Secondary Storage

Helluuuu again, Lets talk about secondary storage.

1) File Compressions - It is a process of decreasing the bit size of the file. Compression is useful because it helps reduce the consumption of expensive resources, such as hard disk space or transmission bandwidth. On the downside, compressed data must be decompressed to be used, and this extra processing may be detrimental to some applications.

2) Head Crash - A head crash is a hard-disk failure that occurs when a read-write head of a hard disk drive comes in contact with its rotating platter, resulting in permanent and usually fatal damage to the magnetic media on the platter surface.

3) Internet Hard Drive - The sole purpose of an Internet hard drive is to offer a means of accessing your computer files (pictures, documents, music, videos, etc.) from any computer, as long as that computer has access to the Internet. Similar to depositing money into your bank account, and later withdrawing that same money from any ATM machine, an Internet hard drive will allow you to "deposit" your computer files into a remote hard drive, and then later access those very same files from any other computer. Unlike your local hard drive, which may have a limited storage capacity, a competitive Internet hard drive provider will offer virtually unlimited disk space. Uploading your files takes time. The larger the file, the longer it will take to upload to your Internet hard drive. Likewise, the amount of time it takes to retrieve a file will be relative to its file size as well.

4) Optical Disc Drive - known as ODD, is a disk drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves near the light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs. Some drives can only read from discs, but recent drives are commonly both readers and recorders. Recorders are sometimes called burners or writers. Compact discs, DVDs, and Blu ray discs are common types of optical media which can be read and recorded by such drives.

5) Solid-state storage - A solid-state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data. SSDs are distinguished from traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), which are electromechanical devices containing spinning disks and movable read/write heads. SSDs, in contrast, use microchips which retain data in non-volatile memory chips and contain no moving parts. Compared to traditional HDDs, SSDs are typically less susceptible to physical shock, quieter, and have lower access time and latency. SSDs use the same interface as hard disk drives, thus easily replacing them in most applications.

Thats all for now =)

Input and Output

Here we go on input and output :

1) Ergonomic Keyboard - It is design specially to reduced the strains on the human muscles. That is the reason why it is design in a way where our hands can rest comfortably on it.

2) Ink-jet Printer - This printer is widely used at home. It functions by producing small droplets to be sprayed on paper to produce the image being printed. The digital image is almost sprayed onto paper. This type of printers are inexpensive. Epson, HP, Lexmark are some brands who sell these ink-jet printers.

3) Laser Printer - A laser printer is a type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. laser printers employ a xerographic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photoreceptor.

4) Magnetic-ink Character Reader - also known as MICR is a character recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of cheques. The technology allows computers to read information (such as account numbers) off of printed documents. Unlike barcodes or similar technologies, however, MICR codes can be easily read by humans.

5) Optical-character Recognition - also associated with the short form OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping system in an office, or to publish the text on a website. OCR makes it possible to edit the text, search for a word or phrase, store it more compactly, display or print a copy free of scanning artifacts, and apply techniques such as machine translation, text-to-speech and text mining to it.

6) Optical-mark Recognition - also known as OMR, is the process of capturing human-marked data from document forms such as surveys and tests. Many traditional OMR devices work with a dedicated scanner device that shines a beam of light onto the form paper. The contrasting reflectivity at predetermined positions on a page is then utilized to detect the marked areas because they reflect less light than the blank areas of the paper.

Thats all for now =)

The System Unit

1) Flash memory
 


A computer chip with a read-only memory that retains its data when the power is turned off and that can be electronically erased and reprogrammed without being removed from the circuit board.




2) Graphic Cards
 


Is a printed circuit board that makes a computer capable of displaying and manipulating pictures. The term also refers to the images themselves.


3) Sound Card
 


An expansion board that enables a computer to manipulate and output sounds. Sound cards are necessary for nearly all CD-ROMs and have become a common place on modern personal computers such as laptops, smart phones and etc. Sound cards enable the computer to output sound through speakers connected to the board, to record sound input from a microphone connected to the computer, and manipulate sound stored on a disk.


4) Network Interface Card (NIC)



Often known as NIC, is an expansion board you insert into a computer so the computer can be connected to a network. Most NICs are designed for a particular type of network, protocol, and media, although some can serve multiple networks.


5) Plug and Play









Plug and Play (PnP) is a capability developed by Microsoft for its Windows 95 and later operating systems that gives users the ability to plug a device into a computer and have the computer recognize that the device is there. The end user doesn't have to tell the computer. Microsoft made Plug and Play a selling point for its Windows operating systems. A similar capability had long been built into Macintosh computers. 

6) Bus Line 





Bus lines are all those little wires that can be seen on the back of a circuit board. They are usually made from copper, though very high-end boards use gold. As electricity is sent across these lines, the receiving components convert the electricity into binary codes. 

7) High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

it is the first industry-supported uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface. It's a single cable and user-friendly connector that replaces the maze of cabling behind the home entertainment center. HDMI provides an interface between any audio/video source, such as a set-top box, DVD player, or A/V receiver and an audio and/or video monitor, such as a digital television (DTV), over a single cable.  HDMI supports standard, enhanced, or high-definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable. 

8) Cache Memory 

A memory cache, sometimes called a cache store or RAM cache, is a portion of memory made of high-speed staticRam-dynamic Ram (DRAM) used for main memory. Memory caching is effective because most programs access the same data or instructions over and over.

Specialized Application Software

Specialized Application Software are different from Basic Application Software. These software is usually targeted at people who uses these software for their professions such as graphic designer, multimedia producer and so on.

1) Audio Editing Software

 

This software allows end users to edit audio in anyway they like. They may mix multiple songs together to become a single track or even add effect to the audio selected such as fade in or fade out effect at the beginning or end of an audio. This software is often used by Disc Jockeys or known as DJs.

2) Bitmap Image

 

Bitmap or known as pixmap is a image file format used to store digital images. In certain contexts, the term bitmap implies one bit per pixel. When bitmap images are enlarged, jagged edges appear because the image is broken down into one bit per pixel and each pixel has its own place, colour shade and size.

3) HTML Editor
This is a soft for creating websites. Specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality. For example, many HTML editors work not only with HTML, but also with related technologies such as CSS, XML and JavaScript or ECMA script.

4) Multimedia

 

Multimedia combines text, audio and visuals together to become a piece of art. Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed or accessed by information content processing devices, such as computerized and electronic devices, but can also be part of a live performance.

5) Vector Image

 

Vector images uses geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based on mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics. Unlike bitmap images where when it is enlarged it becomes jagged, vector images are perfectly clear even being enlarged because the image is recalculated to fit the size the end users are viewing it at.

6)Web Authoring
A category of software that enables the user to develop a Web site in a desktop publishing format. The software will generate the required HTML coding for the layout of the Web pages based on what the end user designs. Typically, the end user can toggle back and forth between the graphical design and the HTML code and make changes to the Web page in either the design of the accompanying code.

Basic Application Software

Basic Application Software is basically the softwares which you use everyday when you turn on the Central Processor Unit.

1) Graphical User Interface (GUI)

It is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with programs in more ways than typing such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment with images rather than text commands. A GUI offers graphical icons, and visual indicators, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation to fully represent the information and actions available to a user. The actions are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements.

2) Word Processor

It is a computer application to produce text. With word processor, end users can compose, edit, format and print text onto printable material such as paper. Microsoft Word is the most common word processing software available.

3) Spreadsheet 

It is a computer application that stimulates a paper, accounting worksheet. It shows multiple cells together that make up a grid consisting of rows and columns where each cell contains an alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas. Spreadsheets are often used in businesses to keep track of numeric values such as revenue, lost and the most common is cost. Microsoft Excel is the most common spreadsheet software anyone could get.

4) Database Management System (DBMS)

A Database Management System is a set of computer programs that controls the creation, maintenance, and the use of a database. A DBMS is a system which allows files and data records known as databases to integrate with each other. It allows different user application programs to easily access the same database. A DBMS also provides the ability to logically present database information to users.

5) Utility Suites

Utility suite is a kind of system software that is designed to help analyze, configure, optimize and maintain the computer. These features are combined to be only as one software. Utilities are often very technical and are targeted at people who have a higher understanding of computer knowledge.