exam review chapter 1 review Flashcards
hardware
the phsyical equipment and devices that a computer is made of.
what are the 3 primary categories of hardware components?
CPU
Primary memory and secondary storage
Peripherals
software
the programs that run on the hardware
CPU
brain of the computer or processor which performs most of the computing.
what operations are performed by the CPU?
arithmetic
comparisons
logic
data movement
control flow
speed of a CPU
measured in GHz - billion hertz per second
secondary storage
long term (permanent storage) of a computer
secondary storage includes?
hard drives flash drives cds dvds magnetic tapes floppy disks
hard drives
include several magnetic disks which store information
secondary storage typically contains
operating system
programs
documents and other user data files
settings and preferences
primary memory
every computer requires some primary/ main memory to work properly
traditionally known as RAM (random access memory)
pretty much everything that is being done on the computer - executing, displaying, calculating
can the CPU access the secondary memory?
not directly. it copies the information from the secondary to the primary where it can be used
(secondary and primary)
opening something:
secondary memory (disk drive) -> primary meory (OS, RAM, etc)
(secondary and primary)
sharing something
primary memory (RAM, OS, etc.) -> primary memory (disk drive).
booting up
when the computer is turned on - primary memory is empty (blank)
computer runs a “boot loader” - this boot loader is stored on a separate chip (ROM - Read only memory)
the boot loader then copies the operating system from the secondary storage into primary memory so it can be run.
