Chapter 1:Into To Computers And Programming Flashcards
What is a program?
A program is a set of instructions that are executed by a computer system to perform a specific task.
What is hardware?
Hardware refers to all physical devices or components a computer system is made up of.
What are the 5 major components of a computer system ?
- Input devices
- Output Devices
- The central processing unit (cpu)
- Main memery(RAM)
- Secondary Storage Devices
What part of the computer runs programs?
The CPU of the computer actuallyruns the programs.
What part of the computer serves as a work area to store a program and its data while the program is running?
The main memory or RAM serves as a work area to store the program and its instructions while the progam is running.
What part of the computer holds data for long periods of time, even when there is no power to the computer?
The Secondary storage devices of a computer system hold the data for long periods of time even there is no power to the computer.
What part of the computer collects data from people and from other devices?
Input devices of a computer are used to collect the data from the people and other devices.
What part of the computer formats and presents data for people or other devices?
Output devices are the part of the computer system that are used to present and format the data to the user or to the other devices.
What fundamental set of programs control the internal operations of the computer’s hardware?
The fundamental set of programs that control the internal operations of the computers’ hardware is known as an operating system.
What do you call a program that performs a specialized task, such as a virus scanner, a file compression program, or a data backup program?
A program that performs a certain task is known as a Utility Program.
Word processing programs, spreadsheet programs, email programs, web browsers, and game programs belong to what category of software?
Application Software
What amount of memory is enough to store a letter of the alphabet or a small number?
One Byte (8 bits)
What do you call a tiny “switch” that can be set to either on or off?
Bit
In what numbering system are all numeric values written as sequences of 0s and 1s?
binary system
What is the purpose of ASCII?
American standard code for infomation interchange
ASCII is one of the coding schemes develped to store the characters in the memory.
What encoding scheme is extensive enough to represent the characters of many of the languages in the world?
Unicode encoding scheme is extensive enough to represent the characters of many lanuages in the world.
What do the terms “digital data” and “digital device” mean?
Digital data-The data that is stored in a system in its binary form is known as digital data.
Digital device-the device that works with the digital data is known as digital devices such a computer system that stores all dtat in the binary form.(Ex. CD player Mp3 player)
A CPU understands instructions that are written only in what language?
machine lanuage
A program has to be copied into what type of memory each time the CPU executes it?
Into the main memory(RAM)
When a CPU executes the instructions in a program, it is engaged in what process?
It follows the fetch-decode-execute cycle.
- Fetch the instruction that is being executed are read from the main memory to CPU
- Decode the instruction is decoded to know which operation is to be executed
- Execute the decoded instruction is executed on the requaired data sets.
the cycle us repeated for each instruction that is present in the desired program.