How do a computer’s hardware and software actually connect?
In: Technology
So you the Operating System, in most cases this is Windows. The core of the operating system is called the Kernel. It’s where almost all the calculating and decision making takes place.
Then you have the Hardware Abstraction Layer, or HAL. This virtualizes the hardware so that the kernel can communicate with it, give it instructions and receive data from it. Either the OS kernel has drivers built in, or the hardware manufacturer supplies them.
For this to work, the hardware has to have a program of it’s own that allows it to speak the same language as the OS. This program, embedded into the hardware, is called firmware.
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