Hardware

Hardware is the general name that is used to express physical body of a technology.It can be apparatus such as keys, hinge, locks, latches, wire, handles, corners, shackles, plumbing supplies, tools, cutlery, utensils, and machine parts, mainly when they are made of metal. In the United States, hardware has been customarily sold in hardware stores.

Although often used interchangeably to mean "hand tools," hardware in olden times referred to the metal bits that were used to make wooden products stronger, more useful, and easier to build/assemble than if they did not have the benefit of metal fittings.In a looser logic, hardware can be a major military equipment, or electronic equipment, or computer equipment. On the other hand, people don't talk about computer stores as "hardware supplies".

In vernacular context, the term refers to trophies and other physical representations of award. The term "hardware" is used to specifically mean material or tangible parts of the computer when used in the context of computer systems and when compared to non-physical software running on the computer. Example: the CPU