output devices cpu input devices main memory secondary memory figure functional view of computer and this is certainly the core of the academic discipline these dayshowevercomputer scientists are involved in far-flung activitiesall of which fall under the general umbrella of computing some example areas include networkinghuman-computer interactionartificial intelligencecomputational science (using powerful computers to model scientific data)databasessoftware engineeringweb and multimedia designmanagement information systemsand computer security wherever computing is donethe skills and knowledge of computer science are being applied hardware basics you don' have to know all the details of how computer works to be successful programmerbut understanding the underlying principles will help you master the steps we go through to put our programs into action it' bit like driving car knowing little about internal combustion engines helps to explain why you have to do things like fill the gas tankstart the enginestep on the acceleratoretc you could learn to drive by just memorizing what to dobut little more knowledge makes the whole process much more understandable let' take moment to "look under the hoodof your computer although different computers can vary significantly in specific detailsat higher level all modern digital computers are remarkably similar figure shows functional view of computer the central processing unit (cpuis the "brainof the machine this is where all the basic operations of the computer are carried out the cpu can perform simple arithmetic operations like adding two numbers and can also do logical operations like testing to see if two numbers are equal the memory stores programs and data the cpu can only directly access information that is stored in main memory (called ram for random access memorymain memory is fastbut it is also volatile that iswhen the power is turned offthe information in the memory is lost thusthere must also be some secondary memory that provides more permanent storage in modern personal computerthis is usually some sort of magnetic medium such as hard disk (also called hard driveoptical media such as cd (compact discand dvd (digital versatile discand flash memory devices such as usb memory "sticksare also common humans interact with the computer through input and output devices you are probably familiar with common devices such as keyboardmouseand monitor (video screeninformation from