What Is Hardware?

Hardware is any physical part or component that contributes to a computer system.

Without any hardware, a computer would not exist.

The general rule is, if you can touch it - it’s hardware!

Think
Think About
About It:
It: With
With your
your
partner,
partner, can
can you
you think
think of
of any
any Did you think of any of these?
examples
examples ofof hardware?
hardware?
 Examples of Hardware
What examples of computer hardware can you see here?

monitor
monitor case
case
speakers
speakers

keyboard
keyboard mouse
mouse
 Examples of Hardware
Hardware can also be found inside of the devices we use.

What hardware do you think you can see inside these devices?

processor
processor camera
camera

battery
battery

fan
fan

speakers
speakers
hard
hard disk
disk drive
drive (HDD
(HDD or
or HD)
HD)
 Examples of Hardware
Other pieces of hardware can be attached to devices, either with wires or
wirelessly, in order to provide additional functionality.

These are called peripherals. printer

printer

webcam
webcam microphone
microphone

headphones
headphones

Which
Which of
of these
these peripherals
peripherals do
do you
you recognise?
recognise? games
games
Click
Click on
on the
the images
images to
to reveal
reveal the
the answers.
answers. controller
controller
 What Is Software?
Software is a set of instructions and procedures that tell the computer hardware
what to do.

You can’t touch software; it is simply data stored on the device

or the Internet.

For
For example,
example, the
the operating
operating system
system on
on your
your PC
PC device
device manages
manages all
all other
other
installed
installed applications.
applications. Some
Some examples
examples of
of operating
operating system
system software
software include
include
Windows,
Windows, macOS
macOS and
and ChromeOS.
ChromeOS.
 Examples of Software
Video-editing software is an example of the type of software you might have on
your device.

Using this type of software, you can edit and control what visuals to display on
the monitor and what sound to output from the speakers.

sound
sound

visuals
visuals
 Examples of Software
Web browsers are another example of software.

They tell the router where to find the website based on the web address or a web
search.

Once
Once found,
found, the
the website
website content
content is
is then
then
displayed
displayed on
on the
the device's
device's screen.
screen.
 Examples of Software
Other examples of software include:

 word processor  drawing/design

software

 presentation software  games

 spreadsheet
software
 Quiz
Now you should know the difference between hardware and software.
Can you take this short true or false quiz to test your knowledge?

START
 True or False?
An
An operating
operating system
system is
is an
an False. Hardware
False. An operating system
is the is anparts
physical
4 example
example of
of hardware.
hardware. you can example
of of software.
any computer, tablet or device that
Software
Software is
is something
something you can
1 touch.
touch.
you can touch. Software is the
False. Sometimes
instructions hardware
that tell is
the hardware
You
You can
can always
always seesee the
the internal.
what You would need to look
to do.
5 hardware
hardware in
in aa device.
device. inside a device to see all the
different parts.
A
A monitor
monitor is
is an
an example
example True. A monitor is an example of
2 of
of hardware.
hardware. hardware.

Peripherals
Peripherals are
are hardware
hardware that
that True. Peripherals can be attached to a
3 can
can be
be attached
attached to
to devices
devices device both through wires and
using
using wires
wires or
or wirelessly.
wirelessly. wirelessly.