What is computer hardware?

What is hardware?

Hardware is part of the computer that we can see and touch. If we describe it fully, then this is the physical component of a computer, and this component consists of the circuit board, ICs, and other electronics. A Computer has as many inputs, output, processing, and storage devices as these all are hardware.

Your computer is nothing without any hardware and neither you can use the software on your computer. If the software is the soul of the computer then the hardware is the physical body of the computer. But in fact, we use software to do work from hardware.

If you want to listen to music on the computer, then it is not like you will tell to computer and music will be started. For this, if you play music on VLC or a media player only, you are able to listen to music. It means the hardware is controlled through the software.

Also Read: What is Google Code Labs and How to take Admission?

Types of Hardware

You have seen two types of systems computer desktop and laptop. All the components of the laptop are connected to each other and the desktop has different components. But hardware is almost the same in both.

Keyboard

This is an input device. You are not even able to enter any data into the computer with this hardware. With the help of this, you can do all the work related to writing. Whatever you are reading, is also written by the keyboard. You can see and touch this electronic device. This is one of the most used devices. There are many HW components inside it as well. This is connected to the device’s USB port.

Mouse

This is also known as the pointing device and cursor-moving device. One mouse has two or 3 buttons. Like right, left, and center. These all are HW components. The mouse is kept on a Flat surface or mouse pad. It is used to control the cursor.

Scanner

This is an outside HW component of the computer. Written papers and photos can be stored in memory by converting them into digital images using a scanner. Documents also can be scanned by the scanner and stored in the computer.

Monitor

A computer monitor is an electronic device that is used to show output on some computers. It completely looks like a television. A big and good display resolution shows us a good image. This hardware is small-sized on a laptop and big-sized on a desktop.

CRT Monitor

This is heavy and big. It uses a lot of electricity and disk space. This is old-used technology. This is based on cathode ray tube technology that was made for television but this monitor is not used in today’s time.

LCD Monitor

This is a type of flat panel display. This is a new technology in comparison to CRT. These monitors use very little disk space. It has very little weight. This monitor uses less electricity. These monitors have been used for a long time on laptops and laptops.

Speaker

This is also external hardware. We can hear music with this. It gives output in the form of voice. This is inbuilt nowadays.

Printer

A printer is an output device that prints the information on paper got from the computer. This copy of the output on the paper is called a hard copy. The output information of the computer gets very fast and the printer can not work so fast.

Therefore this requirement was needed that information can be stored in the printer so the printer also has a memory from where it prints results slowly.

Motherboard

This hardware is the main part of the computer. You will be required to open a computer to see it. this is a board that is called PCB(Printed Circuit Board). This board keeps connected to all the different components. And these all components are CPU, RAM, HARD DISK, SMPS port, and Graphics card.

CPU

The full form of the CPU is the central processing unit. This is not the hardware itself but it has much hardware small and big inside it. this is also called the brain of the computer. It controls the computer. As our brain tells us and we do. There are mainly 3 components ALU, CU, and MU. ALU is called logical or Arithmetic unit. CU control unit and MU memory unit. ALU arithmetic calculations such as addition, subtraction, Multiplication, and Division.

RAM

The full form of RAM is Random Access Memory. It is also called direct access memory, this memory is low in size in comparison to secondary memory. Like in your mobile, it is 1GB, 2GB, 3G, etc. this is an electromagnetic disk. This hardware is rectangular in shape.

Expansion cards

Graphics Card

It looks like a hardware card, it is inserted into the motherboard. A graphics card is used for rendering images on the monitor. It converts the data in such a way and generates signals which are easily understood by your computer. The better graphics card you have, the better image will be produced. The graphics card is required for gamers and video editors.

Sound card

Its second name is an audio output device, soundboard, or audio card. The sound card is an expansion card and IC. It helps to take out the sound. That can be listened to by us via headphones and speakers.

SMPS

The full form of it is a switch-mode power supply. This is an electronic circuit. If you buy it for a computer from outside, you will get a square shape box this is SMPS. This device gives power to the different parts of the computer such as the ram, and motherboard, and gives the power supply to fan.

HDD (hard disk Drive)

This is a data storage hardware device. It stays inside the computer and laptop. Many files and data or computer programs are stored inside this. OS is also stored inside this Hard disk drive. This memory is also known as the name of C drive. It can be made C, D, or E drive after partition.

DVD drive

The DVD drive is installed in the CPU of every desktop or laptop. Which is also called an optical drive.DVD drive also has many names like a disc drive, odd, and DVD drive. It is used for storing digital data. It is used to play on the computer the data that is inside the DVD and CD.

The future of hardware

When the first computer was made its all components were in different rooms and were connected by cables. After that computer size was reduced therefore Hardware size was also made small. With the help of VLSI ( very lard scale integration) and LSI ( Large Scale Integration) technology, this hardware is made smaller. Now because of technology the size of a computer is like a hand watch.

Conclusion

I always try to give you accurate and full information. You may have learned today what is hardware. In fact, we are in better hardware, they have made our life easier. Have you ever thought that how your mobile or computer would be in the future? We can feel the computer by touching it but we can never touch the software.

Thank you for reading my article if you have any questions or suggestions comment below, and we will get back to you shortly.