You use both hardware and software on a daily basis, whether with your smartphone or personal computer. Computer hardware is any physical device used in or with your machine, whereas software is a collection of code installed on your computer’s hard drive. Let’s take a deeper look at what these two things are and why they are important.
Difference Between Hardware and Software:
Here listed of some hardware and software differences:
hardware
- Hardware is further divided into four main categories:
- Input Devices
- Output Devices
- Secondary Storage Devices
- Internal Components
- Hardware is a physical parts computer that cause processing of data.
- It is manufactured.
- Hardware can not perform any task without software.
- As Hardware are physical electronic devices, we can see and touch hardware.
- Hardware is not affected by computer viruses.
- It can not be transferred from one place to another electrically through network.
- If hardware is damaged, it is replaced with new one.
- Ex: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Printer, CPU, Hard disk, RAM, ROM etc.
software
- Software is further divided into two main categories:
- Application Software
- System Software
- Software is a set of instruction that tells a computer exactly what to do.
- It is developed and engineered.
- software can not be executed without hardware.
- We can see and also use the software but can’t actually touch them.
- Software is affected by computer viruses.
- Software can be transferred.
- If software is damaged, its backup copy can be reinstalled.
- Ex: Ms Word, Excel, Power Point, Photoshop, MySQL etc.
Examples of hardware and software:
Example of hardware:
Hardware refers to the physical elements of the computer. It is also known as computer machinery or equipment. Examples of hardware in a computer are the keyboard, monitor, mouse, and processing unit. However, most of the computer’s hardware cannot be seen; It is inside the computer case. The computer monitor you are currently using to read this text and the mouse you are using to navigate this web page are computer hardware.
Example of software:
The Internet browser that allowed you to visit this page and the operating system the browser is running on are considered software. Software is a collection of instructions, procedures, documentation that performs various functions on a computer system.
Software is programs and routines for a computer or program material for the electronic device that runs it. An example of software is Excel or Windows or iTunes. Word processing programs and Internet browsers are examples of software. Examples of software are MS Word, Excel, Power Point, Google Chrome, Photoshop, MySQL etc.
Importance of hardware and software:
Here we will explain about importance of hardware and software.
Hardware:
The part of the computer that can be touched and felt is called hardware Hardware refers to the physical components of the computer. Computer hardware is any part of the computer that we can touch these parts. These are the primary electronic devices used to build computers. If any of these devices is absent, the computer will not start. Software can be installed in these and allows one person to interact with the hardware. Operating systems, such as Windows or macOS, are software and they provide a graphical interface for people to use computers and other software on computers. Without hardware, there would be no way to run the necessary software that makes a computer so useful.
Software:
Computer can operate without software being installed. Nevertheless, if an operating system or interpreter is not found on the computer, it either generates an error or doesn’t output any information. The code can be machine-level code or the code written for an operating system. Indubitably, we live in an age of information technology. Software is a program or set of programs that perform some specific operations.
software, instructions that tell a computer what to do. Software comprises the entire set of programs, procedures, and routines associated with the operation of a computer system. System software is a part of operating System which interface with the hardware for specific operation. Drivers, IDE, firmware and so on, are the example of System Software. On the other hand, Application Software is for augmentation of computing, and it is based on need of users.