Scanner – Is used to put documents into the computer. It is useful for people wanting to design a website and add there own pictures to it.
Web cam/digital camera – Sends pictures to other computers. It can help people all over the world interact with each other. Also helps people add their pictures to their websites.
Microphone – Can be used for the computer to listen to your speech. Can be very useful for blind, dyslexic or people with disabilities. Disadvantage is that it could make mistakes.
Output Devices:
Printer – Print out documents from the computers memory. There are different types of printers, laser printers give very high quality prints. Bubble jet printers are very good with colours, but a big problem is that the ink on the documents run when wet.
Monitor – It displays files from the computers memory. There are different types of monitor, CRT monitors which work like a TV or a flat screen as in a laptop computer.
Speakers – Basically play sounds/music, which is stored on the computers memory. They can be used for speech e.g. when the computers wants to speak to you.
Storage Devices:
Hard drive – Can store a lot of data and is also very quick. The problem is that they’re built in to the computer so they’re not portable.
Floppy disk – Can be used to move files from one computer to another. Some disadvantages are it can only store small amounts of data and it is also easily damaged.
Flash cards – Store data on silicon chips on the card.
CDRom – Store 650Mb of data. Move files from one computer to another. If you have a CD writer you can write data to a CD.
BITS and BYTES – A BIT stands for Binary DigIT. A bit is either on or off. A single wire inside the computer carries 1 bit. A byte is a collection of 8 bits.
System Bus – A collection of wires inside the computer that join all the devices together.
Motherboard – This is a special electronic board on to which all the devices are attached so that they can connect to the system bus
