Britannica Educational Publishing IN ASSOCIATION WITH ROSEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES LET’S FIND OUT COMPUTER SCIENCE WHAT ARE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE CATHLEEN SMALL
What Is hardWare A computer is a machine that works with information or data It can process huge amounts of data very quickly A working computer requires both hardware and software Hardware are the computer’s physical parts Software are programs or instructions that tell the hardware what to do There are many different types of computers There are desktop computers laptops tablets and smartphones All computers however have the same basic hardware They have a central processing unit storage The hardware in this photo is meant to be installed inside of a computer 4
Tablets laptops desktops and other digital devices are sold at computer stores devices input devices and output devices These elements are linked by a communication network The central processing unit CPU is the most important piece of hardware It operates like a brain It handles all the information that goes into and comes out of the computer All of the tiny parts that allow the CPU to work are contained in a device called a microprocessor Think About It Smartphones are small handheld computers Why might computers be made even smaller 5
