HARDWARE
COMPONENTS
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FUNCTIONAL UNIT OF COMPUTER
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• The main functional units of a computer are Input Unit, Central Processing Unit (CPU),
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Storage unit and Output Unit. Each unit is assigned to perform certain functions.
•
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The functions are;
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• Input Unit: The data and instructions for the processing are entered in to the computer
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through input unit. They are stored in the memory.
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• The input uses the input devices. The input device translates the data to a form that the
computer can understand. The data may be different forms like text, numbers, image, audio,
video etc. E.g., keyboard, mouse, scanner, web camera etc.
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• Central Processing Unit: It is the brain of the computer. All major calculations and
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comparisons are made inside the CPU and it is also responsible for activating and controlling
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the operations of other units of the computer system.
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• Functions of CPU are performed by three components.
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They are
1. ALU
2. CU
3. Registers
Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU):
• ALU of a computer system is the place where the actual operations specified in the
instructions are carried out.
• It performs basic arithmetic operations such as add, subtract, multiplied, divide etc. and
logical operations are comparisons such as greater than, less than, greater than equal to,
less than equal to etc. and decision making.
Control Unit:
• It is the central nervous system that coordinates all the other units of the computer.
• It obtains instructions from a program stored in the memory, interpret the operations and
issue signals to the unit, concerned in the system to execute it.
• Registers: They are temporary storage elements inside the CPU.
• Storage Unit: Data and instructions, intermediate results, final result of processing are
stored in storage unit.
• There are two types of storage.
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• Primary memory (Main memory)
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• Secondary memory (Auxiliary memory).
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Primary storage (Main Memory):
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• The CPU can directly access the main memory at very high speed.
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• It has limited storage capacity.
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• The types of main memory are RAM and ROM.
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Random Access Memory (RAM):
• It holds instructions, data, and intermediate result of processing.
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It is a Read/Write memory.
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• It is volatile type memory.
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• When the power is switched off everything store in the memory gets erased and cannot be
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recalled.
Read Only Memory (ROM):
• It contain instructions for the startup procedure of the computer.
• E.G: BIOS chip.
Secondary Memory (Auxiliary memory):
• It has huge storage capacity and it is permanent memory.
• It is also called auxiliary memory which stores data, programs and information according to
instructions of the user
Output unit:
Output unit is responsible for producing the output user readable form. The functions of output
devices are as follows,
• It accepts the result produced by the computer.
• It converts the result into human readable form.
• It supplies the converted result to the outside world.
• E.g., Monitor, Printer, Projector, Speaker
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