Friends, what are the names come to your mind when we ask
to tell the parts of computers? Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Computer Case
/ CPU and Power Cord right? But technically speaking computer has only
Two parts. These two types of parts are essential to work together to
make it run. Those are,
- Hardware (all the above mentioned parts come under this category)
- Software (list of instructions)
Now lets have a detailed look,
Hardware : It Refers to the physical components of a computer
system. Examples of hardware are keyboard, monitor, hard disk, floppy
disk, mouse, microprocessor etc.
Software : The software is the set of instructions (called
programs) written for a computer to perform a particular task.
Generally, software is written in any one of the computer languages (c,
c++, Java etc). The software can be classified as two types. Those are,
- System Software and
- Application Software.
System Software : It refers to a collection of
programs which
provides vital services to the users and makes the computer user
friendly. In simple words it works as a mediator between the computer
and the user.
Examples : Operating Systems and Compilers.
Application Software : It refers to the programs usually written by programmers for performing their desired tasks.
Examples : Email, Games etc
Logically computer needs two things to perform / work. Those are Data and User.
Data : The data consists raw facts, these facts transform into
information after processing by a computer. This data can be test, sound
and video. This data will be stored in digital form (1s and 0s) in
computer. The organized data is called as a file.
User : The person who works with computer. Users are ultimate
beneficiaries of a computer system so we cant even imagine a computer
without an user. We can classify them into two types. Those are,
- Computer Professionals : Those people who write programs and develop software (Software Engineers).
- End Users : The end user is the individual who uses the
computer after it has been fully developed. All of us are end users. We
use computer to post on our blog. You use your computer to read those
posts.
Important Note : The software which is permanently stored in memory (ex ROM) which performs some of the hardware functions is called Firmware.
That's all for now friends. In our next post we shall discuss about Hardware and Softwares in detail. Happy Reading :)
