Hardware
Welcome dear reader,
In my previous article (Software), I have shared my views about software history and various types of software up to certain extent. Now in this article, I would like to expose my little knowledge about hardware. To write this article I made, a tiny research regarding this topic in various books and several websites. I would thankful to all who tried to provide, a valuable information to the world. Let's begin with a basic question, What is Hardware?
What is Hardware?
In simple words, those devices which are having touchable property are simply known as Hardware components. Another simple word is Hardware is a physical component, whereas Software is a logical component. In general, all physical components come under Hardware. For example, see around you. Your table, your chair, your door, your pen, your book your fan, your light, your speakers, your monitor, your keyboard, your mouse, and so on.
Good, once again observe the above examples. Monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, scanner, CPU belongs to your computer. What are these known as? Yes. You are right. These are the perfect examples of Hardware devices for a Computer System.
Let us move to next step. Suppose we are having excellent Operating System (Software) but, we don’t have these hardware components. What is use? nothing. Because, to utilize and get the benefits of software, we must need Hardware components. To fulfill our needs, we must have both hardware and software together in one machine. This machine is known as a perfect computer system. We can classified hardware components into mainly two categories, namely External Hardware and Internal Hardware. Now let us discuss some of the external hardware.
Floppy Disk Drive (FDD):
Up to the year 2000, these floppy drives plays a vital role in storing information. Let us see some history if these FDDs. These Floppy disks are available in different sizes with different storage capacities. In 1971, the first disk drive was made with the size 8 inch. But the drives with size 5 1/4-inch floppy disks were used practically. Then, these are replaced with 3 1/4-inch floppy disks. The 5 1/4-inch disk has the storage capability up to 1.2MB, the 3 1/4-inch disk has the storage capacity 1.44MB. But today, these are not using due to their limited capacity. These were replaced with CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and Flash Drives.
CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory):
CD-ROM is an optical storage device, which holds data. This data may be either software, audio or even video. The general storage capacity of a CD-ROM is 700MB. There are different types of interfaces that allow a CD-ROM like, IDE/ATA(Integrated Device Electronics/Advanced Technology Attachment), Panasonic, Parallel, PCMCIA(Personal Computer Memory Card International Association), SATA(Serial Advanced Technology Attachment), SCSI(Small Computer System Interface), USB(Universal Serial Bus).
The following table helps you to understand the different speeds of CD-ROM
Drive Speed
|
Transfer Rate (Mbits/Sec)
|
Access Time (ms)
|
1x
|
1.2288
|
400
|
2x
|
2.4576
|
300
|
4x
|
4.9152
|
150
|
6x
|
7.0653
|
150
|
8x
|
9.8304
|
100
|
10x
|
12.288
|
100
|
18x
|
21.8343
|
90
|
20x
|
Up to 24.576
|
90
|
32x
|
Up to 39.3216
|
85
|
36x
|
Up to 44.2368
|
80
|
52x
|
Up to 63.8976
|
80
|
72x
|
Up to 88.4736
|
75
|
Digital Versatile Disc(DVD):
A DVD helps us to store a large amount of data starting from 4.7GB onwards. In 1997, first DVDs were sold. To read the data from a DVD, you must have a DVD drive and its corresponding software installed on your computer. The following table describes the storage capacities of different types DVDs.
DVD Type
|
Storage Capacity
|
Single sided-single layer
|
4.7GB
|
Single sided-Double layer
|
8.5 to 8.7GB
|
Double sided-Single layer
|
9.4GB
|
Double sided-Double layer
|
17.08GB
|
Now let us discuss the brief history of DVD. In 1993, two video disc formats have been developed. Namely, MMCD(Multimedia Compact Disc), SD(Super Density) disc. Later, Philips, Sony, Hitachi, Pioneer, Toshiba have combined the two formats and developed single DVD format. On 25, March 1996, the first feature film put on DVD was Twister.
BD(Blu-Ray):
This BD also comes under optical storage disc, which was developed by 13 consumer electronics and PC companies includes DELL, HITACHI, HEWLETT, PACKARD, LG, PANASONIC, SONY, MITSUBISHI, and TDK. On 4 January, 2006 first Blu-Ray disc was introduced at CES(Consumer Electronics Show). It can store up to 25GB(in Single layer format) and 50GB(in Dual layer format).Today BDs are available with 200GB storage capacity.
HDD(Hard Drive Disc):
It is non- volatile(Retaining data even if a break in the power supply) memory hardware device, having permanent storage capacity and retrieving feature. In general 3.5inch HDDs are for desktops and 2.5inch HDDs for laptops are available. HDD holds one or more platters (it is one or more Aluminum, Glass or Ceramic Disk that is coated in a magnetic media and situated in hard drive for the sake of storing information permanently). This HDD is going to connect to the motherboard with the help of any one of ATA, SATA or SCSI cable. With the help of Power Supply Unit (PSU), it will get the power supply. These HDD are using to store any type of data includes, text, graphics, images, audio and video files.
Now see some history of HDD. On 13 September 1956 IBM introduced and Marketed. The first HDD used in RAMAC 305(Random Memory Access Accounting) with the storage capacity of 5MB at the cost about Rs.33,53,740/-. 2.6MB HDD was developed by IBM on 1963. In 1983, 3.5inch HDD was developed and introduced by Rodime with a storage capacity of 10MB. In 1992, In 1992, Seagate introduced 7200 RPM(Revolutions per Minute), in 1996, 10000 RPM HDD , in 2000, 15000 RPM HDD was released.
FAN:
FAN is a hardware device which helps to cool the overall computer. There are various types of fans are used in a computer system. Namely, Case Fan, CPU Fan, Power supply Fan and Video Card Fan.
HEAT SINK:
It is an electronic device that a part of FAN. There are mainly two types of heat sink, Namely, Active heat sink(uses power and fan type) and Passive heat sink(made up with Aluminum finned radiator
Motherboard:
It is also known as Main board or mobo or baseboard or planar board or system board or logic board. It is a printed circuit board located in CPU cabinet. There are several components are available on a motherboard. They are namely, Expansion slots, 3-pin case fan connectors, back pane connectors, heat sink, 4-pin power connector, inductor, capacitor, CPU socket, Northbridge, Screw hole, Memory slot, Super I/O, ATA disk drive primary connection, 24-pin ATX power supply connector, serial ATA connections, Coin cell battery, RAID, System panel connectors, FWH, Southbridge, Serial port connector, USB port connector, Jumpers, Integrated circuit, 1394 headers, SPDIF ,CD-IN, BIOS, Bus, Cache memory, Chipset, Diode, Dip switches, Fuse, Game port, Internal speakers, Keyboard controller, LCC, SIMM, Parallel port header, PS/2 header, Resistor, RTC, SCSI, Voltage regulator, Voltage regulator module and some other.
RAM(Random Access Memory):
Random Access Memory is also known as Main memory, System Memory or Primary memory. It is used to store the information into the computer or to retrieve the information from the computer.RAM is usually related with DRAM. It retrieves the data randomly instead of Sequentially. There are several types of RAMs like, DIMM(Dual inline Memory Module), RIMM(Rambus Inline Memory Module), SIMM(Single Inline Memory Module), SO-DIMM(Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module).
External Hardware Components:
FPD(Flat Panel Display):
It is a thin screen display module. Today we see this FPD in almost all portable computers. It is a new standard for desktop computer systems. It uses Liquid crystal display(LCD) or Light Emitting Diode(LED).
Monitor:
The monitor also is known as Video Display Unit(VDU). The monitor is used as output device. The result which was processed by the computer processor will be seen through the monitor.
Keyboard:
The keyboard is a primary input device. Because in most of the cases, we supply input data to the computer for processing. Today keyboard model is based on the typewriter. This typing device was developed by Christopher Sholes in 1868. With the help of this keyboard, we can input alphabets, digits, special characters as commands to the computer.
Mouse:
The mouse is an external hardware device, usually help in locating (x, y) position on the display system. Hence, it is also referred as X-Y position Indicator. Today mouse has mainly 3 buttons. Namely, Left Button, Right Button and Middle Button(Scroll wheel).
With all this, I hope, you understand different hardware components. Of course, there are some other hardware components like printer, scanner, speakers, Plotter, Flash drives are also available.
Please feel free to give comments or suggestions under below section. See you in my next article.
Thank you.
.
