[Hardware] What is the hardware?

[R e i]

Hardware is the physical part of a computer, that is, everything that can be touched. This includes the keyboard, network cards, mouse or mouse, DVD disc, hard disk, printers, etc.

A computer is an electronic device that processes a large amount of information in a very short time. For this it requires some instructions (the software) that are performed by some devices or equipment (the hardware).

We have then that the hardware of a computer fulfills the following functions: input, processing, storage and data output.

Basic hardware parts
The hardware of a computer consists of four main parts: input, memory, processor and output.

Input or input
The input devices allow data to be collected, just as the eyes and ears receive information from the world around us. Through the keyboard we can enter data and information, and with the mouse we select the icons and menus of the different programs.

Memory
Memory contains information in sections, such as books in a library. It stores programs and data. It is also known by RAM (for its acronym in English of random access memory) which means that any part can be accessed randomly.

The circuits or "chips" of memory are recorded in a fiberglass material.

Processor
The processor works like the human brain: it examines and alters the data, loads and carries out the instructions of the programs, and searches for the programs in memory to run them.

It is composed of two parts: the control unit and the logical arithmetic unit. The control unit is the one that searches the programs in memory and executes the instructions of the same. For its part, the logical arithmetic unit searches for the necessary data in memory and performs the calculations that the programs need.

In the processor there are very small and complex circuits mounted on a fiberglass sheet. There are also transistors, which are suiches or switches. Circuits and transistors work synchronously, like the musicians of an orchestra conducted by a conductor.