Chapter 12 Flashcards
What is the branch of the study of electricity that deals with the behavior and motion of electrons in a vacuum or in semiconductors?
electronics
What is a glass tube containing electrodes sealed in a vacuum?
vacuum tube
What is the negative electrode of a vacuum tube?
cathode
What is the positive electrode of a vacuum tube?
anode
How do electrons enter and leave the vacuum tube?
Electrons enter through the cathode and leave through the anode
What is a stream of electrons emitted by the cathode of a vacuum tube?
cathode ray
What is a vacuum tube designed so that the cathode rays would miss the anode and strike the end of the tube instead?
cathode-ray tube
What is a chatode-ray tube designed to generate x-rays?
x-ray tube
What is the production of an electric current in a vacuum using a heated cathode; originally named the Edison effect?
thermionic emission
What is a simple vacuum tube consisting of two electrodes?
diode
Who invented the diode?
John Ambrose Flemming
What is a vacuum tube that has three electrodes and acts as an electronic switch that can amplify weak signals?
triode
What allows the human voice to be transmitted and received over long distances?
triode
What is a material that is neither a good conductor nor a good insulator?
semiconductor
What is the process that is used to increase the number of free electrons and holes in a semiconductor crystal by replacing some of the atoms of the semiconductor with atoms of another element?
doping
What is a type of material formed by doping silicon with a substance that gives it additional electrons?
n-type semiconductor
What is a type of material formed by doping silicon with a substance that gives it additional holes?
p-type semiconductor
What allows current to flow in only one direction?
p-n junction
What is a semiconductor device that, like vacuum-tube diodes, allows current to pass in only one direction?
semiconductor diode
What is a semiconductor device that can perform the same function as a vacuum-tube triode, such as acting as a “switch” and amplifying weak signals?
transistor
What is a transistor that consists of a p-type base sandwiched between two n-type layers or an n-type base between two p-type layers?
junction transistor
What is the most common type of transistor used today; found in compute chips?
Field-effect transistor (FET)
What is an electronic device that consists of solid crystals of semiconductor?
solid-state device
What is a semiconductor device that produces electric current through the photovoltaic effect?
photovoltaic cell
What is a semiconductor diode that emits visible light when an electric current is applied?
light-emitting diode (LED)
What is a laser commonly used in applications where a tiny, low-power laser is needed?
semiconductor laser
What is a device consisting of a single piece of semiconductor containing an entire electronic circuit?
integrated circuit (IC)
What are the three basic materials that coat a wafer in an integrated circuit?
(1) an insulating material, (2) a semiconducting material, and (3) a conducting material
How do you construct an integrated circuit?
by repeatedly coating the wafer with raw materials and light-sensitive material, projecting a “picture” of circuit upon it, and etching it with plasma forms transistors, diodes, and transiting “wires” on the surface of the wafer
Are integrated circuits cheaper to manufacture than separate components?
yes
Which are more reliable, integrated circuits or separate pieces?
integrated circuits
Which revolution effects were greater, the integrated-circuit revolution effects or the effects of the transistor revolution?
integrated-circuit revolution
What are cathode rays actually streams of?
electrons
What is a device that processed information using electronic circuits?
computer
Because of the computer, what is the time period since about 1970 called?
the Information Age
What are pieces of imformation?
data
What was the first general-purpose electronic computer?
ENIAC
What was America’s first mass-produed computer?
UNIVAC I
What is the type of data that can have any possible value within a specified range?
analog data
What is the type of data that can have only certain values within a range?
digital data
What is a random variation of a signal (such as a sound wave, electromagnetic wave, or electrical current) with no intended pattern?
noise
Which is affected less by noise, digital data or analog data?
digital data
Is it possible to detect when a large amount of noise has destroyed digital data?
yes
What are computers that operate using digital data?
digital computers
To save storage space or speed transmission, what happens to digital data?
it can be compressed
What is the number system based on powers of 2 that is used by modern digital computers that represent data?
binary number system
What is a binary digit?
bit
How is data represented in the circuits of a digital computer?
by the voltage of an electrical signal
What is a group of eight bits, representing the smallest unit of data a process on a computer can directly access?
byte
What is the number system based on powers of sixteen; used to represent the binary number stored in a computer?
hexadecimal number system
What is the decimal system also called?
base 10
What is the binary system also called?
base 2
What is the hexadecimal system also called?
base 16
What is the computes coding system upon which most other common coding systems are based?
ASCII
What is a device that produces a single binary output based on one of more binary outputs?
logic gate
What is the physical components of a computer?
hardware
What are the three basic systems of a computer’s hardware?
processing, memory, input and output
What is the “brain” of the computer which controls all of the other systems of the computer, performs calculations, and executes the commands needed to accomplish specific tasks?
central processing unit (CPU)
What is a single chip containing an entire CPU?
microprocessor
What is the system of a computer that allows the CPU to store programs and information?
memory
What is the memory used by a computer to store information temporarily?
RAM
What is the memory used to store information that a computer needs to start and for flash memory?
ROM
What is computer hardware used for permanent storage of information?
mass storage device
What is generally used for storing information inside a computer; the information stored on it is usually microscopic magnetic spots on spinning disks?
a hard drive
What are used for music and videos, except for the data they store?
optical disks, such as CDs and DVDs
What is a form of ROM chip that can be used to store information?
flash memory
What is a device the allows the CPU to communicate with the outside world?
input/output device
What allows the user to give information to the computer?
input device
What allows the user to receive information from the computer?
output device
What is the circuit board that connects all of a computer’s components and coordinates the activities under the direction of the CPU?
motherboard
What is stored information that direct a computer to perform certain tasks?
software
What is a single piece of software that directs a computer to perform a certain task?
program
What is a type of software that directs a computer to perform the basic functions required for operation?
system software
What is the collection of computer programs that contain instructing ford displaying words and images on the screen for the user to see, saving information of the disk drive, and detecting what the user type on the keyboard?
operating system
What includes all the different programs that direct the computer to perform specific tasks for the user?
application software
What are some examples of application software?
word processor, spreadsheet, desktop publishing, and voice recognition
What is a sequence of binary numbers, each of which corresponds to a basic operation performed by a CPU?
machine language
What is the computer language that uses commands resembling the human language?
programming language
Does a computer do anything other than what it is instructed to do?
no
What is a system that links computers together, allowing information to be shared among them?
computer network
What is the worldwide computer network?
internet
what is the system using codes called URIs to identify specific pieces of information and indicate what method should be used to access information?
World Wide Web
What is a system for sending letters and other communication using computer networks?
electronic mail
What is a system for real-time communication over the internet or another network?
chat
What is a systems using the internet to access remote computer resources that store, process, and manage users’ data?
cloud computing
What is a computer that can be programmed to perform a variety of processing skills?
general- purpose computer
What is a small, relatively inexpensive computer designed for use by one user at a time?
personal computer
What is a computer that “serves” other computers by providing them with requested data and that can be accessed by many users at once?
server
What is a large computer designed to store and retrieve vast amounts of information?
mainframe
What is a large, powerful computer designed for rapidly performing complex calcultions?
supercomputer
What is a computer that is designed to perform only a few specific functions?
special-purpose computer
What is a versatile, computer-directed machine that can be programmed to perform different tasks?
robot
