Hardware System
The hardware devices attached to the computer are called peripheral devices.
- Peripheral devices includes all input, output, and secondary storage devices.
- In some cases such as for PCs, some of the input, output, and storage devices are built into the same physical unit on the main circuit board called themotherboard, e.g., the CPU and disk drive are all contained in the same housing; the keyboard, mouse, and screen may be separate.
- In larger computer systems, however, the input, processing, output, and storage functions may be in separate rooms, separate buildings, or even separate countries.
- Data may be input on terminals at a branch office and then transmitted to the central processing unit at the headquarters. The information produced by the central processing unit may then be transmitted to the international branches, where it is printed out. Disks with stored data may be kept in headquarters and duplicate data kept on various media in a warehouse elsewhere for safekeeping.