Computer, articularly personal computers, are now accepted as useful devices for machine and process control. As manufacturing systems are becoming increasingly computer-based, understanding of computer fundamentals is essential.
All compputer consist of two basic components: hardware and software. The computer hardware is the physical component which makes up the computer system and includes:
- Power supply
- Floppy drives
- Hard drive
- Motherboard
- Microprocessor chip
- ROM chips
- RAM chips
- Peripheral cards
- Expansion slots
Software is what gives the computer “life”. The software resides inside the hardware. You can think of software as a computer program. A computer program is nothing more than a list of instructions telling the computer what to do. The programs are usually stored on some form of mass storage system, such as a floppy disk, and loaded into the computer’s random access memory (RAM) as required.
There are two major catagories of software: system software and application software. Systems software provides the programs that allow you to interact with you computer-to operate the disk drives, the printer, and the other devices used by the computer.
Application software involves programs written to give the computer a specific aplication, such as a word processor. Application software makes up the majority of the software avaible in the market. In order for application software to work in your computer, the system software must first be loaded into the computer’s memory.
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