Chapter 3: Tomorrow's Technology and You: Part 2

Output: From Pulses to People
Screen Output
- A monitor or video display terminal (VDT) displays characters, graphics, photographic images, animation and video.
>Video adapter—connects the monitor to
the computer
>VRAM or video memory, a special portion of RAM to hold video images
- The more video memory, the more picture detail is displayed.
- Monitor size: Measured as a diagonal line across the screen
- Resolution: The number of pixels displayed on the screen
>Pixels (or picture elements): tiny dots that compose a picture
>The higher the resolution, the closer together the dots.
- Image quality is affected by resolution and color depth (or bit depth).
>Color depth refers to the number of different colors a monitor
displays at one time.

Monitor classes
- CRTs (cathode-ray tubes)
- LCDs (liquid crystal displays)
>Overhead projection panels
>Video projectors
>Portable computers

Paper Output
- Printers produce paper output or hard copy.
- Two basic groups of printers:
>Impact printers
>Line printers
>Dot-matrix printers

Output You Can Hear
- Sound card
>Enables the PC to:
>Accept microphone input
>Play music and other sound through speakers or headphones
>Process sound in a variety of ways
- Synthesizers
>Used to produce music, noise

Rules of Thumb: Ergonomics and Health

- Choose equipment that’s ergonomically designed.
- Create a healthy workspace.
- Build flexibility into your work environment.
- Rest your eyes.
- Stretch to loosen tight muscles.
- Listen to your body.
- Seek help when you need it.

Storage Devices: Input Meets Output
Magnetic Disks
- Random data access
- Floppy disks
>Provide inexpensive, portable storage
- Hard disks
>Non-removable, rigid disks that spin continuously and rapidly
>Provide much faster access than a floppy disk
- Removable media (Zip & Jaz disks)
>Provides high-capacity portable storage

Optical Disks
- Use laser beams to read and write bits of information on the disk surface
>Not as fast as magnetic hard disks
>Massive storage capacity
>Very reliable

CD-ROM
- Optical drives that read CD-ROMs
CD-R
- WORM media (write-once, read many)
CD-RW
- Can read CD-ROMs and write, erase and rewrite data onto CD-R & CD-RW

DVD (Digital Versatile Disks)
>Store and distribute all kinds of data
>Hold between 3.8 and 17 gigabytes of information
DVD-ROM drives
>Can play DVD movies, read DVD data disks
>Read standard CD-ROMs, and play audio CDs
>Read-only: can’t record data, music, or movies
DVD-RAM drives
>Can read, erase, and write data (but not DVD video) on multi-gigabyte DVD-R (but not CD-R or CD-RW) media

Solid-State Storage Devices
-Flash memory is an erasable memory
chip:
>Sizes range from 16 MB to 1 GB
>Compact alternative to disk storage
>Contains no moving parts
>Designed for specific applications such as
storing pictures in digital cameras
>Likely to replace disk and tape storage