COMPUTER PERIPHERALS

COMPUTER PERIPHERALS A computer peripheral is a device which can attach with computer to accomplish some specific functions. A computer system can be useful, only when it is able to communicate with external environment. Peripheral devices provide the means of communication between the computer and the outer world. Input Output (I/O) devices are a type of peripheral devices which is required for users to communicate with the computer. In simple terms, input devices bring information INTO the computer and output devices bring information OUT of a computer system. These input/output devices are also known as peripherals since they surround the CPU and memory of a computer system. Roll of INPUT/OUTPUT device

INPUT DEVICES An Input device is an electromechanical device, which accepts data from the outside world, and translates them into a form, which the computer can interpret. We can broadly classify them into the following categories A. Keyboard B. Point-and-Draw devices (Mouse, Joystick, Track Ball, Light Pen, Touch Screen etc...) C. Data scanning devices (Scanner) Functioning of above devices & its applications are described below

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A. KEYBOARD Keyboard is the most commonly used input device. It is a text base input device that allows the user to input alphabets, numbers and other characters. It consists of a set of keys mounted on a board. Keyboard is quite similar to typewriter. In Keyboard there are many additional keys that handle control functions. They allow data entry into a computer system by pressing a set of keys (labeled button) which are mounted on a keyboard. The most popular keyboard used today is the QWERTY keyboard. It is known as General purpose keyboards. Keyboard is connected to the computer using wire or wireless technology. Generally todays keyboard contains 104 keys & some keyboard contains 107 to 110 keys which is some time called multimedia keyboard Advantages of using keyboards for data input include It is not necessary to buy additional equipment because most computer systems are normally supplied with keyboards. Entering data and instructions with keyboards is generally faster than with pointing devices.

Disadvantages of using keyboards for data input include It takes a lot of time to practice in order to type quickly and accurately. Typing speeds are still very slow when compared with computer speeds.

B. POINT-AND-DRAW DEVICES Interaction with computer was initially restricted mainly to text mode. However, it was soon realized that interacting with computer in text -mode is cumbersome and time-consuming. Hence, a new type of interface, called Graphical User Interface (GUI) was devised for interacting with computers. A GUI provides a screen full of graphic icons or menus to the user, and allows the user to make a rapid selection from the displayed icons or menus to give instruction to the computer. For which we required such input device which used to rapidly point to and select a particular graphic icon or menu items from the multiple options displayed on the screen.

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Hence, research efforts to find a suitable input device for GUI gave birth to several input devices as below : 1. Mouse 2. Trackball 3. Joystick 4. Light pen 5. Touch screen Later it was realized that many of these devices like mouse and light pen, could also be very effectively used to create graphic elements on the screen, such as lines, curves, freehand shapes etc. With this new ability, these devices came to be known as point-and-draw devices.

1. MOUSE The mouse is the most popular point-and-draw device. It can become a must-have input device on personal computers which have a GUI based user interface. The mouse is a small device used to point to a particular place on the screen and select in order to perform one or more actions. A mouse is a small hand-held device, which can comfortably fit in a users palm. It can be used to select menu commands, size windows, start programs etc. When a user moves the mouse across a flat surface, the graphics cursor moves on the screen of the visual display terminal in the direction of the mouses movement. The graphic cursor, which is used to point and draw, is displayed on the screen as an arrow. Depending on the application, the text and graphics cursor may be displayed on the screen at the same time. Moving the graphics cursor at a menu item or an icon by moving the mouse is said to point to that menu item or icon. With the click of the mouses button, the system can then be notified of this choice. With the proper software, a mouse can also be used to draw pictures on the screen and edit text. The most conventional kind of mouse has two buttons on top: the left one being used most frequently.

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Advantages of using a mouse include A mouse is user-friendly for computer beginners. A mouse is easy and convenient to use with a graphical user interface. Using a mouse to select items or move to a particular position on the screen is faster than using a keyboard. Disadvantages of using a mouse include It is not easy and convenient to input text with a mouse. Issuing commands by using a mouse is slower than by using a keyboard. A mouse is not accurate enough for drawings that require high precision. A mouse usually requires a flat surface to operate. A mouse needs more desk space to operate when compared with a trackball. 2. TRACK BALL A trackball is a pointing device, similar to a mouse. The ball which is placed in the base of the mouse is placed on the top along with the buttons, in case of track ball. To move the graphics cursor around the screen, the ball is rolled with the fingers. Because the whole device is not moved for moving the graphics cursor, a trackball required less space than a mouse for operation. Trackballs built into the keyboard are commonly used in laptop (notebook) computers. Because the ball is fixed on the top, some people find it helpful to think of a trackball as an upside-down mouse. A trackball comes in various shapes and forms with the same functionality. The three commonly used shapes are a) Ball b) Button and c) Square

Advantages of a trackball include A trackball is good for limited desk space because the user does not have to move the entire device. Disadvantages of trackball include A trackball is usually not as accurate as a mouse. The ball mechanism of trackballs also requires more frequent cleaning than a mouse.
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3. JOYSTICK A Joystick is a pointing device, which works on the same principle as a trackball. Spherical ball moves in a socket, on the stand. To make the movement of the ball (spherical ball graphic cursor in a direction) easier a vertical stick mounted on it. It typically has a button on top that is used to select the option pointed by the cursor. Instead of using the fingers in case of trackball, the user of a joystick moves the spherical ball with the help of the stick with his/her hand. The stick can be moved forward or backward, left or right, to move and position the graphics cursor at the desired position. Potentiometers are used to sense the movements. On most joysticks, a button on the top is provided to select the option, which is currently pointed to by the cursor. The button is clicked to make this selection. A joystick is used as an input device primarily used with video games, flight simulators, training simulators, and for controlling industrial robots. Advantages of using a joystick include A joystick allows fast interactions required in most games. Disadvantages of using a joystick include It is difficult to use a joystick to select objects accurately on the screen. 4. LIGHT PEN This is a pen shaped device used to select objects on a display screen (allowing natural movement on the screen). It is quite like the mouse (in its functionality) but uses a light pen to move the pointer and select any object on the screen by pointing to the object. The pen contains the light receptor and is activated by pressing the pen against the display screen. Receptor is the scanning beam which helps in locating the pens position. Suitable system software is provided to initiate necessary action when we locate an area on the display surface with the help of the light pen. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy. A light pen can work with any CRT-based monitor, but not with LCD screens, projectors or other display devices. Users of Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications commonly use the light pens to directly draw on screen. It also used by health care professionals (such as doctors and dentists) and design work.
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Advantages of light pens include Using a light pen is more direct and precise than using a mouse. Light pen is also convenient for applications with limited desktop space. Disadvantage of light pens includes Light pens normally require a specially designed monitor to work with. 5. TOUCH SCREEN Touch screen is the most simple, sensitive and easiest to learn of all input devices. Its main advantages include their reliability, accuracy, clarity, responsiveness and ease of installation and use. Different industries require different touch screens as per their needs. A touch screen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. Generally the touching display is touch with a finger or hand. It is facility use optical sensors that can detect the touch of a finger on the screen. The sensor communicates the position of touch to the computer, which interprets the input made by the user. It allows users to navigate a computer system by touching icons or links on the screen. A person without any computer experience may easily use a touch screen system. Touch interface technology is advanced enough for most PC systems (including Windows and Macintosh platforms) so that the hardware simply may be plugged in without any difficult programming. It is easy to add the interface to existing applications or develop new applications. A touch screen enables the used to choose from available options by simply touching with their finger the desired icon or menu item displayed on the computers screen. Touch screen are the most preferred human-computer interface devices used in information kiosks. A touch screen is an input/output touch-sensitive display.

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Touch screens are often used for information kiosks located in department stores, hotels, airports, and museums. Touch screens are also used for ATM machines to allow easy access of bank accounts. An information kiosk is an unattended system having no keyboard or mouse, which is used to store information of public interest and allow common people to access the stored information as per their requirement. Its software provides all types of option needed to input data or searching information.

Types of Touch Screen: There are four types of touch screen technology available: 1) Resistive. 2) Capacitive 3) SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) 4) Infrared. Advantages of a touch screen include No extra peripherals are needed except the monitor. A touch screen allows easy access to commands, which are usually identified by words or symbols on the screen. Disadvantages of a touch screen include Touch screens are not suitable for inputting a large amount of data because they require a lot of arm movements. Only items already on the screen can be selected. C. Data scanning Devices Data scanning devices are input devices, which are used for direct data entry into the computer system from source documents. Some of the data scanning devices are also capable of recognizing marks or characters. Data scanning devices typically have the following characteristics They eliminate some of the duplication of human effort required to get data into the computer. Human beings do not have to manually enter the data. The reduction in human intervention improved data accuracy Speedily available data in electronic form Since scanners are direct data entry devices, they demand high quality of input documents. Documents that are poorly typed or have strikeovers or erasures are normally rejected or not recognizing well. With these devices, form design and ink specification may become more critical than is the case when people key in the data from the forms.
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Data scanning devices are of many types as below: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) IMAGE SCANNER OCR (Optical Character Recognition) OMR (Optical Mark Reader) MICR (Magnetic-Inc Character Recognition) OBR (Optical Bar-code Reader)

1. IMAGE SCANNER An image scanner is an input device, which translates paper documents, into an electronic format, which can be stores in a computer. The input documents may be types of text, pictures, and graphics or even hand written material. This input device has been found very useful in preserving paper documents in electronic form. The copy of a document stored in a computer in this manner will never deteriorate in quality or become yellow with age, and can be displayed or printed, whenever desired. If the computer in which the scanned documents is stored has the right kind of software (called image-processing software), the stored images can be altered and manipulated in interesting ways. Image scanners come in various shapes and sizes. The two commonly used types are: a) Flatbed Scanner b) Hand-held Scanner a) Flatbed Scanner Flatbed scanner is like a copy machine, which consists of a box having a glass plate on its top and a lid that covers the glass plate. The document to be scanned is placed upside down on the glass plate. The light source is situated below the glass plate and moves horizontally from left to right when activated. After scanning one line, the light beam moves up a little and scans the next line. The process is repeated for all the lines. It takes about 20 seconds to scan a document of size 21 cm x 28 cm. Flat-bed scanners are costly and used where precision and quality are very important.

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b) Hand-held Scanner A hand-held scanner has a set of LED (Light Emitting Diodes) encased in a small case, which can be conveniently held in hand during operation. To scan a document, the scanner is slowly dragged from one end of the documents to its other end, with its light on. The scanner has to be dragged very steadily and carefully over the document; otherwise the conversion of the document into its equivalent bit map will not be correct. Due to this reason, hand-held scanners are used only in cases where high accuracy is not needed. They are also used when the volume of documents to be scanned is low. They are also much cheaper as compared to flatbed scanners

Optical Scanners The optical scanners are capable of reading information recorded on paper, use light source and light sensors. The information to be scanned is typewritten information. Information is coded as ink or pencil mark or bars. 2. OCR (Optical Character Recognition devices) When image scanners are used for inputting text documents they have the following two limitations: The input document is stored as an image, instead of text, it is not possible to do any word processing of the document (the computer cannot interpret the stored document as letters, numbers and special characters. The storage required for storing the document as an image is much more than that required for storing the same document as text (about 10 to 15 times more storage required for image). The OCR technology is used to overcome these limitations. An OCR detects alphanumeric character printed or typewritten on paper. OCR is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files. Most OCR readers include a small optical scanner for reading characters and sophisticated OCR software for analyzing what is read. The scanner which is equipped with character recognition software

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(called OCR software), that converts the bit map images of character to equivalent ASCII codes. That is, the scanner first create the bit map image of the document, and then the OCR software translates the array of grid points into ASCII text, which the computer can interpret as letters, numbers and special characters. OCR systems require calibration to read a specific font; early versions needed to be programmed with images of each character and worked on one font at a time. OCR software is extremely complex, because it is difficult to make a computer recognize an unlimited number of typefaces and fonts. Hence, this software is designed to recognize texts, which are written using standard type fonts (called OCR fonts). If the characters are typewritten, they must be typed using a special type font called an OCR font. The two such standard fonts are OCR-A (American standard) and OCR-B (European standard). Note that, if the document contains italics or bold face letters, or fonts other than that for which the OCR software has been designed, the OCR software will not work effectively. An OCR can scan several thousands of printed or typewritten characters per second. Advantages of OCR readers include Written data and printed data can be read at the same time. Hard copies of documents can be read directly into a computer without retyping. The characters converted can later be edited by word processing software. Disadvantages of OCR readers include OCR devices are expensive and so used only for large volume processing applications. Characters can be scanned properly only if they are of standard size. OCR readers often do not work well with handwritten characters or those in unusual fonts. Roughly handle and dirty papers can not be scanned with accuracy.

3. OMR (Optical Mark Reader) Optical Mark Recognition/Readers (OMR) is the scanning of paper to detect the presence or absence of a mark in a predetermined position (i.e. data is extracted electronically from check boxes, fill in fields or printed forms). It is different from an OCR. This technology is very fast and can be used in a variety of application. These scanners are capable of recognizing or sensing hand drawn marks such as small circles or rectangles made on a pre-specified (pre printed forms) in certain places which are made by pencil or pen. The OMR reader first reads the answer key sheet to record the correct answers based on the patterns
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of light, and then reads the remaining documents and matches their patterns of light against the answer key sheet. OMR readers are often used for marking multiple choice answer sheets, capturing data from questionnaires, enrolment forms, and lottery tickets. Many students might have appeared in objective type tests, in which they had to mark their answers to questions on a special pre-printed answer sheet by darkening a small square, circular or oval shaped box by a pencil. In OMR to indicate their correct choice out of the various given option. An OMR detects these marks and the corresponding signals are sent to the processors. If mark is present, it reduces the amount of reflected light. If mark is not present, the amount of reflected light is not reduced. So we can say that, the use of OMR is not limited to the grading of objective test. But it is useful to any input data that is of a choice selection nature can be recorded for OMR input. These answer sheets are directly fed to a computer for grading with the use of an optical mark reader. Advantages of OMR readers include OMR has a better recognition rate than OCR because fewer mistakes are made by machines to read marks than by reading handwritten characters. Large volumes of data can be collected quickly and easily without the need for specially trained staff. The cost of inputting data and the chance of data input errors could be reduced because it is not necessary to type the details for data entry. Disadvantages of OMR readers include The OMR reader needs to be reprogrammed for each new document design. OMR readers are relatively slow. The person putting marks on the documents must follow the instructions precisely. Any folding or dirt on a form may prevent the form from being read correctly. 4. MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition/Reader) The magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) reader can read text printed with magnetized ink. A Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) technology is mainly adopted by the banking industry for processing large volume of cheques. The process was demonstrated to the American Bankers Association in July 1956, and it was almost universally employed by 1963. Banks, which employ MICR technology, use a special type of cheque. The banks identification code (name, branch etc.), account number, and the cheque number are pre-printed (encoded) by using characters from a special character set on all these cheques with a special ink, which contains
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magnetizable particles of iron oxide, before the cheques are given to the customer for use. When a customer presents a filled-in cheque at a bank, a bank employee manually enters the amount written on the cheque, in the lower right corner of the cheque by using an MICR inscriber, which prints the amount with the magnetic ink. The date of the transaction is automatically recorded for all cheques processed that day. This cheque is then processed by using an MICR reader-sorter, which can recognize magnetic ink characters. The MICR readersorter reads the data on the cheques, and sorts the cheques for distribution to other banks or for further processing. The most commonly used character set by MICR devices is known as E13B font, which consists of the numeral 0 to 9 and four special characters as shown below:

Coded data in the form of these fonts are transferred from cheques to the computer by an MICR reader-sorter. As the cheques enter the reading unit, they pass through a magnetic field, which causes the particles in the ink to become magnetized. Read heads then interpret these characters by examining their shapes. The sorter is used to sort the cheques into different pockets, according to their identification code numbers. MICR technology speeds up data input for the banking industry, because cheques can be directly fed into the input device, and automatically processed thereafter. Besides enabling faster processing of cheques, this technology also ensures accuracy of data entry, because most of the information is pre-printed on the cheque, and is directly fed to the computer. However, MICR has not been adopted by other industries, because the currently supported character set has only 14 symbols. No alphabetic characters are available. Advantages of MICR readers include MICR is difficult to build. Documents can still be read when folded or written on with high degree of accuracy. Speed up data input for the banking industry because cheque can be directly fed into the input device.

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Disadvantages of MICR readers include MICR readers and encoders are very expensive. The system can only accept a few different character sets. Special type of magnetic ink is required for encoding the characters to be read by the machine. 5. OBR (Optical Bar-code Reader) Data coded in the form of small lines (bars) are known as bar codes. Bar codes represent alphanumeric data by a combination of adjacent vertical lines by varying their width and the spacing between them. They are particularly used for unique identification of all types of goods, postal packages, badges, tags etc. A optical bar-code reader is a device, which is used for reading (decoding) barcoded data. It may be a hand-held scanner or may be embedded in a stationary scanner. It scans a bar-coded image, and converts it into an alphanumeric value, which is then fed to the computer to which the bar-code reader is connected, just as though the alphanumeric value had been typed on a keyboard. A OBR uses a laser-beam scanning technology to read bar codes. The laser beam is stroked across the pattern of bars of a bar code. A bar code reader reads a bar code by using light patterns that pass through the bar code lines. Bar code readers are widely used in a POS e.g. supermarkets, department stores, libraries, etc. Different bar codes, having different patterns of bars, reflect the beam in different ways, which is sensed by a light-sensitive detector. Reflected light patterns are converted into electrical pulses, and then transmitted to recognition login circuits, which convert it into an alphanumeric value. Just as there are a variety of internal bit encoding systems, there are a variety of bar-coding systems. The most widely known bar-coding system is the Universal Product Code (UPC code), which now appears on almost all retail packages in USA. The UPC, originally used for supermarket items, is now being printed on other consumer goods also. The UPC bar-code patterns are decoded as 10 digits. The 1st five(5) digits identify the manufacturer or supplier of the product, and the 2nd five(5) digits identify a special product of the manufacturer.

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OBR are commonly found in supermarkets and department stores. When a customer picks up a product for purchasing and brings it to the cash counter for payment, the sales person at the counter uses a bar-code reader to scan the bar-code printed on the product. The bar-code reader converts the bar code into an alphanumeric value, and feeds it to the computer, which looks up the price of the product, possibly updates inventory and sales records, and uses the price and description information to prepare a purchase bill for the customer. Postal delivery services also use bar code to identify and track each packet. For Example, Federal Express of USA uses a unique bar-coding system, and their employees can usually tell a customer, within a minute, the current location of any packet. Advantages of using bar codes and bar code readers include The process of data entry is fast and accurate. Bar codes can be printed by normal printing methods. No need to write down or key in the name of the item or its actual price. Disadvantages of using bar codes and bar code readers include A bar code reader may misread a bar code if there is any dirt or mark on the code. Only numbers can be coded.

OUTPUT DEVICES
An output device is an electromechanical device, which accepts data from a computer and translates them into a form, which is suitable for use by the outside world (the users). Several output devices are available today. They can be broadly classified into the following categories: A. Monitor / VDU (Visual Display Unit) B. Printer C. Plotter

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Output devices generate computer output, which can be broadly classified into the following two types: 1) Soft-copy output:A soft copy output is an output, which is not produced on a paper or some material, which can not be touched and carried for being shown to others. Softcopy output may be temporary or permanent. Output displayed on a terminal screen or spoken out by a voice response system can say soft-copy and temporary by nature while data stored in computer memory are also softcopy though it is not temporary by nature.

2) Hard-copy output:A hard-copy output is an output, which is produced on a paper or some material, which can be touched and carried for being shown to others. They are permanent in nature, and can be kept in paper files, or can be looked later, when the person is not using the computer. For example, output produced by printers or plotters on paper are hard-copy output.

A. Monitors / Visual Display Unit (VDU) Monitors are the most popular output devices used today for producing softcopy output. They display the generated output on a television like screen. A monitor is usually associated with keyboard, and together they form a video display terminal (VDT). A VDT (often referred as terminal) is the most popular input/output (I/O) device used with todays computers. That is, it serves as both an input and an output device. The keyboard is used for input to the computer, and the monitor is used to display the output from the computer. The name terminal comes from the fact that a terminal is at the terminal, or end, point of a communication path. Graphic display is made up of a series of dots pixels (picture elements) whose pattern produces the image. Each dot on the screen is defined as a separate unit which can be directly addressed. There are many types of monitor available in market. We will see most famous three types as below: a) CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) b) L.C.D (Liquid Crystal Display) c) PLASMA DISPLAY

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B. Printers Printers are the most commonly used output devices today for producing hardcopy output (output on paper). There are a large variety of printing devices which can be classified according to the printing technology, print quality and printing speeds. By printing technology we can classify printers in mainly two categories; 1) Impact printers: It use variations of standards typewriter printing mechanism where a hammer strikes paper through inked ribbon. Example, Dot Matrix printer, Drum printer, chain/band printer etc. 2) Non-impact printers: It uses chemical, heat or electrical signals to etch or induce symbols on paper. Many of there require special coated or treated paper. Example, Ink jet printer, laser printer etc. C. PLOTTERS: We saw above that dot matrix, inkjet and laser printers are capable of producing graphics output. However, many engineering design applications, like architectural plan of a building, design of mechanical components of an aircraft or a car, etc. Plotters are mainly use for high-quality, perfectly-proportioned graphic output on large sheets. The various types of printers discussed above are not suitable for meeting this output requirement of such applications. A special type of output device, called plotters is used for this purpose. Plotters are ideal output device for architects, engineers, city planners, and others who need to routinely generate high-precision, hard-copy, and graphics output of widely varying sizes. The two commonly used types of plotters are drum & flatbed plotters as below: Drum Plotter In a drum plotter the paper, on which the design has to be made is placed over a drum, which can rotate in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions to produce vertical motion. The mechanism also consists of one or more penholders mounted perpendicular to the drums surface. The pen(s) clamped in the holder(s) can move left to right, or right to left to produce horizontal motion. The movement of the drum and the pen(s) are controlled by the graphplotting program. That is under computer control, the drum and the pen(s) move simultaneously to draw the designs and graphs on the sheet placed on the drum. The plotter can also annotate the designs and graphs so drawn by using the pen to draw characters of various sizes. Since each pen is program selectable, pens having ink of different colors can be mounted in different holders to produce multi-colored designs.

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Flatbed Plotter:A flatbed plotter plots a design or graph on a sheet of paper, which that is spread and fixed over a rectangular flatbed table. In this type of plotter, normally the paper does not move and the pen holding mechanism is designed to provide all types of motions necessary to draw complex designs and graphs. That is, under computer control, the pen(s) move in the required manner to draw the designs and graphs on the sheet placed on the flatbed table. The plotter can also annotate the designs and graphs so drawn by using pen to draw characters of various sizes. Here also, provision is there to mount more than one pen in the pen(s) holding mechanism. Since each pen is program selectable, pens having ink of different colors can be mounted in different holders to produce multi-colored designs. The plot size is restricted by the area of the bed. Some may be as small as A4 size while some very large beds used in the design of cars, ships, aircrafts, buildings, highways, etc. can be up to 20 ft by 50 ft. Some plotters are also designed to etch plastic or metal plates. In this case, the plastic or metal sheet is spread on the bed, and the drawing pen has a sharp-edged needle.

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Computer software
Computer hardware is only as effective as the instructions we give it, and those instructions are contained in software. Software not only directs the computer to manage its internal resources, but also enables the user to tailor a computer system to provide specic business value. It is surprising to many people that at the corporatelevel, software expenditures (development and purchase) typically are a much largercost than is hardware. In this chapter we learn that computer software, in its various forms and languages, can be quite complex. But these complexities must be understood in order to truly be able to exploit the power of modern information technologies. This chapter explains to the reader the concepts of what software is, how it works, and how it is created. Along the way we provide examples of softwares critical role in maintaining organizational competitiveness. Software consists of computer programs, which are sequences of instructions for the computer. The process of writing (or coding) programs is called programming, and individuals who perform this task are called programmers. Unlike the hardwired computers of the 1950s, modern software uses the stored program concept, in which stored software programs are accessed and their instructions are executed (followed) in the computers CPU. Once the program has nished executing, a new program is loaded into main memory and the computer hardware addresses another task. Computer programs include documentation, which is a written description of the functions of the program. Documentation helps the user operate the computer system and helps other programmers understand what the program does and how it accomplishes its purpose. Documentation is vital to the business organization. Without it, if a key programmer or user leaves, the knowledge of how to use the program or how it is designed may be lost. The computer is able to do nothing until it is instructed by software. Although computer hardware is, by design, general purpose, software enables the user to instruct a computer system to perform specic functions that provide business value. There are two major types of software: systems software and application software. Systems software is a set of instructions that serves primarily as an intermediary between computer hardware and application programs, and may also be directly manipulated by knowledgeable users. Systems software
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provides important self-regulatory functions for computer systems, such as loading itself when the computer is rst turned on, managing hardware resources such as secondary storage for all applications, and providing commonly used sets of instructions for all applications to use. Systems programming is either the creation or maintenance of systems software. Application software is a set of computer instructions that provide more specic functionality to a user. That functionality may be broad, such as general word processing, or narrow, such as an organizations payroll program. An application program applies a computer to a certain need. Application programming is either the creation or the modication and improvement of application software. There are many different software applications in organizations today, as this chapter will discuss. For a marketing application, for example, see the Market Intelligence box at the Web site.

In summary, application programs primarily manipulate data or text to produce or provide information. Systems programs primarily manipulate computer hardware resources. The systems software available on a computer system provides the capabilities and limitations within which the application software can operate.

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