Components of a Computer

Components of a Computer

1. Input devices

   • an input device is a peripheral (piece of computer hardware equipment) used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system such as a computer or information appliance. Examples of input devices include keyboards, mouse, scanners, digital cameras and joysticks.

2. Output devices

   • An output device is any device used to send data from a computer to another device or user. Most computer data output that is meant for humans is in the form of audio or video. Thus, most output devices used by humans are in these categories. Examples include monitors, projectors, speakers, headphones and printers.

3. Secondary storage devices

   • A secondary storage device refers to any volatile storage device that is internal or external to the computer. It can be any storage device beyond the primary storage that enables permanent data storage. A secondary storage device is also known as an auxiliary storage device or external storage.

4. processors and internal memory devices

   • the processor of the computer is the the part of a computer in which operations are controlled and executed.
     • These consist of 4 key components: Central processing unit Internal hard drive Random access memory (RAM) and Read only memory (ROM)
   • the internal memory refers to main memory (RAM), but may also refer to ROM and flash memory. In either case, internal memory generally refers to chips rather than disks or tapes. Some vendors call their disk drives "memory products," which only adds to the confusion

5. Command line interfaces

   • is a user interface to a computer's operating system or an application in which the user responds to a visual prompt by typing in a command on a specified line, receives a response back from the system, and then enters another command, and so forth.

6. Graphical user interfaces

   • This is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and visual indicators such as secondary notation, instead of text-based user interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation.

7. Operating Systems

   • the software that supports a computer's basic functions, such as scheduling tasks, executing applications, and controlling peripherals

8. Hardware

   • Software
     • Software is a generic term for organized collections of computer data and instructions, often broken into two major categories: system software that provides the basic non-task-specific functions of the computer, and application software which is used by users to accomplish specific tasks.
   • Computer hardware is the physical parts or components of a computer, such as the monitor, keyboard, computer data storage, hard disk drive (HDD), graphic cards, sound cards, memory (RAM), motherboard, and so on, all of which are tangible physical objects.