Chapter 6 Flashcards
motherboard
the main circuit board of the computer (allows communication between many of the crucial components)
computer chip
a small piece of semiconducting material (silicon) on which integrated circuits are etched
processor (CPU)
interprets and carries out the basic instructions that operate a computer
control unit
the component of the processor that directs and coordinates most of the operations on the computer
arithmetic logic unit (ALU)
performs arithmetic, comparison, and other operations
4 basic operations of a processor
fetching, decoding, executing, and storing
fetching
obtaining program or instruction form memory
decoding
translating the instruction into signals the computer can execute
excecuting
carrying out the commands
storing
writing results to memory
cloud computing
an environment of servers that house and provide access to resources users access via the internet
analog signals
continuous and vary in strength and quantity
digital signals
in one of two states: on or off
binary system
number system that has 2 unique digits: 0 and 1
bit
smallest unit of data the computer can process
byte
8 bits that are formed together
ASCII
most widely used coding scheme to represent a set of characters
memory
consists of electrical components that store instructions waiting to be executed by the processor, data needed by those instructions, and the results of processing the data
memory stores:
operating system, applications, data being processed and resulting info
each memory location has:
an address measured in GB or TB
volatile memory
loses contents when power removed (RAM)
nonvolatile memory
doesn’t lose contents when power removed (ex. ROM, flash, CMOS)
RAM
main memory and consists of chips that can be read from and written by the processor and other devices
memory cache
high speed memory available inside the CPU in order to speed up access to data and instructions stored in RAM
ROM
memory chips storing permanent data/instructions (firmware)
flash memory
can be erased electronically and rewritten
access time
amount of time it takes the processor to read from memory (measured in nanoseconds)
