2.4 Hardware
All the devices on your computer system that we can touch can be called as “hardware devices”. Without any hardware the computer system does not exist and software could not be used. We can classify hardware into following devices
1) Input Devices
2) Output Devices
3) Central Processing Unit
4) Storage/Memory
5) Communication Devices
1. Input Devices
The devices that we use to input data to the computer system called as “input devices”. Input devices are,
• Keyboard
• Mouse/Touch pad
• Webcam
• Microphone
• Scanner
• Optical character reader (OCR)
• Optical mark reader (OMR)
• Magnetic ink character reader (MICR)
• Barcode reader
? Keyboard
Keyboard will be the one of main input device of the computer. Using this keyboard we can input letters, numbers, and symbols. Also some of main commands can be input by this keyboard.
? Mouse
Mouse can be called as one of main input device on the computer. Without this mouse the activities on the computer will be so difficult, because most of the computer activities involve the mouse. On a standard mouse we can see two buttons named, “left mouse button” and “right mouse button”. The mouse is placed on a flat surface like mouse pad or a desk and is placed in front of your computer
? Microphone
The Microphone can be called as device that translates sound vibrations in the air into electronic signals or transmits them to a recording medium.
2.5 Output Devices
The devices that we use to output information called as “output devices”. Output devices are,
• Visual display unit (VDU)
• Speakers
• Printers
• Plotters
• Multimedia projector
