How Hardware and Software Interact

When it comes to our computers few of us stop to think of the operations taking place inside the machine that allows us to play our games, type up our papers or surf the web. We tend to take it for granted that when we push that button our computers will just whirl into life and work perfectly. The truth is that there are many processes and programs that must work together to make that happen. In this article I will discuss some of these processes and try to take the mystery out of them.

We can break our computers down to two parts, these being hardware and software. These two parts have to work in perfect unison for our computers to complete the tasks we set out for them. Hardware is any and all physical parts of our computer, including extra parts like printers and scanners that we may attach to our systems. Some examples of internal hardware would be your hard drive, motherboard, and video card. Alone these pieces of metal can do nothing. They require a set of instructions telling them what to do and how to do it. These instructions come in the form of software.

Software can be broken down even further into three types: BIOS, operating systems, and application software. These three software types work together in order to make our hardware function properly.

We can follow the process used by our software as information passes through our system. The user interacts with the application software which works as a middleman changing the users input into instructions the operating system can understand. The operating system then translates this information into language understandable to the BIOS. The BIOS then turns around and translates these instructions to the computer's hardware allowing the computer to accomplish the task we set before it. This is just a simplified example of how our computer processes data and how our software interacts with itself and with our hardware. You can compare it to a game of Chinese whispers where one person whispers in the ear of the next and so on down the line. Only in this game of whispers the information remains mostly intact and unchanged at the end of the game.

Another form of software that is part of the process is device drivers. These are mini programs stored on the hard drive that tells the computer how to communicate with individual hardware devices such as printers, scanners, and sound cards. Each device has its own drivers or set of instructions and these instructions are unique to that particular device. If you can imagine that your computer speaks French and your printer speaks German the device driver would be the translator making sure both understands what is said and expected.

What we've covered here is a very important and big part of how our computers work but we haven't covered everything. There are other programs and devices that take place in the process such as our motherboards. A computer's motherboard is its most important piece of hardware; it is the computers brain without which it cannot function. Stored within the motherboard is all the software components needed to actually start the computer. Some divide the BIOS into two parts BIOS and motherboard BIOS but in the end it's all one piece of a bigger process.

Now we can have a better appreciation of what is happening in our computers case. The mystery had been pulled back enough for us to enjoy a basic understanding of how our hardware and software work together to complete the tasks we set before it.

References

Andrews, Jean (2006). A+ guide to managing and maintaining your pc fifth edition. Canada: Thomson Course Technology.
Wong, Adrian (2004). What is the bios?. Retrieved February 13, 2007, from informit.com Web site: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=332850&rl=1