Computer Hardware Basics and its Components

Basics of Computer Hardware:

A Computer is an electronic device that has two essential parts including hardware and software to perform various operations. That means without hardware parts in a computer, software is of no work and vice versa. So, we need both hardware and software to run a Computer and can perform multiple operations. Software is nothing but a piece of code or set of instructions written in a chip to run a hardware device on the Computer. Now the question is what is hardware? Yes, like other machines physical parts are known as hardware. Hardware is a physical component that is attached to the PC that can neither be modified nor be changed as it is fixed into that place. There are different types and models of hardware components being manufactured by big companies available in the market.  

Definition of Hardware:

Hardware is the collection of physical parts of a Computer system that has shape and size and can be feel. The most essential hardware components are Motherboard, CPU, RAM memory, IO system, power supply, video display controller, Bus and hard disk drive. Some of the normal hardware parts you see like a mouse, keyboard, monitor and CPU are the basic components of a computer. But inside the CPU box there is hard disk, motherboard, and RAM, video card, CPU Fan, sound card, server components, CD/DVD drive and many more.  The hardware components does change in shape and size as in a desktop computer the CPU integrates all the components that are connected by wires but in laptop computers the components are integrated into a single portable unit. Basically the hardware components in a Computer system are connected through wires in order to function properly. From power supply to network connection all are connected through wires.

Hardware Components:

The most important hardware component is Mother Board that holds all the important components of a Computer including CPU, memory and various connectors for input/output device. Some of the input devices like keyboard, mouse, microphone, modem, joystick, USB devices, joystick and many more are connected for better functioning. Similarly the output devices like the computer monitor, modem, projectors, printers etc are connected to the available connectors of motherboard. It is the main mother board that includes graphic processors for better display screen on your monitor. There is CPU socket, CPU fan memory connector, super IO chip, DIMM memory slots, IDE connector, SATA connector, BIOS flash chip that are the most essential components to run a Computer system. It also integrates audio codec chip for sound and gigabit Ethernet chip for network connection on a computer.

There are several hardware components attached to the CPU or Central Processing Unit which is also called as the brain of Computer. The CPU includes all the processors that interprets and execute program instructions. It includes control unit that instructs, maintains and also control the flow of information, arithmetic logic unit for simple logic operations and a controller. Inside the CPU, memory is an important component that stores all the information or data on your computer. It includes the main memory slot called RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read only Memory), CMOS battery, internal hard disk that is connected to Computer system to store abundant data and applications, and an optical disk drive known as CD/DVD drive that can read and write from CD or DVD’s. There are also points for external storage devices like USB, flash drive, external hard disk to be connected for memory storage.

The hardware components are connected to the bus through a controller that coordinates the activities of a device with the bus. Bus is a term given to a group of wires on the main circuit board of Computer that connects all the components including network, hard disk, USB drive, keyboard through a controller, main memory and processor directly to bus and display monitor via video card. It allows the flow of data between the components and also within the computer to another computer. There are also other types of hardware components like a CD ROM drive, Floppy disk and Zip drive. Floppy drive is a data storage device which was used to run a floppy disk and is not used now anymore due to very slow and virus infected. CD ROM drive is known as compact disk read only memory which used to store data, software, games, songs etc. Zip drive is a removable medium capacity storage device which was used earlier.

With the changing world and new technology there are lots of powerful hardware components designed for better performance of PC. There are several manufacturing companies making tons and tons of hardware components and one of the most popular is Intel that mainly designs processors, motherboard, graphic chips, flash memory, network interface controllers and many more. These hardwares are available in different models and types that are designed mainly for a particular computer PC. One thing you must remember that any hardware is useless if there is no software, so a Computer must have software to run a hardware component.