‘Hardware’ is the collective term for all the physical components that make up a computer and its accessories.
A computing system has several components that work together.
ANALYTICAL ENGINE – A THEORY
Back in 1840, Charles Babbage, the father of modern computer had conceptualized (thought of the idea and imagined) the 4 key components for his Analytical Engine, an engine he envisioned could do any computation based on the instruction it receives.
- an “input” via a reader
- an “output” to a printer.
- a “store” to store instructions
- a “mill” that would process
Even though his Analytical Engine was never built fully, he had written in great detail on what it would look like, how it would work, the main components it would have.
Components of a computing system today –
1. Input / Output (I/O) devices.
2. Storage / Memory devices.
3. Processors.
4. Peripherals.
Do you see the similarity between the above and Babbage’s components of an Analytical Engine?
The key components of a computer are very much similar to the very first concept that Babbage had back then – Input, Output, Processor and Storage. We will look at each below.
Input Devices
These devices are used to send instructions/data to the computer. Keyboard and mouse are the primary input devices among others. We will look more into Input devices in a subsequent lesson.
Output Devices
Output devices show us the data, computation, or the result that we are looking for. A Printer, a Monitor, a speaker, a projector, are some common output devices. We will look at some more of these in the I/O devices lesson.
Storage
Storage devices store data, programs, and processes so we don’t have to re-do all our work each time we start our computer.
They also serve as a bucket to store data temporarily while the processor is doing its computations.
Storage is measured in bytes, kilobytes (KB), megabytes(MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB)
Processor
Last but not the least key component is the “brain” of the computer – the Central Processing Unit (CPU). It does all the computations. CPU has 2 components – Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) and the Control Unit.
The ALU does the actual computations like addition, subtraction, and logic like AND and NOR operations. The Control Unit controls and directs the operations between the processor and memory, i/o devices.
The speed of a processor is measured in hertz (Hz), megahertz(MHz) and gigahertz (GHz).
ACTIVITY
Can you list the 4 key components to make lemonade? What would you list as Input, Output, Storage, and Processor?
Say you are guiding traffic in your school’s car loop. What would be considered Input, Output, and CPU (ALU + Control Unit)