Appendix A Flashcards
Physical Devices associated with computers
hardware
set of instructions for hardware to carry out
software
an electronic device operating under the control of instructions stored in its own memory that can accept, manipulate, and store
computer
actual hardware that interprets and executes software and coordinates how all hardware works together
CPU
What are the two parts of a CPU?
Control unit and arithmetic-logic unit.
What does a CPU control do?
interprets software instructions and literally tells other hardware to do
What does a CPU ALU do?
Does all mathematical and logical functions
Millions of CPU cycles per second
Megahertz
billions of CPU cycles per second
Gigahertz
Speed of the internal clock of the CPU that sets the pace at which operations proceed within the computers internal processing circuitry
Clock Speed
number of bits a CPU can process at anyone time
Word Length
size of the internal electrical pathway along which signals are sent from one part of the computer to another.
Bus width (wider is faster)
Distance between transistors on a chip.
Chip Line Width (closer together is faster)
CPU that can recognize more than 100 or more instructors at once
complex instruction set computer chips (CISC chip)
limits the number of processes CPU can run faster
RISC (Reduced Instruction)
Computer’s main memory which consists of ROM and RAM which can be accessed by the CPU
Primary Storage
Primary working memory, Read/Write, lost when system turned off, volatile
RAM
Ability to function with or without power
Volatility
small unit of ultra-fast memory stores
Cache
Nonvolatile memory, read only
ROM
Special type of rewritable ROM memory, highly portable
Flash Memory
equipment designed to store large amounds of data
secondary storage
Hooking a bunch of computers up together
clustering
running one or more task simultaneously, future of chips
parallel processing
