COMPONENT OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

The two component of a computer are hardware and software.

Hardware: The hardware of a computer are those parts of a computer that can be seen physically. They can be touched, handled etc. these parts were discussed earlier and include motherboard, monitor, CPU etc. these parts are sometimes called the peripherals.

Software: These are set of instructions that are supplied to the computer to aid perform it functions. There are two types of software, system software and application software.

SOFTWARE

As mentioned briefly before, Software is set of instructions that are sent to computer to perform functions. The instructions herein are series of assignment tobe executed by the computer in other to perform a task. Software are of two types i.e. system software and application software.

System Software: These are programs that have already been installed into the computer by the manufacturers to assist the operator. The provide an interface between the users, programmers and operators, the hardware system and the application software.

Application Software: These are programs developed to carry out specific functions. They ease the burden of daily operation of the user. The packages available here are for payroll system, word processing, spreadsheet, desktop publishing etc. application software can be classified into integrated software, general purpose software and custom written or tailor-made software.

General purpose software: as the name implies, general purpose software is not for any specific business, but can be used or adopted to suit specific needs. A particular package for instance spreadsheet can be used for calculations and for other operation such as entering student scores at the end of the term.

Integrated Software: is a set of related, specialized programs combined in unified package that allows data to be transferred easily between the programs.  A major advantage of the package is the ease with which data can be transferred from one component to another. For instance while working on a word processing document you can quickly incorporate a graph created in the packages spread sheet component via a simple cut or copy – and paste operation. Integrated software packages are cheaper than purchasing the packages individually and tends to be more powerful and versatile.

Custom written software These are software design to perform the specific needs of a company. It may be written by individual within the company or contracted out a software house.

Expert/Specialist: These are design to initiate the work of a professional in a particular field.

Operating System: The operating system is a set of programs that governs the operation of a computer. The operating system is as suit of programs provided for the users to assist them in their daily running of the system. Without the operating system no work can be done on the computer. Example of operating system incude; Window 95, Window 98, Window XP, Window NT, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium, Window Vista, Window 7, Window 8 etc.