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Computer hardware. PDP-11 CPU board. Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), motherboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, and computer case. It includes external devices such as a monitor, mouse, keyboard, and speakers. [ 1][ 2]
Processor (computing) In computing and computer science, a processor or processing unit is an electrical component ( digital circuit) that performs operations on an external data source, usually memory or some other data stream. [ 1] It typically takes the form of a microprocessor, which can be implemented on a single or a few tightly ...
In computer science and computer engineering, computer architecture is a description of the structure of a computer system made from component parts. [ 1] It can sometimes be a high-level description that ignores details of the implementation. [ 2] At a more detailed level, the description may include the instruction set architecture design ...
The GPU, [ 3] or graphics processing unit, is the unit that allows the graphics card to function. It performs a large amount of the work given to the card. The majority of video playback on a computer is controlled by the GPU. Once again, a GPU can be either integrated or dedicated. Video Memory is built-in RAM on the graphics card, which ...
Input/output. v. t. e. In the context of an operating system, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. [ 1] A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and other computer programs to access hardware ...
Hardware registers are used in the interface between software and peripherals. Software writes them to send information to the device, and reads them to get information from the device. Some hardware devices also include registers that are not visible to software, for their internal use. Depending on their complexity, modern hardware devices ...
There are a number of other companies (AMD, Microchip, Altera, etc) making specialized chipsets as part of other ICs, and they are not often found in PC hardware (laptop, desktop or server). There are also a number of now defunct companies (like 3com, DEC, SGI) that produced network related chipsets for us in general computers.
A hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is an abstraction layer, implemented in software, between the physical hardware of a computer and the software that runs on that computer. . Its function is to hide differences in hardware from most of the operating system kernel, so that most of the kernel-mode code does not need to be changed to run on systems with different hardwa