HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

Hardware

All the physical components of the computer are called as hardware.

Example: Hard disk, Floppy Disk, Compact Disc, Mother board, RAM, etc.

Software

We can compare the software to the human brain. Just as the brain controls the functions of the human body, the software controls the functions of the computer and makes it work. We have to give unambiguous instructions to the computers for performing a job. A set of such instructions to carry out these functions is called as a program. The set of programs or instructions written by the user to operate and control the activities of computer is called as software.

Software can be broadly classified into three groups:

Ø System Software (Operating systems and the utility programs associated with it)

Ø Language processors(Compilers, Interpreters etc)

Ø Application Software(Standard applications like MS Office, Oracle, Java, Visual Basic or customised software )

Operating System.

Ø An Operating System is a set of commands which controls the computer’s hardware and software

Ø Also an Operating System is an interface between the user and the computer.

Ø It is a bridge between the hardware and software.

Operating Systems are classified into two types.

Ø Single User Operating System e.g. MS DOS

Ø Multi User Operating System e.g. UNIX, LINUX,WINDOWS NT,WINDOWS XP.WINDOWS 7,WINDOWS 2003 etc