Hardware in multimedia

1. Hardware

2. Difference between Windows and
macOS
 Windows is a group of various proprietary
graphical operating systems which is provided by
Microsoft Incorporation. It is also known as
Microsoft Windows. It currently includes
Windows NT and Windows IoT as members of its
family. Earlier it included Windows 9x, Windows
Mobile and Windows Phone which are no longer
in use. It is the most used operating system in
personal computers. The first version of Windows
was launched by Microsoft in 1985. The most
recent version of Windows for personal
computers is Windows 11.

3. features of Windows:
 User Interface: Windows has a graphical user interface
(GUI) that is easy to use and navigate, with features such
as the Start menu and Taskbar.
 Gaming: Windows is known for its strong support for
gaming, with many popular games being developed
specifically for the Windows platform.
 Productivity Tools: Windows comes with a suite of
productivity tools like Microsoft Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint for creating documents, spreadsheets, and
presentations.
 Customization: Windows is highly customizable, with users
able to change the look and feel of the operating system
by changing themes and settings.
 Compatibility: Windows has good compatibility with a wide
range of hardware and software, making it a popular
choice for both consumers and businesses.

4. macOS
 macOS is a series of proprietary graphical
operating systems which is provided by Apple
Incorporation. It was earlier known as Mac OS X
and later OS X. It is specifically designed for
Apple mac computers. It is based on Unix
operating system. It was developed using C, C++,
Objective-C, assembly language and Swift. It is
the second most used operating system in
personal computers after Windows. The first
version of macOS was launched by Apple in
2001. The latest stable version of macOS is
10.15.1 which is also known as Catalina.

5. features of macOS:
 User Interface: macOS has a clean and intuitive graphical
user interface (GUI) that makes it easy to use and
navigate, with features such as the Dock and Mission
Control.
 Integration with Apple Devices: macOS integrates
seamlessly with other Apple devices, such as iPhones and
iPads, allowing users to transfer files and data easily.
 Productivity Tools: macOS comes with a suite of
productivity tools like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for
creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
 Security: macOS has built-in security features like
Gatekeeper, which helps protect the system from malware
and other malicious software.
 Accessibility: macOS has a range of accessibility features
built-in, including VoiceOver, which makes it easier for
users with visual impairments to use the operating
system.

6. Similarities between Windows and macOS
 Multi-Tasking: Both operating systems allow for
multitasking, allowing users to run multiple
applications at the same time.
 Networking Capabilities: Both operating systems have
strong networking capabilities, with support for a wide
range of network protocols and services.
 Application Stores: Both Windows and macOS have
their own application stores, allowing users to easily
find and install new software.
 File Systems: Both operating systems use
hierarchical file systems, making it easy to organize
and access files and folders.
 Compatibility: Both Windows and macOS have good
compatibility with a wide range of hardware and
software, although Windows is generally considered
to have better compatibility with third-party hardware
and software.

7. follows:
WINDOWS MACOS
It was developed and is owned by Microsoft
Incorporation.
It was developed and is owned by Apple
Incorporation.
It was launched in 1985. It was launched in 2001.
It is designed for PC of all companies.
It is specifically designed for Apple mac
computers.
The current stable version is Windows 11.
The current center’s stable version is mac
12.0.1 (Monterey).
It is for workstations,, personal computers,
media center, tablets, and embedded systems.
Its target system type is workstations, personal
computers,, and embedded systems.
Computer architectures supported by Windows
are IA-32, x86-64, IA-64, ARM, Alpha, MIPS
and PowerPC.
Computer architectures supported are x86-
64(10.4.7-present), IA-32(10.4.4-10.6.8) and
PowerPC(10.0-10.5.8).
File systems supported are NTFS, FAT, ISO
9660, UDF, HFS+, FATX and HFS.
File systems supported are HFS+, APFS, HFS,
UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS,
NTFS, FTP, WebDAV and ZFS.
Kernel type is Hybrid with modules here. Kernel type is Hybrid with modules here also.
Package management is MSI or custom
installer.
Package management is a macOS installer.
Update management is Windows Update. Update management is Software Update.
The native APIs are Win32 and NT API.
The native APIs are Carbon, Cocoa, Java,,
and BSD-POSIX.

8. Connections
 Establishing a connection between two multimedia
devices is very easy now using a lot of connecting
devices. There are many hardware devices which
are generally used for making a connection between
two or more devices such as cables. Here, we are
discussing some interfaces and connecting devices.

9. Integrated Drive Electronics
(IDEs)
 Computers have three main storage devices – hard
drive, floppy drive and CD-ROM drive.These storage
devices connect to computers through Integrated
Drive Electronics, IDE. Short for Integrated Drive
Electronics or IBM Disc Electronics, IDE is more
commonly known as ATA or Parallel ATA (PATA) and
is a standard interface for IBM compatible hard
drives.

10.  IDE is different from the Small Computer Systems
Interface (SCSI) and Enhanced Small Device
Interface (ESDI) because its controllers are on each
drive, meaning the drive can connect directly to the
motherboard or controller. IDE and its updated
successor, Enhanced IDE (EIDE), are the most
common drive interfaces found in IBM compatible
computers today. Below, is a picture of the IDE
connector on the back of a hard drive, a picture of
what an IDE cable looks like, and the IDE channels it
connects to on the motherboard.

11. Back of IDE Hard Disk Drive

12.  IDE connectors are 40 pins wide, and a single IDE
cable can have up to two IDE devices connected to
it. One of these devices is designated the “Master”
and the other device the “Slave”. Master/Slave
status is determined by a jumper – a small cap
placed over pins to enable/disable an electrical
connection. IDE is the most common and least
expensive Hard Drive interface, and it is also
commonly used for ZIP drives and CD ROM drives

13. Understanding IDE Terms
 IDE has several transfer modes. The fastest, and
most recent, is called ATA66'. These drives,when
connected to an ATA66-compatible IDE controller,
can transfer data at 66.6MB/second.Ultra DMA-
33 (UDMA), the predecessor to ATA66, could
transfer data at 33.3MB/second. The newer
standards, however, can still be used with older
controllers that do not support them. They will
simply use the best transfer mode they have
available (UDMA33 or an earlier one, if
applicable.)

14. Other IDE Devices
 While IDE was initially designed to control hard
drives, it is now used for CD/DVD/CD-RW drives
and ZIP drives as well. Since IDE controllers only
control up to two devices, (one master’ and one
slave’), expansion is difficult if you see yourself
adding many devices, such as a CD ROM burner,
an internal ZIP drive and additional hard drive.
However, many of these devices can be added as
external USB devices, so this may not be as big
an issue as it sounds if you don’t mind external
devices.

15. Selecting an IDE Hard Drive
 For best performance, gamers looking for an IDE
hard drive should look for one that supports
ATA66. Also be sure to pick up an ATA66 IDE
cable, which is just an improved IDE cable to
accommodate the higher speed (it will still
connect to any standard 40-pin IDE connectors
too.) The only limitation to using IDE is limited
expansion. Most systems cannot accommodate
more than four IDE devices (CDROM, ZIP, Hard
Disk). Gamers requiring more might want to
consider SCSI.

16. IDE and ATA-1
 The first version of what is now called the ATA/ATAPI
interface was developed by WesternDigital under the
name Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE). Together
with Control Data Corporation (who manufactured
the hard drive part) and Compaq Computer (into
whose systems these drives would initially go), they
developed the connector, the signalling protocols,
and so on with the goal of remaining software
compatible with the existing ST-506 hard drive
interface. The first such drives appeared in Compaq
PCs in 1986.

17.  The term Integrated Drive Electronics refers not just
to the connector and interface definition, but also to
the fact that the drive controller is integrated into the
drive, as opposed to a separate controller on or
connected to the motherboard. The interface cards
used to connect a parallel ATA drive to, for example,
a PCI slot are not drive controllers: they are merely
bridges between the host bus and the ATA interface.
Since the original ATA interface is essentially just a
16-bit ISAbus in disguise, the bridge was especially
simple in case of an ATA connector being located on
an ISA interface card.

18. Small Computer System Interface
(SCSI)
 Small Computer System Interface is one of the
most commonly used interface for disk drives.It is
a set of standards for physically connecting and
transferring data between computers and
peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define
commands, protocols and electrical and optical
interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard
disks and tape drives, but it can connect a wide
range of other devices, including scanners and
CD drives, although not all controllers can handle
all devices.

19.  SCSI was derived from “SASI”, the “Shugart
Associates System Interface”, developed in 1978
and publicly disclosed in 1981. A SASI controller
provided a bridge between a hard disk drive’s low-
level interface and a host computer, which needed to
read blocks of data. SASI controller boards were
typically the size of a hard disk drive and were
usually physically mounted to the drive’s chassis.
SASI, which was used in mini- and early
microcomputers, defined the interface as using a 50-
pin flat ribbon connector which was adopted as the
SCSI-1 connector. SASI is a fully compliant subset of
SCSI-1 so that many, if not all, of the then-existing
SASI controllers were SCSI-1 compatible.

20. SCSI Adapter Card

21. Interfaces
 SCSI is available in a variety of interfaces. The first,
still very common, was parallel SCSI (now also
called SPI), which uses a parallel bus design. As of
2008, SPI is being replaced by Serial Attached SCSI
(SAS), which uses a serial design but retains other
aspects of the technology. Many other interfaces
which do not rely on complete SCSI standards still
implement the SCSI command protocol; others (such
as iSCSI) drop physical implementation entirely while
retaining the SCSI architectural model. iSCSI, for
example, uses TCP/IP as a transport mechanism.

22. Enhanced Integrated Drive
Electronics (EIDEs)
 Stands for “Enhanced Integrated Drive
Electronics.” EIDE is an improved version of the
IDE drive interface that provides faster data
transfer rates than the original standard. While
the original IDE drive controllers supported
transfer rates of 8.3 Mbps, EIDE can transfer data
up to 16.6 Mbps, which is twice as fast

23.  EIDE’s enhancements to Integrated Drive
Electronics make it possible to address a hard disk
larger than 528 MB. EIDE also provides faster
access to the hard drive, support for direct memory
access (DMA), and support for additional drives,
including CD-ROM and tape devices. EIDE was
adopted as a standard by ANSI in 1994. ANSI calls it
Advanced Technology Attachment-2, also referred to
as Fast ATA or ATA-2.

24. Analogue Telephone Adapter
(ATA)
 An analogue telephone adaptor (ATA) is a device
used to connect a standard telephone to a
computer or network so that the user can make
calls over the Internet. Internet-based long
distance calls can be substantially cheaper than
calls transmitted over the traditional telephone
system, and ATAs are typically cheaper than
specialized VoIP phones that connect directly to a
computer’s Universal Serial Bus (USB) port.

25.  Whether or not VoIP is cheaper than traditional
phone service depends on a number of
factors,including the rates charged by the respective
service providers and equipment costs. Skype, one
VoIP provider, offers free calling locally and between
members, and inexpensive long-distance calls to
other numbers.

26.  There are several types of analogue telephone
adapters. All ATAs create a physical connection
between a phone and a computer or a etwork
device; some perform analogue-to-digital conversion
and connect directly to a VoIP server, while others
use software for either or both of these tasks.

27. Universal Serial Bus (USB)
 Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard
developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables,
connectors and communications protocols used in a
bus for connection, communication and power supply
between computers and electronic devices. USB was
designed to standardize the connection of computer
peripherals (including keyboards, pointing devices,
digital cameras, printers, portable media players, disk
drives and network adapters) to personal computers,
both to communicate and to supply electric power. It
has become commonplace on other devices, such as
smartphones, PDAs and video game consoles. USB
has effectively replaced a variety of earlier interfaces,
such as serial and parallel ports, as well as separate
power chargers for portable devices.

28. USB Cables and Connectors
 Connecting a USB device to a computer is
simple—you find the USB connector on the back
of your machine and plug the USB connector into
it.If it’s a new device, the operating system auto-
detects it and asks for the driver disk. If the
device has already been installed, the computer
activates it and starts talking to it. USB devices
can be connected and disconnected at any time.

29. USB Features
 The computer acts as the host.
 Up to 127 devices can connect to the host, either directly or by way of USB
hubs.
 Individual USB cables can run as long as 5 meters; with hubs, devices can
be up to30 meters (six cables’ worth) away from the host.
 With USB 2.0, the bus has a maximum data rate of 480 megabits per
second (10 times the
 speed of USB 1.0).
 A USB 2.0 cable has two wires for power (+5 volts and ground) and a
twisted pair of wiresto carry the data. The USB 3.0 standard adds four more
wires for data transmission. WhileUSB 2.0 can only send data in one
direction at a time (downstream or upstream), USB 3.0can transmit data in
both directions simultaneously. On the power wires, the computer can supply
up to 500 milliamps of power at 5 volts.
 A USB 3.0 cable can supply up to 900 milliamps of power.
 Low-power devices (such as mice) can draw their power directly from the
bus. Highpower devices (such as printers) have their own power supplies
and draw minimal power from the bus. Hubs can have their own power
supplies to provide power to devices connected to the hub.

30. FireWire
 You have probably heard the term FireWire if you
have any interest in digital video — or maybe you
know it as Sony i.Link or as IEEE 1394, the
official name for the standard. FireWire is a way
to connect different pieces of equipment so they
can easily and quickly share information.
 Originally created by Apple and standardized in
1995 as the specification IEEE 1394 High
Performance Serial Bus, FireWire is very similar
to Universal Serial Bus (USB). The designers of
FireWire had several particular goals in mind
when they created the standard:

31.  Fast transfer of data
 Ability to put lots of devices on the bus
 Ease of use
 Hot-pluggable ability
 Provision of power through the cable
 Plug-and-play performance
 Low cabling cost
 Low implementation cost

32.  FireWire is a method of transferring information
between digital devices, especially audio and video
equipment. Also known as IEEE 1394, FireWire is
fast — the latest version achieves speeds up to 800
Mbps. At some time in the future, that number is
expected to jump to an unbelievable 3.2 Gbps when
manufacturers overhaul the current FireWire cables.
You can connect up to 63 devices to a FireWire bus.
Windows operating systems (98 and later) and Mac
OS (8.6 and later) both support it.