Sonic's Desktop

Let's break it up

Today's article is going to be filled with some simple definitions, I should say. These may be very simple, but you should be really thorough with them before moving in to more complex and exciting stuff, which will be featured in our forthcoming issues. We'll have a look at the various categorisations that can be done when the computer is considered as a whole.

Components of a total computer system

What is known as the total computer system? Well, you may think that it is the computer that you and I see every now and then. But, what you visualise in your mind as a computer which comprises a monitor, system unit, keyboard and mouse corresponds to just one set of components of the computer system which is known as 'hardware'.

Why do we call it hardware? That is because we are considering only the physically tangible (touchable) things in this category. Therefore, all that you can see and feel of a computer come under the category of hardware.

Once you connect all the bits of hardware together, does that mean you can go on with playing games, designing graphics and preparing documents? No, and that is because there must be some method for these pieces of hardware to communicate with each other and come up with the particular result. This is where 'software' comes in to play.

Software are the means by which hardware communicate with each other. The instructions sent to hardware components come under this category. Now we have hardware and software. But, still the computer won't work.

Why is that? The reason is that, hardware and software cannot work on their own, since artificial intelligence has not become a reality yet. Therefore, there has to be someone to give the necessary data and information, and that involves us, the people who operate the computer.

They also belong in a computer system, and are referred to as 'liveware'. So, a computer system is an interconnection of hardware, software and liveware.

There is another category in computer terminology called 'firmware'. This is quite similar to software. But, let me enlighten you on this specifically. Firmware is software that is embedded in a hardware device, which means it resides between system software and hardware.

Computer categorisation

Types of hardware

Where the touchable components of a computer are concerned, there are hundreds and thousands of parts of various sizes and shapes that provide different services.

Therefore, to study the hardware components in more depth, hardware has been divided in to four categories such as;

* System unit

* Input devices

* Output devices

* Secondary storage

A computer's job is to get some input data, process them according to the requirement and give the resulting information as the output. The division of hardware is done considering these operations. The data required is fed in to the computer using input devices. Therefore, keyboards, mice, barcode readers, cameras, microphones, and scanners fall in to this category.

Now, after obtaining the data, they should be processed somewhere. Likewise, the components that are involved in processing the data and producing the output come under the system unit. After the result is produced, it should be given to the user in the form of a visual, sound or any relevant sensation. This is done through output devices.

Monitor, speakers, and printers are common output devices. In fact, it is not only output information that we can get through output devices, the user can also observe what he/she is giving as input and many intermediate stages of the process using output devices as well.

Assume that you want to compose a piece of music using your computer. After inserting the relevant data, you can cut and chop the music and you can listen to samples of your music during the production.

You can also see the waveforms and timing information etc through the monitor if such a programme is being used. Therefore, remember that output devices are not only used to get the final output. There are certain devices that can accept inputs and give outputs.

These are sometimes taken as a different category as 'input and output devices'. The touch screen monitor is a classic example.

Types of software

The division here is quite simple. Software can be divided as system software and application software. I mentioned that software enables communication between hardware components.

This communication can be either to manage the devices or to use them for a specific task. Likewise, system software is the software that is dedicated to administer the operations of the hardware, and application software are the software which perform specific tasks while getting help from system software to use the hardware components.

The operating system is a system software, and many programmes for word processing, graphic designing etc are application software.

Aravinda Dassanayake