Mapping the Basics: How Your Computer Works The Three Layers of Your Computer Think of a computer as a three‑tiered system. The bottom tier

Mapping the Basics: How Your Computer Works The Three Layers of Your Computer Think of a computer as a three‑tiered system. The bottom tier is the hardware: the physical components such as the CPU, memory chips, storage drives, and the screen. The middle tier is the operating system (OS), which acts as a manager that translates the raw capabilities of the hardware into services that programs can use. The top tier is the application layer, where the software you write or run lives. When you type a line of code, it ultimately travels down through the OS to the hardware,...