< hardware > The physical, touchable, material parts of a computer or other system. The term is used to distinguish these fixed parts of a system from the more changable software or data components which it executes, stores, or carries.
Computer hardware typically consists chiefly of electronic devices ( CPU , memory , display ) with some electromechanical parts (keyboard, printer , disk drives , tape drives , loudspeakers) for input, output, and storage, though completely non-electronic (mechanical, electromechanical, hydraulic, biological) computers have also been conceived of and built.
See also firmware , wetware .
(1997-01-23)