General Flashcards
Bit
A “letter” in binary; a single 0 or 1
Byte
A “word” in binary; there are 8 bits in a byte (which gives us 256 possible bytes)
ASCII
Older type of character encoding; each byte represented a letter or character
UTF-8
Type of character encoding most commonly used today; uses combinations of multiple bytes to represent characters, so we can have more than 256 options
RGB
Type of character encoding specifically used to represent colors
Logic gates
Give direction to a computer’s transistors about where (or whether) to send an electrical signal
Examples: AND, OR, XOR, NOT
CPU
Central Processing Unit
Part of a computer that does calculations; the “brain” of the computer
RAM
Random Access Memory
Part of a computer; short-term memory
Hard drive
Part of a computer; long-term data storage
Motherboard
Part of a computer; holds the other parts in place, distributes power to parts that need it, and allows communication between parts
EDB
External Data Bus
Part of a computer; wires that transmit binary data between other parts
Can be 8-bit (only transmits 1 byte at a time) up to 64-bit
Registers
Parts of a CPU; each register can hold one byte of incoming data or the result of one calculation
MCC
Memory Controller Chip
Part of a computer; bridge between CPU and RAM
Address bus
Part of a computer; sends requested data’s location from CPU to MCC (memory controller chip), then MCC finds the data in RAM and sends it through EDB (external data bus) to the CPU
Cache
Data storage separate from (and faster than) RAM; it’s for data that we use frequently
Clock cycles
Used to describe the speed of a CPU; measured in gigahertz (ghz)
Ex: 3.4 ghz = 3.4 billion clock cycles per second
Overclocking
Exceeding the advertised speed of your CPU; can make your computer run faster, but comes with risks such as possibly overheating your CPU
Land grid array vs. Pin grid array
Types of CPU; in land grid, pins extend from the motherboard; in pin grid, the pins are on the CPU
Heat sink
Part of a computer; needed to keep your CPU from overheating
32-bit vs 64-bit
Usually refers to the architecture of your CPU; a 64-bit CPU has 64-bit registers, which can hold any of 2^64 different values
DIMM sticks
Dual Inline Memory Module sticks
The type of RAM sticks usually used today; each stick holds multiple RAM chips
DRAM (dynamic RAM)
SDRAM (synchronous DRAM)
DDR SDRAM (double data rate SDRAM)
Types of RAM, increasing by speed; SDRAM increases speed by being synchronized to the system’s processing speed; DDR4 (the 4th and current version of DDR SDRAM) is faster, uses less power, and has higher capacity than older versions of RAM
Northbridge vs. Southbridge
Chipsets that are part of a computer’s motherboard; northbridge handles things like RAM and memory cards, and is sometimes part of the CPU instead of a standalone thing; southbridge handles I/O (input/output) devices like hard drive and USB
ATX vs. ITX
Advanced technology extended; information technology extended
Form factors for a computer’s motherboard; ATX is larger and common in desktop computers; ITX is smaller and used for portable devices
