What is Interfaces in Computer?
A system of interaction or communication between a computer and another entity such as printer, another computer network or a human user. Devices such as cable, network card, monitor or keyboard that enables interaction or communication between computer and other entity.
Interface is of three types.
1. Hardware Interface
Hardware interface exists in many of the components such as buses, storage devices, other I/O devices, etc. A hardware interface is described by mechanical, electrical and logical signal at the interface and protocols for sequencing them.
Hardware interfaces can be parallel with several electrical connections carrying parts of data simultaneously or serially where data can be sent one bit at a time.
Serial -> 1 bit at a time
Parallel -> 1 word at a time
2. Software Interface
A software interface may refer to a wide range of different types of interface at different types of interfaces at different levels – an operating system may interface with a piece of hardware; application or program running on the operating system may need to interact via data streams, filters and pipelines.
In Object oriented program, object within an application may need to interact via methods.
3. User Interface
A user interface consisting of a set of dials, knobs, operating system commands, graphical display formats and other devices provided by a computer or a program to allow the users to communicate or use the computer or program.
The popular means of user interface is Graphical User Interface (GUI) which provides pictorial (picture-oriented) way to interact with the system. GUI is easier to use and user-friendly interface.