Technical Support Fundamentals Flashcards
What is Abstraction?
The concept of taking a complex system and simplifying it for use
What does the Address Bus do?
Allows the CPU to send the MCC the location of the data it wants from RAM so the MCC can collect the data and send it to the CPU via the EDB
What part of a computer does the CPU use to access programs?
RAM
(Programs are copied to the RAM from the SSD so the CPU can access the information more quickly)
What is the MCC?
Memory Controller Chip
(A bridge between the CPU and RAM that follows the CPUs instructions to locate and retrieve data in the RAM)
What are the next 4 terms for data sizes after ‘Byte’?
Kilobyte
Megabyte
Gigabyte
Terabyte
What does DDR SDRAM stand for?
Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
What is the function of a computer’s power supply?
To convert the Alternating Current (AC) we get from our outlet to low voltage Direct Current (DC) that we can use and transmit throughout our computer
What is Encryption?
A means of securing data by mathematically encoding it so that it can only be read/decrypted by those with the correct key/cipher
What are the two main parts of an Operating System?
Kernal Space (process manager, memory manager, file manager, I/O manager)
and
User Space (applications and GUI)
What is SSH?
Secure Shell
(A protocol implemented by other programs to securely access one computer from another)
Define Protocol
A defined set of standards that computers must follow in order to communicate properly
What is the most common form factor for motherboards?
ATX (Advanced Technology Extended)
If you didn’t use an ATX motherboard, you could use a motherboard with an _____ form factor
ITX (Information Technology Extended)
(Much smaller than ATX, commonly used in NUCs)
When using binary, what does a transistor do?
Either emits an electrical signal to denote a 1, or a lack of electrical signal to denote a 0
How many bits make up a byte?
8
What is an EDB?
External Data Bus
(A row of wires that interconnect the parts of our computer. Voltages travel along these wires turning the state to on representing a 1 in binary, or off representing a 0 in binary)
What is a Time Slice?
A very short interval of time (think milliseconds) that is allocated by the kernal for the CPU to execute a process
What does BIOS stand for?
Basic Input Output Services
(Software that helps initialize our hardware and gets the OS up and running. Stored on the motherboard in a ROM)
What is a ROM?
Road Only Memory Chip
(A chip built into the motherboard that houses the BIOS)
What four sizes can the EDB come in?
-8 Bit (8 wires)
-16 Bit (16 wires)
-32 Bit (32 wires)
-64 Bit (64 wires)
What is a Cache?
Cache is temporarily stored data in the CPU for fast access. It holds frequently used data by the CPU for a small amount of time.
How many cache levels are there in a CPU?
3
(L1, L2, and L3. The main difference between L1 L2 and L3 cache is that L1 cache is the smallest and fastest cache memory and L3 cache is the slowest cache memory while L2 cache is slower than L1 cache but faster than L3 cache.)
What are the two major types of CPU sockets?
-Land Grid Array (LGA)
Pins stick out of the motherboard and the CPU has contact points (Commonly AMD chips)
-Pin Grid Array (PGA)
Pins are located on the CPU chip and the motherboard has contact points (Commonly Intel chips)
When a 1 or 0 is sent to DRAM, it stores each bit in a microscopic ___________.
Capacitor
(The 1’s and 0’s are represented by a charge or discharge on each tiny semiconductor and is how the RAM stores data)
What is DRAM?
Dynamic Random Access Memory
(The chips on your stick of RAM that are responsible for storage via capacitors)
What is SDRAM?
Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
(This type of RAM is synchronized to our system’s clock speed allowing for quicker processing of data)
What is a SSL?
Secure Socket Layer
(A security protocol developed for sending information securely over the internet via encryption)
What is a Shell?
A program that interprets text commands and sends them to the OS to execute
In Linux, what does the ‘SUDO’ command mean?
Super User Do
What is a SoC?
System on a Chip
(Packs the CPU, RAM, and sometimes storage onto a single chip)
Before we had compilers, what language was used to allow human readable instructions to be assembled into machine code?
Assembly Language
What are the two main types of software?
Application Software and System Software
What does .exe stand for?
Executable
What is Character Encoding?
Using binary to represent characters
What is DIMM?
Dual Inline Memory Module
(A more modern RAM stick with different sizes of pins)
What is the Kernal Space?
The main core of our operating system. It talks directly to our hardware and manages our system’s resources.
What does PCIE stand for?
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
There are 1000 ______ in a Megabyte
Kilobytes
There are 1000 ______ in a Kilobyte
Bytes
There are 1000 ______ in a Gigabyte
Megabytes
There are 1000 _______ in a Terabyte
Gigabytes
What are the two types of electricity?
Alternating Current (AC)
Comes from the power company and changes direction constantly
Direct Current (DC)
Used in our computer, and only flows in one direction
The CPU uses the __________ to tell the MCC where the data it wants from the RAM is located
Address Bus
When data is written to our SSD in the form of ‘Block Storage’, what does this do?
Breaks the data down so it is not stored as one long piece, making for faster handling and quicker access of data
What is the typical voltage of a logic gate in a positive (on) state?
3.5 - 5 volts
What is the major file system used with Windows?
NTFS
(ReFS is in development as the next system)
What are the 6 general steps of the boot process?
1) Power on
2) BIOS or UEFI loads and POST (power on self test) is run
3) Boot device is located and checked for boot loader
4) OS begins loading
5) Kernal Space is loaded, as well as drivers/hardware
6) User space loads
What is an algorithm?
An algorithm is a procedure or set of rules used for solving a problem or performing a computation
What are the three key characteristics of a motherboard?
-The Chipset
(2 chips, Northbridge and Southbridge, resposible for how components in our machine communicate)
-Expansion Slots
(Give us the ability to increase functionality of our computer, current standard is PCI Express Bus)
-Form Factor
(The size of the motherboard, determines the amount of space we have, and how much stuff we can put in it)
What are the 2 chips in a motherboard’s chipset called?
-The Northbridge
-The Southbridge
What is the Northbridge chip on the motherboard responsible for?
Interconnecting components like RAM and video cards. (Some modern CPUs have this built in)
What is the Southbridge chip on a Motherboard responsible for?
Maintaining our IO (input/output) controllers for devices that input and output data - like hard drives and USB drives
What is Wattage?
The amounts of volts and amps that a device needs
What does a logic gate do?
Allows transistors to do more complex tasks depending on logical conditions, like decide where to send electrical signals next if certain conditions are met
What is Application Software?
Any software created to fulfill a specific need.
(EG: Text editor, web broser, graphi editor etc)
What is Git?
A version control system that helps keep track of changes made to files and directories
What are the four main layers of a computer?
1) Hardware
2) Operating System
3) Software
4) Users
How many possible values can we have with 8 bits?
256
(0 is counted as a value, the range of values is 0-255)
What is Virtual Memory?
The virtual space between the SSD and the RAM used to pull ‘pages’ of infomation in order to run programs and execute processes. Pages are exchanged in ‘Swap Space’.
What is the difference between a process and a program?
A Program is an application you can run, like Chrome
A Process is a program execution
You can have many processes of the same program running at the same time
What is Meta Data?
Information about our files. Such as:
-File owner
-File size
-Permissions
-Date modified
-Date Created
-File Type
What is System Software?
Software used to keep out core system running.
(Like out Operating System tools and utilities)
What is Amperage (AMPs)?
The amount or current of electricity coming out.
(As opposed to Voltage, which will push all available electricity, Aperage will only pull a set amount)
What is the main use for Scripts?
To perform a single or limited range task
What is the default port for SSH Protocol?
22
The Base-2 Numeral System is also known as what?
Binary
What is the data transfer speed of USB 2.0?
480 MegaBits/Second (Mb/s)
What is the data transfer speed of USB 3.0?
5 Gigabits per second (Gb/s, or 5000 Mb/s)
How do you calculate amount of data being transferred from the data transfer rate?
Divide the transfer rate by 8
What is the data transfer rate of USB 3.1?
10 Gigabits per second (Gb/s)
What does the Kernal do?
It is the core that provides basic services for all other parts of the OS. It is the main layer between the OS and underlying computer hardware.
Helps with tasks such as:
-process and memory management
-file systems
-device control
-networking
What is the difference between MB and Mb?
MB = MegaByte = Unit of data storage
Mb = MegaBit = Unit of data transfer rate (divide this by 8 to get amount of data transferred)
Define Firmware
Software that is permanently stored on our computer, like the BIOS
What is the default file system for Mac OS?
APFS (as of March 2017)
Why did UTF-8 replace the ASCII character encoding standard?
Because UTF-8 can store a character in more than a single byte - This allows us to represent a lot more character types such as Emoji
What is UEFI?
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
(Replacing BIOS as it has more capabilities)
