Output Devices

An output device takes data from the computer and converts this into information in a form which is normally understandable by humans. There are many different output devices available. Each output device is suitable for a different purpose. Monitors / VDU Almost all computers have a monitor. Monitors are also known as Visual Display Units (VDUs). Most computers use this display as the main output device. There are two different types of display :

Desktop Monitors : These work in much the same way as a television set. They are bulky but fairly cheap to buy. e.g. 80 for a 14" screen. Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) : These displays are completely flat and so can be used in portable computers and other small devices such as calculators. They are more expensive to make than desktop monitors. Currently only the most expensive ones (cost over 350) are as good as desktop monitors. As well as being much more compact than a standard desktop monitor, liquid crystal displays are flicker-free and can be used safely for much longer periods. The price of LCDs has fallen considerably in the last five years and it is likely that they will completely replace bulky desktop monitors in the next few years.

The three most important features of a screen are its size, the colours it can display and its resolution. There is more information about these features below. They apply to both desktop monitors and LCDs.

Size : How big is the screen ? Typical sizes are 12" or 14" for LCDs and 15", 17" or 21" for desktop monitors. The size is measured along the diagonal from the bottom left hand corner to the top right hand corner of the screen. Colour : Is the monitor colour or black & white ? Most new desktop computers have colour screens as they are no longer that much more expensive than black & white ones and modern computer applications work better with a colour monitor.

Resolution : An image displayed on the screen is made up of lots of dots called pixels. If you look closely at the screen you may be able to see these pixels. The resolution of the screen is how many pixels there are up and down and from left to right across the screen. A variety of different resolutions are available. For PCs these resolutions have names. e.g. VGA is 640 x 480. This means that there are 640 pixels in each row across the screen and 480 pixels in each column up and down the screen.

SVGA is usually 800 x 600. Displays with lots of pixels are called high resolution. Displays with fewer pixels are called low resolution. High resolution displays can show much more detail than low resolution ones and are required for applications such as Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Multimedia. Here are close-up pictures of a circle, one shown on a high resolution display and one on a low resolution display :

Images displayed on the screen are temporary, i.e. they do not last forever. For this reason they are called soft copy.

Printers
Dot matrix Dot matrix printers are impact printers. They produce an image by hammering a column of 9 or 24 pins against a ribbon. Characters are produced as the print head (which contains the pins) moves across the page.

Dot matrix printers are cheap to purchase and have low operating costs. Most can run in either draft mode (quick but very low quality) or Near Letter Quality mode (slower but better quality). If carbon paper is put into the printer then a dot matrix printer can print more than one copy of a document at a time. This feature is often used by companies when they print invoices, bills etc. The company can keep one copy themselves and send the other copy to the customer. Dot matrix printers typically print at speeds around 200 characters per second (cps). The disadvantages of dot matrix printers are that the output quality is poor, it takes a long time to print a document and the noise can be annoying. Laser Laser printers are called page printers because they print a whole page at a time. A laser beam is used to draw the image to be printed onto a light sensitive drum. After the image has been drawn on the drum a fine powder ink called toner is put onto it. The toner only sticks where the laser has drawn the image. The paper then passes over the drum and the toner is transferred onto the paper.

Laser printers produce very high quality output, are very quiet and very fast. Typical home laser printers can print 8 pages per minute (ppm). Some industrial versions print over 40ppm and can print on both sides of a piece of paper at the same time. The main disadvantage of this type of printer is the high cost. Small laser printers cost from 300 to buy and are more usually about 800. Colour laser printers cost 1500+. Running costs are higher than dot matrix printers but lower than most ink jet printers.

Inkjet Ink jet printers are the most popular type of printer for use at home or in a small business. This is because they are relatively cheap to purchase and can print in colour. Ink jet printers generate output by squirting tiny jets of ink at the paper to be printed on. A column of ink jets in the print head moves across the page squirting dots onto the paper to make the image.

Typically ink jet printers can produce 360 or 720 dots per inch (dpi) but these dots are larger than those that a laser printer makes so the quality although very good is not quite as perfect. Ink-jet printers can work in black and white or colour. Black and white versions cost from 50 and colour ones from about 70. They are slower than laser printers (3ppm+) and cost more to run.

Plotters
Flatbed A plotter can be used to produce very large drawings on paper sizes up to A0 (16 times as big as A4). A plotter draws onto the paper using very fine pens. There are two types of plotter. They differ in the way that the pen can be moved about on the piece of paper to draw lines :

Flatbed Plotter : The paper is fixed and the pen moves left and right and up and down across the paper to draw lines. Drum Plotter : The pen moves up and down on the paper and the paper is moved left and right by rotating a drum on which the paper is placed.

Plotters can automatically change their pens and so can produce colour output. The lines drawn by a plotter are continuous and very accurate. Plotters are very slow but produce high quality output. They are usually used for Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) applications such as printing out plans for houses or car parts. The quality of the output produced by ink jet printers is now very good and large format (big) ink-jet printers are steadily replacing plotters for most tasks.

Loudspeaker Sound can be output through loudspeakers or headphones. On PCs you also need to install a sound card to be able to output sound. If you want you can connect the computer to a hi-fi to get louder, better quality sound than you would if you plugged the loudspeakers straight into the computer. The sound produced by PCs is now better quality than sound that is recorded on a CD. Sometimes a computer can read out text that has been entered into it by using a computerised or recorded voice. This type of system is known as speech synthesis.

Control devices Computers can also be used to control other devices such as motors and lights which can be switched on and off. These devices are activated by electrical signals sent to them by a computer. There are lots of different devices available. Examples of common devices include : Device Bulb Motor Buzzer Pump Heater LCD Display Action Produced Lights up an area. Rotation of a shaft. Makes a short beep noise. Moves gasses or liquids from one place to another. Produces heat. Application Lighting up a garden when a person walks into the area. Moving a buggy. Warning a pilot of a dangerous situation. Keeping a fish tank supplied with oxygen. Keeping a house warm in a central heating system.

Displays short sequences of Information readout on a till. numbers or letters.

The action of many devices will depend upon how high or low the analogue voltage that is sent to the device is. For example :

A motor will rotate more quickly if it is supplied with a high voltage than if it is supplied with a low voltage. A bulb will glow more brightly if it is supplied with a high voltage than if it is supplied with a low voltage.

Devices like these are used by computerised control systems.