hardware
<hardware> The physical, touchable, material parts of a computer or other
system. The term is used to distinguish these fixed parts of a system from the
more changable software or data components which it executes, stores, or
carries.
Computer hardware typically consists chiefly of electronic devices (CPU, memory,
display) with some electromechanical parts (keyboard, printer, disk drives, tape
drives, loudspeakers) for input, output, and storage, though completely
non-electronic (mechanical, electromechanical, hydraulic, biological) computers
have also been conceived of and built.
See also firmware, wetware.
(1997-01-23)
Nearby terms:
hard link « hard linking « hard sector « hardware
» Hardware Abstraction Layer » hardware circular
buffer » Hardware Description Language
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