What is a computer ?

A computer can be defined as :

Computer simply can be
defined as an electronic
dev ice- a flexible machine
that can manipulate data.
I t accept andstore theinput
data.
Process the data input.
And output the processed data in required format.
HISTORY OF COMPUTER:
Charles Babbageis called as Father of Computer .He inv ented difference engine and then
analytical engine , w hich canstore theinformation on punch cards during 1800s
Alan Turingis regarded as the father of modern computer science .I n 1936, Turing prov ide the
concept algorithm and computation w ith the Turing machine and blueprint for the
electronicdigital computer.Electronic Numerical Integrator andCalculator(ENIAC)is
considered to be the first purpose electronicdigital computer.
Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC)w as the w orlds first unprogrammable electronicdigital
computer.

Parts of Computer:
INPUT Devices

I nput dev ices are those through w hich w eenter datainto computer. I t translates the human being
information into the form understandable by computer.
Keyboard :The keyboard is the most common and
popular input dev ice. Keyboards are of tw o sizes 84
keys or 101/102 keys, but now 104 keys or 108 keys
keyboard is also av ailable for Window s and I nternet.

Mouse: Most popular pointing dev ice.I t has tw o buttons called left and right button scroll bar is
present at themid. Mouse can be used to control the position of cursor on screen,
but it cannot be used to enter text into the computer.


Joystick :Used in Computer Aided Designs (CAD) and Playing games.I t is a
pointing dev ice used to mov e cursor position on a monitor screen.

Scanner: Use to cov ert an image into digital form.I t is a form

of input dev ice.

Digital Camera: I t can take the image also records the v ideos. The imagesand
v ideos taken by the digital cameras are recorded in the file .These files can get
copied into the computer that can be further edited for many purposes.

Microphone: I t is usedto input the sound .I t can be used to enter text in any w ord
processing application w ith the v oice recognition softw are in the computer.

Touch Screen:Touch screenis used in many mobile phones .They are used
incash machines and shopping centres.

Magnetic Ink Card Reader :MI CR input dev iceused in

banks toprocess a large number of cheques ev eryday.The banks code number and cheque
number are printed on the cheque w ith a special type of ink that contains particles of magnetic
material that are machine readable. This reading process is called Magnetic I nk Character
Recognition (MI CR).

Optical Character Reader:OCR scans text optically character by character.I t is used to read
printed text and conv erts them into a machine readable code and stores the text on the system

memory.

Bar Code Reader :I t is used for reading bar coded data

(data in form of light and dark lines).Bar Coded data is generally used in labelling goods, numbering
the books, etc. I t may be a hand-held scanner or may be embedded in a stationary scanner. Bar
Code Reader scans a bar code image, conv erts it into an alphanumeric v alue, w hich is then fed to
the computer to w hich bar code reader is connected.

Output Devices
Output dev ices translate the computers output into the form understandable by users.
Visual Display Unit(VDU) Or Monitor : It is the main output dev ice of
the computer .I t forms images from tiny dots, called pixels that are
arranged in a rectangular form. The sharpness of the image
depends upon the number of the pixels. There are tw o kinds of
v iew ing screen used for monitors:
Cathode-Ray Tube
Flat-Panel Display
Printers: Most common I nput dev ice w hich is used to print information on paper.There are tw o types
of Printers:
I mpact Printer
Non-impact Printer
I mpact Printers : Theprinters that print the characters by
striking against the ribbon and onto the paper are called
impact printers.
Characteristics of I mpact Printers are the follow ing:
Types of I mpact Printers
Dot Matrix Printer
Daisy Printer
Line Printer
Drum Printer
Chain Printer
Non-I mpact Printer : The printers that print the characters w ithout striking againstthe ribbon and
onto the paper are called Non-impact Printers. These printers print a complete page at a time, also
called as Page Printers.
Characteristics of Non-impact Printers:

Types of Non- I mpact Printers

Laser Printer
I nk-jet Printers
Projector: Projector is also a form of output dev ices.

Speaker:

Plotter: