Input/output device, also known as computer peripheral, any of various devices (including sensors) used

to enter information and instructions into a computer for storage or processing and to deliver the
processed data to a human operator or, in some cases, a machine controlled by the computer. Such devices
make up the peripheral equipment of modern digital computer systems.
An input device converts incoming data and instructions into a pattern of electrical signals in binary code
that are comprehensible to a digital computer. An output device reverses the process, translating the
digitized signals into a form intelligible to the user. At one time punched-card and paper-tape readers were
extensively used for inputting, but these have now been supplanted by more efficient devices.
Input devices include typewriter-like keyboards; handheld devices such as the mouse, trackball, joystick,
and special pen with pressure-sensitive pad; and microphones. They also include sensors that provide
information about their environmenttemperature, pressure, and so forthto a computer. Another directentry mechanism is the optical laser scanner (e.g., scanners used with point-of-sale terminals in retail
stores) that can read bar-coded data or optical character fonts. Output equipment includes video display
terminals (either cathode-ray tubes or liquid crystal displays), ink-jet and laser printers, loudspeakers, and
devices such as flow valves that control machinery, often in response to computer processing of sensor
input data. Some devices, such as video display terminals, may provide both input and output. Other
examples are devices that enable the transmission and reception of data between computerse.g.,
modems and network interfaces. Most auxiliary storage devicesas, for example, magnetic tape,
magnetic disk drives, and certain types of optical compact discsalso double as input/output devices (see
computer memory).
Various standards for connecting peripherals to computers exist. For example, integrated drive electronics
(IDE) and enhanced integrated drive electronics (EIDE) are common interfaces, or buses, for magnetic
disk drives. A bus (also known as a port) can be either serial or parallel, depending on whether the data
path carries one bit at a time (serial) or many at once (parallel). Serial connections, which use relatively
few wires, are generally simpler and slower than parallel connections. Universal serial bus (USB) is a
common serial bus. A common example of a parallel bus is the small computer systems interface, or
SCSI, bus.
Input Devices:
a) Graphics Tablets b) Cameras c) Video Capture Hardware d) Trackballs e) Barcode reader
f) Digital camera g) Gamepad h) Joystick i) Keyboard j) Microphone k) MIDI keyboard l) Mouse
(pointing device) m) Scanner n) Webcam o) Touchpads p) Pen Input q)
Microphone
r) Electronic Whiteboard
Output Devices:
a) Monitor b) Printers (all types) c) Plotters d)Projectors e) LCD Projection Panels f) Computer Output
Microfilm (COM) g)Speaker(s)
Both InputOutput Devices:
1. Modems

2. Network cards
3. Touch Screen
4. Headsets (Headset consists of Speakers and Microphone. Speaker acts Output Device and
Microphone act as Input device)
5. Facsimile (FAX) (It has scanner to scan the document and also have printer to Print the
document)
6. Audio Cards / Sound Card
In computing, input/output or I/O is the communication between an information processing system, such
as a computer, and the outside world, possibly a human or another information processing system. Inputs
are the signals or data received by the system and outputs are the signals or data sent from it. The term
can also be used as part of an action; to "perform I/O" is to perform an input or output operation. I/O
devices are used by a human (or other system) to communicate with a computer. For instance, a keyboard
or mouse is an input device for a computer, while monitors and printers are output devices. Devices for
communication between computers, such as modems and network cards, typically perform both input and
output operations.
Note that the designation of a device as either input or output depends on perspective. Mice and
keyboards take physical movements that the human user outputs and convert them into input signals that
a computer can understand; the output from these devices is the computer's input. Similarly, printers and
monitors take signals that a computer outputs as input, and they convert these signals into a representation
that human users can understand. From the human user's perspective, the process of reading or seeing
these representations is receiving input; this type of interaction between computers and humans is studied
in the field of humancomputer interaction.
In computer architecture, the combination of the CPU and main memory, to which the CPU can read or
write directly using individual instructions, is considered the brain of a computer. Any transfer of
information to or from the CPU/memory combo, for example by reading data from a disk drive, is
considered I/O. The CPU and its supporting circuitry may provide memory-mapped I/O that is used in
low-level computer programming, such as in the implementation of device drivers, or may provide access
to I/O channels. An I/O algorithm is one designed to exploit locality and perform efficiently when
exchanging data with a secondary storage device, such as a disk drive.

Interface
An I/O interface is required whenever the I/O device is driven by the processor. The interface must have
necessary logic to interpret the device address generated by the processor. Handshaking should be
implemented by the interface using appropriate commands (like BUSY, READY, and WAIT), and the
processor can communicate with an I/O device through the interface. If different data formats are being
exchanged, the interface must be able to convert serial data to parallel form and vice versa. There must be
provision for generating interrupts and the corresponding type numbers for further processing by the
processor if required.

A computer that uses memory-mapped I/O accesses hardware by reading and writing to specific memory
locations, using the same assembly language instructions that computer would normally use to access
memory.

Higher-level implementation
Higher-level operating system and programming facilities employ separate, more abstract I/O concepts
and primitives. For example, most operating systems provide application programs with the concept of
files. The C and C++ programming languages, and operating systems in the Unix family, traditionally
abstract files and devices as streams, which can be read or written, or sometimes both. The C standard
library provides functions for manipulating streams for input and output.
In the context of the ALGOL 68 programming language, the input and output facilities are collectively
referred to as transput. The ALGOL 68 transput library recognizes the following standard files/devices:
stand in, stand out, stand errors and stand back.
An alternative to special primitive functions is the I/O monad, which permits programs to just describe
I/O, and the actions are carried out outside the program. This is notable because the I/O functions would
introduce side-effects to any programming language, but this allows purely functional programming to be
practical.

Channel I/O
Channel I/O requires the use of instructions that are specifically designed to perform I/O operations. The
I/O instructions address the channel or the channel and device; the channel asynchronously accesses all
other required addressing and control information. This is similar to DMA, but more flexible.

Port-mapped I/O
Port-mapped I/O also requires the use of special I/O instructions. Typically one or more ports are assigned
to the device, each with a special purpose. The port numbers are in a separate address space from that
used by normal instructions.