Notes regarding hardware and software for gcses and a level. Detailed explanation of the most important topic for Computer systems. Helps with homework and better exam results.
Written by a previous student, so included only the most essential material.
Hardware is a Physical Device
So ware is a Program
Every system must have an Input and an Output
Hardware
BIOS – Basic Input Output System
CPU – Central Processing Unit
Consists of two internal components and they are Processor and Main Memory
(RAM).
Processor is basically the brain of the computer and tell all the devices that are
connected to that computer what to do a er the user has given the
command/instruc on.
3 storage devices that are NOT part of CPU:
- ROM
- Hard drive
- Op cal disk drive
RAM – Random Access Memory
ROM – Read Only Memory
RAM – is vola le memory which means that it needs power. If the power is
switched off the data in RAM will be lost.
- It holds data and programs.
- Currently running programs can only be executed by RAM. Can read,
write and remove randomly.
- RAM is a lot faster than ROM.
- The informa on on RAM is in binary format. When it’s moved to the
hard drive it becomes a file format.
, Hardware and So ware
ROM – is nonvola le memory which means memory does not lose data/bios
when power is off.
- It’s used to hold the instruc ons for star ng up the computer. Can only
read in sequen ally but informa on can be permanent.
Virtual Memory is a temporary storage used by a computer to run programs
that need more memory than it has. The program data that does not currently
fit in the computer’s memory is saved into paging files.
E.g. if you are running mul ple applica ons at the same me, RAM will be full
and it uses Hard Disk as an addi onal space in order to run for another
applica on. So, data that is not being used in the RAM will need to transfer to
the Hard Disk for the me being un l it is needed again.
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