Information Technology [3 Mark Questions]

Floppy disk drive is also known as diskette or FDD.
It is a computer disk drive that enables a user to save data on removable diskettes.
This portable storage device is a rewritable media that can be reused number of times.
It is made of plastic with magnetic coating on it and round in shape which is covered by square plastic jacket. It is commonly used to move files between different computers. Although, 8″ disk drives made available in 1971 were the first real disk drives, the first widely used floppy disk drives were the 4″,
5 1/4″ floppy disk drives, which were later replaced with 3 1/2″ floppy disk drives. However, today these drives are being replaced with CD-R and other writable disc drives and flash drives.
Advantages of a Floppy Disk

• Small and light weighted.
• Inexpensive and reusable.
• Information is retrieved or accessed only sequentially.

Disadvantages of a Floppy Disk

• Can easily be broken or damaged and not much reliable.
• Quite slow to access and retrieve data.
• Easily affected by heat

ifference between a flash drive and a memory card are as follows :

Flash Drive	Memory Card
It is a small and portable data storage device.	It is small, re-recordable, easily portable and very light weighted.
It is used to store information and transfer data from one computer to another.	It is commonly used in electronic devices including digital camera, mobile phones etc.
It is available with storage different capacities upto 256 GB.	It is available with storage capacity from 2 MB to 128 GB.

It is also known as Secondary Storage or Auxiliary Memory. It is slower and cheaper form of memory, which is a permanent storage device. CPU does not access the secondary memory directly. The contents in it must be first copied into the RAM to get processed.
It is non-volatile in nature, i.e. the information does not get erased even when power gets switched OFF and data will not be destructed until and unless, the user erases it.
Secondary memory devices include

• Magnetic disks
  • Floppy Disk
  • Hard Disk Drive
  • Magnetic Tape
• Optical discs
  • CD
  • DVD
  • Blu-ray Disc
• Solid State
  • Pen/Flash Drive
  • Memory Card

The functional units of a computer are as follows:

1. Input Unit Computer takes data from input devices.
2. CPU (Central Processing Unit) It is the brain of the computer, where most of the calculations takes place.
   It consists of
   ALU (Arithmetic and Logic Unit) It performs arithmetical and logical operations.
   CU (Control Unit) It extracts instructions from memory, decodes and executes them.
3. Output Unit Gives out results or data through output devices.
4. Auxiliary Storage Secondary storage devices are used to store data and instructions permanently.

The printers can be classified into two categories which are as follows:

1. Impact printers In these types of printers, there is a mechanical contact between the paper and the printer head. These can further be classified as-Line printers (which can print a line at a time) and Daisy wheel printers (which can print a character at a time).
2. Non-impact printers In these types of printers, there is no mechanical contact between the paper and the printer head.
   The printing takes place with some electromagnetic thermal or laser techniques.
   The non-impact printers are more speedy and quieter than impact printers.

MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.
It is a characters recognition technology that can read human unreadable characters that are printed using a special magnetic ink. It is mostly used in banks to facilitate the processing of cheques.

Advantages
Advantages of MICR are as follows:

1. It decreases the margin of errors.
2. Provides high security.

Disadvantages
Disadvantages of MICR are as follows:

1. Time consuming standards.
2. The number of characters that can be recorded with present techniques is very limited.

The characteristics of a computer are as follows:

• Accuracy Computer operates with very high degree of accuracy and can do 100% error free calculations. It does not get exhausted to the extent of making mistakes.
• Speed Computer is generally known for its speed. It can process data very fast at the rate of millions of instructions per second. Units of speed is measured in micro seconds, nano seconds and pico seconds.
• Diligence Unlike human beings, a computer is free from monotony, tiredness, lack of concentration etc and can do work for hours without creating any errors.
• Automaticity It means that once the program is loaded in the memory of the computer system, the operations which are instructed by the program are performed one after the other without any human interference.
• Versatility Computer is highly versatile in nature. It fits into different fields of human endeavour ranging from business, education, technology, engineering, law, commerce, agriculture, medicine, sports etc. It can perform different types of tasks which are provided in a logical way to execute.
• Large Storage Capacity Data can be stored electronically in considerably less space which can be retrieved in a fraction of the time when needed. A limited amount of data can be stored temporarily in primary memory of computer. For permanent storage of data, secondary storage devices are used.
• Plug and Play Computer has the ability to automatically configure a news hardware and software component.