Wednesday, August 27, 2008

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN APPLICATION SOFTWARE & SYSTEM SOFTWARE

Application software consists of programs designed to make users more productive. Some of its uses are to make business activities more efficient, facilitate communications as well as to support home, personal and educational tasks. Application software is available in various forms such as packaged, custom and public domain.

Meanwhile, system software consists of the programs that control or maintain the operations of the computer and its devices. It serves as the interface between the users, the application software, and computer's hardware. Two types of system software are operating system (OS) and utility programs.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

INPUT AND OUTPUT

Input is data or instruction entered into the memory of computer. There are many ways that we can choose in order to enter input into the computer. A hardware component usually known as input device is to allow users to enter data and instruction (input) into a computer.

The most popular input devices are keyboard and mouse. Keyboard contains key users press to enter data (input) into a computer. Meanwhile, mouse is a pointing device that allow users to control a pointer on the screen. A pointing device can select text, graphics, click button, icons and so on. Other types of input include voice input, input for PDA, smart phones, video input, scanner, biometric input and others.

Output is processed data which already can be used. Any hardware component that conveys information to one or many people is known as output are display devices, printers, speakers, monitor and portable media player. For example, a display devices are fax machines, fax modems, multifunction peripherals and data projectors.

In general, computers process or convert unprocess data (input) into processed data that commonly known as information (output).