By Casey Smith

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A PC is a group of hardware components, associated software plus peripherals designed and assembled to perform a specific function or group of functions. 3

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Hardware is the physical parts of the computer you can touch. A PC comprises at least one input device, a processing unit, an output device, plus a storage device, and may contain a communications device. More Information: works.com/inside- computer3.htm works.com/inside- computer3.htm 5

Peripherals are any input, output, and secondary storage devices of a computer system, typically considered to be options separate from the computer itself. More Information: -peripherals-channel.htm -peripherals-channel.htm 6

Operating System software is the software controlling the overall operation of a computer system, including such tasks as memory allocation, input and output distribution, interrupt processing, and job scheduling. More Information: mputer-operating-systems-channel.htm mputer-operating-systems-channel.htm 7

Application software is computer software designed to help the user perform a particular task. Such programs are also called software applications, applications or apps. Typical examples are word processors, spreadsheets, media players and database applications. More Information: i/Application_software i/Application_software 8

BIOS is the third type of software your computer needs to operate successfully. The BIOS software has a number of different roles, but its most important role is to load the operating system. When you turn on your computer and the microprocessor tries to execute its first instruction, it has to get that instruction from somewhere. It cannot get it from the operating system because the operating system is located on a hard disk, and the microprocessor cannot get to it without some instructions that tell it how. The BIOS is special software that interfaces the major hardware components of your computer with the operating system. 9

When you turn on your computer, the BIOS does several things. This is its usual sequence: 1. Check the CMOS Setup for custom settings 2. Load the interrupt handlers and device drivers 3. Initialize registers and power management 4. Perform the power-on self-test (POST) 5. Display system settings 6. Determine which devices are bootable 7. Initiate the bootstrap sequence More Information on the above steps

11 HARDWARE Software I let hardware and software communicate with each other

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