Computer Systems

• Hardware

  • physical bits & pieces

• Software

  • programs
  • data

• People!

• Procedures

System

Unit

Screen

Keyboard

Mouse

Printer

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Computers are so flexible because they are comprised two parts:

Hardware - the physical bits which like other physical things are difficult to change

& Software - information in electronic, magnetic & optical form which can be changed very rapidly!

Split into data & programs, sets of instructions which tell the hardware how to modify the data.

Computers systems comprise two additional parts:

People - the least reliable bit!

& Operating Procedures - which tell the people how to interact with the machine to achieve the desired goal. Things like how to use the mouse, how to print information, what programs to run, how to take backups, etc.