Peripherals and ExpansionConnection interfaces, characteristics and purpose

Expansion cards

• Sound

• Video

• Network

• USB

• FireWire

• Thunderbolt

• Storage

• Modem

• Wireless/Cellular

• TV Tuner

• Video Capture

• Riser

Install and configureInput devices

• Mouse

• Keyboard

• Scanner

• Barcode reader

• Biometric devices

• Game pads

• Joysticks

• Digitizer

• Motion sensor

• Touch pads

• Smart card readers

• Digital cameras

• Microphone

• Webcam

• Camcorder

• MIDI devices

Sound

• a device that can be slotted into a computer to allow the use of audio components for multimedia applications.

• S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format) is a type of digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment to output audio over reasonably short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fiber optic cable with TOSLINK connectors.

• 3.5mm connectors or optical TOSLINK connector

Audio• Number of jacks and capabilities are dependent on the

motherboard or card.

• Some may have 3 1/8th (3.5mm) inch analog jacks but may also have digital capable ports as well.

• Basic Jack colors are pink (mic), green (audio out) and light blue (aux in)

• Expanded capability jacks may include Brown and Orange or black for surround sound connections.

• For expanded capability jacks control is typically set through software within windows or by motherboard manufacturer/sound card manufacturer.

• Front audio jacks (case) may also have lime green for headphones

• SPDIF Digital audio (may be 1/8th or RCA connector).• Used to connect to digital in on home sound system/theatre

system for true digital audio• Optical SPDIF uses fiber-optic cable• Coaxial SPDIF uses a shielded cable with RCA connectors.

Video

• Arguably One of the most important components of your computer system

• Video can connect through a video card, USB device etc

• Many style and capabilities are available

Video Display Connectors

Network

• The Ethernet adapter or NIC card is now a required part of any computer.

• With wired, wireless, Bluetooth connections available we have many types to chose from

USB

• 3 standards for USB• 1.1 runs at 12Mbps• 2.0 (High-Speed USB) runs at a max speed of 480Mbps and are backwards

compatible with 1.1• 3.0 (SuperSpeed) run at a max speed of 5Gbps

• 1.1 and 2.0 will run up to 5 Meter length of cable

• Keyboards and mice should not exceed 3 Meters

• 3.0 has no max length but its recommended to be 3 meters or less.

• 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 can use the standard USB cable however 3.0 has a unique cable style not compatible with legacy USB ports.

• Adding additional ports can be done through motherboard header connections, USB hubs or add in expansion cards.

• Some hubs are self powered and others are bus powered.• Bus powered hubs use power connections via the USB connection on the computer

• Self powered hubs will use an external power source.

• Should you have a “high yield” device you may want to consider Self powered hubs.

• Not all systems have USB ports activated. There is legacy port settings (1.1 standard), on boot or bootable settings etc available within your BIOS. Refer to your system to see what abilities are available.

• Newer systems will allow for USB boot options

USB Connector types• Various sockets are

available depending on the technology being used i.e type A, type B, Mini etc

• Can support up to 127 devices per connection port

IEEE-1394 (FireWire)• Most common version is IEEE 1394a, known as Firewire 400

• Max transfer speed of 400Mbps

• IEEE 1394b or Firewire 800 runs at 800Mbps• Usually found on apple products more than windows

• Cable structure is 6 wire, 4 for data, 2 for power

• Most popular devices, but not limited to, are external drives and Digital video cameras

• The standard supports up to 16 devices connected to one port (daisy chain)

• Expansion can include similar device paths as USB (header ports on the mother board and expansion cards)

Thunderbolt

• Intel's Thunderbolt input/output (I/O) technology is designed to connect high-performance peripherals and HD video displays via a single port using two communications methods, or protocols, PCI Express for data transfer and DisplayPort for displays.

• Initially Apple and Intel co-developed Thunderbolt technology but the full rights were transferred to Intel. Thunderbolt provide extreme data transfer speed of 10Gbps (of full duplex bandwidth per channel) in compare to existing technology

• USB 3 is capable of up to 5Gbps on one channel

Storage

• e-SATA

• SD Card readers

Modem

• a combined device for modulation and demodulation, for example, between the digital data of a computer and the analog signal of a telephone line.

• Can be used / configured as answering machine, fax

Wireless/Cellular

• We are all aware of wireless connections but there is also the option that some wireless provider give to sell you a USB device that will use cellular infrastructure to make data connection with your portable tablets or laptops.

• Bluetooth, RF, IR, NFC

• NFC• Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that

enable two electronic devices, one of which is usually a portable device such as a smartphone, to establish communication by bringing them within about 4 cm (2 in) of each other.

TV Tuner

• A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the digital video recorder (DVR/PVR) does

Video Capture

• An expansion card that provides inputs and outputs for analog and digital video. It is used to link video cameras, camcorders and tape decks to the computer for editing.

Riser

• A riser card is a board that plugs into the system board and provides additional slots for adapter cards. Because it rises above the system board, it enables you to connect additional adapters to the system in an orientation that is parallel to the system board and save space within the system case.

SATA1, SATA2, SATA3, eSATA

• Serial ATA (SATA, abbreviated from Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives.

• SATA I (revision 1.x) interface, formally known as SATA 1.5Gb/s, is the first generation SATA interface running at 1.5 Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 150MB/s.

SATA II (revision 2.x) interface, formally known as SATA 3Gb/s, is a second generation SATA interface running at 3.0 Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 300MB/s.

SATA III (revision 3.x) interface, formally known as SATA 6Gb/s, is a third generation SATA interface running at 6.0Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 600MB/s. This interface is backwards compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s interface.

SATA II specifications provide backward compatibility to function on SATA I ports. SATA III specifications provide backward compatibility to function on SATA I and SATA II ports. However, the maximum speed of the drive will be slower due to the lower speed limitations of the port.

• Example: A SSD, which supports SATA 6Gb/s interface and when connected to SATA 6Gb/s port, can reach up to550/520MB/s sequential read and sequential write speed rates respectively. However, when the drive is connected to SATA 3 Gb/s port, it can reach up to 285/275MB/s sequential read and sequential write speed rates respectively.

• eSATA extends on board SATA ports to the outside world

Output devices

Printer

• There are several different types and methods for printing• Impact, laser, heat etc

• There are also various methods of connecting your printer.• Parallel, USB, Wireless etc

• More detail will come up in later classes

Speakers• TWO-SPEAKER SYSTEM

• A 2-speaker system is one of the most common types of speaker setups. It offers moderate quality sound and doesn’t take up any space.

• 2.1 SPEAKER• The 2.1 speaker setup involves 2 satellite speakers and 1 subwoofer. This setup offers a much fuller spectrum

of sound while still saving space. This system is also most appropriate for music.

• 5.1 SPEAKER• 5.1 speaker setups consist of 5 satellite speakers and 1 subwoofer. These systems are the most common

surround sound setups in use today. Offering multi-channel output, surround sound systems are excellent for movies and video games, as they give the viewer a more "engulfing" audio experience.

• 7.1 SPEAKER• The 7.1 speaker system is one of the most complex systems, consisting of 7 satellite speakers and 1

subwoofer. These allow for some of the most precise surround sound environments provided that the source media can output that level of accuracy--otherwise the output will actually output 5.1 surround sound.

• WIRELESS• More recently, wireless speakers have allowed users to avoid the mess of wires associated with surround

sound speaker setups. While these are excellent for many users, they can often conflict with a home Wi-Fi network.

Display devices

Video Card Types

• PCI Express (PCIe)

• PCI

• AGP

Cooling

• Passive cooling

• Active cooling

• Liquid cooling

• Advanced cooling

• GPU, Memory

Display types

• CRT• Cathode ray tube

• LCD• Liquid crystal display

• LED• Light emitting diode

• Plasma• Gas based

CRT

• Cathode ray tube

• Obsolete

• High power usage

• Known to cause eye strain

• Analog

• Bulky

• Uses 4:3 resolution

• Screen measured diagonally and may extend past the “viewable” range.

• 640x480 base resolution

• 800x600 very common as minimal supported resolution

• 1024x768, 1280x1024 etc….

• Refresh rates range from 50Hz to ~ 80Hz• Used to reduce flicker

• Very dangerous to service

CRT Tube structures

• A – Cathode

• B - Conductive coating

• C – Anode

• D – Phosphor coated screen

• E – Electron Beams

• F – Shadow Mask

• Produces 3 colors from 3 guns

• Passes through shadow mask to create required color

• Dot pitch• Measurement between

phosphorus dots of the same color

• Smaller number sharper picture

• May be round, square or rectangular

CRT Components, Deflection yoke

LCD

• Liquid crystal display• Small space usage• Many screen sizes• Many aspect ratios• Low power consumption• No eye strain• Supports Digital technology• May support VGA, DVI, HDMI and display port connections

• Liquid crystal display (LCD) technology works by blocking light rather than creating it

• Use of crystals to refract light to give desired color or lack of color

• Depending on the frequency of the light we will get various colors

• LCDs require far less energy than LED and gas plasma technologies and are currently the primary technology for notebook and other mobile computers

Construction

• Typically made up of five layers• a backlight• a sheet of polarized glass• a mask of colored pixels• a grid layer of responsive liquid crystal solution• and a second polarized sheet of glass.

• Images are created manipulating the orientation of the crystals through precise electrical charges of varying degrees and voltages.

• Crystals act like tiny shutters, opening or closing in response to the applied voltages

• Varying degrees of light then pass through specific colored pixels to illuminate the screen.

• Most modern LCD computer monitors use active matrix technology.• Active-matrix screens usually use thin film transistor (TFT) technology• Makes for more exact faster replication of color and picture

• Standard “square” screens have a 4:3, 5:4 ratio. Widescreen monitors can be 16:9 (or 16:10) aspect ratio.

• As LCDs are “back lit” if the light source is to fail the monitor becomes unusable.

Active matrix LCD

• An active matrix has a transistor located at each pixel intersection, requiring less current to control the luminance of a pixel. For this reason, the current in an active matrix display can be switched on and off more frequently, improving the screen refresh time • Faster response time

• Use of thin film transistors (TFT) makes more exact control of voltage levels

• Better color

Passive matrix

• The passive matrix LCD has a grid of conductors with pixels located at each intersection in the grid. A current is sent across two conductors on the grid to control the light for any pixel

• Slow response time• In exact voltage levels

LED• a flat panel display which uses light-

emitting diodes as a video display

• conventional (using discrete LEDs) and surface-mounted device (SMD) panels

• Most outdoor screens and some indoor screens are built around discrete LEDs, also known as individually mounted LEDs. A cluster of red, green, and blue diodes is driven together to form a full-color pixel, usually square in shape

• Most indoor screens on the market are built using SMD technology

• As with other display technology various connectors, aspect ratios etc are available

Plasma• A plasma display panel (PDP) is a

type of flat panel display common to large TV displays 30 inches (76 cm) or larger.

• They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent lamps.

• They are not common to computer displays or display devices but are mainly used in televisions

• As with CRTs Plasma displays are susceptible to burn in.

Data Projector

• Limited resolution

• Cost prohibitive

• Great for very large displays

• Support all connection types

• Known to produce considerable heat

• Bulb has limited life

• Two types are DLP and LCD

DLP projectors

• Based on a DMD chip (Digital Micromirror Device)

• DMD chip made up of millions of tinymirrors

• Light is created in grey scale

• Color is added using color filter

LCD Projection

• Works similar to LCD monitor

• 3 color elements are added and controled to generate desired color

• A “combiner” puts all colors together to give end picture

LCD v.s. DLP

• DLP is generally preferred over LCD.

• LCD costs less

• Connections similar on both devices

Installing Video Cards

• Enter safe mode and delete the video driver or change to “Standard VGA”

• Remove the old card. Insert and secure the new one in the correct slot

• Load the proper drivers (in some cases you’re better off getting the drivers from the chipset manufacture’s site rather than the card manufacturers).

• Customize the resolution, color depth and refresh rate as needed.

• Note CRT have variable refresh rates, LCD do not.

Installing Video Cards (con’t)

• To optimize

• Install newest Direct X drivers and any diagnostic or optimization software included with the card. This may include newer drivers.

• Today’s video cards do an enormous amount of processing, so make sure it’s properly cooled and ventilated.

• While it is possible to over clock some video cards, it’s not recommended.

• The motherboard may require driver installation to take full advantage of the video system and or expansion slots.

• Adjustments to BIOS may be needed for video support

Video Memory

• The type and amount of memory used by your video card has a large impact on the speed of the card. Today’s cards will use from Megs to a gig or more. Prices can range up to $1000.00

Video Memory (continued)

• Around 2003, the video memory was typically based on DDR technology. During and after that year, manufacturers moved towards DDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4 and GDDR5. The effective memory clock rate in modern cards is generally between 400 MHz and 3.8 GHz

• GDDR = Graphics Double Data Rate Memory

Onboard Video Cards

• Permanently affixed to mother board.

• Can use name brand chipsets i.e. ATI, Nvidia etc

• Some older onboard cards will limit changing video options

• Expanded capabilities will include DVI, VGA HDMI and display ports (depending on the motherboard as an option)

• Motherboard manufacturer drivers are recommended

Video Problems

• Poor color depth = bad drivers

• Ascii/junk streaks patches etc on the screen = bad video memory / video card

• 3 beeps = video card not seated correctly

• BIOS screen seen but when windows starts picture is gone = bad resolution, dual monitor configuration problem

Display Port• Looks similar to USB/HDMI cable connector

• Is not compatible with any other connection types

• Can transmit both video and audio

• Passive cable can extend up to 3 meters, active 33 meters

• Version 1.0 and 1.1 had a max data transfer rate of 8.64, 1.2 17.28Gbps.

• It can encrypt with 128-bit AES (advanced encryption standard) algorithm, and 56-bit high bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) protocol for DRM purposes.

• Resolutions include 1280x1024, 1920x1080 all the way up to 3840x2160

Other Video Connections

• Component/RGB• Some data projectors and all HDTVs support the high resolution RGB component

connections via RCA supporting up to 720p

• S-Video• Provides a better signal than composite• Is a video out connection used with SD TV, projectors, DVD players and VCR’s• 480i res

• Composite• Lowest quality video signal supported by PC’s• Uses a single RCA cable connection point• Composite usually work with a Yellow RCA (video) and may be accompanied with

separate audio connections which may include RCA connections of White and Red• 480i res

Video Display Settings

• Single monitor dual monitor etc• Various options.. Mirrored, extended, left right and top bottom locations etc.

• Various resolutions, color depths and orientations (horizontal and vertical)

• Identify button

• Become familiar with video resolutions and names… i.e. VGAA XVGA etc

• Etc dependent on the video card and O/S

LCD OSD controls

Input and output devices

Touch screen

• A device that allows input through touch by finger or stylist.

• Capacitive touch screens used fingers.

• Most popular and most sensitive

• Resistive screens use a stylist of fingernail.

Smart TV

• A smart TV is a digital television that is, essentially, an Internet-connected, storage-aware computer specialized for entertainment.

• Smart TVs are available as stand-alone products but regular televisions can also be made “smart” through set-top boxes that enable advanced functions

Set top box

• A set-top box (STB) or set-top unit (STU), or nowadays known as a cable box is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the source signal into content in a form that can then be displayed on the television.

• These may also include PVR’s, Blue ray capable device media player etc

KVM Switch

• KVM = Keyboard Video Mouse, which is a switch allowing a person to connect multiple computers to one Keyboard, Mouse and Video source.

• Boxes may be as simple as a physical switch box with port connections got KB, Video and mouse.

• In industrial applications higher port count switches (electronic) are available and can use cat5 cables with specialized ports or connectors to servers. Some KVMs will come as powered devices or passive devices and yet others may have specialized molded cables combining PS/2, USB, and VGA connectors.

KVM

Common Technology

COM (Serial)• Used to connect the following types of devices

• External analog modems (dial up), Mouse and other pointing devices, Plotters, Printers, Docking stations, Digital cameras, PC to PC connections

• Transmission rates for serial = 1 bit at a time

• Pin outs see tables on pg 233 and 234

• Most common types of cables

• Null-modem cable

• Used to connect two pc’s together

• Modem cable

• Used to connect to an external modem

• Connections for external modems can be 9 or 25 pin

• 9 pin and 25 pin use the same signal connections just different pin locations

Com Ports

• Settings for com ports

• Typical port addresses in hex are listed in table 6-8 pg 236.

• Com 1 and 3 are considered to be shared ports as they share IRQ 4.

• Com 2 and 4 are considered to be shared ports as they share IRQ 3.

• Port addresses for each com port is different but using com 1 and com 3 at the same time may cause IRQ conflicts

• Not all boards and external com boards use the standard addresses as stated in table 6-8.

• Configuration for on board com ports is don’t through the bios but you are given limited choices for addresses

• Adding additional com ports

• Via USB to serial, PCI card or PCI express card

• Keep in mind these addon’s may run with different configurations that the standard onboard types

Serial pin connectors

LPT (Parallel)

• LPT – Line Printer, commonly called printer, or parallel port.• Was a very versatile port supporting technologies such as ZIP driver, tape

drives, printers, scanners and optical drives.• Printer cables consisted of 25 pin DB male connector to a 36pin Centronics

connector that would connect to the printer.• Later expansions to the LPT port allowed for daisy chaining devices such as

printers and scanners to one port.• EPP or Enhanced parallel port uses both IRQ and I/O port address. Used for high

speed printers and drives.• ECP or Enhance capability port is designed for daisy chaining printers and scanners to

a single port. It uses IRQ, I/O port address and DMA channel making this type resource hungry.

• EPP/ECP allowed a combination of both technologies.

• Where serial uses a 1 bit at a time transfer parallel will transfer 8 bits at a time.

• As with serial ports additional ports can be added by expansion cards (PCI and PCI express) or USB to parallel converters.

Serial and Parallel ports

• Easiest way to differentiate the two ports is the Series port is always a male connector and the parallel is always a female connector.

PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard• Also referred to as mini DIN ports are

permanently affixed to the mother board.

• Only available on ATX and newer form factors

• These ports are not hot swappable. Before connecting or disconnecting a mouse or KB the system must be powered down. This is in part due to the BIOS has to detect the device to have it active.

• Typical computers will have 2 ports. Purple and green for Keyboards and mouse.

• Newer systems my only have one able to run Keyboard or Mouse. (shown as half purple, half green)

Mouse

• Can come in many styles and forms• Optical, trackball, touch screen, digitizing tablet, touch pads etc are also considered as

“pointing” type devices.

• USB mice are usually backwards compatible with PS/2 connections. USB to PS/2 connector is needed and mouse will be detected on boot up only.

• USB mice or similar are detected and installed when windows comes up. Some devices require specialized drivers or software to facilitate expanded capabilities like extra mouse buttons or features.

• General maintenance for USB mice (typical optical mouse) in the way of cleaning the optical sensor or surface of table etc. Some surfaces will not work well with optical mice as they maybe to reflective.

• Optical mice use a CMOS sensor to “read” changes in the movement of the mouse. The comparison of these movements will determine the movement of the mouse pointer on the screen.

Keyboard

• Still the main input device on all PC based home computer systems

• Connections are via PS/2 or more commonly today through USB.

• If a KB is connected by way of USB it will be detected and installed by the O/S

• Should it be connected by PS/2 it must still be connected at boot.

• There are many types and styles of keyboard ranging but not limited to language, numbers and types of keys and proprietary use.

• Most common is the 104 Key keyboard which contains all alpha numeric symbols.. A-Z and 0-1 plus some very common ASCII symbols over the number keys.

• Some keyboard may have multi media capabilities such as “Play, Volume control, email. Favorites etc”. These may be found by windows but for full functionality manufacturer drives and software is needed.

• Maintenance for Keyboards, similar to mice, is cleaning and “blowing out” of contaminants from dust to food that may get under the keys.

Bar Code Reader

• Used at point of sale retailers, industrial, medical and other organizations and environments to track inventory.

• Some come in the form of pen readers, Laser scanners, CCD or CMOS readers (guns) or camera-based readers using images to “read” the bar codes.

• Wired bar code readers will connect typically by USB, PS/2 or Serial connections.

• Regardless of the bar code type the individual devices are setup to read what ever is the common style or styles of bar code or 2 dimensional codes.

Biometric

• Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Among the features measured are face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. Biometric data are separate and distinct from personal information.

Smart card reader

• A smart card resembles a credit card in size and shape.

• Inside it is completely different. A normal credit card is a simple piece of plastic.

• The inside of a smart card usually contains an embedded microprocessor

• Used for banking, health card, ID or access.

For next time

• Custom computer Configurations