Computer peripherals such as disk drives printers etc

Computer peripherals such as disk drives, printers etc. work in different ways and linking a peripheral to the processor is a difficult task. They work at different speeds, use different codes, transfer different amounts of data at a time, and even work at different voltages. An interface is the hardware and software needed between a processor and a peripheral device in order to compensate for differences in their operating characteristics. The interface allows the two devices to communicate correctly. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 1

An interface will have to perform many of the functions (jobs) listed below. This will vary depending on the characteristics of the device. 1. Buffering 2. Data format conversion 3. Voltage conversion 4. Protocol conversion 5. Status signal handling CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 2

Processors can send data at a faster rate than most peripherals can deal with it. 1. Buffering 2. Data format conversion 3. Voltage conversion 4. Protocol conversion 5. Status signal handling e. g. an inkjet printer is a mechanical device. It takes time to spray the ink, physically move the paper etc. Many interfaces have a buffer to store data. A buffer is an amount of RAM in the peripheral device which is used to store data until the device is able to process it. It allows the processor to send data at high speed and then continue with other tasks while the device can work at its own slower pace to complete the task. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 3

The processor and the peripheral device may format data in different ways and so the interface may have to convert the format of the data. 1. Buffering 2. Data format conversion 3. Voltage conversion 4. Protocol conversion 5. Status signal handling Two common format conversions required are: Serial to parallel Analogue to digital CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 4

Serial to parallel Serial transmission is where data is sent along a single line one bit at a time. Parallel transmission is where data is sent several bits a time along multiple lines. The processor uses parallel transmission but many devices send and receive data serially so the data format has to be converted. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 5

Comparing Serial and parallel in terms of performance Parallel is faster over short distances When data is sent over longer distances in parallel the data can fall out of alignment and so becomes corrupted. This known as “skew” Serial transmission is more efficient when longer distances are involved. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 6

Analogue to digital The processor is a digital device and works with digital signals. Some devices sense analogue signals and so these signals have to be converted into digital signals for processing. Examples of analogue signals would include: Signals being received by a modem on a telephone line. Recording using a microphone. An interface performs the data format conversion. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 7

1. Buffering 2. Data format conversion 3. Voltage conversion 4. Protocol conversion 5. Status signal handling Most peripherals work with higher voltages than the processor. These voltages have to be altered to allow communication to take place. e. g. a keyboard generates 9 volt signals. This voltage has to be reduced to a 5 volt signal before it can be handled by the processor. An interface performs the voltage conversion. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 8

1. Buffering 2. Data format conversion 3. Voltage conversion 4. Protocol conversion 5. Status signal handling When two devices want to communicate they need to agree on a set of rules for effective communication to take place. These sets of rules are called protocols. The protocols will set out rules such as: • Speed of data transfer • Voltage levels • Size of data units e. g. 7 bit or 8 bit transfer. The interface makes sure that data is sent/received according to the agreed rules. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 9

1. Buffering 2. Data format conversion 3. Voltage conversion 4. Protocol conversion 5. Status signal handling A peripheral device interface stores information about the current state of the device itself. Examples of status signals would include: • • • off-line Not ready to receive data busy Buffer full – not able to receive data ready On-line and ready to receive data. The processor and the interface communicate before data is sent to make sure that the device is ready to send/receive. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 10

Current common interface standards include: USB www. usb. org Firewire www. en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Firewire Bluetooth www. electronics. howstuffworks. com/bluetooth. htm/printable CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 11

www. usb. org This is now a very common interface for use with printers, scanners, digital cameras and it can also be used for keyboards and mice. It allows “hot swapping” which means that you can plug and unplug it while the computer is on. You can attach up to 128 USB devices at the same time using hubs in a “daisy chain”. The USB connection also provides power to the devices. USB 1 transfer speed 12 megabits per second. USB 2 transfer speed 480 megabits per second. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 12

aka www. en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Firewire This is the standard interface for use with digital video camcorders, some storage devices and the first Apple Ipod. It allows hot swapping and up to 63 Firewire devices can be connected at the same time. It can supply modest power services to devices. Fire. Wire 400 transfer speed 400 megabits per second. Fire. Wire 800 transfer speed 800 megabits per second. IEEE 1394 b transfer speed 3. 2 gigabits per second. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 13

www. electronics. howstuffworks. com/bluetooth. htm/printable Bluetooth is a wireless technology which is used for computers, PDAs, mobile phones, headphones, mice and keyboards. It transmits very weak signals on a 2. 45 gigahertz frequency for communication over short distances, typically up to 10 metres. Bluetooth transfer speed up to 1 megabit per second. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 14

Other standard interfaces include the following: serial port: standard parallel port: IDE: SCSI-1: SCSI-2 (Fast SCSI, Fast Narrow SCSI): Fast Wide SCSI (Wide SCSI): Ultra SCSI (SCSI-3, Fast-20, Ultra Narrow): Ultra. IDE: Wide Ultra SCSI (Fast Wide 20): Ultra 2 SCSI: Wide Ultra 2 SCSI: Ultra 3 SCSI: Wide Ultra 3 SCSI: 115 kbits/s 115 k. BYTES/s 3. 3 -16. 7 MBYTES/s 5 MBYTES/s 10 MBYTES/s 20 MBYTES/s 33 MBYTES/s 40 MBYTES/s 80 MBYTES/s 160 MBYTES/s These are mainly used for Hard drives and other internal peripherals. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 15

For the Higher course you need to be aware of how peripherals work and of the current specifications and trends. pctechguide. com howstuffworks. com You should be aware of the following characteristics for each type of device: • • • resolution speed capacity cost type of interface CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 16

Keyboards generally follow the standard Qwerty layout although new innovative designs are available which attempt to improve user comfort and ease of use. • • resolution n/a(not applicable) speed Speed of input is determined by the user’s typing ability. This is always very slow in computer terms and so speed is not a performance issue. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 17

• capacity A keyboard has a very small buffer to store several keypresses but again capacity is not particularly relevant for keyboards. • cost Keyboards are inexpensive items with prices ranging from £ 8 up to £ 50 and more for more stylish models. Manufacturers include Microsoft, Logitech and Benq. • type of interface The PS 2 interface was the standard but USB, Bluetooth and infra red are becoming more common. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 18

Scanners are used to convert graphic images into a digital format suitable for processing in a computer. Text can also be input when the scanner is used with Optical character recognition (OCR) software. • resolution The resolution of a scanner is measured in dots per inch (dpi). Note that 600 dpi means that every square inch has 600 x 600 dots = 360000 dots. The bit depth also affects quality with modern scanners offering 48 bit depth. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 19

• speed The speed of a scanner is measured by how long it takes to scan a page at a particular resolution and bit depth. • capacity • cost Scanners cost from £ 50 to £ 300 depending on features. Manufacturers include Canon and Epson. • type of interface The USB 2 interface is the standard with SCSI and Firewire also available. n/a CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 20

A sound card takes an analogue sound and converts into a digital one. The sound is sampled by listening and measuring the sound every nth fraction of a second and storing the sample as a digital number. The sampling rate determines how often per second a sample is taken. CD quality samples at 44. 1 k. Hz = 44, 100 times per second. The sample size/bit depth determines the range of sounds which can be recorded each time. CD quality works at 16 bit depth which gives a range of 65, 536 different sounds. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 21

• speed n/a • capacity n/a • cost Sound cards cost from £ 10 to £ 200 depending on features. Manufacturers include Creative Labs and Terratec. • type of interface The PCI interface is the standard with USB and Firewire also available. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 22

A digital camcorder takes moving images and converts them into a series of individual digital images. A CCD(Charge coupled device) detects light intensity and converts it into an electrical signal. • resolution The number of pixels in the CCD can affect quality. More expensive models have 3 CCDs, one for each primary colour, which also improves quality. A high optical zoom also allows good quality. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 23

• speed Digital camcorders allow video display at 25 frames per second following the PAL standard which is used in most of Europe. • capacity The capacity of a camcorder depends on the type of backing storage used. These include Mini. DV, Digital 8, Hi 8 tapes and optical DVD. • cost Costs range from £ 200 to £ 3000 depending on features. Manufacturers include Sony, Canon and JVC • type of interface Firewire is the standard interface for digital camcorders. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 24

A digital camera takes a still image and converts it into a digital image. A CCD(Charge coupled device) detects light intensity and converts it into an electrical signal. • resolution The number of pixels in the CCD affects quality. CCDs of 4 megapixels and upwards are now common. Cameras typically use 24 bit depth for colour. A high optical zoom also allows good quality. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 25

• speed Shutter speeds are relevant for taking photographs in different situations, e. g. sports shots, night scenes. • capacity The capacity of a camera depends on the type of backing storage used. These include SD, XD, Compact flash which are all solid state memory cards, and a microdrive which is a miniature Hard drive. • cost Costs range from £ 40 to £ 5000 depending on features. Manufacturers include Fuji, Olympus, Canon and Nikon • type of interface USB 2 is the standard interface for digital cameras. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 26

Tiny droplets of ink are heated and explode onto the page. Printers can print text and graphics, colour and a range of greyscales. • resolution Resolution is measured in dpi and 4800 x 1200 is typical. 24 bit depth is commonly used for colour. • speed Printer speed is measured in pages per minute (ppm). The speed depends on the size of the page and the complexity of the image being printed. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 27

• capacity Printers store data about to be printed in a buffer. A large buffer will allow the user to begin other work on the computer while the printer is still processing the page. • cost Costs range from £ 40 to £ 300 depending on features. Manufacturers include Epson, Lexmark, Canon & Hewlett Packard (HP). Running costs for inkjet printers are very high as cartridges have a limited capacity and are very expensive • type of interface USB is the standard interface for modern inkjet printers with older models using serial or parallel interfaces. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 28

Lasers write a page image onto a special drum as an electrostatic charge. The charged drum attracts toner particles which are transferred to the page and heated to fuse the image onto the paper. • resolution Resolution is measured in dpi and 600 x 600 is typical. Monochrome models are very common in offices and colour models are coming down in price. • speed Printer speed is measured in pages per minute (ppm). The speed depends on the size of the page and the complexity of the image being printed. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 29

• capacity Printers store data about to be printed in a buffer. A large buffer will allow the user to begin other work on the computer while the printer is still processing the page. • cost Costs range from £ 70 to £ 13, 000 depending on features. Manufacturers include Epson, Lexmark, Canon & Hewlett Packard (HP). Running costs for laser printers are low as laser toner cartridges have a larger capacity than inkjets. Laser toner for colour lasers however is still very expensive. • type of interface USB, serial, parallel and ethernet interfaces are used for laser printers. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 30

Two techniques are used with printers to cope with the fact that they work slowly compared to the processor. These involve the use of buffers and spoolers. Buffer You have already met the concept of buffering, using RAM to store data until the printer is ready to process it. Look back at slide 3 for more details CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 31

Spooler Spooling is a similar technique but here the file to be printed is: • Sent to the computer’s hard disk for temporary storage. • Stored in a queue and sent to the printer in stages as a a background job during the processor’s idle moments. This can slow down printing but allows the user to carry on with other tasks while printing is taking place in the background On our school network every time you print, a spool file is created and sent to the server for printing. The server then takes over the job of sending it down to the printer when the printer is ready. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 32

CRT Monitors are large and bulky and use a similar technology to traditional television sets. The Cathode Ray Tube is the bulky part which sticks out at the back. • resolution Resolution is measured in dpi and CRT monitors can display at different resolutions. The size of the display directly affects resolution. An image on a 21 -inch monitor with an 800 x 600 resolution will not appear nearly as sharp as it would on a 15 -inch display at 800 x 600. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 33

The refresh rate is the number of times that the image on the display is drawn each second. A CRT monitor with a refresh rate of 72 Hertz (Hz) cycles through all the pixels from top to bottom 72 times a second. • • A low refresh rate means that the screen flickers and this can cause headaches and eye strain. n/a speed capacity n/a cost Costs range from £ 50 to £ 600 depending on size and features. Manufacturers include Samsung, Phillips, Viewsonic. type of interface The VGA interface is common with the new DVI digital interface becoming more popular. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 34

Thin Film Transistor(TFT) Monitors use Liquid Crystal Display(LCD) technology to create monitors which are very slim and light. These are used on laptops and are rapidly becoming the standard type of display on desktops. • resolution Resolution is measured in dpi and TFT monitors are built with a particular resolution for best quality. Lower resolutions can be set but quality is poor. 1024 x 768 is common for laptop displays. This requires 2, 359, 296 transistors etched onto the glass. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 35

There is no need to worry about refresh rate or flickering on a TFT monitor as transistors are either on or off. Due to manufacturing limitations TFT panels virtually always have some dead pixels which do not display correctly. n/a • speed • • capacity n/a cost Costs range from £ 100 to £ 1600 depending on size and features. Manufacturers include NEC, Sony, LG. • type of interface The VGA interface is common with the new DVI digital interface becoming more popular. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 36

Hard Disks and floppy disks are the main examples of magnetic disk with floppy disks rapidly becoming obsolete due to their limited capacity of 1. 44 Mb. The read/write head moves to the required track and waits until the requested block spins past the head. The following characteristics refer to hard disk. • resolution n/a CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 37

• speed Speed of access is important. The main factor here is the rotational speed of the disk with typical figures being 5, 400 or 7, 200 rpm. (Revolutions per minute) The type of interface also affects the speed of access. • capacity The capacity of modern hard disks ranges from 500 GB to 2 TB. • cost Costs range from £ 30 to £ 160 depending on capacity and type of interface. Manufacturers include Maxtor and Seagate. • type of interface Interfaces include IDE, SCSI, ATA and SATA. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 38

These include CD-ROM, CD-RW, and their DVD equivalents. The disk surface is a mirror covered with billions of tiny lands and pits that are arranged in a long, tightly wound spiral. A laser reads and interprets the information as bits of data. ROMs R RW • are read only. can be written to once but not erased. can be written to and erased using special software. resolution n/a CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 39

• speed CD Speed is measured as a multiple of single speed audio which runs at 150 Kbps. Typical speed is now x 52. Single speed DVD is 1, 250 Kbps and x 16 speed is common. Speeds for reading and writing differ with reading speed normally being the fastest. • capacity CD – 650 MB DVD – Between 4. 7 GB and 17 GB depending on single/double sided, single/double layered. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 40

• cost Costs range from £ 10 to £ 130 depending on type and whether the drive is internal or external. Manufacturers include Pioneer, Lite. On and NEC. • type of interface Interfaces include IDE, USB 2 and firewire. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 41

Magnetic tape drives are still commonly used for backup purposes although removable magnetic disks and optical RW technology can now also be used for backups. Tapes have a higher capacity than any of the optical media is use today. Tape drives are relatively expensive but tapes are cheap. The school network backs up all user data files every night at midnight and five generations are kept. • resolution n/a CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 42

• speed Tapes allow serial/ sequential access and so their use is generally restricted to making backups. Transfer rates range from 2 to 30 Mbps depending on model and price. • capacity Capacities vary widely depending on model and price. Data can be stored in a compressed format which increases capacity but reduces transfer rates. Figures up to 1. 3 TB were found on current price lists. (June 2009) CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 43

• cost Costs range from £ 80 to £ 6, 000 depending on type, capacity and data transfer rate. Manufacturers include Seagate, Travan and Hewlett Packard. • type of interface Interfaces include IDE, USB and SCSI. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 44

Solid state storage devices have no mechanical or moving parts and use integrated circuits rather than magnetic or optical media. Data transfer takes place at very high speeds and the devices are very robust. Current technology means that capacity is lower than magnetic or optical media but costs are falling and capacities are increasing. Flash cards are a popular form of solid state storage and are commonly found in digital cameras and mobile phones. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 45

Memory sticks have virtually replaced floppy disks as a portable storage medium being easy to carry around. Some even double up as key rings or mp 3 players. • resolution n/a • speed With no moving parts, data transfer speeds are high at up to 480 Mbps using a USB 2 interface CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 46

• capacity Capacities vary widely depending on type. Figures from up to 16 GB were found on current price lists. (June 2009) • cost Costs vary up to £ 45 depending on type and capacity. Manufacturers include Crucial, Kingston and Sony. • type of interface USB 2 CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 47

Capacities for all devices are increasing and cost per byte is falling. Solid state storage is replacing floppy disks as the portable medium. DVD is replacing CD as the main optical drive in computer systems. Blu Ray is now the standard for High definition DVD technology. It won against its rival HD-DVD. CS Topic 3 - Peripherals v 2 48