Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The storage of computer programs is key to the operation of modern computers and is the connection between computer hardware and software. [7] Even prior to this, in the mid-19th century mathematician George Boole invented Boolean algebra—a system of logic where each proposition is either true or false.
Computer architecture. Block diagram of a basic computer with uniprocessor CPU. Black lines indicate control flow, whereas red lines indicate data flow. Arrows indicate the direction of flow. In computer science and computer engineering, computer architecture is a description of the structure of a computer system made from component parts. [ 1]
The history of computing hardware covers the developments from early simple devices to aid calculation to modern day computers. The first aids to computation were purely mechanical devices which required the operator to set up the initial values of an elementary arithmetic operation, then manipulate the device to obtain the result.
A central processing unit ( CPU ), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the most important processor in a given computer. [ 1][ 2] Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, logic, controlling, and input/output (I/O) operations. [ 3][ 4][ 5] This role contrasts ...
Networking hardware, also known as network equipment or computer networking devices, are electronic devices that are required for communication and interaction between devices on a computer network. Specifically, they mediate data transmission in a computer network. [ 1] Units which are the last receiver or generate data are called hosts, end ...
A motherboard (also called mainboard, maincircuit board, MB, base board, system board, or, in Apple computers, logic board) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It holds and allows communication between many of the crucial electronic components of a system, such as the central ...
A network switch (also called switching hub, bridging hub, Ethernet switch, and, by the IEEE, MAC bridge [1]) is networking hardware that connects devices on a computer network by using packet switching to receive and forward data to the destination device. A network switch is a multiport network bridge that uses MAC addresses to forward data ...
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