Data and instructions must enter the data processing system, and information must leave it. These operations are performed by input and output (I/O) units that link the computer to its external environment.
The I/O environment may be human-related or human-independent.
A remote banking terminal is an example of a human-related input environment,
and a printer is an example of a device that produces output in
a human-readable format. An example of a human-independent input environment
is a device that measures traffic flow. A reel of magnetic tape upon which the collected data are stored in binary format is an example of a human-independent output.
Data enter input units in forms that depend uponthe particular device used. For example, data are entered from a keyboard in a manner similar to typing, and this differs from the way that data are entered by a bar-code scanner. However, regardless of the forms in which they receive their inputs, all input devices must provide a computer with data that are transformed into the binary codes that the primary memory of the computer is designed to accept. This transformation is accomplished by units called I/O interfaces. Input interfaces are designed to match the unique physical or electrical characteristics of input devices to the requirements of the computer system. Similarly, when output is available, output interfaces must be designed to reverse the process and to adapt the output to the external environment. These I/O interfaces are also called channels or input-output processors (IOP).
The major differences between devices are the media that they use and the speed with which they are able to transfer data to or from primary storage.
Input-output device speed. Input-output devices can be classified as high-speed, medium-speed, and low-speed. The devices are grouped according to their speed. It should be noted that the high-speed devices are entirely electronic in their operation or magnetic media that can be moved at high speed. Those high-speed devices are both input and output devices and are used as secondary storage. The low-speed devices are those with complex mechanical motion or operate at the speed of a human operator. The medium-speed devices are those that fall between — they tend to have mechanical moving parts which are more complex than the high-speed devices but not as complex as the low-speed.
High-speed devices: magnetic disk; magnetic tape.
Medium-speed devices: card readers; line printers; page printers; computer output microfilms; magnetic diskette; optical character readers; optical mark readers; visual displays.
Low-speed devices: bar-code readers; character printers; digitizers; keyboard
input devices; plotters; voice recognition and response units.
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