subject : informatics practice. chapter 1 hardware and concept . school type : cbse (central board of secondary education.)

3. Hardware is best described as a
device that is physically
connected to your computer or
something that can be physically
touched. Most hardware will
contain a circuit board, ICs, and
other electronics. A perfect
example of hardware is a
computer monitor, which is an
output device that lets you see
what you're doing on the
computer. Without any
hardware, your computer
would not exist, and software
would not be able to run. In the
image to the right, is a webcam
and an example of an external
hardware peripheral that
What Is Hardware?
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4. • A hardware is the physical component which is
use to do some mechanical work.
• Hardware is the physical part of a device which
performs operations according to the need.
Now we have hardwired control and micro
programmed control for any hardware.
• The basic difference is this in the hardwired
control we make the hardware work using flip
flops and gates while in case of micro
programmed we insert sequence of instructions
in the chip to make the hardware work.
• Hardwired is Faster and complex .Micro
programmed is Cheaper and slower. Back

5.  Motherboard
This is the most important type of computer hardware.
It is a circuit board, whereon different parts of the
system are set up. All input devices work when they
are connected to the motherboard. RAM, CPU, and other
crucial peripherals are installed on the computer
motherboard.
 Random Access Memory (RAM)
The RAM is a small chip that fits on the motherboard.
It does the job of storing data on a temporary basis.
RAM chips are generally available from 256 MB to 6 GB
or more and are upgradeable. The more the RAM, the
faster the computer system will function.
 Central Processing Unit (CPU)
The CPU is a small chip installed on the motherboard
that does the job of running computer programs. The
speed of computer functioning also depends a lot on
the processor's capacity. Without the CPU, you will not
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6. Back

7. In computing, an input device is any
peripheral (piece of computer hardware
equipment) used to provide data and
control signals to an information
processing system such as a computer or
other information appliance. Examples of
input devices include keyboards, mouse,
scanners, sound card and hard drive.

8. Keyboard –
Keyboard is a standard input device. It is a data entry
platform of a computer. A computer key board is a
sophisticated electromechanical component designed
to create specialized electronic codes (scan codes)
when a key is pressed. These codes are transmitted
along the cables to computer system unit or terminal,
where the incoming code is analyzed and converted in
to the appropriate computer usable code. Keyboards
have five distinct groups of keys:
 Standard type writer keys: resembles a typewriter
 Function keys: The top row keys from F1 to F10 or F12
 Cursor movement keys: Arrow keys, Home, End, Page
Up, Page Down
 Numeric keys: a keypad at the right to make it easy
to enter numbers
 Special purpose keys: Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Del, Insert

9. Mouse:
A mouse is a device that controls the movement of
the cursor or pointer on a display screen. A mouse
is a small object you can roll along a hard on
flat surface. Its name is derived from its shape,
which looks like a mouse, its connecting wire that
one can imagine to be the mouse tail; and the fact
that one must make it scurry along a surface. As
you move the mouse, the pointer on the display
screen moves in the same direction. Mice contain at
least one button and sometimes as many as three,
which have different functions depending on what
program is running. Some newer mice also include
a scroll wheel for scrolling through long
documents. Mouse was first invented by Douglas
Engelbart in 1963.

10. Hard- Drive
A hard disk drive is a data
storage device used for
storing and retrieving digital
information using rapidly
rotating disks (platters)
coated with magnetic
material. An Hard Disk Drive
retains its data even when
powered off. Data is read in a
random-access manner,
meaning individual blocks of
data can be stored or
retrieved in any order rather
than sequentially. An Hard
Drive consists of one or more
rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating
disks (platters) with magnetic
heads arranged on a moving

11. Sound Card
A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an
internal computer expansion card that facilitates
the input and output of audio signals to and from
a computer under control of computer
programs. The term sound card is also applied to
external audio interfaces that use software to
generate sound, as opposed to using hardware
inside the PC. Typical uses of sound cards include
providing the audio component for multimedia
applications such as music composition, editing
video or audio, presentation, education and
entertainment (games) and video projection.

12. Scanner:
A scanner is a device that captures images
from photographic prints, posters, magazine
pages, and similar sources for computer
editing and display. Scanners come in hand-
held, feed-in, and flatbed types and for
scanning black-and-white only, or color.
Very high resolution scanners can be used if
you need to print scanned image in high-
resolution, but lower resolution scanners
are adequate for capturing images for
computer display. Scanners usually come
with software, such as Adobe’s Photoshop
product, that lets you resize and otherwise
modify a captured image.
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13. It is the unit of computer system that sends
information out of the computer or the unit of
computer system that provides the result of
processing to the users is output unit. This unit
receives information from CPU and converts into
suitable human readable form. Monitor, Plotter,
Printer, Projector, Speaker etc. are the output
devices.
An output device is any peripheral device that
converts machine-readable information into
people-readable form such as a monitor, printer,
plotter and voice output device. Example:
Monitor, speaker and Plotters

14. Monitor
A computer monitor is also called display screen
or video display terminal (VDT). Text and Images
are displayed on monitors by individual dots
called pixels. A pixel is the tiny blinking material
on computer screen that can be turned on and off
or made different shades. A pixel is the smallest
unit on the screen. The density of dots determines
the clarity of the images – known as resolution. A
screen resolution 1024 x 768 means that it has 1024
dots in one line and 768 lines in one screen.
Another measure of display resolution is a dot
pitch.

15. Plotter
A plotter is a special-purpose output device that
draws images with ink pens. That is, the plotter is
a graphics printer for making sophisticated
graphs, charts, maps, and three-dimensional
graphics as well as high-quality colored
documents. It can also produce larger size of
documents.

16. Speakers
Computer speakers, or multimedia speakers, are
speakers external to a computer, that disable the
lower fidelity built-in speaker. They often have a
low-power internal amplifier. The standard audio
connection is a 3.5 mm (approximately 1/8 inch)
stereo phone connector often color-coded lime
green (following the PC 99 standard) for computer
sound cards. A few use an RCA connector for input.
There are also USB speakers which are powered
from the 5 volts at 500 milliamps provided by the
USB port, allowing about 2.5 watts of output power.
Computer speakers were introduced by Altec
Lansing in 1990.

17. Printer
In computing, a printer is a peripheral which
produces a representation of an electronic
document on physical media such as paper or
transparency film. Many printers are local
peripherals connected directly to a nearby
personal computer. Individual printers are often
designed to support both local and network
connected users at the same time. Some printers
can print documents stored on memory cards or
from digital cameras and scanners. Multifunction
printers (MFPs) include a scanner and can copy
paper documents or send a fax; these are also
called multi-function devices (MFD), or all-in-one
(AIO) printers. Most MFPs include printing,
scanning, and copying among their many features.

18. Headphones
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers
that are designed to be held in place close to a
user's ears. Headphones either have wires for
connection to a signal source such as an audio
amplifier, radio, CD player, portable media
player or mobile phone, or have a wireless
receiver, which is used to pick up signal without
using a cable. They are sometimes known as
earspeakers or, colloquially, cans.The alternate
in-ear versions are known as earphones or
earbuds. In the context of telecommunication, a
headset is a combination of headphone and
microphone.