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By contrast, software is a set of written instructions that can be stored and run by hardware. Hardware derived its name from the fact it is hard or rigid with respect to changes, whereas software is soft because it is easy to change. Hardware is typically directed by the software to execute any command or instruction.
The application software layer interfaces with the operating system, which in turn communicates with the hardware. The arrows indicate information flow. The arrows indicate information flow. There are two main types of software:
Hardware is also an expression used within the computer engineering industry to explicitly distinguish the (electronic computer) hardware from the software that runs on it. But hardware, within the automation and software engineering disciplines, need not simply be a computer of some sort. A modern automobile runs vastly more software than the ...
SDK—Software Development Kit; SDL—Simple DirectMedia Layer; SDN—Service Delivery Network; SDP—Session Description Protocol; SDR—Software-Defined Radio; SDRAM—Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory; SDSL—Symmetric DSL; SE—Single Ended; SEI—Software Engineering Institute; SEO—Search Engine Optimization; SFTP—Secure FTP
[citation needed] Program software performs the function of the program it implements, either by directly providing instructions to the computer hardware or by serving as input to another piece of software. The term was coined to contrast with the old term hardware (meaning physical devices). In contrast to hardware, software is intangible. [22]
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
It comprises procedures, algorithms, and documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system. The term was coined to contrast to the term hardware, meaning physical devices. In contrast to hardware, software "cannot be touched". [1] Software is also sometimes used in a more narrow sense, meaning application software only ...
See also References External links A Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) A dedicated video bus standard introduced by INTEL enabling 3D graphics capabilities; commonly present on an AGP slot on the motherboard. (Presently a historical expansion card standard, designed for attaching a video card to a computer's motherboard (and considered high-speed at launch, one of the last off-chip parallel ...