Friday, January 27, 2012

The Intangible Asset

An asset is a useful or desirable quality of an object. Like any other item, a computer possesses tangible and intangible characteristics that are set apart from each other, having unique roles that make it work. This intangible asset is the software, a program or code stored in the computer setting pre-defined instructions to execute. This term was crafted by the statistician, John W. Tukey in 1957 that back then was the term used for application program. However, today, it is more than that, as it covers an extremely wide array of technologies developed using programming languages, scripting languages, microcode, or an FPGA configuration. In the micro level, the software quadrates to a machine language, a set of patterned instructions of bits that is designed to correspond to different commands that is being deciphered by a central processing unit. Since computer programs are rarely written directly in machine language, it is instead written in higher-level programming languages, such as C, C++, Java and the like.

Software encompasses, but not limited to:

  1. Application software, which is designed to help the user perform a particular task. It includes accounts package or a CAD program, business software like QuickBooks, scientific and engineering software, office suites, video games, and artificial intelligence software;

  2. Middleware, the software that connects the application program to the network. The term speaks for itself - it is the mediator, administering interplay between distinct applications across diverse computing platforms. An example would be an Object Request Broker (ORB), a software that manages communication between objects.

  3. Firmware, a software stored in read-only memory (ROM) or programmable ROM (PROM). The task of this platform software is to permit interaction between the computer and its device drivers, operating system, and other associated equipments with the user, designed in GUI. Further, it is the controlling software that is constructed, embedded, and cooperates with the hardware device itself and stored on disk platters of the drive. A typical example would be a monitoring program in a microcomputer that loads the full operating system from disk or from a network passing control to it.

  4. System software is any software required to support the production or execution of application programs but which is not specific to any particular application. Examples of system software would include the operating system, compilers, editors, databases and sorting programs.


Software includes both source code and executable machine code produced by assemblers or compilers. There are different classifications of software according to functionality and utility. A bundling together of programs comprising of multiple applications that that share similar functions, features, and graphic interface that can be tailored to the specific needs of the user. Examples are spreadsheet templates, word processors, and email filters. It can also be built to address corporate functions that aid organization’s needs, process, and data flow in a network environment, as well as provide simulation for training, such as ERP solutions like SAP and Oracle, or a training environment with simulation like Element K. In relation to that, the emergence of IT infrastructure software has revolutionized the way companies relay and process information as this is used to make sure that people and systems in the organization can connect – to efficiently execute business processes, share information, and manage touch points. A frequent applicability is that most of us overlook is: acquiring access to content with edit and/or without edit feature - an example would be media players and web browsers. An even more profound function is accounted to product engineering that embraces computer language editing, compiling tools and computer aided design.



More and more exhaustion of software understanding is being into play as research is conducted to acquire intense comprehension to this intangible object. To the ordinary person, the software may be neglected, as it has no physical substance, however, if you dig in deeper, it is too important not to notice its relevance. Corporeal essence is not the question here, but the significance of the existence. After all, there is more than meets the eye.

Take advantage of your visit to www.lenaanderson.com by bookmarking or sharing us below.