Keyboards are one of the most important devices or component of a computer, it is an input device. If you want to type a mail or browse the Internet then without keyboard you will not be able to do anything. Keyboard is also very important if you are a computer gamer. You can do lot of activity without mouse on computer if you know commands to perform those tasks. Now you want to know that how the keyboard does works? We will help you to know the working of a keyboard.
Layout of the keyboard:
As you know that keyboard is an input device. When you type on keyboard or press a key, it put the information into a program on the computer. Generally keyboards have 80 to 110 keys. There are keycaps which displays the numbers and letters on the keyboard; keycaps are the buttons that are pressed when a person types. The layout of all keyboards are same, the standard layout is QWERTY. In some countries you may see some other layouts.
If you have ever seen inside any keyboard then you observed that it is sort of mini computer and consists of small processors and circuits. These processors transfer information from keyboards to the processor inside computer. The key matrix resides beneath the keyboard’s processor. The key matrix is nothing but a grid of circuits, when you push a key, it push the switch beneath it and passes electronic current to circuit then pass it to the processor. When current passes through switch it vibrates and make the processor to read the key pressed.
When you press the key the circuit will be closed and the closing of circuit tells the processor to read the keymap. Keymap is some times called character map and the processor use it to find which key is being pressed by you. It also determines the uppercase and lowercase letter when shift is pressed with the letter key.
Keyboards can be plugged to the computer using pin male plug or PS2 plug. Now a day you can also see keyboard with USB connectivity. The working of a computer and the keyboard is bidirectional. Bidirectional means they can send information or data to each other. There is one clock line from keyboard and one data line from computer, both makes bi directional connectivity. It is also important to know that both lines should be clear to connect with each other. If one is busy and computer is sending info using clock line but keyboard is not ready then it waits until the line is clear. When the line is low, keyboard hold the data and wait for the computer to send the data. When computer sends the data, it makes both data and clock line low to clear the line. It is also done to make sure that both will not send message at same time. This is the way that used by computer and keyboard to communicate with each other.