Computer Components & Concepts

Overview of Computer Hardware and Software Components

• A keyboard is an input device that allows users to input text and commands by pressing keys.
• A mouse is an input device that enables users to move a cursor on the screen and interact with graphical user interfaces through clicking and scrolling.
• A display, such as a monitor or screen, is an output device that presents visual information generated by the computer to the user.
• A printer is an output device that produces hard copies of digital documents or images on paper or other media.
• A scanner is an input device that converts physical documents or images into digital format, allowing them to be stored, edited, or transmitted by the computer.
• Speakers are output devices that generate sound or audio output, allowing users to listen to music, multimedia, or system-generated audio.
• Storage devices, such as hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), and optical drives, enable reading from and writing to various types of storage media, such as hard disks, solid-state memory, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs.
• Network interfaces, such as Ethernet adapters or Wi-Fi cards, allow computers to connect to local area networks (LANs) or the internet, enabling data transmission and communication with other devices.
• The kernel I/O subsystem, also referred to as the I/O stack or I/O manager, is a component of an operating system's kernel that handles the management and coordination of input/output operations.
• Transforming I/O request to hardware refers to the process of converting or modifying an input/output (I/O) request before it is sent to a hardware device for execution.
• Streams refer to a sequence of data elements that are accessed or processed sequentially, usually in a continuous flow, and provide an interface for reading or writing data from or to different sources, such as files, network connections, or memory buffers.
• Streams enable efficient handling of large amounts of data by processing it in smaller, manageable chunks instead of loading the entire dataset into memory at once.