2 Flashcards
How are computers constructed?
Using individual transistors. Which form circuits that enable various operations and logic.
What is current?
Current is the flow of electric charge through a conductor, like a wire, measured in units of amperes (A).
What are transistors made of?
Semiconductor materials that amplify/switch electrical signals and electrical power.
A transistor is equal to…
a switch.
Name three parts of small input signal
Emitter, base, collector
Which are the four types of gates?
AND Gate, OR Gate, NOT Gate, XOR Gate
AND Gate is like…
multiplication.
OR Gate is like…
sum.
The XOR Gate follows…
Boolean Algebra.
For what do we use the Half Adder (HA)?
We use it to handling the carry bit.
Abstraction in Hardware design consists of…
Design more complex devices in terms of logic, not electronics
How we tend to represent the world?
With 8 bit numbers.
What the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) does?
It combines multiple full adders & additional logic circuits to perform arithmetic and logical operations (AND, XOR, OR).
Why we have to use CPU (Central Processing Unit)?
Because ALU’s are no capable of perform multiplication (more than 1 inst.)
What the control unit does?
Receives instructions from memory & controls the flow of data within CPU. Also, interprets opcode.
What is RAM?
Random Access Memory. Is the computer’s temporary workspace.
Registers are
temporary storage units within the CPU that hold data during processing
What RAM does?
Stores data & instructions that the CPU accesses during execution.
What would happen if you ran out of RAM?
The device would start to run really slowly.
Your programs wouldn’t be able to run.
What would happen if you ran out of permanent storage?
Your computer would no longer be able to permanently store any of its files, you would no longer be able to save any work.
What is the instruction set?
Collections of binary-coded instructions with specific operations like arithmetic, memory access, and control flow. That a computer’s CPU can execute.
Which are the two main types of instruction sets?
RISC: with simple instructions for faster execution.
CISC: with more complex instructions to reduce program size.
Different processors use specific instruction sets…
optimized for various applications and performance requirements.
What is Machine Language?
Binary instructions that CPU can directly execute.
