Chapter -2

Introduction to functions of
different Units

W. C. Deshapriya
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Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, Students will be able to describe

the function of different units such as:
•The function of Input Unit.
•The function of Output Unit.
•The function of Memory Unit.
•The function of CPU Unit.

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Different type of Units
 Computer is not a single unit. It consists set of units
 A computer consists of four main units:
 Input unit.
 Output unit
 Memory unit
 Central Processing Unit

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Input Unit
 Input unit is a set of hardware that is used to provide input to
the computer.
 It translate words, sounds, images and actions which people
understand, into symbols that the system unit can process.

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Devices categories of Input unit :
1. Text input device : – keyboard, bar code reader
2. Image/Video input device : – scanner, digital camera, webcam
3. Audio input device :– microphone, digital audio player
4. Pointing device: –mouse, touch screen, digital pen, Track pads
5. Controlling device : – joystick, gaming keyboard, digital remote

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Text input
Keyboard:
• Keyboard is used to input letters, numbers which data is entered by manually
typing in certain keys.
• A keyboard normally has 101 or 105 keys.
• It is possible to give some commands to the computer using the keyboard
• Ex: type a command CTRL+ALT+DEL in Windows system→ Open task manager to switch
users, lock machine in a Microsoft.

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 Key Groups in a keyboard
There are 6th groups of keys in a keyboard

• Modifier keys (Control keys)

• Function keys
• Numeric keys
• Alpha-numeric (Typing) keys
• Cursor-movement keys (Navigation keys)
• Special purpose keys (sound control, brightness control..)

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Mouse:
 Mouse is the most common pointing device in a computer.
 Mainly a mouse is used for clicking, double-clicking,
dragging, and right-clicking.
Type of the mouse:
1. Trackballs
2. Trackpads
3. Pointing stick

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Scanner :
• Scanner used to reproduce printed text or images in a computer.

• Scanners record the light strength and colour of the scanned document
and display it on the screen.

Optical Character Reader(OCR)

• A scanned text image will be translated into text that you can edit using an OCR
software.

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Bar code readers:
• A barcode reader is an optical scanner that can read printed
barcodes.

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Digital Pen Touch screen
• It captures the handwriting of a user
and converts handwritten information • It allows the user to place a
fingertip directly on the computer
into digital data screen
Handwritten→ text

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Output Unit
• Output unit used to illustrate the information processed by the
system unit into words, sounds, images or movements that people
can understand.

Devices categories of Output unit :

• Basically we can categorize Output devices as

• Display devices – Monitor
• Printer devices - Printer
• Audio devices- speaker

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Monitor
• Display device used to illustrate an image on the screen
according to electrical signals getting from the computer.
• Pixels - The smallest unit in a graphic image on a display
• Resolution -The number of pixels that form the two sides of the display rectangle
• Size - indicated by the distance between opposite corners, usually in inches
E.g.: 15, 17, 19 and 21 inches

• Clarity - indicated by its resolution. It is measured

in pixels which are individual dots that form
images on a monitor.
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• Three main types of monitors:

• Cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor

• Flat panel monitor (Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) )
• LED monitor creates to low energy usage.

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Projector
• A multimedia projector is a compact, high resolution,
full-color projector capable of projecting text, images,
video and audio content
▪ It is generally used in classrooms and auditoriums for slide
presentations.

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Printer
• This device is used to get the processed information on paper
(to hard copies).
• Several types of printers are there, as follows:

• Ink-Jet printer
• Laser printer
• dot-Matrix

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Speakers, Headphone and Headset
• Speaker is the key output device of sound.
• A sound system includes speakers and a sound card.

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Memory unit
• There are two types of storage as follows
• Primary storage memory
• Secondary storage memory

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 Primary Storage
• Primary storage memory is directly connected to the
CPU.
• There are 3 types of primary storage as follows:
• Processor registers
• Main memory (RAM)
• Cache memory

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Processor registers
• Processor registers are inside the CPU.
• This is used to store the instruction and data when it
processed.

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Main memory
• Main memory has the programs that are currently being run
and the operating programs of data.
• It is directly connected to the CPU via a "memory bus" and a
"data bus".

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Cache memory
• Cache memory is a special type of internal memory used by
many CPUs. It is like a memory registers but outside of CPU.

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Activity 01

• Compare and construct differences between registers, cache

memory and main memory?

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Secondary storage devices
• It is a kind of a computer memory that is not directly accessible to
the CPU.
• Secondary memory is External memory and it has higher storage
capacity.

• Read Only Memory or ROM is other memory that is fixed on a

chip that has start-up directions for your computer.

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Magnetic storage
• Magnetic devices are coated with a magnetically sensitive
material.
• It uses magnetic charges to represent 1 and 0.

magnetic storage devices are as follows:

Floppy disk, Hard disk, Magnetic tape

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Optical storage device
• In optical storage, a laser beam are used to read data on plastic
or metallic disk.
• The 1 and 0 are represented by flat areas called lands, and pits

Optical storage devices are as follows:

CD, DVD

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 • Types of CDs are as follows:
• CD-ROM - Compact Disc Read Only Memory
• CD-R - Compact Disc Recordable
• CD-RW - Compact Disc Re Writable

• Types of DVDs are as follows:

• DVD-ROM - Digital Versatile Disc Read Only Memory
• DVR-R - DVD Recordable
• DVD-RAM - DVD Random Access Memory
• DVD-RW - DVD Re Writable

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Solid state storage devices
• It has integrated circuits (IC) to store the data.
• Stores data electronically as 1,0. Therefore, data reads and
writes very quickly.

solid state storage devices

are as follows:
Flash memory, Smart cards, Solid state disks (SSD)

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Central Processing Unit
• The central processing unit (CPU) contains electronic circuits
that used to processes instructions .
• The CPU interprets instructions to the computer and
performs the logical and arithmetic operations.
• It is the “brain” of the computer.
• CPU can perform
• Calculations
• Comparisons
• make logical decisions

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Components of the CPU
• Control unit (CU)
• Arithmetic logic unit (ALU)
• Memory unit (MU)

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Control unit :

• It coordinates the sequence of data flow between a processor’s and

memory units.
• It controls data flow inside the processor also.
• It obtains the instructions from the memory
• communicates with input/output devices

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Arithmetic logic unit (ALU):

• This will do the part of Arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction,

multiplication, and division. and
• do the part of logic operations like comparing, selecting, matching, and
merging of data.

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Memory unit :

• The memory inside CPU is called as register (CPU register)

• It is a small set of data holding places that are part of the
computer processor.
• The memory in CPU (CPU register), stored all data and/or
instruction that are currently processing on CPU.

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Operation of CPU
• The fundamental operation of the CPUs is to execute a sequence of
stored instructions, called a program executing.
• There are four steps in executing cycle.

• Fetch → decode → execute → write back (Store)

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Fetch
• Read an instruction (program) from main memory.
• The location of main memory is determined by a program counter (PC)

Fetch

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Decode
• In this step, the loaded instruction (program) split into two
parts;
• op- code (operator )
• Operand (data)

• The decoded value loaded in to the registry.

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Execute
• Now the instruction will be executed on ALU
• The result will save on main memory or Register.

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 Fetch → decode → execute → write back

CPU

RAM

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Thanks!

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