Hardware & Software

Hardware & Software

A Computer may be used to control purely mechanical action. It has two main parts:  (i) Hardware and (ii) Software.

Hardware

Computer performs some operations to solve problems. For this the various units of a Computer system must perform co-ordinate all operations.

• A Computer has three main units: 1. Input unit, 2. Processing unit and 3. Output unit. These are the physical units of a Computer system. These units constitute the hardware of a Computer.
• The Computer has its own internal ‘language’.
• The Computer is essentially made of electronic components. All these components are capable of generating any one of the two states, either a low (or a 0 volt) or a high(say 5 volts).
• It is difficult to talk always in terms of currents and voltages to represent information. Therefore, Computer scientists use a special convention. A high is symbolically represented by a ‘1’ and a low is represented by a ‘0’. This 1s and 0s are known as binary digits, or in short ‘bits’ (the term ‘binary’ refers to something that has two parts).
• Computers always work with bits. They do not understand any other form.
• Computer scientists use combination of 8 bits taken together to represent various symbols.
• Because every bit can take one of 2 possible values, the total number of combinations possible, using 8 bits, the Computer can represent 256 different symbols.
• This is enough to cover out entire range of alphabets, numbers and other special characters like #, @, +, ₹ etc. Such a combination of 8 bits is called byte.
• To build complex information like paragraphs and mathematical equations, we would need a larger number of bytes or characters. Thus we have the Kilobyte, megabyte and gigabyte.
• In Computers information is represented using multiples of 8 (2³) bits, since 8 bits are the smallest unit of information. Therefore, higher units are expressible in multiples of 2³.
• The power of two closest to a kilo (1000) is 2¹⁰ = 1024.
• Mega Bytes is used in a more conventional sense and is equal to 1 million bytes of 1000 Kilo Bytes.
• A Giga Byte refers to 1000 megabytes approximately or 1 million kilobytes.
• The earliest Computers were designed so that there components could work with 8 bits at a time.
• While the earlier machine was 8-bit machines, contemporary Computers can work with 16, 32 and even 64 bits. This is called the data width of the Computer.

Software

Software refers to computer programs and associated data that provide instructions for the computer to accomplish specific tasks.

Types of Software:

1. System Software - Includes operating systems, device drivers, utilities etc. that manage computer resources. E.g. Windows, MacOS, Linux

2. Programming Software - Includes tools like editors, compilers, debuggers used by developers to create programs. E.g. Visual Studio Code, Eclipse

3. Application Software - End-user programs for accomplishing tasks like word processing, billing, games etc. E.g. Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop

Software Development:

• Software engineering is the systematic approach to developing, operating and maintaining software.
• It involves phases like planning, requirements gathering, design, coding, testing, deployment, maintenance etc.
• Popular methodologies include agile, DevOps, prototyping focusing on rapid iterations.
• Programming languages provide vocabulary and syntax to write source code instructions. E.g. C, C++, Java, Python