Peripheral Equipment and Devices

A microprocessor that could not communicate with the outside world would be useless. Information must be fed in some form comprehensible to the microprocessor, and when this information has been processed the required results must be fed out to whomever or whatever needs them. From the programming point of view the instructions INP and OUT are all the reader needs to know for the present. However, to understand and appreciate the possible ‘application’ of microprocessors he needs an understanding of the type of equipment with which the microprocessor is in direct communication. This is generally called the peripheral equipment, being the equipment on the periphery of the microprocessor. Such equipment divides naturally into three categories: input equipment, output equipment, and equipment that is capable of both input and output.