Literally, "hardware"would mean" hard merchandise. "This concept is intended to designate all tangible components in an electronic system, that is, what we can play: keyboard, mouse, monitor, chips, boards, printers, etc. One could make an analogy with the human being and say that the software is thinking, Meanwhile he hardware is the body.
It is confusing to relate to hardware with components "real"or"physical"because this would mean that computer systems have non-physical or even unreal components. hardware it wouldn't work or be useless without a "software", the "intangible" and logical part of a computer system: a set of instructions to be carried out by the hardware. Furthermore, this terminology is so well established and widespread today that, although some translators strongly recommend replacing the word software for the idea of "software", there is not the slightest consensus to destroy Anglicism "hardware"to give rise to an equivalent expression in our language.
On a PC or computer system similar (cell phone, portable players), we can distinguish between different components: input peripherals (mouse, keyboard, scanner, microphone input, webcam, stylus), output (speakers, printer, monitor [unless touchscreen]), mixed (hard drives, modems, USB sticks, interactive displays, optical disc reading units), the Central Processing Unit (central processment unit or CPU, the "brain" of the machine), RAM (temporary data storage, the place where programs are executed in conjunction with the CPU and other more complex components) and the hardware graphics (video cards, which have their own central processing unit).
It is interesting to know that the first computers worked on the basis of vacuum tubes or valves, they were glass tubes the size of a light bulb housing electrical circuits. In great quantity and together with other elements, they formed a hardware system relatively complex involving large dimensions. The tubes used to be filled with bugs, which is where the term "debug" comes from.bug = "bug" in English): "desbichar"; removing the bugs from the tubes so that the system would work properly was one of the tasks of the technicians in the middle of the 20th century. These first expressions of what we know today as hardware It allows us to explain the meaning of "hard merchandise" that was indicated at the beginning. Many of these early pieces of equipment occupied an entire room and the data processing was not completely digital, but in many cases included mechanical processing components. This is where the image, now only imaginable in museums, comes from the use of punched cards, perhaps the oldest mixed devices, as a resource for exchanging data and information with the CPU of that time. While the appearance of floppy disks (floppy disks) meant a shocking revolution in terms of memory capacity and processing speed, these systems are also part of the memory, being progressively displaced by compact discs, DVDs and current memory cards.
The invention of transistors it was associated with the considerable reduction in the size of the machines; likewise, they made them more reliable and cheaper. Later, with the technology of silicon chips, these transistors could be assembled into integrated circuits, occupying better space, to later give rise to microprocessors: almost complete computers that fit on a single chip. These parameters were the foundation for the emergence of desktop personal computers, which soon gave way to lighter weight and more portable computers such as PCs. notebooks and the netbooks. These versions of hardware of reduced dimensions were also linked to a simplification of the components, for which the number of mixed elements that allow data entry to the equipment grew at the same time (input) and information output (output). On this foundation both tablets, as an expression of optimization of the size in the framework of high performance, as well as smartphones arose. The format of hardware of both technical resources ensures that, at present, each potential user has the necessary technical framework to send data and receive information anywhere on the planet, thus facilitating communication in a way never before described in the history of humanity.
The nanotechnology promises to take the next big leap in the computing age. By means of this technique, it is estimated that the transistors will acquire dimensions smaller than the micrometer, which is why the weight of the hardware could be reduced to unsuspected levels. As a result, progressive digitization will allow for greater dissemination of knowledge and will conclusively highlight the unique importance of computing in creating a better future.
