ASSIGNMENT

COMPUTER INF
What is Hardware?

A computer's hardware consists of its physical parts, including its internal pieces and connected
external devices. Hardware components perform a computer's tasks like calculating data, storing
information, processing input, and providing output. Any part of a computer that you can physically
touch is hardware.

All hardware devices, whether internal or external, include chips on a circuit board to perform a
function. All hardware also requires a way to interface with the rest of the computer, usually by
connecting to a port, socket, or wireless radio. After that, pieces of hardware will include other parts
that help them fulfill their function, like buttons, sensors, protective cases, or even cooling fans to
prevent overheating.

What is Software ?
In a computer system, the software is basically a set of instructions or commands that tell a computer
what to do. In other words, the software is a computer program that provides a set of instructions to
execute a user’s commands and tell the computer what to do. For example like MS-Word, MS-Excel,
PowerPoint, etc.

System Software

System Software is software that directly operates the computer hardware and provides the basic
functionality to the users as well as to the other software to operate smoothly. Or in other words,
system software basically controls a computer’s internal functioning and also controls hardware devices
such as monitors, printers, and storage devices, etc. It is like an interface between hardware and user
applications, it helps them to communicate with each other because hardware understands machine
language(i.e. 1 or 0) whereas user applications are work in human-readable languages like English, Hindi,
German, etc. so system software converts the human-readable language into machine language and vice
versa.

Application Software

Software that performs special functions or provides functions that are much more than the basic operation
of the computer is known as application software. Or in other words, application software is designed to
perform a specific task for end-users. It is a product or a program that is designed only to fulfill end-users’
requirements. It includes word processors, spreadsheets, database management, inventory, payroll
programs, etc.

What is Data ?

Data is a sequence of characters or symbols that are stored and processed for analysis purposes. The
computer data is also a stream of bits (0s and 1s) that are stored in the computer memory for further
processing or translation.

These bits can be information in the form of text docs, images, videos, or some other type of data. This data
is in a form that is perfect for movement and processing.
 This data processing is done by the CPU (Central Processing Unit) and stored in the computer’s
memory. Therefore, the data in the computer can be created, processed, and stored.

What is Information?
Information is organized or classified data, which has some meaningful values for the
receiver. Information is the processed data on which decisions and actions are based.

For the decision to be meaningful, the processed data must qualify for the following
characteristics −

Data Processing Cycle

Data processing is the re-structuring or re-ordering of data by people or machine to
increase their usefulness and add values for a particular purpose. Data processing
consists of the following basic steps - input, processing, and output. These three steps
constitute the data processing cycle.

 Input − In this step, the input data is prepared in some convenient form for
processing. The form will depend on the processing machine. For example, when
electronic computers are used, the input data can be recorded on any one of the
several types of input medium, such as magnetic disks, tapes, and so on.
 Processing − In this step, the input data is changed to produce data in a more useful
form. For example, pay-checks can be calculated from the time cards, or a summary
of sales for the month can be calculated from the sales orders.
 Output − At this stage, the result of the proceeding processing step is collected. The
particular form of the output data depends on the use of the data. For example,
output data may be pay-checks for employees.
Different Between Data And Information