Overhead (computing)

Have you ever played with building blocks? Imagine that you are building a tower with blocks. The blocks you are using are your computer's hardware such as the processor, memory, disk drive, and so on.

Now, let's say you want to put a toy car on top of your tower. Before you can do that, you need to place a flat block on top of the tower so that the toy car won't fall off. This flat block is like the software that runs on your computer.

But wait! There's another block that you need to place before you can add the toy car. This block is the overhead. The overhead is the work that your computer needs to do to manage the software and move data around. It's like a messenger that helps the software and hardware communicate with each other.

So, imagine that you're building a tower, adding a flat block for the software, and then adding an overhead block before you can finally put the toy car on top. This overhead work is necessary for your computer to function properly and run the software you need, but it also takes time and resources.

Similarly, in computing, overhead is the extra work that your computer hardware and software need to do to manage tasks and communicate with each other. This work is important for the computer to function, but it can also slow down the system and use up resources.