WHAT IS FAMILIARIZATION WITH I/O PORT, KEYBOARD, MEMORY

   

WHAT IS FAMILIARIZATION WITH I/O PORT, KEYBOARD, MEMORY

Computer plays a key role in how individuals work and how they live. Even the smallest organizations have computers to help them operate more efficiently, and many individuals use computers at home for educational, entertainment, and business purposes. Thus you must be familiar with computers and its components.

In the following sub-sections, we will discuss the same and there is practice session also at the end of this section. Hope you will enjoy this practice session.

Computer and Motherboard

Computer : A computer is programmable machine that receives input, stores, manipulate data, and provides output in a useful format.

Computer takes input from input devices and then compute in CPU and stores in memory and sends output to output devices. The most common device for input is the keyboard. When you type, you are putting information into the computer, which is known as input. The most common device for output is the monitor. These input output devices are connected through I/O Ports.    

A computer system unit contains many parts. As shown in Figure(a) and Figure(b).

Motherboard : The motherboard is the main circuit board of a computer. It is also known as the main board or system board. Typically, the motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots, and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices, such as the display screen, keyboard, and disk drive.

Collectively, all these chips that reside on the motherboard are known as the motherboard's chipset. The motherboard can be thought of as the "back bone" of the computer.

   

  

CPU : The CPU is the central electronic chip that contains the processing power of the computer. Today, all CPUs are microprocessors.

1.       A microprocessor is a complete computer on a silicon chip.

2.       A microprocessor does all of the functions of a computer.

•       stores data and instructions waiting to be used.

      

     

       

    

      

•       follows changeable instructions.

•       does input, processing, and output.

Memory : Memory is the part of the computer that temporarily stores applications, documents, and system operating information.

 I/0 Ports

In this sub-section, we will study about I/O ports.

Ports and Connectors : A port is a connector located on the motherboard or on a separate adapter. This we will discuss in following sub section.

As shown in figure an internal view of some of the I/O ports. On the back of computers are several I/O (or Input/output) ports. Above, on the very top are two PS/2 ports, normally used for mouse and keyboard connections. Below that are the USB, (or Universal Serial Bus), ports. Below those are two serial ports beside a long parallel port that is often used to connect to a printer. On the bottom right is a game port for joysticks or other game controllers. On the bottom left is a microphone hook up, a speaker hook up, and an additional hook up for another sound input device like a musical keyboard.

   

I/O ports are there to connect to I/O devices. There are various I/O devices which are discussed in the next subsection:

I/O Devices

Few I/O devices are given Table 1.1.

Here, we are discussing about Keyboard and mouse. Rest is kept for you to explore.

Keyboard Basics

Keyboard

• is used to type data into the computer. is most common input device.
• has special keys for giving the computer commands.
• Commands tell the computer to do something, like save the file. These special keys are called command or function keys. 

Types of Keys

Typing Keys / Main Typing Keypad: It holds alphabetic character such as letter, special characters and numbers for typing.

Numeric Keypad: It can be used as numeric and directional keys, pressing the Num Lock key above the numeric keypad will tell whether the keys are on numeric or directional mode. If it is on, it is on numeric mode and can enter numbers. If it is off, it is on directional mode and only used for moving a cursor on screen UP, Down, Left or Right.

Function Keys: There are 12 functions keys starting from F1 through F12. These keys are used for special purposes.

Control Keys: It has two groups of keys, arranged from top to bottom.

The top keys holds Insert, Home, Page Up, Page Down, Delete, and End keys. Insert key switches between insert and overtype modes. Home key brings you back at the beginning of a page. Page Up and Page Down keys help you to move one page or screen up or down. Delete key erases a text or page. The End key takes you at the end of a page.

The bottom keys are independent directional keys, which let you to move the cursor Left, Right, Up and Down. Status lights, Escape key, Print Screen/SysRq, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break are user for frequent functions.

Status Lights : These light indicate whether Num Lock, Caps Lock or scroll Lock light is on /off.

There are several short cut keys to make our work convenient when mouse is not working or if we do not want to do several manouvres with the mouse. It makes our work convenient while working with MS-Word.