2.5 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

A computer system is made up of an arrangement of hardware and software components. The physical and tangible components of a computer that can be seen and touched are known as Hardware.  Computer Hardware consists of the physical components, like input devices (keyboard, mouse, scanner etc.), output devices (monitor, printer, speaker etc.), processing device (ALU, CU) and the storage devices (Compact disk, hard disk, DVDs etc.).

Types of Software

Software can be divided into two major categories. As-
• System Software.
• Application Software.

System Software-

It is responsible for controlling, integrating and managing the individual hardware components of a computer system. It also provides the interface between the user and hardware components of the computer. As- Operating System (as- MS-DOS, windows XP/2000/98, Unix Linux, etc.), Device Drivers, System utility (Disk Compression, Disk Fragmenters, Backup Utilities, Disk Cleaners, Anti-Virus and etc.)

Application Software-

Application software is designed to perform customized tasks. Such as- specific personal, educational, business functions, and etc. Each program is designed to assist the user with a particular functionality. Following are the examples of different types of application software-

• Word processing software
• Database software
• Spreadsheet software
• Multimedia software
• Educational Software
• Application Suites

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