Computer Pheripharels

Computer peripherals

In order for a computer to process information, the information must get into the computer, the results must be displayed. Devices exist for the purpose of input and output, these devises are called Peripherals. They are accessories to the processing unit and instruments which interpret and communicate between human and computer.   (DH sanders: pg22; Yale n, patt; Sanjay j, patel pg 100)

Examples of peripherals are:

Peripherals on a home personal computer are the keyboard which is an input device as well as the mouse. Other input devices include the scanner, the electronic pen. Other examples may include the card reader at the ATM or the coin slot and number pad and even the mouth piece of a public telephone. Anything that is used to give the machine a command in order to receive a result is a peripheral and an input device. Examples of Output devices are printers, speakers, display units and monitors, the ear piece of a public and the screen which shows our time remaining, there are many more. Another example of computer peripherals are the external hard drive, flash drive and even cd and DVD. They are all used to provide a means to a result. Te external hard drive and the flash drive bring us to our next topic…

Computer buses:

A bus is a circuit that provides a path for transferring information between two or more devices.   (blissmer, Robert H pg115)

The various components on the main circuit board of the pc processor unit are linked together by a set of parallel conducting lines known as buses
Different buses are used for different purposes and are given different names

The microprocessor chips -Zilog’s Z80, Intel’s 8080 and Motorola’s 6809 - have a built in 8 line data bus, this means that the chip can only get a 8-bit bytes of data from the storage at a time
Likewise we got the 16 bit chip that can do the transfers at 16 bit at a time, this later became 32 bits and so on, and the amount of bits the bus can move at a...