Lesson 3: Evaluating Hardware: For Home and Work (part 1) Flashcards
System Unit - Input
A case that contains electronic components of the computer used to process data
The System Unit
The System Unit includes:
- Drive bay(s)
- Power supply
- Sound card
- Video card
- Processor
- Memory
The main circuit board of the system unit
Motherboard
A computer ____ contains integrated circuits
chip
Also called the central processing unit (CPU), interprets and carries out the basic instructions that operate a computer
Processor
Contain a control unit and an arithmetic logic unit (ALU)
Processor
The component of the processor that directs and coordinates most of the operations in the computer
Control Unit
Performs arithmetic, comparison, and other operations
Arithmetic logic unit (ALU)
Processors begin fetching a second instruction before it completes the machine cycle for the first instruction
Pipelining
Controls the timing of all computer operations
System clock
The pace of the system clock is called _____ and is measured in ______ (___)
clock speed…gigahertz (GHz)
A processor chip requires:
- Heat sinks
- Liquid cooling technology
Continuous and vary in strength and quality
Analog signals
These are in one of two states: on or off. Most computers are like this.
Digital signals
The binary system uses two unique digits (0 and 1)
Bits and bytes
Represents a single character in the computer
A byte
The most widely used coding scheme to represent data
ACII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
Consists of electronic components that store instructions waiting to be executed by the processor, data need by those instructions, and the results of processing.
Memory
Memory stores three basic categories of items:
- The operating system and other system software
- Application programs
- Data being processed and the resulting information
This is measured in kilobytes (KB or K), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB)
Memory size
System unit contains two kinds of memory:
- Volatile memory
- Nonvolatile memory
Loses its contents when power is turned off
Volatile memory
Example includes RAM
Volatile memory
Doesn’t lose contents when power is removed
Nonvolatile memory
Examples include ROM, flash memory, and CMOS
Nonvolatile memory
Three basic types of RAM chips:
- Dynamic RAM (DRAM)
- Static RAM (SRAM)
- Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM)
Usually reside on a memory module and are inserted into memory slots
RAM chips
This speeds the processes of the computer because it stores frequently used instructions and data
Memory cache
This refers tom memory chips storing permanent data and instructions
Read-only memory (ROM)