Part 1 - Computer Architecture
A computer is an electrical device, a machine, that can be programmed to accept data input, apply operations to those data and give a result output. It can also display those results to the one using it (user) as well as store them in a physical media.
The operations that are applied are defined in advance in the form of instructions known as software, while being executed on a set of physical devices called hardware.
Software (also referenced as program or application) is a set of instructions that orders the computer to execute given tasks in order to obtain a desired result.
Hence a computer will, execute tasks that it was given by a software creator (developer/programmer/software engineer) given physical resources it has access to, letting it solve a far higher number of tasks compared to a human given a same amount of time. This can then be helpful to any kind of application domain like for: artists, students, business, etc… The only limits being the capacity of the hardware and the imagination of the person who is writing the program.
Examples of programs:
- Microsoft Windows (Operating System (OS), which is a special kind of software that runs other software)
- Power Point (Presentation program, software to display information as a slide show)
- Excel (Spreadsheet, application to store, organize and analyze data in tabular form)
- Firefox (Web Browser, application for accessing websites)
- Pac-Man (Video Game, entertainment application)
We know now that a computer is made of 2 things:
- Software
- Hardware
Which could be compared to a piano (hardware) and the music (software).
Both the hardware and the software of a computer are made of several parts that works together to accomplish the given tasks. Like an orchestra, where each instrument has a specific role to play in the overall music.