A system is a collection of elements that work to achieve a common objective. Hardware – Physical Components of a computer. Software - Collection of programs or applications which contains the instructions that makes the computer works. Firmware - The programs which are used to start up the machine (booting). Live ware – Human expertise needed in the field of IT. Information - Result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds a knowledge of the person receiving it. Typical IT functions :- Data capturing and input. Data and information representation/ storage. Data Processing. Information presentation and output. Data transmission. Types of computers Mainframe Computer Personal Computer(PC) Apple MAC Networked Computers Laptop and Palmtop Tablet PC Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Basic hardware elements Central processing unit The brain of the computer. Performs most of the computer calculations and runs the operating system and other soft wares smoothly. It governs the overall speed of the computer. Cache memory. The CPU’s speed – Internal clock’s speed (Hertz – Hz)