Hardware

A Computer comprises of different hardware devices. The physical devices components that you can see and touch are called hardware.

Input devices

A hardware device that “sends information into the CPU”. Without any input devices a computer would simply be a display device and not allow users to interact with it, much like a TV. Below is a listing of different types of computer input devices.

Eg:

Digital Camera > Joystick > Keyboard > Microphone > Mouse > Scanner5 > Web Cam > Light pen > Drawing pad

Output Devices

Any peripheral that”receives and/or displays output from a computer”. Below are some different types of examples of output devices commonly found on a computer.

Eg:

Monitor > Printer > Projector > Sound Card > Speakers > Video Card

Storage Devices

A device capable of storing data. The term usually refers to mass storage devices, such as disk and tape drives.

Eg:

Hard disk > Floppy disk > CD/DVD > RAM > ROM > Memory chips > Flash drives > Magnetic tapes

Processing devices

The processing hardware in a computer is accountable for storing and retrieving information. This information is processed using the Central Processing Unit CPU). This part of the computer takes information that is inputted by the user and processes the information by calculating, comparing and copying it and is then saved to the computer’s memory (RAM) Random Access Memory.