Hardware refers to the elements that combine to form a computer. It consists of several components, such as a processor, memory, hard drive, video card and others. Computer hardware is very important for a PC or laptop to function. The basic operating system, also referred to as Windows, is the most important part of a PC. This OS comes with a series of software applications, including Windows Solitaire, Word and Excel, and Windows Explorer.
Another important piece of hardware for a computer system is the microprocessor. The microprocessor controls the processing speed of the computer system. The performance of the PC can be improved by increasing the processing speed of the microprocessor. The speed of the hard disk drives also affects the processing speed of the PC. The faster hard disk drives will decrease the time taken for a particular task by the PC.
The central processing unit or CPU of a PC is the most important part of the computer system. This chip is the brain of the PC. The purpose of the CPU is to perform arithmetic and logical operations. In addition, the PC operates on a main memory and a chip called the RAM. Together, these two components make up the central processing unit of the PC.
Besides the CPU, other important hardware components are the graphics card or video card, hard disk, random-access memory, and sound card. The graphics card is designed to provide visual output for the PC user. On the other hand, the video card performs sound output for the PC user. These two main components are interdependent and depend on the functioning of other hardware components. For instance, if the sound card stops working, the PC will not function properly. To solve this problem, a good knowledge about the computer system is essential.
A computer system needs various input devices and output devices such as printers, keyboards, scanners, monitors, etc. All these input and output devices create a unique output for the PC user. Computer hardware is organized in different layers depending on the function it performs.
The central processing unit or CPU has been mentioned above. It is the brain of the computer system. Other important parts are the hard disk, random access memory, chip sets, input devices, output devices, and motherboard.
With increasing demand of software development, better and advanced techniques are adopted to build better quality and security applications. As a result, programmers have to use some specific type of hardware to support the operating system and computer systems. Some examples of some commonly used hardware are desktop, laptop, tablet PC, media stream device, digital camera, video recorder, web server, personal digital assistant (PDA), sound card, optical drive, enterprise resource planning (ERP) server, firewall, modem, mobile phone, wireless network, networking adapter, USB drive, cloud storage, LAN card, and so on. Some hardware manufacturers provide their own software to support the computers and other application software. So, the hardware vendors play an important role in software applications development and hardware maintenance. Click here for more details about Hardware
Another important example for hardware is the CPU. The basic function of a CPU is to convert instruction sequences into binary codes. In order to achieve better output in comparison with the software, a general-purpose keyboard and mouse are attached with the CPU to provide input device to the user, so that the user can operate a computer by just using a keyboard.