Input and Output (I/O) Devices

The computer is a very versatile machine. It can easily process different types of data. To work with these data, we require different types of devices. These devices can help us enter data into the computer. These devices are called input and output devices. They mainly cover devices like mouse, keyboard, printer, speaker, joystick, etc which can be used with a computer.

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What are the input and output devices?

The devices that are used to display the information of the results are known as output devices. While the devices whose main function is to give instructions and data to the computer are called input devices. Today we are going to discuss these devices in detail. This is to help you have a basic idea about input and output devices. This will also help you with the questions on the computer aptitude in banking exams. We will start with the output devices.

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What are the output devices?

Output devices can be viewed in the monitor or you can print it on the paper. And that is why printer and monitor are one of the most common output devices.

Printer

The printer is a very important component of a computer. It gives you a printed result of what is displayed on the monitor. The output received from the printer is called hard copy because you can retain it even after you turn off the computer or are no longer working on it. When you look at the printing techniques there are mainly three types of printer:

1. Page printer

2. Character printer

3. Line printer

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Page printer

Page printer can printer a whole page in one go. The examples of page printer are line printer or an inkjet printer. This printer has to store each and every page in memory before printing it. The inkjet printer works by spraying tiny drops of ink on the paper. It can print in colour as well as in black and white format. The quality of printing is good and it does not make any noise. The speed of this printer is measured in pages per minute.

Character printer

Character printer is slow in comparison to the other two printers. It prints around 30 to 600 characters per second. The example of the character printer is a dot-matrix printer. Dot-matrix printer works like a typewriter. It creates an impression on a paper by pressing the ends of the pins that are fixed on its prints heads. The printer offers the low-quality printing and is very noisy.

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Line printer

This is one of the fast printer and prints one line at a time. Generally, it is used when a large amount of output is required. Few of the examples of line printer are drum printer and chain printer. The noise of these printers are also very high and the speed of printing varies from 200 to 2000 line per minute.

Monitor

The monitor is another important component of a computer. It is used to display the processed information. It is known as a visual display unit (VDU). The pictures that are displayed on the screen are shown by using a large number of tiny dots known as pixels. These pixels that are shown on the monitor is referred to as the resolution of the screen.

There are mostly two types of monitors:

1. LCD or liquid crystal display monitor.

2. CRT or Cathode Ray tube monitor.

LCD monitors are lighter in weight can compare to CRT monitors and they are very popular nowadays. The output that is displayed on the screen is known as the soft copy output as it cannot be retained for a longer time.

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Input devices

The main function of the input device is to enter the data in the computer. The various examples of input data are a mouse, keyboard, light pen, etc.

Mouse

The mouse is found on every computer. It is an integral part of it. It is a  pointing device. The main principle it works on is point and click. The mouse uses the trackball to give the motion to the pointer displayed on the screen. Usually, for the windows based programs, a mouse is used. Nowadays wireless mouses are becoming more popular among people.

Keyboard

The keyboard is used to enter all the data into the computer. It directs the computer through instructions. Normally keyboard has 104 buttons called the keys. You can do various tasks through the keyboard. You can program, type, etc through keyboard only.

Scanner

The scanner is used to store photographs, picture, diagrams into the computer. It saves the image in the form of a file by reading it.

Touchscreen

Touchscreen monitors are becoming more and more popular. It requires putting the input to the computer through the touch by your finger, pen, stylus, etc. You can give any sort of information to the computer by touching it.

Light pen

A light pen is another pointing device that can be used in the computer. It is normally like a pen and is used to directly point at the objects seen on the screen. You can also draw various objects on the computer screen through a light pen.

These were some of the basic input and output devices that every computer has. Now we will provide you with some of the questions for practice below.

Practice Questions

Q. The pattern of the printed line that appears on the products are known as _______

A. OCR                               B.Scanners

C. Barcode                         D. Prices

Answer: C

Q. ______ limits the speed of the printer.

A. Cartridge used              B.Paper’s length

C. Movements of paper   D. All of the above

Answer: A

Q. ______  is the term used to define all output and input devices in the computer system?

A. Software                         B.Hardware

C. Monitor                          D. None of the above

Answer: B

Q. What can you do with the help of output devices?

A. Scan the data                B. Input the data

C. Store the data               D. Print or view the data

Answer: D

Q. Out of the following options which device is not an output device?

A. Scanner                          B. Printer

C. Plotter                             D. Monitor

Answer: A

Q. A digital camera is a _____ type of device.

A. Output                             B. Software

C. Input                                D. Storage

Answer: C