Every computer does the same four things. Hardware is the physical parts. Software is the instructions telling them what to do. A part a question naming a component wants you to place it in one of the four.
One photo taken on a phone, traced through all four stages.
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Memory and storage are not the same thing, and processors come in two kinds for a reason that matters later in the course.
Memory (RAM)
- Holds what is being used right now
- Very fast
- Empties when the power goes
- Small — measured in gigabytes
Storage
- Holds what is kept
- Slower
- Survives being switched off
- Large — often terabytes
CPU and GPU: A CPU does one complicated thing after another, very fast. A GPU does thousands of simple calculations at the same time. That is why the chips built for drawing games turned out to be the chips that train AI models.
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Hardware is physical, which means it is mined, shipped, powered and eventually thrown away. That chain is examinable and most answers forget it.
The life of a device
- Mined — cobalt, lithium and rare earths, often in conditions nobody would accept at home.
- Made — assembled in one country from parts made in many.
- Powered — every hour of use is electricity somewhere.
- Thrown away — and the throwing away is the part that lands somewhere else.
Real-world examples you can name
Agbogbloshie e-waste site, Accra — scrapyard cleared July 2021
A scrapyard where imported electronics were stripped and cables burned to recover copper, releasing lead and dioxins. It became the standard example of e-waste exported from rich countries to poor ones. Authorities demolished much of the site in 2021; the trade moved rather than stopped.
Who it affected: Workers and nearby residents exposed to heavy metals and smoke.
How this is tested — you have to name components accurately, then connect the physical machine to something that happens to people. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — structured question
- Part a: identify input or output devices in a scenario
- Part b: explain why a described task needs particular hardware
Paper 2 — source-based question
- Q1: read hardware details off a source
- Q4: synthesise sources on the cost of physical devices
The trap: memory and storage: Saying a phone “stores photos in its memory” costs the mark. Memory holds what is in use and forgets; storage keeps.
Identify two input devices found on a smart phone.
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Explain one reason why training an AI model needs different hardware from running a word processor.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.