Chapter 3: Computer input and output devices

By the end of the topic the trainee is should be able to:

a) Describe I/O device operations

b) Describe types of I/O ports
c) Identify I/O ports
d) Install I/O device drives

Following are some of the important input devices which are used in a computer −

• Keyboard

• Mouse

• Joy Stick

• Light pen

• Track Ball

• Scanner

• Graphic Tablet

• Microphone

• Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)

• Optical Character Reader (OCR)

• Bar Code Reader

• Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

Keyboard

Keyboard is the most common and very popular input device which helps to input data to the
computer. The layout of the keyboard is like that of traditional typewriter, although there are
some additional keys provided for performing additional functions.
Keyboards are of two sizes 84 keys or 101/102 keys, but now keyboards with 104 keys or 108
keys are also available for Windows and Internet.

Mouse

Mouse is the most popular pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-control device having a
small palm size box with a round ball at its base, which senses the movement of the mouse
and sends corresponding signals to the CPU when the mouse buttons are pressed.

Generally, it has two buttons called the left and the right button and a wheel is present
between the buttons. A mouse can be used to control the position of the cursor on the screen,
but it cannot be used to enter text into the computer.

Advantages

• Easy to use

• Not very expensive

• Moves the cursor faster than the arrow keys of the keyboard.

Joystick

Joystick is also a pointing device, which is used to move the cursor position on a monitor
screen. It is a stick having a spherical ball at its both lower and upper ends. The lower
spherical ball moves in a socket. The joystick can be moved in all four directions.

The function of the joystick is similar to that of a mouse. It is mainly used in Computer Aided
Designing (CAD) and playing computer games.

Light Pen
Light pen is a pointing device similar to a pen. It is used to select a displayed menu item or
draw pictures on the monitor screen. It consists of a photocell and an optical system placed in
a small tube.

When the tip of a light pen is moved over the monitor screen and the pen button is pressed,
its photocell sensing element detects the screen location and sends the corresponding signal
to the CPU.

Track Ball

Track ball is an input device that is mostly used in notebook or laptop computer, instead of a
mouse. This is a ball which is half inserted and by moving fingers on the ball, the pointer can
be moved.

Since the whole device is not moved, a track ball requires less space than a mouse. A track
ball comes in various shapes like a ball, a button, or a square.

Scanner

Scanner is an input device, which works more like a photocopy machine. It is used when some
information is available on paper and it is to be transferred to the hard disk of the computer
for further manipulation.

Scanner captures images from the source which are then converted into a digital form that can
be stored on the disk. These images can be edited before they are printed.

Digitizer
Digitizer is an input device which converts analogue information into digital form. Digitizer
can convert a signal from the television or camera into a series of numbers that could be
stored in a computer. They can be used by the computer to create a picture of whatever the
camera had been pointed at.

Digitizer is also known as Tablet or Graphics Tablet as it converts graphics and pictorial data
into binary inputs. A graphic tablet as digitizer is used for fine works of drawing and image
manipulation applications.

Microphone

Microphone is an input device to input sound that is then stored in a digital form.

The microphone is used for various applications such as adding sound to a multimedia
presentation or for mixing music.

Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)

MICR input device is generally used in banks as there are large number of cheques to be
processed every day. The bank's code number and cheque number are printed on the cheques
with a special type of ink that contains particles of magnetic material that are machine
readable.
This reading process is called Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR). The main
advantages of MICR is that it is fast and less error prone.

Optical Character Reader (OCR)

OCR is an input device used to read a printed text.

OCR scans the text optically, character by character, converts them into a machine-readable
code, and stores the text on the system memory.

Bar Code Readers

Bar Code Reader is a device used for reading bar coded data (data in the form of light and
dark lines). Bar coded data is generally used in labelling goods, numbering the books, etc. It
may be a handheld scanner or may be embedded in a stationary scanner.
Bar Code Reader scans a bar code image, converts it into an alphanumeric value, which is
then fed to the computer that the bar code reader is connected to.

Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

OMR is a special type of optical scanner used to recognize the type of mark made by pen or
pencil. It is used where one out of a few alternatives is to be selected and marked.

It is specially used for checking the answer sheets of examinations having multiple choice
questions.

Output devices

Following are some of the important output devices used in a computer.

• Monitors

• Graphic Plotter

• Printer
 1. Monitors

Monitors, commonly called as Visual Display Unit (VDU), are the main output device of a
computer. It forms images from tiny dots, called pixels that are arranged in a rectangular
form. The sharpness of the image depends upon the number of pixels.

There are two kinds of viewing screen used for monitors.

• Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT)

• Flat-Panel Display

Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor

The CRT display is made up of small picture elements called pixels. The smaller the pixels, the
better the image clarity or resolution. It takes more than one illuminated pixel to form a whole
character, such as the letter ‘e’ in the word help.

A finite number of characters can be displayed on a screen at once. The screen can be divided
into a series of character boxes - fixed location on the screen where a standard character can
be placed. Most screens are capable of displaying 80 characters of data horizontally and 25
lines vertically.

There are some disadvantages of CRT −

• Large in Size

• High power consumption

Flat-Panel Display Monitor

The flat-panel display refers to a class of video devices that have reduced volume, weight and
power requirement in comparison to the CRT. You can hang them on walls or wear them on
your wrists. Current uses of flat-panel displays include calculators, video games, monitors,
laptop computer, and graphics display.
The flat-panel display is divided into two categories −

• Emissive Displays − Emissive displays are devices that convert electrical energy into
light. For example, plasma panel and LED (Light-Emitting Diodes).

• Non-Emissive Displays − Non-emissive displays use optical effects to convert sunlight

or light from some other source into graphics patterns. For example, LCD (Liquid-Crystal
Device).

2. Printers

Printer is an output device, which is used to print information on paper.

There are two types of printers −

• Impact Printers

• Non-Impact Printers

Impact Printers

Impact printers print the characters by striking them on the ribbon, which is then pressed on
the paper.

Characteristics of Impact Printers are the following −

• Very low consumable costs

• Very noisy

• Useful for bulk printing due to low cost

• There is physical contact with the paper to produce an image

These printers are of two types −

 • Character printers

• Line printers

Character Printers

Character printers are the printers which print one character at a time.

These are further divided into two types:

• Dot Matrix Printer (DMP)

• Daisy Wheel

Dot Matrix Printer

In the market, one of the most popular printers is Dot Matrix Printer. These printers are
popular because of their ease of printing and economical price. Each character printed is in the
form of pattern of dots and head consists of a Matrix of Pins of size (5*7, 7*9, 9*7 or 9*9)
which come out to form a character which is why it is called Dot Matrix Printer.

Advantages

• Inexpensive

• Widely Used

• Other language characters can be printed

Disadvantages

• Slow Speed

• Poor Quality
Daisy Wheel

Head is lying on a wheel and pins corresponding to characters are like petals of Daisy (flower)
which is why it is called Daisy Wheel Printer. These printers are generally used for word-
processing in offices that require a few letters to be sent here and there with very nice quality.

Advantages

• More reliable than DMP

• Better quality

• Fonts of character can be easily changed Disadvantages

• Slower than DMP

• Noisy

• More expensive than DMP

Line Printers

Line printers are the printers which print one line at a time.

These are of two types −

• Drum Printer
 • Chain Printer

Drum Printer

This printer is like a drum in shape hence it is called drum printer. The surface of the drum is
divided into a number of tracks. Total tracks are equal to the size of the paper, i.e. for a paper
width of 132 characters, drum will have 132 tracks. A character set is embossed on the track.
Different character sets available in the market are 48-character set, 64 and 96 characters
set. One rotation of drum prints one line. Drum printers are fast in speed and can print 300 to
2000 lines per minute.

Advantages

• Very high speed

Disadvantages

• Very expensive

• Characters fonts cannot be changed

Chain Printer

In this printer, a chain of character sets is used, hence it is called Chain Printer. A standard
character set may have 48, 64, or 96 characters. Advantages

• Character fonts can easily be changed.

• Different languages can be used with the same printer.

Disadvantages

• Noisy

Non-impact Printers

Non-impact printers print the characters without using the ribbon. These printers print a
complete page at a time; thus they are also called as Page Printers.

These printers are of two types −

• Laser Printers

• Inkjet Printers
Characteristics of Non-impact Printers

• Faster than impact printers

• They are not noisy

• High quality

• Supports many fonts and different character size

Laser Printers

These are non-impact page printers. They use laser lights to produce the dots needed to form
the characters to be printed on a page.

Advantages

• Very high speed

• Very high-quality output

• Good graphics quality

• Supports many fonts and different character size

Disadvantages

• Expensive

• Cannot be used to produce multiple copies of a document in a single printing

Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers are non-impact character printers based on a relatively new technology. They
print characters by spraying small drops of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers produce high quality
output with presentable features.

They make less noise because no hammering is done and these have many styles of printing
modes available. Colour printing is also possible. Some models of Inkjet printers can produce
multiple copies of printing also.

Advantages

• High quality printing

• More reliable

Disadvantages

• Expensive as the cost per page is high

• Slow as compared to laser printer

Input/Output ports

A connection point that acts as interface between the computer and external devices like
mouse, printer, modem, etc. is called port.

Ports are slots on the motherboard into which a cable of external device is plugged in.

Ports are of two types −

 • Internal port − It connects the motherboard to internal devices like hard disk drive, CD
drive, internal modem, etc.

• External port − It connects the motherboard to external devices like modem, mouse,
printer, flash drives, etc.

Let us look at some of the most commonly used ports.

Serial Port

Serial ports transmit data sequentially one bit at a time. So, they need only one wire to
transmit 8 bits. However, it also makes them slower. Serial ports are usually 9-pin or 25-pin
male connectors. They are also known as COM (communication) ports or RS323C ports.

Advantage: Because serial port send data down one wire, bit-by-bit, this eliminates the
problem of skew associated with parallel ports so serial cable can be long.

They are electrically robust, but when used with very long cables there is risk that electric
spikes can find their way through into ports
Parallel Port

Parallel ports can send or receive (transmit data) using 8 bits or 1 byte at a time parallel
interface (one physical wire per data bit), with the flow of information controlled by hardware
handshaking signals between the printer and the computer. Parallel ports come in form of
25pin female pins and are used to connect printer, scanner, external hard disk drive, etc.
Advantage: Computer transmit data through the parallel port at higher speeds and with
fewer errors than through the serial port.

Parallel ports are termed as LPT (Line Printer Terminal) starts with LPT1 to LPT3, LPT1 is the
default port.

Parallel port prompted IEEE to come up with standard that encompassed the more common
design, IEEE 1284.

IEEE1284 can operate in five modes which include:

a. Compatibility mode- is a uni-directional implementation with only a few differences

from the original Centronics design.
b. Nibble mode – is a uni-directional interface which allows the device to transmit
data four bits at a time using status lines for data. This is the bitronics mode
introduced by HP and is generally used for enhanced printer status.
c. Byte mode- Allows the device to transmit 8bits at a time using data lines.
d. Enhanced parallel port (EPP) – a half-duplex bi-directional interface designed to
allow devices like printers, scanners, or storage devices to transmit large amounts
of data. Provides 2mbit/s bandwidth.
 e. Extended Capability port (ECP) – a half-duplex bi-directional interface similar to
EPP, except that PC implementations use direct memory access to provide even
faster data transfer than EPP.
Parallel port capabilities

Not every PC on the market supports the full range of IEEE parallel port modes and several
factors determine exactly what functionality can be achieved through the port.

✓ Hardware and BIOS support

plugging a new enhanced port, I/O card into an older PC may not work if the BIOS
cannot handle the new modes.
✓ Operating system and driver support
Even if the PCs BIOS and hardware supports ECP/EPP mode, they will only function
correctly if the software and device drivers being used on the PC understand these
modes of operation.
✓ External device support
Enabling ECP/EPP modes will only increase performance if the devices fitted to the port
support them too.
✓ Cable quality
If cable is of poor quality, then all sorts of problems can be encountered from data
errors on tape units to corrupted printouts Solution to this:
a. But a new IEEE 1284 compatible cable
b. Disable ECP/EPP mode in the pcs BIOS and use SPP mode.

USB Port

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. It is the industry standard for short distance digital data
connection. USB port is a standardized port to connect a variety of devices like printer,
camera, keyboard, speaker, etc.
USB types

• USB type A

• USB type B: This is an older connector that's not used nearly as often nowadays. It's
almost square at one end, and usually plugs into a printer or similar device.

• USB type C: This is the newest USB standard. Unlike older cables, which usually have
USB-A on one end and another type on the other, USB-C can connect two devices that
both have USB-C ports.

• USB-C is slowly being adopted by device manufacturers. Many newer Android phones,
like the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Google Pixel devices, use USB-C. Apple's newest
MacBook and MacBook Pro models only feature USB-C ports, as well.

• Mini-A works the same as Mini-B the difference is colour. It is white in colour

• Mini-B: this is a smaller connection type that's good for mobile devices also called mini-
USB. It is black in colour
 • Micro-B: This is a tiny connector that's popular on all kinds of portable devices. Everything
from Android phones to external battery packs to Bluetooth headphones uses a micro-
USB port

PS-2 Port

PS/2 stands for Personal System/2. It is a female 6-pin port standard that connects to the
male mini-DIN cable. PS/2 was introduced by IBM to connect mouse and keyboard to personal
computers. This port is now mostly obsolete, though some systems compatible with IBM may
have this port.

Infrared Port

Infrared port is a port that enables wireless exchange of data within a radius of 10m. Two
devices that have infrared ports are placed facing each other so that beams of infrared lights
can be used to share data.

Bluetooth Port

Bluetooth is a telecommunication specification that facilitates wireless connection between

phones, computers and other digital devices over short-range wireless connection. Bluetooth
port enables synchronization between Bluetooth-enabled devices. There are two types of
Bluetooth ports −

• Incoming − It is used to receive connection from Bluetooth devices.

• Outgoing − It is used to request connection to other Bluetooth devices.

FireWire Port

FireWire is Apple Computer’s interface standard for enabling high speed communication using
serial bus. It is also called IEEE 1394 and used mostly for audio and video devices like digital
camcorders. Transfers large amount of data at very fast speed.

VGA Port

• Connects monitor to a computer's video card.

• It has 15 holes.
 • Similar to the serial port connector. However, serial port connector has pins, VGA port has
holes.

Power Connector

• Three-pronged plug.

• Connects to the computer's power cable that plugs into a power bar or wall socket.

Modem Port

• Connects a PC's modem to the telephone network.

Ethernet Port

• Connects to a network and high-speed Internet.

• Connects the network cable to a computer.

• This port resides on an Ethernet Card.

• Data travels at 10 megabits to 1000 megabits per seconds depending upon the network
bandwidth.

Game Port

• Connect a joystick to a PC

• Now replaced by USB

Digital Video Interface, DVI port

• Connects Flat panel LCD monitor to the computer's high-end video graphic cards.

• Very popular among video card manufacturers.

Sockets

• Sockets connect the microphone and speakers to the sound card of the computer.

Device drivers

Device driver or hardware driver is a group of files that enable one or more hardware devices
to communicate with the computer's operating system. Without drivers, the computer could
not send and receive data correctly to hardware devices like printers.
What devices need drivers?

Hardware devices that are unknown by the operating system or have features unknown by the
operating system all require drivers. Below is a list of hardware devices and peripherals that
require drivers. Card reader, Controller, Modem, Motherboard chipset, Network card, Printer,
Scanner, Sound card,Tape drive, USB devices, Video card.

What devices may not need drivers?

Today's operating systems have many generic drivers that allow hardware to work at a basic
level without needing drivers or software.

However, if that device has features unknown to the operating system, it will not work without
drivers. For example, you could plug any keyboard into a computer and expect it to work.
However, if that keyboard has any special keys or features, they will not work until the drivers
are installed. CPU, Disc drive, Fan, Hard drive, Heat sink, Joystick, Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor,
Power supply, RAM, Speakers, Thumb drive, UPS

NB:

The operating systems' generic drivers may not be updated as often as those from a hardware
manufacturer or computer manufacturer.

Where can I see devices and drivers?

In Microsoft Windows you can see all devices installed and their associated drivers in
the Device Manager.

What happens if a driver is not installed?

If the appropriate driver is not installed, the device may not function properly, if at all. With
some devices, the device may work, but all of its features may not work. For example, a
computer mouse usually works without drivers, but if it has more buttons than the traditional
mouse, those extra buttons will not work until the drivers are installed.

For Microsoft Windows users, missing drivers may cause a driver conflict or an error in
the Device Manager. If problems or conflicts are encountered with drivers, the computer
manufacturer or hardware manufacturer releases a driver update to fix the problems. If
updated drivers are available, those drivers need to be installed to replace the existing driver
code.
Can a driver make my computer do more?

Installing a driver only makes the hardware installed in the computer function properly. If the
correct driver is not installed, installing the latest driver for the hardware can take full
advantage of the device. However, you cannot install a driver for hardware not installed in the
computer and expect it to make your computer faster or more capable. In other words,
installing video card drivers for a video card that's not installed in the computer does not give
your computer all the capabilities of that video card. You'd need the video card hardware and
driver installed in this example.

Does a driver work for all operating systems?

When a driver is designed, it's for a specific operating system (platform). For example,
a Microsoft Windows 11 driver may work with an early version of Windows (e.g., Windows 10),
but it wouldn't work for macOS or Linux.

Are computer drivers free?

Almost all computer and hardware manufacturers provide free drivers, updates, and software.
You can find a list of direct links to all company's pages through our computer driver page.

However, companies no longer in business or products that are no longer supported may not
offer free drivers. In this situation, third-party companies may host and offer drivers but
charge for them.

Are computer drivers safe?

As long the driver you're downloading comes from a reputable source, like the
device manufacturer, it is considered safe. If you have to download a driver from a third party,
it's difficult to know if they've modified the driver code. Unfortunately, like any
computer software, drivers can also be infected with viruses and malware. We recommend
having an antivirus installed and running on a computer before downloading and installing a
driver from a third party.

Driver updates

Driver updates for Windows, along with many devices, such as network adapters, monitors,
printers, and video cards, are automatically downloaded and installed through Windows
Update. You probably already have the most recent drivers, but if you'd like to manually
update or reinstall a driver, here's how:
Update the device driver

1. In the search box on the taskbar, enter device manager, then select Device Manager.

2. Select a category to see names of devices, then right-click (or press and hold) the one
you’d like to update.

3. Select Search automatically for updated driver software.

4. Select Update Driver.

5. If Windows doesn't find a new driver, you can try looking for one on the device
manufacturer's website and follow their instructions.

Reinstall the device driver

1. In the search box on the taskbar, enter device manager, then select Device Manager.

2. Right-click (or press and hold) the name of the device, and then select Uninstall.

3. Restart your PC.

4. Windows will attempt to reinstall the driver.