What Are Hardware and Software?

What Are Hardware and Software? — page 1 — What Is hardWare A computer is a machine that works with information or data It can process huge amounts of data very quickly A working computer requires both hardware and software Hardware are the computer’s physical parts Software are programs or instructions that tell the hardware what to do There are many different types of computers There are desktop computers laptops tablets and smartphones All computers however have the same basic hardware They have a central processing unit storage The hardware in this photo is meant to be installed inside of a computer 4

What Are Hardware and Software? — page 2 — Tablets laptops desktops and other digital devices are sold at computer stores devices input devices and output devices These elements are linked by a communication network The central processing unit CPU is the most important piece of hardware It operates like a brain It handles all the information that goes into and comes out of the computer All of the tiny parts that allow the CPU to work are contained in a device called a microprocessor Think About It Smartphones are small handheld computers Why might computers be made even smaller 5

What Are Hardware and Software? — page 3 — STORAGE DEVICES Inside most computers is a storage device called a hard drive The hard drive stores all of the programs and saved documents that you have on the computer Hard drives can hold a large amount of data They cannot be easily removed from the computer Another type of internal storage is called memory This is where the computer stores programs that are currently running on the computer Users can also store data on external storage devices or This hard disk is a piece of hardware that stores data in the form of programs and files 6

What Are Hardware and Software? — page 4 — Flash drives and SD cards are two types of external storage devices They are both very small devices that are outside of the computer External hard drives allow users to back up the data from their internal hard drives If something happens to the internal hard drive and data is lost the data can be retrieved from the external hard drive Some storage devices can be easily moved from one computer to another These include disks called CDs and DVDs They make it easy to share data Devices called SD cards and USB drives use flash memory They are another easy way to move files between computers Compare and Contrast What are the benefits of storing information on the internal hard drive of a computer What are the benefits of an external drive 7

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