UNIT-2

Input /Output devices

Input devices
• Input devices are electromechanical devices that are used to
provide data to a computer for storing and further processing, if
necessary.
• The basic task of an input device is to take the input from the user,
translate it into the machinereadable form and then present it to
the processing unit of the computer for execution.
• The input may be in different forms, such as numeric data, text
commands, graphics, video and audio.
• the input device may belong to one of the following categories:
➢ Keyboard
➢ Pointing devices
➢ Scanning devices
➢ Optical recognition devices

Keyboard- Keyboard is the most commonly used input device. We can

use a keyboard to type data and text and execute commands. A standard
keyboard, as shown in Fig. below,keyboard consists of the following
groups of keys:
• Alphanumeric keys- The alphanumeric keys include the number
keys and alphabet keys. These keys are arranged in the same style
as in the normal typewriters, popularly known as QWERTY layout.
• Function keys -The function keys are arranged in a row on the top
of the keyboard. These keys help perform specific tasks, such as
searching a file or refreshing a web page.
• Central keys- The central keys are used for controlling the
movement of cursor and screen display. These include arrow keys
 (for moving the cursor) and modifier keys such as SHIFT, ALT and
CTRL (for modifying the input).
• Numeric keypad -The numeric keypad is located on the right side of
the keyboard. This looks like a calculator’s keypad with its 10 digits
and mathematical operators.
• Special purpose keys- The special purpose keys help perform a
certain kind of operation, like exiting a program or deleting some
characters in a document. The various special purpose keys in a
keyboard are Escape, Insert, Delete, Print Screen, Pause, Tab,
Spacebar, etc.

• Each key of the keyboard, when pressed, sends a different signal to

the processor.

POINTING DEVICES
• Pointing devices are the input devices that are generally used for
moving the cursor to a particular location to point an object on the
screen.
• With the help of pointing devices, we can easily select the icons,
menus, windows, etc on the Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• Some of the commonly used pointing devices are:
➢ Mouse
➢ Trackball
 ➢ Light pen
➢ Joystick
➢ Touchscreen
Mouse
• Mouse is a small hand-held pointing device that basically controls
the two-dimensional movement of the cursor on the displayed
screen.
• It is an important part of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) based
Operating Systems (OS) as it helps in selecting a portion of the
screen and copying and pasting the text.
• The mouse, on moving, also moves the pointer appearing on the
displaydevice.The most commonly used types of mouse are:

➢ Mechanical mouse -A mechanical mouse consists of three buttons:

left button, right button and scroll button. Inside the plastic coating
of the mouse, there is a ball, which is rolled over a flat surface
corresponding to which the cursor moves on the display screen.
The left button on the mouse is the most frequently used button as
it helps in selecting the icons, folders and text on the display screen.
The right button on the mouse helps in displaying the short cut
menu, whereas the scroll button helps in moving the cursor up and
down on the screen by scrolling it.

➢ Optical mouse - optical mouse is a pointing input device in

which the reflected light determines the movement of the
 cursor on the displayed screen. The upper portion of the
optical mouse is similar to that of the mechanical mouse.
The lower portion of the optical mouse consists of a ball
having Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), an optical sensor and a
Digital Signal Processor (DSP).

Trackball
• Trackball is a pointing device that basically consists of a socket
containing the ball, which can be rolled manually to move the
cursor on the screen. The socket also contains sensors, which
detect the movement of the ball. With the help of the trackball, we
can change the position of the cursor on the screen by simply
rotating the ball with our fingers or thumb.
• The trackball finds its use as a game controller in games like
Centipede, Golden Tee and Marble Madness.

Figure below shows Trackball

Light Pen
Light pen is an electro-optical pointing device that is used for
selecting the objects on the display screen with the help of a light
sensitive pen. It is generally connected to the Visual Display Unit
(VDU) of the computer system. The pen contains a light-sensitive
diode, which helps in pointing the objects displayed on the screen.
 Using a light pen, we can directly draw the objects on the screen by
holding it in our hand.
Figure below shows light pen attached to a computer system:

Touchscreen -Touchscreen is a pointing device that enables us to

enter data such as text, pictures and images by directly touching
the screen. The touchscreen is the display monitor with which the
user can directly interact with the computer system by touching the
screen.
The touchscreen is used in a variety of applications, such as cell
phones, ATM’s, PDA’s and games.

SCANNING DEVICES
• Scanning devices are the input devices that can electronically
capture text and images, and convert them into computer readable
form. The basic task of a scanning device is to convert an image or
the textual data into digital data.
• the scanning devices can be categorised as follows:
 ➢ Hand-held scanners
➢ Flat-bed scanners
➢ Drum scanners
➢ Slide scanners
Hand-held Scanners
Hand-held scanners are the scanning devices that are generally used for
digitising the images into bit map, which is a matrix of 0’s and 1’s.The size
of these scanners is small and the price is relatively less as compared to
the other three types of scanners. These scanners are also known as half
page scanners, as they can scan maximum upto 5 inches at a time. The
hand-held scanners are suitable for scanning small images rather than
the whole page of text or pictures.

The hand-held scanning devices are generally used for identifying the
bar-code label of the products.
The bar-code is a code comprising vertical bars of different widths that
can be read only electronically. The code captured by the scanning device
is stored permanently in the memory.

Flatbed Scanners
• Flatbed scanners consist of a flat surface composing of glass pane
on which the documents are kept for scanning.
 • Under this glass pane, there is xenon light and a CCD, which
consists of an array of red, green and blue filters.
• The object to be scanned is put upside down on the glass pane and
the cover is lowered. The light reflected from the document surface
helps in identifying the image or the text present in the document.
• The scanning is done from left to right horizontally, line by line and
the procedure is repeated until all the lines are scanned. The flat-
bed scanners are best suited for slides and photo scanning.

Drum Scanners
Drum scanners generally consist of a large drum, which is used for
scanning the documents. These scanners make use of the Photo
Multiplier Tubes (PMT) technology, instead of the CCD technology. The
resolution image of these scanners is very high due to which they are
very expensive. The disadvantage of these scanners is that they are slow
in speed.
These scanners are suitable for scanning negatives.
Slide Scanners
Slide scanners are used for scanning slides as well as film negatives.
The slides are created on a transparent base using photochemical
solution. The film negatives are the inversion of the positive images.
In order to scan the slide, it is put into the tray, which is meant for
scanning the objects. These scanners are also known as film
scanners as they can easily scan the original image of the film.
The slide scanners are capable of scanning up to 35 slides at a time
and offer an optical resolution ranging from 4000 dpi to 4800 dpi.
Slide scanners can efficiently scan negatives and black and white
films.
 OPTICAL RECOGNITION DEVICES
Optical recognition devices are used for recognising the characters
optically. The optical recognition devices basically make use of
optical scanner for inputting data. The following are some of the
commonly used optical recognition devices:
➢ OCR devices
➢ OMR devices
➢ MICR devices

OCR Devices
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) devices scan a particular document
by recognising its individual characters and converting it into the editable
form. These devices distinguish the dark area on the document from the
light areas for recognising the characters. The images scanned by the
OCR device can be easily edited and formatted on a computer system.

OMR Devices
The Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) devices make use of OMR
technology, which helps in obtaining the data from the marked fields.
These devices prove to be of great use in recognising characters in
question sheets, enrolment forms, registration forms, employee payroll,
etc. Most popularly, the OMR devices are used for scanning the
documents having multiple choices as in the question papers used in
schools, colleges, etc. The correct answer is marked by the student in the
boxes with the dark pencil or ink while answering The OMR devices do
not scan the entire document sheet. Instead, they analyse the darkened
area only to check whether it is marked or not.

MICR Devices
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) devices are the special
devices used for recognizing the characters written with magnetic ink
consisting of iron oxide particles. These devices were specially developed
for the banking operations. The details on the bank cheques, such as
cheque number, bank and branch code are written with the magnetic ink.
The MICR devices process the cheque, identify the numeric characters
and store the data on the disk.
Output devices
• receive the processed data (information) from the CPU and present
it to the user in a desired form.
• The main task of an output device is to convert the machine
readable information into human-readable form which may be in
the form of text, graphics, audio or video.
• Depending upon the form of output required, the output device
may belong to one of the following categories:
• Display monitors
• Printers
• Plotters
• Voice output systems
• Projectors

DISPLAY MONITORS
Display monitors are the most commonly used soft copy output devices.
Earlier the display monitors were capable of displaying the characters
only in a single font and in a single colour. The display screens, which are
available today, support many fonts and colours. Different types of
display monitors use different technology for displaying the data. On the
basis of technology used display monitors may be classified into three
categories:
1. Cathode Ray Tube Monitor (CRT)
2. Liquid Crystal Display Monitor (LCD)
3. Thin Film Transistor Monitor(TFT)

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor

A CRT monitor contains an empty glass tube with a phosphor coated
fluorescent screen and a source of electrons known as electron gun. This
glass tube containing screen and electron gun is known as a CRT. When
the CRT gets heated due to the current fl owing through it, the electron
gun present inside the CRT emits a beam of electrons, which hits the
screen comprising small dots known as pixels. The striking of electron
beam on the phosphor coated pixels results in emission of light. The
intensity of light emitted at a certain point varies with the force with
which the electron beam strikes the screen. The electron beam scans
across the screen due to the deflection caused to it by the
electromagnetic coils present in the glass tube. This scanning of screen
by the electron beam produces an image on the screen and the variation
in the intensity of emitted light enables the human eyes to see the image
thus produced.

Advantages- High contrast ratio and color depth

Disadvantages - It is very bulky and occupies a lot of space on the desk. It
also consumes a lot of power and produces a large amount of heat.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Monitor

An LCD monitor uses liquid crystals technology to display the images. The
liquid crystals are actually the molecules of the liquid filled in the LCD. As
the light falls on the molecules, they bend the light and direct them
towards a polarising filter. The polarising filter absorbs the light making
the polariser appear dark for the display of images.
Fig. LCD Monitor

Advantages-An LCD monitor is small in size and light in weight so it

occupies less space on the desk. Also, the power consumption by an LCD
monitor is very less
Disadvantages- It has a fixed resolution due to which the images on an
LCD monitor become blurred when the resolution is changed. it has a
weak colour quality as compared to a CRT monitor

Thin Film Transistor (TFT) Monitor

A TFT monitor is similar to an LCD monitor except for one difference that
it uses thin film transistor technology along with liquid crystal technology
to improve the quality of the image (unlike LCD, which uses only the
liquid crystal technology).
Printer
A printer is a computer hardware that generates the hard copy of the
information processed by a computer system.
On the basis of their working principles printers can be classifi ed into
two major categories
• impact printers
• non-impact printers

IMPACT PRINTERS
Impact printers are those printers in which there exists a mechanical
contact between print head and paper. Print head is the part of the
printer that resembles a hammer and is responsible for transferring the
ink to the paper in the form of required characters. Impact printer
contains an individual print head for each character. The print head of a
character strikes the ink ribbon, and the ink ribbon in turn strikes the
paper, leaving an impression of that particular character on the paper.
Some of the most popular impact printers are as follows:
• Dot matrix printers
• Daisy wheel printers
• Drum printer

Dot Matrix Printer

A dot matrix printer is an impact printer in which a character is printed
on the paper by the back and forth movement of a print head against the
ribbon drenched in ink. In dot matrix printer, the characters are formed
out of a matrix containing dots as shown Fig.
Dot matrix printer is capable of printing a complete line of characters at a
time.
They ensure reliable printing and are best suitable for the fi elds where
the content of the printed data is more important than the quality of
printing. Dot matrix printers are cheap to use.
Disadvantages -They produce a lot of noise while printing and have low
printing speed as well as printing quality. Support limited colors.

Daisy wheel printer

A daisy wheel printer is an impact printer that produces printouts of
good quality characters. It contains a metal or a plastic disk on which the
characters reside on the outer edge of the petals.
The disk in the daisy wheel printer is rotated until the petal, containing
the character to be printed, faces the paper. Once the required character
is positioned towards the paper, the disk is struck by a hammer, which
acts as print head. The striking of hammer on the disk forces the disk to
hit the ink-soaked ribbon and the ribbon leaves an impression of the
character on the paper.
The only advantage of daisy wheel printers is that they allow the printing
of characters in different fonts. The daisy wheel printers are capable of
printing text only and not graphics. They are very noisy as well as very
slow.

Drum printers
are the impact printers in which the characters are engraved on a
cylindrical drum, which is rotated around print head hammer. The paper
and the ink ribbon lie between the hammer and the drum. When a
character is to be printed, the hammer strikes the paper and forces it to
hit the ribbon. The ribbon in turn hits the character on the drum and the
impression of the character is formed on the paper. The advantages of
the drum printers are low cost, higher speed as compared to other
impact printers;
The disadvantages of these printers include poor quality of printing and
large noise production.

NON-IMPACT PRINTERS
Non-impact printers are the printers in which there exists no mechanical
contact between the print head and paper. These printers spray ink on
the paper with the help of a nozzle. Non-impact printers do not produce
much noise and are fast as compared to impact printers.
The most popular non-impact printers are:
1. Ink-jet printers
2. Laser printers

Ink-jet printers
are the non-impact printers that produce an image by spraying small
droplets of ink on the paper with the help of a nozzle.
The ink-jet printers offer a resolution of 300 dots per inch and produce
high quality printouts, such as graphics and images. They are cheaper
and portable as compared to the other non-impact printers.
Laser Printers
Laser printers are the non-impact printers that produce images with the
help of a laser beam. The laser beam electrically charges the drum
coated with selenium and then transfers the entire document, which is to
be printed to it. The charged drum is then allowed to roll into the dry
powder ink known as toner. The toner sticks to the charged images on
the drum and is then transferred to the paper with the help of heat and
pressure. The electrical charges and the remaining toner automatically
get removed from the drum after the printing of the document.
Laser printers have a high speed and resolution. They produce high
quality printing in various fonts and that too, without producing any
noise. Laser printers are capable of printing both black and coloured text.

PLOTTERS
Plotter is a device used to print high quality graphics and images. It uses
one or more pens to produce a high quality drawing. These pens change
their positions and draw continuous lines to produce an image. The
plotters were used as a substitute to the coloured printers when the
printers were very expensive and were also not capable of drawing
bigger images such as graphs. The plotters provided cheap and efficient
drawing.
The plotters are further divided into the following four categories on the
basis of their working:
• Drum plotters
• Flat-bed plotters
• Ink-jet plotters
• Electrostatic plotters

Drum Plotter
Drum plotter is a plotter in which pen is moved vertically, i.e., along the Y
axis and the paper wrapped on the drum is moved horizontally, i.e., along
the X axis. The movement of pen in left or right direction and the
movement of paper in backward or forward direction produce a graph or
an image.

Flat-bed Plotter
Flat-bed plotter is the plotter in which the position of the paper is kept
constant and the pens are moved around in various directions to draw
graphs and images. The pens can be moved both along X and Y axis.

Ink-jet Plotter
Ink-jet plotters are the plotters in which a line or a solid colour
output is drawn with the help of spraying ink droplets on the
paper. They have a high speed and produce higher quality output
as compared to the other plotters.

Electrostatic Plotter
Electrostatic plotters are the plotters in which the electrostatic charges
are used to draw images and graphs. These images and graphs are made
of tiny dots on a special paper. The electrostatic plotters are the fastest
plotters and produce an output of high quality and resolution.

Other Input/Output Devices:

Scan Method of Display

• Raster Scan
• Vector Scan
• Bit-Mapped Raster Scan

Raster scan and vector scan are two of the most popular approaches
used to display the pictures and images of objects on the screen.

Raster Scan –
• Characters or graphics displayed on the CRT screen are formed of a
number of dot points. The dot points are arranged on horizontal
scan lines on the screen.
• In the raster scan method the electron beam is first directed at the
top left-hand corner of the screen and then it is moved along the
first horizontal scan line.
 • The beam illuminates the selected dots along the first horizontal
scan line, which are needed to produce characters or graphics.
When the beam reaches right end of the first scan line, it is turned
off (blanked) and retraced rapidly left side to the starting point of
the second scan line.
• Now it moves along the second scan line and illuminates the
required dots on it.
• This process is repeated and all the scan lines of the screen are
illuminated to display images, characters or graphics on the screen.
• When the beam reaches at the end of the last line it is blanked and
retraced back to the starting point of the first scan line again and
the entire process is repeated again to refresh the illumination of
the desired dots so that one can always see the display due to
persistence of vision.
• In this method the beam is scanned over the entire screen.

Vector scan-
• In vector scan (also known as random scan), the electron beam is
directed only to the part of the screen where the image is to be
displayed rather than scanning from left to right and top to bottom
as in the case of raster scan.
• This technique illuminates the selected dots on the screen directly.
Straight lines can be drawn connecting any two points on the
screen.
 • In this method, the picture can be draw in terms of line, one at a
time. The vector scan method is quite suitable to display graphics
consisting of straight lines. But it is not suitable to display curves.

As shown in Fig., vector scan CRT display directly traces out only the
desired lines on CRT i.e. If we want a line connecting Point A with Point B
on the vector graphics display, we simply drive the beam deflection
circuitry, which will cause beam to go directly from Point A to B. If we
want to move the beam from point A to Point B without showing a line
between points, we can blank the beam as we move it. To move the
beam across the CRT, the information about both, magnitude and
direction is required.

Bit-Mapped Raster Scan

• This technique is used to display graphics or pictures. Here the
entire screen is treated as a matrix of dots. Each dot is called a pixel
or pel (short form of picture element ).
• Each dot is programmed whether it will be on or off. The dot
pattern for each dot of a scan line is stored in successive memory
locations. A byte is read from the memory and applied directly to
the shift register which gives serial output. The desired dot pattern
for a section of the scan line is displayed on the screen.
• Then next byte from the memory is taken up. The process of the
raster scan is followed and the dots of the entire screen are
scanned.
 • This method is very flexible. But it has two major drawbacks:
➢ It requires larger RAM capacity. To produce color
graphics still more memory locations are required.
➢ In this technique tremendous amount of copying is
required. It needs a very fast CPU or special hard ware
for controlling pixels quickly.

CRT Controller (Cathode ray tube controller)

• A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a specialized vacuum tube in which

images are produced when an electron beam strikes a phosphor
coated screen or surface. They are used in display monitors of
desktop computers. The CRT in a computer display is similar to the
"picture tube" in a television receiver.
• A CRT controller contains the necessary electronic circuits to control
CRT display. The CRT controller generates the horizontal and vertical
timing signals that control the path and duration of the electron
beam sweeping the inner surface of the CRT.
• Several controller ICs are available like:
➢ Intel 8275: It is a single chip programmable CRT controller to
interface CRT raster scan displays. It is compatible with 8085, 8086
and 8088 Intel microprocessors. Its basic function is to display
characters and refresh the display. It also has graphics capability.
➢ Intel 8276: It is small system CRT controller. It is meant to interface
CRT raster scan displays with Intel 8085, 8086, 8088 microprocessors
and 8051 single chip microcomputer.
➢ Intel 82706: It is an Intel video graphics array (VGA) compatible display
controller for IBM PC/XT/ AT and PS/2. All video monitors developed
for IBM PS/2 system are provided with VGA controller.
➢ Intel 82716 :It is a video storage and display device. It is a low cost,
highly integrated video controller. It displays texts and graphics.
➢ Motorola 6845 : It is a CRT controller. It is used in both a monochrome
monitor and a colour /graphics monitor. It uses 2 external 2KB
memory: one to store ASCII codes of characters and the other to store
an attribute code for each character.

INPUT AND OUTPUT PORT

• Input and output devices cannot be interfaced to a microprocessor

directly because they are not provided with necessary logic circuitry
needed for direct interfacing to the processor buses.
• They are usually interfaced to the processor buses through
electronic circuitry called I/O ports.
• An I/O port is supposed to contain device selection logic, bus
drivers, data buffers, status register,control lines etc.
• Standard I/O ports in IC forms are available.
• An input device is connected to the processor through an input
port. The port is the place for loading or unloading data. The input device
unloads data into an input port. Then the microprocessor reads the data
from the input port.
• Similarly, an output device is connected to the processor through
an output port. The microprocessor unloads data into an output
port. Then the output device receives data from the output port.

Interfacing of I/O devices through I/O Port

Programmable & Non-programmable I/O Port

An I/O port may be programmable or nonprogrammable.

A non-programmable port-is permanently connected to the processor to

behave either as input port or output port. If a port is connected as an
input port, it will always act as an input port. Similarly, if a port has been
connected as an output port, it will always act as an output port. The
operating mode to act as input port or an output port can not be altered
by the user.

A programmable port-is also permanently connected to the processor.

But it can be made to act either as input port or output port by software
technique. The same port can be programmed as an input port for one
problem and as an output port for another problem. When it has been
programmed to act as input port, an input device will be connected to it.
When it has been programmed to act as an output port, an output
device is connected to it.

Parallel and Serial Ports

• Computers have a few built in interfaces called ports. Peripheral
devices are interfaced to the computer through these ports. Data
flow in and out through these ports.
• Ports are of two types: parallel and serial.

➢ Parallel port-A parallel port allows the transfer of all the bits of a
word simultaneously. In parallel interface there are multiple lines to
connect the peripheral to the port. A parallel interface is used to
transfer data at faster rate for high-speed peripherals such as disk
and tape. Within the computer data is transferred in parallel so that
the computer works at high speed.
➢ Serial port-A serial port allows serial data transfer. In serial data
transfer one bit of data is transferred at a time. In serial interface only
one line or a pair of lines is used to transmit data. It is used for slow-
speed peripherals such as terminals. Printers employ either serial
interface or parallel interface. The disadvantage of a serial/parallel port is
that only one device can be connected to a port.

USB (Universal Serial Bus)- It is a kind of serial connection Port that is

much faster than the old serial Ports and These USB Ports are much
smarter and more versatile, as it allows the “daisy chaining” of up to
127 USB peripherals connected to one port. USB version 1.x supports
data rates as high as 12Mbps (1.5MBps). USB 2.0 supports data rates as
high as 480Mbps (60MBps), 40 times that of its predecessor. USB 3.0
boasts data rates of 5Gbps, more than 10 times the rate of USB 2.0.It also
provides plug & plays communication.
USB ports can support the connection of many kinds of devices
(keyboard, mouse, printer, audio in/out, external floppy or Zip drives,
scanner, flash drive, etc.). PCs include several USB ports. USB connections
are hot-swappable (they can be connected and disconnected while the
devices are turned on; this is not always true for older connection
methods).
IEEE 1394-The IEEE 1394 Port, more commonly known as a FireWire port
can transfer large amount of data at very high speed. Originally
developed by Apple, it was standardized by IEEE in 1995 as IEEE 1394. It
is often used as a way to get digital video into a PC so it can be edited
with digital video editing tools. Its popularity is due to its ease of use,
isochronous (synchronized clock) mode, and very high (400Mbps to
3.2Gbps and higher) transmission rates. It is used to connect camcorders
and video equipment to the computer. Firewire are typically faster than
that of USB.It comes up with three variants which are 4-Pin FireWire
400 connector, 6-Pin FireWire 400 connector, and 9-Pin FireWire 800
connector.
AGP(Accelerated Graphics Port) -An Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) is
a point to point channel that is used for high-speed video output. This
port is used to connect graphic cards to a computer’s motherboard. It
increases the speed at which machines can render graphics while using
the system’s resources more efficiently. It makes machines generate
visuals more quickly while using the system's resources better. The
primary purpose of an AGP is to convey 3-D images much more
smoothly than is possible on a regular PC

SERIAL DATA TRANSFER SCHEME

➢ Over long distance data can not be transmitted in parallel mode as
it requires too many wires resulting in high cost of transmission.
The serial data transmission is economical in such a situation.
➢ In serial data transfer only one bit is transmitted at a time. As it
requires only one wire or a pair of wires, it is less costly. It reduces
the cost and complexity of interface components.
➢ It also minimizes the effect of noise.
➢ Serial data can be transmitted either in asynchronous mode or
synchronous mode.

Asynchronous serial transfer mode

• The term asynchronous means that the transmission of data is not
based on a predefined timing pattern. The asynchronous serial data
transfer is commonly used.
• In asynchronous serial data transmission one character of data is
transmitted at a time. Each data character has a bit to identify its
start and bits to identify its end. Thus a character is preceded by a
start code and followed by a stop code. As each character is
individually identified, characters can be sent at any time
(asynchronously). In other words characters are sent independently.
Characters can be transmitted at nonuniform rate.
Synchronous serial transfer mode
• The term synchronous means that the transmission of data is based
on a standard timing signal. The synchronous serial data transfer is
not commonly used.
• In synchronous serial data transmission blocks of characters or bits
are transmitted at constant rate without start and stop codes. This
is more efficient compared to asynchronous data transmission

The serial data transfer can be classified into the following three
types:
Simplex -In this method of serial data transmission data are
transmitted only in one direction. For example the transfer of data
from a computer to a remote printer.

Half-duplex-In this method the communication can take place in

either direction between the two systems using a single link. But
data are transmitted only in one direction at a time.

Full-duplex-In this method each system can transmit and receive

information at the same time. It requires two serial links: one for
each direction. The transfer of information takes place in both
directions simultaneously and independently.

Baud Rate
The term baud rate specifies the rate at which serial data are
transmitted. It is equal to 1/(the time for a bit cell). If the time for
one bit cell is 9.01 ms, the baud rate = 1/9.01 ms = 110 bd (baud).

MICROCONTROLLERS
• A microcontroller (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated
circuit that is designed to control specific tasks within electronic
 systems. It combines the functions of a central processing unit
(CPU), memory, and input/output interfaces, all on a single chip.
• Microcontrollers are widely used in embedded systems, such as
home appliances, automotive systems, medical devices, and
industrial control systems. They are also used in consumer
electronics products, such as gaming systems, digital cameras, and
audio players.
• It is very small and compact. It forms a part of the device or
equipment which is to be controlled.
• A Microcontroller is a small and low-cost microcomputer, which is
designed to perform the specific tasks of embedded systems like
displaying microwave’s information, receiving remote signals etc.
• A simple microcontroller contains a CPU, memory (RAM and
ROM/EEPROM/Flash memory) and I/O lines.
• A powerful microcontroller may contain a few other components
(which are needed for industrial and other control applications)
such as A/D converter, D/A converter, DMA channels, pulse-width
modulator, watch-dog timer, high-speed input/output system, wave
generator, interrupt processor, etc.

Types of Microcontrollers

Microcontrollers are divided into various categories based on memory,

architecture, bits and instruction sets. Following is the list of their types
 Bit − Based on bit configuration, the microcontroller is further divided into
three categories.
o 8-bit microcontroller − This type of microcontroller is used to execute
arithmetic and logical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication
division, etc. For example, Intel 8031 and 8051 are 8-bit microcontroller.
o 16-bit microcontroller − This type of microcontroller is used to perform
arithmetic and logical operations where higher accuracy and performance
is required. For example, Intel 8096 is a 16-bit microcontroller.
o 32-bit microcontroller − This type of microcontroller is generally used in
automatically controlled appliances like automatic operational machines,
medical appliances, etc.

Memory − Based on the memory configuration, the microcontroller is

further divided into two categories.
o External memory microcontroller − This type of microcontroller is
designed in such a way that they do not have a program memory on the
chip. Hence, it is named as external memory microcontroller. For example:
Intel 8031 microcontroller.
o Embedded memory microcontroller − This type of microcontroller is
designed in such a way that the microcontroller has all programs and data
memory, counters and timers, interrupts, I/O ports are embedded on the
chip. For example: Intel 8051 microcontroller.

InstructionSet − Based on the instruction set configuration, the

microcontroller is further divided into two categories:
o CISC − CISC stands for complex instruction set computer. It allows the user
to insert a single instruction as an alternative to many simple instructions.
o RISC − RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computers. It reduces the
operational time by shortening the clock cycle per instruction.

Applications of Microcontrollers
• Light sensing and controlling devices like LED.
• Temperature sensing and controlling devices like microwave oven,
chimneys.
• Fire detection and safety devices like Fire alarm.
• Measuring devices like Volt Meter.
Input-Output Processor (IOP)
• The Input-Output Processor (IOP) is just like a CPU that handles the
details of I/O operations.
• It relieves CPU from the task of input/output operations. A modern
computer has several I/O devices. Some of them are very fast devices.
To perform I/O operations I/O programs are to be executed. If CPU is
kept busy in executing I/O programs, its appreciable time is wasted in
it and it gets less time to perform its own task of data processing.
Therefore, to make a modern computer efficient and faster, important
I/O devices are provided with I/O processors.
• The IOP can fetch and execute its own instructions that are
specifically designed to characterize I/O transfers. In addition to the
I/O-related tasks, it can perform other processing tasks like
arithmetic, logic, branching, and code translation. The main memory
unit takes a pivotal role. It communicates with the processor by
means of DMA(Direct Memory Access).
• The Input-Output Processor is a specialized processor which loads
and stores data in memory along with the execution of I/O
instructions. It acts as an interface between the system and devices.
It involves a sequence of events to execute I/O operations and then
store the results in memory.
 Features of an Input-Output Processor
• Specialized Hardware: An IOP is equipped with specialized
hardware that is optimized for handling input/output operations.
This hardware includes input/output ports, DMA controllers, and
interrupt controllers.
• DMA Capability: An IOP has the capability to perform Direct Memory
Access (DMA) operations. DMA allows data to be transferred
directly between peripheral devices and memory without going
through the CPU, thereby freeing up the CPU for other tasks.
• Interrupt Handling: An IOP can handle interrupts from peripheral
devices and manage them independently of the CPU. This allows
the CPU to focus on executing application programs while the IOP
handles interrupts from peripheral devices.
• Command Processing: An IOP can process commands from
peripheral devices independently of the CPU. This allows the CPU
to focus on executing application programs while the IOP handles
peripheral device commands.
• Parallel Processing: An IOP can perform input/output operations
in parallel with the CPU. This allows the system to handle multiple
tasks simultaneously and improve overall system performance.
DSP (DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSOR)
• The processors specially designed to process digital signals is called
DSP.
• It receives digitized signals, performs some mathematical operations
and sends result to an output device or a host microprocessor.
• One of the big advantages of DSP is the programmability of the
processor, which allows important system parameters to be changed
easily to accommodate the application. DSPs are optimized for digital
signal manipulations.
• Most of DSP systems accept analog signal using ADC (Analog-to-
Digital Converter), process them using DSP and send the result to a
D/A converter or a host microprocessor. DSPs implement integration,
differentiation, complex Fast Fourier Transform etc. using hardware.

• DSPs provide ultra-fast instruction sequences such as shift and add,

and multiply and add. These instruction sequences are common in
many math-intensive signal processing applications.

• DSPs are used in devices where this type of signal processing is

important, such as sound cards, modems, cell phones, high-capacity
hard disks and digital TVs .

• Digital signal processors provide the advantages of microprocessors,

while being easy to use, flexible, and lower cost.

• Earlier DSP chips also contained analog multiplexer, analog

demultiplexer, A/D converter, D/A converter, etc. The later DSP chips
excluded analog input and analog output sections because they can
be best implemented with different types of technology. Instead they
concentrated on increasing processing speed, increasing RAM and
ROM capacity, improving bit manipulating capacity and adding
floating-point processing capability. A DSP system employs other ICs
 for analog input and analog output sections. The input section
includes an analog multiplexer, filters, sample and hold, and A/D
converter. The output section includes D/A converter, demultiplexer,
filters, amplifiers, etc.

Arithmetic Processor
• A processor has an arithmetic processor (as a sub part of it) that
executes arithmetic operations. An arithmetic processor is a
processor devoted exclusively to arithmetic functions.
• It can be used to implement a full variety of arithmetic functions in
hardware at a relatively low cost.
• This processor physically may be separate however can be utilized
by CPU to execute complex arithmetic instructions.
• In the absence of arithmetic processors these instructions can be
executed using slower software routines by the CPU itself.
• So this auxiliary processor improves the speed of execution of
programs having several complex arithmetic computations.
• General purpose microprocessors such as 8086, 8088, 80286,
80386 etc. are not optimized to perform complex numerical
calculations, CRT graphics manipulations or word processing. For
these purposes specialized coprocessors have been developed.
These coprocessors operate in parallel with CPUs.
• There are two ways to interface an arithmetic processor to a CPU:
➢ In one approach it is treated as a peripheral device. Such
units are called peripheral processor. The CPU sends data
and instructions for processing to such an unit and
receives results from it.
➢ In another approach the arithmetic processor is
connected as an extension of the CPU. The instructions
and registers of arithmetic processor are extensions to
those of the CPU. The instruction set of the CPU includes
a special subset of opcodes reserved for arithmetic
 processor. Arithmetic processor of this type is called
coprocessor.

• An arithmetic processor also assists in reducing program

complexity as it provides a richer instruction set for a machine. A
number of the instructions which can be assigned to arithmetic
processors can be related to subtraction, addition, division and
multiplication of trigonometric functions, logarithms,
exponentiation and other floating point numbers.