What is the Meaning of: Computer hardware | Concept and Definition of: Computer hardware
The hardware is all the components forming the hardware part (Physics) of a computer, unlike software that concerns the (intangible) logical components. However, the concept is understood in a broader way and is used to denote all the physical components of a technology.
In the case of the computer and personal computers, hardware means not only the internal physical components (hard drive, motherboard, CPU, circuits, cables, etc.), but also the peripherals (scanners, printers).
The hardware can be either Basic (the devices required to operate the computer) is complementary (to perform specific functions).
On the types of hardware, we will retain input devices (those that allow to enter information in the system, such as the keyboard and the mouse, the output devices (those that show the user the result of every set of operations carried out in the computer. Example: monitor, printer), input and output (modem, network cards, USB memory) devices, the central processing unit or CPU (components that interpret the instructions and dealing with data) and random access memory or RAM (which is used to temporarily store information).
The history of the development of the hardware, on the other hand, is marked by several milestones as well as by several steps. There is talk of a first generation (with glass tubes which housed electrical circuits), second generation (with transistors), a third generation (which allowed to pile up, so to speak, hundreds of transistors in an integrated circuit of a silicon chip) and fourth generation (with the advent of the microprocessor). The progress of studies on nanotechnology to predict the appearance of computer hardware more advanced in years to come.