Let's start from the hardware, if you can knock on it and you hear a sound it's hardware, hardware is the physical part of the computer that handles and runs the software.
Hardware Examples : Motherboard, Proccessor, Disc-Drives, CD Drives, Memory Cards, Keyboard, Mouse Etc.
Software are the applications that run on your computer, when you write a document, when you send an email, when you are calculating bills and play games, you are allways using software.
Software Examples : Windows, Office, Photoshop, e-mail program etc.
Drivers are the tool that connects hardware to software, when you plug in any hardware to your computer, in order to use it you must install a driver.
Binary is the language of your computer and in order to do tasks the computer uses binary(0,1), when you are working on software or building software programs that you don't see you do not use or need to know binary, because the computer knows to translate your commands to its language.
A funny story here is that IBM began shoping around for an operating system for its new hardware. They originally chose product called CP/M by a San Francisco based company. The IBM executives went out to meet with them, but about a half an hour before they arrived, executives from CP/M decided to go out to lunch. So when IBM came calling, they were litterally out to lunch. Now, IBM executives had one more choice, they had heard things about a small New Mexico based company called 'Microsoft' and thought that perhaps they would have an operating system that they could use. The thing is, the reason they had heard about Microsoft is that Microsoft was the first company to charge money for software. Up until this point most developers created various peices of software for 'the cause' and didn't charge anything. Many developers carry on this tradition today, creating some of the most widely used programs. But, the funny thing is, Microsoft didn't have an operating system, but told IBM that they did and that it was no problem. The one thing they did have, was a friend of a friend who owned a small computer company in Seattle that did have an operating system. They approached this 'friend' and offered to buy the operating system without telling them of their multi-million dollar deal with IBM for $100,000. He sold, later found out what happened, and won millions in court. Microsoft or Bill Gates never developed DOS, they just put their name on it.
the memory of the computer
There are different types of computer memory tasked to store different types of data. They also have different capabilities and specialties when it comes to storing necessary data inside the computer. The best known computer memory is the RAM, otherwise known as Random Access Memory. It is called random access because any stored data can be accessed directly if you know the exact row and column that intersect a certain memory cell. In this type of computer memory, data can be accessed in any order. RAM’s exact opposite is called SAM or Serial Access Memory, which stores data in a series of memory cells that can only be accessed in order. It operates much like a cassette tape where you have to go through other memory cells before accessing the data that you are looking for
Other types of computer memory include the ROM or Read Only Memory. ROM is an integrated circuit already programmed with specific data that cannot be modified or changed, hence the name “Read Only”. There is also another type of computer memory called Virtual Memory. This type of memory is a common component in most operating systems and desktops. It helps the computers RAM to be freed up with unused applications to make way for loading current applications being used. It works simply by checking for data stored in RAM not being used recently and have it stored in the computer’s hard disk, thereby freeing valuable space in RAM for loading other applications. A virtual memory will make a computer think that it has almost unlimited RAM inside it
Another type of computer memory that has made computers process tasks faster is what is called cache memory. Cache memory works simply by having current applications, calculations and processes stored in its memory instead of directly to the main storage area. When a certain process is in need of data previously used, it first will try to access the cache memory if such data is stored there before accessing the central memory storage area. This frees up the computer from looking for the data in a larger and bigger memory storage area and makes data extraction faster. Computer memory is in a constant state of development as more and more technologies are being developed. Who knows, maybe in the near future computer memory might also be fit for human consumption
