ICT Flashcards
What is Hardware?
Hardware
the electronic physical components that make up a typical computer system. These may include input and output devices as well.
What are the internal hardware and external hardware
Internal Hardware Devices:
Central processing unit
Processor
Motherboard
Internal memory consisting of; RAM & ROM
Graphics & Sound Cards
Internal Storage devices like Hard disk drive (HDD) & Solid-state drive (SSD)
Network interface card (NIC)
External Hardware Devices:
Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Printer
External Storage Devices
What is Software?
The techniques, methods, commands, and instructions, which tell the device what to do and how to do it. They are the programs that control the computer system and process data.
Relates to ideas & instructions for using physical objects
What is CPU?
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
The component of the computer that understands and executes hardware and software operations. Nowadays, it’s also known as a microprocessor. It is a single integrated circuit that is at the core of most PCs and is also present in many household gadgets and equipment where some control or monitoring is required.
It consists of a control unit (CU) that manages the input and output devices, an arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) that performs computations and makes logical judgments, and tiny memory regions known as registers.
It processes the input and produces the outcome of the processing in the form of output.
What is internal memory?
Internal Memory
Random access memory (RAM): temporary memory storage, lost after power is shut down, performs read and write functions, used to store data that’s currently in use, can be increased in size to improve operational speed.
Read only memory (ROM): permanent memory storage, non-volatile, can only be read from, used to store computer’s configuration data, such as BIOS.
N.B: The BIOS (basic input/output system) stores the date, time and system configuration on a non-volatile chip called a CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) – this is usually battery powered.
Difference between internal memory and backing storage
RAM contents are lost when power is lost, and ROM is read-only, backing storage is permanent even without power.
RAM and ROM are much smaller as compared to backing storage.
RAM and ROM are significantly faster in accessing data as compared to backing storage.
Backing storage is much cheaper than internal memory.
Internal memories are fixed, backing storage can be fixed or portable.
Internal memories can be directly read by the CPU, while backing storage needs to be moved into the RAM before being read by the CPU.
What is operating system?
Controls operation of input, output & backing storage
Supervises loading, running & storage of application program.
Deals with error in application programs.
Maintains security of whole computer system
Maintains a computer log.
What is input device
An input device is any hardware device that allows a user to enter data or instructions into a computer directly.
An input device can send data to another device, but it cannot receive data from another device.
Input devices are necessary for a computer to receive commands from its users and data to process; the devices are under the control of the user or can be direct data entry.
What is trackerballs? advantage and disadvantage
A device to move a pointer where a ball is rolled around directly by the user rather than being moved by the whole mouse being pushed
Advantages
Trackerball is stationary and does not need a surface to be moved around on.
It can be built into a computer, such as in an information system in a museum and is not likely to get lost or damaged like a mouse can.
It can be also used by disable people who may not have freedom of moevement necessary to use other poitning device.
What is backing up of data?
Backing up refers to the copying of files or data into a different medium incase damage to or loss of original copy.
What is a serial acess?
This involves starting from the beginning of the file and accessing each record to get to the file required.
It is a very slow form of data access.
Used where speed isn’t vital.
Examples where serial access is used:
utility billing
clearing of bank cheques
producing pay slips
What is Data acess?
This is used to access data stored in any record by typing in the required key field.
Typing in a key field will allow the user to access a particular record directly from the calculated position.
Much faster data access speed.
What is magnetic storage media?
Magnetic storage media hold data magnetically and include hard disk drives and magnetic tape. The surface of the media is made of magnetic material and data is stored digitally in the form of tiny magnetised regions or dots.
What is hard disk drives?
The data is stored on concentric circles on the surface known as tracks and sections whithin each tracks called sectors. When a data file is stored on disk it may split up and saved on a different sectors and tracks. The operating system creates an entry in the disk’s file allocation table for the new file that records where each part is located and their sequential order.
What is Magnetic tape drives?
Magnetic tape stores data in a similar way to how data is stored on magnetic disks. The only difference os that data is stored in a long line on the tape rather than being scattered over the surface of a disk.
