I mean we all use technology on a regular basis, some people more than others, but do we really understand what all those little things mean? If not read on.
Bits & Bytes
Bits and bytes are just methods of storing information. The capacity for storing information is quantified by the number of bits or bytes a computer has. However as they are both incredibly small (the smallest form of information is a bit(What's a Byte 2008; Wikipedia January 2008). For Computer Historians: Older computers were encoded in binary. This would give you 2 options, once chosen you would then progress to smaller and smaller “branches” each with an option of 2. A bit is basically one binary stage. It presents you with 2 options This is shown by a string of 0's and 1's(Guinness World Record 2003 150; Wikipedia January 2008). The very earliest computers used holes punched in card or film(Wikipedia June 2008; Kelly June 2008), however now everything is digital) we can use terms such as megabyte, gigabyte and now even terabyte. To avoid confusion later on I have a table illustrating the different relations between these terms at the back.
However most of the terms in the table are not useful, or even feasible, with most computer hard-drives operating in gigabytes and more recently Terabytes(What's a Byte 2008).
Hardware
To begin this section I have got to list the definitions of Hardware and Software and explain the differences.
According to sources 5 & 7 hardware is:
- Computer Science. A computer and the associated physical equipment directly involved in the performance of data-processing or communications functions. (Answers 2008)
- Machines and other physical equipment directly involved in performing an industrial, technological, or military function.(Answers 2008)
- Computer Equipment.(Macmillan Dictionary 2002 640)
According to sources 6 & 8 software is:
- The programs, routines, and symbolic languages that control the functioning of the hardware and direct its operation.(Answers 2008)
- The programs used by computers for doing particular jobs(Macmillan Dictionary 2002 1337)
As you can see, there is a distinct difference between software and hardware. If you can't (and dictionary definitions are highly opaque) then it basically means that hardware is physical and software is digital. Now data can only be stored on hardware, and can be interpreted in different ways by software. Now basic data storing hardware is, of course, the computer. The computer is used, primarily to store data, and in general you will get the most data into a computer. This is not the only function of the computer but it is an essential one. Apart from the computer there is other hardware designed to hold information. The following list will name useful hardware and its functions.
Floppy disc: now practically obsolete, the largest floppy discs could hold approximately 200MB(Wikipedia June 2008). Although this was high at the time, USB's are no longer manufactured with such a small data capacity.
CD-ROM: Compact Disc- Read Only Memory is the computing version of a CD. Despite a relatively low storage space of roughly 650MB(Kelly June 2008) these are still in common use as there are still some older PC's that will not take DVD's. Cd's are also used for storing music which may be played on both a CD players and on a PC.
DVD: DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc, although originally it stood for Digital Video Disc(Kelly June 2008). This was due to the fact that DVD's were originally designed for video only, but were adapted to Data storage mediums(Kelly June 2008). With an average of 4.7GB of storage space this device offers the option for high quality data storage, and lots of it.
USB: The Universal Serial Bus is a versatile and easy to carry medium of storage. Also known as Pen Drives, these have been around for a long time. Average USB storage capacity is about 1-2GB(Kelly June 2008) with a maximum of about 16GB(Kelly June 2008)
Blu-Ray: Blu-ray is so called due to the fact that it uses a wavelength of 405nm (Wikipedia June 2008) which produces a violet/blue light (Wikipedia June 2008; Photonic Products 2008) as opposed to the red light that is used to read and write normal DVD's. This allows more data to be stored, and a standard single sided Blu-Ray Disc will store 25GB (Wikipedia June 2008; Blu-ray.com 2008). As this is relatively new technology, it is still not mainstream, but probably will be within 10 years (Kelly June 2008).
External Hard Drive: To explain what this is and its function, I must tell you that in a computer, there are several hard drives. These all store the data. An external hard drive is simply a hard drive external to the computer (Kelly June 2008). These typically hold 150-500GB (Amazon 2008).
