2. Hardware

Hardware is any part of the computer that you can physically touch, pick up, hold, move around the room etc.

Examples of hardware include the monitor, mouse, hard disk, motherboard etc.

3. Software

Software are the applications and programming instructions needed to make the computer hardware do useful work.

Some examples of systems software which tells the computer what to do:

    Operating System
    Utilities
    User Interface

Some examples of application software which allow you to do your work:

    Word processors such as Microsoft Word
    Spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel
    Databases such as Microsoft Access

Firmware

 

Permanent software programmed into a read-only memory.

You can think of firmware simply as "software for hardware.

4. Peripherals

A peripheral is any hardware device which connects to the computer and is controlled by the Central Processing Unit (CPU) -with the exception of memory.

When you are trying to think of examples of peripherals, think of things which plug into the back of the box.

Examples are:

    monitor
    keyboard
    mouse
    printer
    scanner
    speakers
    external hard drives