CS 100 (Learn) — CS 100 (Web) — Module 02

Conclusions

At the start of this module, we casually asked "what is a computer?". The answer to this question will still depend on who you ask, but we now have a much better understanding of what a computer is, and how it works:

• A computer is a combination of both hardware and software
• Computer hardware includes the CPU, primary memory, secondary storage and peripherals
• Computer software includes applications and system software
• A computer has an operating system with bundled applications, a shell and a kernel
• The kernel manages the resources of the computer and responds to application requests