HARDWARE & SOFTWARE

Introduction Any computer system is made up of two parts. These parts are called ‘hardware’ and ‘software’. Hardware is a generic term for any physical part of the computer system which you can physically touch, pick up or move. The physical parts of a computer system are often referred to as ‘hardware devices’.

Examples of External Hardware

EXAMPLES OF INTERNAL HARDWARE

Software A computer needs to be told what to do, otherwise it will just sit on your desk collecting dust and taking up space. Software are the applications and programming instructions that tell your computer what to do and enable you to use it for things such as playing games, writing an essay or listening to music. There are two main types of software which you will learn about in detail later on. They are ‘systems software’ which basically controls the way the computer works and tells it what to do. Examples include: Operating System Utilities User Interface (GUI)

Software (Continued) The other type of software is called ‘application software’ and it is this type of software that you use to do your work and have fun. Some examples include: Word Processors such as Microsoft Office Spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel Databases such as Microsoft Access Games Applications such as Half Life, Call of Duty etc. So software depends on hardware and hardware depends on software. Together they make a computer system.

Peripherals A peripheral is any hardware device which connects to the computer and is controlled by the Central Processing Unit (CPU) – with the exception of memory. When you are trying to think of examples of peripherals, think of things which plug into the back of the box. Examples are: Monitor Keyboard Mouse Printer Scanner Speaker External Hard Drives