Before this week I had never thought about the fact that while I use my computer and cell phone for communicating, the individual parts that make up my favortie pieces of technology must communicate as well.
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If I was a cake, I would be a chocolate cake, and since I am the user and thus make up the top layer of the cake I chose the picture to the right to illustrate this concept. The user decides what he/she needs from the software and tells the computer with each tap of a key something different and unique to communicate to the rest of the technology.
The Next Layer: Application Software
Application software helps the user accomplish certain tasks. Examples of this kind of software are Microsoft Word and Quick Books. There are two types of application software: desktop software and enterprise software. Desktop software is for one single computer to meet the needs of one single person. Contrastingly, enterprise software is designed to meet the needs of many people at once. Enterprise software can be extremely pricey, which is why it is generally only used by large corporations.
Second-to-Last Layer: The Operating System
The operating system acts as the traffic cop of all of the layers. It is the primary communicator between the software and the hardware.
Bottom Layer: Hardware
The hardware is what physically makes up the computer, cell phone or other technological device. It is comprised of the wires, switchboards and metal that carry out the heavy duty labor of whatever you need it to do.
Each layer communicates directly to the next from top to bottom and then back up from bottom to top to get back to the user. To add my own personal touch, I would like to add the elemnt of "frosting" to the classic layer cake. The frosting, in my opinion, would be the langauge of the technology, and I imagine it to sound a bit like this "tap tap tap!"
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