Key Words Flashcards
AI
Artificial intelligence
ASCII
Pronounced ass-key. Stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a 7bit code for characters. For example: the letter ’x’ is represented as 1111000. Because it is only 7 bits long, an ASCII character can be stored in a byte
Algorithm
A set of instructions for accomplishing a task that when executed will terminate.
Analog
Measured in continuous values. The audio signal from a microphone is analog. A clock with hands is considered analog.
Application
A runnable program that provides some service.
Argument
One of the pieces of data provided as input to a procedure or function through the call to the procedure or function.
Assignment
This stores a value in a variable. An assignment statement has an assignment in it describing the storage of values in variables
Bandwidth
Refers to the volume of information that can be transmitted or processed. It is usually measured in bits or bytes per time unit like “bits per second”.
Binary
The base 2 number system. Integer can be encoded as binary which is a string of 0’s and 1’s. Binary is a place-value system in which each bit position denotes a power of 2 (unlike decimal which uses 10 symbols and powers of 10). k bits of information can represent 2k different numbers. For example counting in 3 bits of binary you can count from 0 to 7: 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111
Bit
A binary digit. The smallest unit of information represented by one of two states (usually 0 or 1). It is often denoted by a lower case ’b’ as in Mbs (mega-bits per second). Or the amount of information gained when answering a yes or no question.
Block
A collection of statements that can be grouped together to be treated as one statement. For instance in C and Processing statements inside parentheses are treated as one statement that is either executed together or not. Generally the only “entry” into a block of code is at the top of the code.
Boolean
A type in many programming languages that can hold either a True or a False. The name comes from the mathematician George Boole. It can also refer to the type of expression for example the type of the expression x > 6 is Boolean.
Byte
8 bits. It is often denoted by a capital B as in MB (mega-bytes).
Call
A statement in a language that starts or invokes a procedure or function.
CPU
Central Processing Unit. Where the computer instructions are executed. It usually refers to the general purpose processor that handles a range of processing tasks.
CPU Intensive
A program that spends most of its time running on the CPU with a disproportionately small amount of time waiting for data from memory.
Cache
Is memory used to speed memory access, that stores data that is anticipated to be used next or was just used and may be used again. For example: cache may exist on slow physically rotating discs to save information of data that is near to the data just accessed or to hold data without writing it to disc until it is likely not to change again.
Card
A circuit board which can be plugged into your computer motherboard.
Central processing unit
Processing unit that takes streams of bits as data and instructions and executes the instructions on the data yielding more data and possibly instructions.
Character
A single letter or symbol that is represented by a small set of bytes in the computer. See ASCII and Unicode.
Chip
A integrated electronic circuit generally with from thousands to billions of components such as transistors and capacitors that perform complex functionality such as addressable memory, CPU, I/O functions.
Clock
The internal “drummer” or heartbeat that keeps the CPU activities across the chip and across the moth- erboard in sync. Often measured in megahertz or gigahertz.
Comment
Comments are important in programs as they are nonexecuting code that explains to a reader of the code in plain text what is going on
Compile
A program for translating a program written in one language into code that can be executed.
Computer science
a) the study of process, data and computation. b) A very cool profession. (No bias here. ;-) ).
Conditional
A control structure such as an if-statement or case-statement that conditionally executes a block of code
Control structure
Code or statement that changes the order of execution for instance an if-statement conditionally executes code while a loop may perform a section of code repeatedly.
Encryption
To use a code to render data unintelligible. An encryption key is data that when supplied to an encryption program and the original data to be encrypted yields the encrypted data. A decryption key when supplied with a decryption program and encrypted data the recovers the original data. Many times these two keys are the same.