Hardware is the name that is given to any part of a computer that you can actually touch.

An individual piece of hardware is called a device.

The basic hardware of any computer consists of a central processing unit (CPU) along with input, output and backing storage devices.

The central processing unit (CPU)

This is the part of the computer where the searching and sorting of data, calculating and decision-making goes on.

The CPU contains the Main Memory, the Control Unit and the Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU).