THE COMPUTER SYSTEM
- A
computer is an electronic device that accepts data as input.
- It
processes the input data by performing mathematical and logical operations
on it and gives the desired output.
- The
computer system consists of four parts:
- Hardware
- Software
- Data
- Users
1. Hardware
- Hardware
consists of the mechanical parts that make up the computer as a machine.
- The
hardware consists of physical devices of the computer.
- Physical
parts of the computer are called hardware.
- You
can touch, see, and feel hardware.
- Hardware
is constructed using physical materials or components.
- A
computer is hardware, which operates under the control of software.
- If
hardware is damaged, it is replaced with a new one.
- Hardware
is not affected by computer viruses.
- Hardware
cannot be transferred from one place to another electronically through a
network.
- Users
cannot make new duplicate copies of the hardware.
- The
devices are required for input, output, storage, and processing of the
data.
- Keyboard,
monitor, hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, printer, processor, and
motherboard are some of the hardware devices.
2. Software
- Software
is a set of instructions that tells the computer about the tasks to be
performed and how these tasks are to be performed.
- A
program is a set of instructions, written in a language understood by the
computer, to perform a specific task.
- A set
of programs and documents are collectively called software.
- You
cannot touch and feel software.
- Software
is developed by writing instructions in a programming language.
- The
operations of a computer are controlled through software.
- If
software is damaged or corrupted, its backup copy can be reinstalled.
- Software
is affected by computer viruses.
- Software
can be transferred from one place to another electronically through a
network.
- Users
can make many new duplicate copies of the software.
- The
hardware of the computer system cannot perform any task on its own.
- Needs to be instructed about the task to be performed.
- Software
instructs the computer about the task to be performed.
- The hardware
carries out these tasks.
- Different
software can be loaded on the same hardware to perform different kinds of
tasks.
3. Data
- Data
are isolated values or raw facts, which by themselves have no
significance.
- For
example, the data like 29, January, and 1994 just represent values.
- The
data is provided as input to the computer, which is processed to generate
some meaningful information.
- For
example, 29, January, and 1994 are processed by the computer to give the
date of birth of a person.
4. Users
- Users
are people who write computer programs or interact with the computer.
- They
are also known as skinware, liveware, humanware, or peopleware.
- Programmers,
software engineers, system analysts, and computer hardware engineers fall
into this category.