes of low-cost color printers are an example, and the laser printer. The inkjet sprays ink from an ink cartridge at very close range to the paper as it rolls by. The dot-matrix printer was a popular low-cost personal computer printer. It’s an impact printer that strikes the paper a line at a time. The laser printer use a laser beam reflected from a mirror to attract ink (called toner) to selected paper areas as a sheet rolls over a drum.

Define Question 2

Storage device is a device which allows users to save and store their data and files permanently and can be delete if necessary. Every computer stores applications software and system software. A computer locates an operating system in storage, usually loads it into memory (RAM), and hard disk. When a user issues a command to start application software such as a Web browser or a word processing program, the operating system locates the program in storage, such as on a CD, loads it on memory, DVD, and hard disk. In addition to programs, users store a variety of information and data on mainframe computers, notebook computer, desktop computer, smart phones, and Tablet PCs.

Answer for Question 2

There are several types of storing devices which are available such as primary storage, secondary storage, hard disks, external hard drives, USB flash drives, smart cards, compact disc re-writable (CD-RW), and online storage.

Primary storage is also known as memory, main memory, internal memory, or RAM (for random access memory. It is working storage that holds data for processing, instructions (the program) for processing the data, and processed data (the information) that is waiting to be sent to an output. Primary’s storage is in effect the computer’s short term capacity, determining the total size of the program and data files it can work on at any given moment. Primary storage, which is obtained on RAM chips, is also temporary. Once the power to the computer is turned off, all the data and programs within memory simply vanish.

Secondary storage consists of devices that store data and programs permanently on disk or tape. Secondary storage is nonvolatile- that is, data and programs are permanent, or remain intact when the power is turned off. A storage medium, also called secondary storage, is the physical material on which a computer keeps information, instructions, and data.

A hard disk is a storage device that contains one or more circular, inflexible platters that magnetically store information, instructions, and data. Home users used hard disks to store music, digital photos, videos, e-mail messages, presentations, web pages, databases, spreadsheets, and documents. Current personal computer hard disks have storage capacities from 160GB to 1 TB and more. The system unit on most notebook and desktop computer contains at least one hard disk. Hard disk is read and writes storage media. Users can write and read on hard disks any number of times.

An external hard drives is separate free-standing hard disks. It connects with a FireWire port or USB port on the system unit. USB hard drives commonly use the USB 2.0 interface because it supports data transfer rates of up to 480 Mbps. USB 1.1 only supports transfers of up to 12 Mbps, which would make the hard drive seem slow to even the most patient users. External hard drives are exactly like the hard drive on any computer, except they are outside of the computer. Fortunately, external hard drives can be daisy chained which means they can be connected one after the other and be used at the same time. This allows for virtually unlimited amounts storage. Firewire drives may use either Firewire 400 or Firewire 800, which support data transfer rates of up to 400 and 800 Mbps respectively. External hard drives are a great backup solution because they can store an exact copy of another hard drive and can be stored in a safe location.

A USB flash drives also known as thumb drives or pen drive, is a flash memory storage device that plugs in a USB port on a mobile device or computer. With a USB flash drive, user easily transfers music, picture, document, and video from one computer to another. USB flash drive is the premiere way store data in a compact and portable fashion. Early flash drives could store only a few megabytes of data, but modern flash drives can store several gigabytes of information. Current USB flash drive has storage capacities ranging from 256 MB to 64 GB and data transfers rates of about 12 MBps. Since they are small in size but have large storage capacities, flash drives have replaced most previous portable data storage mediums such as removable hard disks like Zip disks and floppy disks. Because they have a built in USB connection, flash drive also do not require a special disk drive to be used. Instead, they can be used on any computer with a USB port, which nearly all modern computers have.

A smart card is a card which is similar in size to an ATM card or credit card. When users insert the smart card in a specialized card reader, the information on the smart card in read and, if necessary, updated. Smart card stores data in a thin microprocessor embedded in the card. Uses of smart cards include storing vaccination data, medical records, identities information, and other health care information. Besides that, smart card even can storage a prepaid amount of money, like for student purchases on campus; tracking information such as customers purchases or employee attendance and authenticating users such as for building access or Internet purchases.

CD-RW is stands for “Compact Disc Rewritable”. A CD-RW is an erasable multisession disc users can write on multiple times. CD-RW allows users to write and rewrite information, instructions, and data. Many personal computers today include a CD-RW drive as a standard feature so that users can burn their own discs. The process of writing on an optical disc is called burning. To write on a CD-RW disc, users must have CD-RW drive and CD-RW software. Furthermore, CD-RW disc can create audio CDs. Users can save and record their own music on a CD.

Online storage is a service on the Web that provides hard disks storage to computer users, for free or for a minimal monthly fee. Online storage allows users to store large video, audio, and graphic files on an Internet hard disk instantaneously, instead of spending time downloading to a local hard disk. Moreover, users can view time-critical data and images immediately while away from main office or location; for an example, doctors can view x-ray images from another office, home, hospital, or while on vacation.

Conclusion and Recommendation

In conclusion,

Storage holds information, instructions and data, which includes music, videos, pictures and documents for future use.