Learning to Program in C++

Behind the Curtain

First we'll need to expand on the definition of hardware. As noted earlier, hardware means the physical components of a computer, the ones you can touch.^[2] Examples are the monitor, which displays your document while you're working on it, the keyboard, the printer, and all of the interesting electronic and electromechanical components inside the case of your computer.^[3] Right now, we're concerned with the programmer's view of the hardware. The hardware components of a computer with which you'll be primarily concerned are the disk, RAM (Random Access Memory), and last but certainly not least, the CPU.^[4] We'll take up each of these topics in turn.

^[2] Whenever I refer to a computer, I mean a modern microcomputer capable of ...