Relationship between Hardware and Software

Computer hardware

A computer basically consists of various electronic components which are supported by electrical devices and mechanical systems. All these electronic, electrical. Mechanical devices used in a computer are called the hardware of the computer.

Motherboard, CPU, floppy disk, keyboard, mouse, webcam, CS drive, USB flash drive, monitor and power supply units are examples of hardware peripheral devices connected to a digital computer.

So, hardware represents the physical and tangible components of a computer. i.e. we can define hardware as the components that can be seen and touched. We can also say that the electronic, electrical and mechanical equipment that makes up a computer is called hardware.

A computer consists of five primary hardware components –

• Input devices
• Output devices
• CPU
• Storage devices
• Memory

These primary hardware parts of a computer work alongside software system to perform calculations, organize information and additionally to connect with different computers. So, the hardware components of a computer are actuated and controlled with the help of software. This is the basic relationship between hardware and software.

Computer software

The computer software is nothing but a set of well-written instructions or programmes written in different programming languages like JAVA, C++, Python etc. These set of instructions or programs govern the operation of a computer system and make the hardware run. The software can be classified into mainly two categories –

• System Software
• Application Software

(a) System Software

System software is the programs used to handle the computer hardware and to execute the application software. The operating systems and language processors (Assembler, interpreter, Compiler etc) are also system software.

(b) Application Software

They are the software designed to solve specific tasks or problems like MS Office, AutoCAD, MATLAB etc. So, this type of software is specified to one specific application.

So. we have already discussed the computer hardware and software in details. From this, you might already notice the basic relationship exists between hardware and software. Now let’s point out the important relationship between hardware and software in details.

The relationship between hardware and software are:

• Hardware and software both are interdependent on each other. Each of them should work along to form computer produce a helpful output.
• The software can not be used if there is no support of any hardware device.
• When there is no proper instructions given, the hardware cannot be used and is useless.
• To get a selected job done on the pc, the relevant software package has to be loaded into the hardware.
• Hardware could be a former expense.
• Software development is incredibly pricey and could be a continued expense.
• The different software package can be loaded on hardware to run totally different jobs.
• The software acts as an associate interface between the user and therefore the hardware.
• We can say the hardware and software are the heart and soul of a digital computer.