Hardware is the physical metal and plastic of a computer, sort of like your body is to you. Software is the programs which tell the computer what to do, sort of like the skills and knowledge that you can learn from a teacher or how-to book. Review Personal Computer Hardware Computer Part Analogy Function Example CPU, microprocessor Brain Follows instructions, manipulates information. But they serve very different functions. RAM is fast, small, expensive, and temporary.
Disk space is comparatively slow, large, cheap, and permanent.
RAM is used by the microprocessor as its working space. Files are stored on hard disks. Review Files Files are the basic unit in which bytes of information are organized on disks. Special types of files are programs and folders . Programs are instructions that computers can carry out.