October Exams Flashcards
What is hardware?
Hardware is any physical part of the computer.
What is software?
Software is the programs that run on the computer.
What is another name for the CPU?
The processor.
What is primary storage used for?
Primary storage is used for holding instructions currently being executed and data that is being used.
What does the CPU do?
It executes programs.
What is cache?
Cache is very fast memory close to the CPU used to temporarily hold data or instructions that are likely to be needed again by the processor in the course of running a program.
What does the control unit do?
The control unit controls the execution of instructions in the correct sequence. It decodes instructions.
What does the Arithmetic Logic Unit do?
It does logical operations, shift operations, arithmetic operations.
What is a register?
A register is a special very fast memory location within the CPU used in the execution of instructions.
What does the Memory Address Register (MAR) do?
It holds the address of the instruction or piece of data to be fetched or stored.
What does the Memory Data Register do?
It holds data or a program instruction temporarily when it is fetched from memory or sent to memory.
What does the Program Counter (PC) do?
Holds the memory address of the next instruction to be processed.
What does the Accumulator (ACC) do?
Where results of operations are temporarily stored.
What is clock speed?
The speed at which a processor operates at.
What is a program?
A series of instructions that need to be done in order.
What is the process for when a program needs to be executed?
The program is loaded from the hard disk into main memory so the processor can access the instructions. This is because the read-write speed (access speed) is faster in the main memory.
What is volatile memory.
When data is lost when the power is turned off. An example of this is RAM.
What is non volatile memory?
When data is not lost when the power is off. An example of this is ROM.
What does the RAM do?
Stores user data/programs/part of operating system which is currently in use.
Memory can be written to or read from.
What does the ROM do?
Used to store the bootstrap loader.
Memory can only be read from.
What does pixel stand for?
Picture element.
What is metadata?
Information about data. Eg. file size, type of file, time of creation etc.
What is sample resolution?
The number of bits used to store each sample.
What is Lossy Compression?
Where files are compressed by removing some of the detail. Examples JPEG, MP3
What is Lossless Compression?
Where files are compressed but no data is lost. This can be used in bank records.
Eg. Portable Document Format (.pdf), Graphic Interchange Format (.gif)
What is the internet?
A worldwide collection of inter connected networks.
What does IP stand for?
Internet Protocol
What does the DNS’s (Domain Name System) database do?
It translates the domain name into an IP address.
What happens when the user types in a URL?
The URL is sent to a local DNS server where it is translated into an IP address. If the IP address is found it is passed back to the browser. If the IP address is not found it is passed up the chain to the next DNS server. If it is not found an error is passed back and the browser will display an IP address error message.
What does the Network Interface Card/Controller (NIC) do?
A piece of hardware which allows a device to connect to a network.
