hardware

hardware

Computer machinery and equipment, including memory, cabling, power supply, peripheral devices, and circuit boards. Computer operation requires both hardware and software. Hardware design specifies a computer's capability; software instructs the computer on what to do. The advent of microprocessors in the late 1970s led to much smaller hardware assemblies and accelerated the proliferation of computers. Today's personal computers are as powerful as the early mainframes, while mainframes are now smaller and have vastly more computing power than the early models.

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Machinery and equipment (CPUs, disk and tape drives, modems, keyboards, printers, scanners, cables, etc.). In operation, a computer is both hardware and software. One is useless without the other. The hardware design specifies the commands it can follow, and the software instructions tell it what to do. See instruction set.

Hardware Is "Storage and Transmission"
The more memory and disk storage a computer has, the more work it can do. The faster memory and disks transfer data and instructions to the CPU, the faster work gets done. A hardware requirement is based on the quantity of data processed and the number of users or applications being served at the same time. How much? How fast?

Software Is "Logic and Language"
Software deals with the details of an ever-changing business and must process transactions in a logical fashion. Languages are used to program the software. The "logic and language" involved in analysis and programming is generally far more complicated than specifying a storage and transmission requirement.

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(hardware)

hardware - The physical, touchable, material parts of a computer or other system. The term is used to distinguish these fixed parts of a system from the more changable software or data components which it executes, stores, or carries. Computer hardware typically consists chiefly of electronic devices (CPU, memory, display) with some electromechanical parts (keyboard, printer, disk drives, tape drives, loudspeakers) for input, output, and storage, though completely non-electronic (mechanical, electromechanical, hydraulic, biological) computers have also been conceived of and built. See also firmware, wetware.