Fundamentals of computer systems Flashcards
Hardware
The physical components of a computer system, including both external (peripheral) and internal (processing and storage) parts.
Software
Any program or collection of instructions and data that can be run and processed by a computer system.
Application software
A program that can be run on a computer, allowing the user to carry out specific tasks.
System software
A program designed to cover technical aspects of setting up, running and maintaining a computer system, and providing a platform for application software.
Assemblers
A translator in low level language, which converts assembly language into machine code.
Compilers
A translator that converts high level language to machine code.
Interpreters
A translator which checks a source program for syntax errors line by line, translates it to machine code and executes the line.
Libraries
A collection of programs which are already compiled and can be loaded into a program and run whenever required.
Operating system
A set of programs managing the operation of the computer that is loaded into RAM every time the computer is turned on. It bridges the user to the hardware.
Translator
A program which converts code from one computer language to another.
Utility program
A program made to perform a generic or common task that is routinely executed by a user, related to analysing, configuring or optimising.
Resource management
The collective efficient management of the available hardware and software to optimise the performance of the computer system.
Scheduling
Allocating processor time to each application to ensure processor time is used as efficiently as possible when multitasking.
Assembly language
A low-level programming language consisting of a set of mnemonic instructions that directly corresponds to the processor architecture’s machine code instruction set.
High-level language
A programming language with a strong abstraction from a processor’s internal instruction set that is much more human-readable with natural-language keywords, such as Python or Java.
Imperative language
A programming language built on the programming paradigm of using subroutines and procedures as instructions to change a program’s state and describe how a program operates.
Low-level language
A programming language with little to no abstraction from a processor’s internal instruction set, such as machine code or assembly language.
Machine code
A low-level programming language written in binary that is directly understood by the CPU.
Bytecode
An intermediate instruction set used to write the final output of some compilers, since it can be executed on any computer via a virtual machine.
AND
A logical operator which returns TRUE (or 1) if and only if all inputs are TRUE (or 1).
D-type flip flops
A sequential logic circuit used to store a single bit. It has two stable states, which can be flipped between using an input signal.
Full adders
A combination of two half adders that takes a carry bit and two other input bits and returns their sum and the new carry as two output bits.
Half adders
A combinational arithmetic circuit that adds two numbers and produces a sum bit (S) and carry bit (C) as the output.
NAND
A logical operator which returns FALSE (or 0) if and only if all inputs are TRUE (or 1). It is equivalent to an AND gate connected to a NOT gate.
NOR
A logical operator which returns FALSE (or 0) if and only if at least one of the inputs are TRUE (or 1). It is equivalent to an OR gate connected to a NOT gate.
NOT
A logical operator which returns TRUE (or 1) if and only if the input is FALSE (or 0), i.e. it returns the opposite of the input.
OR
A logical operator which returns TRUE (or 1) if and only if at least one of the inputs are TRUE (or 1).
XOR
A logical operator which returns TRUE (or 1) if and only if exactly 1 of the inputs are TRUE (or 1).
