Hardware and Software by Grovestudies
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Hardware
computer hardware is the physical components that a computer system requires to function. It encompasses everything with a circuit board that operates within a PC or laptop; including the motherboard, graphics card, CPU (Central Processing Unit), ventilation fans, webcam, power supply.
Software
Software, which is abbreviated as SW or S/W, is a set of programs that enables the hardware to perform a specific task. All the programs that run the computer are software. The software can be of three types: system software, application software, and programming software.
1) System Software
The system software is the main software that runs the computer. When you turn on the computer, it activates the hardware and controls and coordinates their functioning. The application programs are also controlled by system software. An operating system is an example of system software.
i) Operating System:
An operating system is the system software that works as an interface to enable the user to communicate with the computer. It manages and coordinates the functioning of hardware and software of the computer. The commonly used operating systems are Microsoft Windows, Linux
, and Apple Mac OS X.
Some other examples of system software include:
BIOS
Boot Program
An Assembler
A device driver
2) Application Software:
Application software is a set of programs designed to perform a specific task. It does not control the working of a computer as it is designed for end-users. A computer can run without application software. Application software can be easily installed or uninstalled as required. It can be a single program or a collection of small programs. Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Photoshop.
As we know, they are designed to perform specific tasks. Accordingly, they can be of different types such as:
Word processing Software
Spreadsheet Software
Multimedia software
Enterprises Software
3) Programming Software:
It is a set or collection of tools that help developers in writing other software or programs. It assists them in creating, debugging, and maintaining software or programs or applications. We can say that these are facilitator software that helps translate programming language such as Java
, C++
, Python
, etc., into machine language code. So, it is not used by end-users. For example, compilers, linkers, debuggers, interpreters, text editors, etc. This software is also called a programming tool or software development tool.
Some example of programming software include :-
Notepad ++
Slime text
sublime text
coda
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