What do you understand by input unit? What is its significance ? What does computer input consist of?

An input unit takes the input and converts it into binary form so that it can be understood by the computer.

Since a computer operates on electricity, it can understand only the language of electricity i.e., either ON or OFF or High/Low voltage or the binary language that uses just two symbols: 1 for ON and 0 for OFF. It cannot understand the the data and instructions if they are not in binary language. Thus, input unit takes data and instructions from the user and converts them into binary form so that the computer can understand them.

Different input devices take input in different forms and pass them in digital form to CPU for processing. Computer inputs may consist of:

1. letters, digits, commands from the keyboard.
2. movement of pointer using a mouse or pointing device.
3. sound input from a microphone.