Topic 1 Flashcards
What is a computer?
A machine that process data
What are the two things that make up computers?
Hardware and software
What is hardware?
The physical stuff that makes up your computer EG motherboard
What is software?
Software is the programs applications a computer system runs
What are the two types of computer system?
General and dedicated
What is a general computer?
Computers designed to take many tasks
What is a dedicated computer?
A computer design for one task
What is an embedded system?
Computers inside a larger system
Give me an example of an embedded system
Dishwasher (xx)
What is the purpose of the power supply?
To provide power to the hardware
What is the purpose of the case cooling fan?
To extract hot air from the computer case
What is the purpose of the CPU heatsink?
Keep the CPU at a steady temperature
What is the purpose of the CPU?
Does all the processing
What is the purpose of the motherboard?
The main circuit board were all the hardware is connected
What does CPU stand for?
Central processing unit
What are the factors that change processing power of a CPU?
Clock speed
Number of cores
And cash size
What are the three main parts of a CPU?
The control unit
The arithmetic logic unit
The cash
What does the control unit do?
The control unit is an overall control. Its main job is to manage to fetching decoding an execution of program instructions by following the fetch execute cycle.
It controls the flow of data inside the CPU to all the registers and outside the CPU
What does the arithmetic logic unit do?
Does all the calculations
Does all the logic operations?
What does the cache do
The memory within the CPU its doors regular use data, receiver, you can access fast
What are the three levels of cache memory?
L1
L2
L3
Which is the fastest level of cache memory
L1
Which is the slowest level of cache memory
L3
Which cache and hold the least amount of data
L1
Which cache and hold the most amount of data
L3
What is Von Neumann’s design
Architecture of a CPU that runs programs, stored in memory programs, consist of instructions and data
Where is the program counter?
Inside the control unit
What is the purpose of the program counter?
The program counter holds the memory addresses of the instructions for each cycle
Where is the accumulator?
In the arithmetic and logic unit
What is the purpose of the accumulator?
Stores immediate results of calculations
Where is the memory address register?
In the registers
What is the point of the memory address register?
Holds any addresses about to be used by the CPU
Where is the memory data register?
In the registers
What is the purpose of the memory data register?
Holds the actual data or instructions that may have been fetch from memory or waiting to be written into memory
What is the fetch execute cycle?
The cycle that the computer follows to get data, decode data and execute the code
What is stage one of the fetch execute cycle?
The fetch instruction
What happens in the fetch instruction?
Copy memory address from the program counter to the memory address register
Copy the instructions, stored in the memory address register to the memory data register
Increase the program counter by one
What happens in the decode instruction of the fetch execute cycle?
The instruction in the memory data register is decoded by the control unit, the control unit them prepares for the next step
What happens in the execute instruction of the fetch execute cycle?
The instruction is performed
What is Ram?
High-speed volatile memory
What does RAM stand for?
Random access memory
What happens when a computer runs out of ram?
Creates virtual memory in secondary storage
What is clock speed?
The number of instructions are you single process of caulking carry out per second
What is overclocking?
When the CPU is made to run faster than the factory clock setting
What are the cores in a cpu
It allows the computer to multitask
More cores mean more tasks can be done at the same time
What would more cores allow for?
More instructions to be processed at once
What would and increase in cache size do?
Allow the cpu to run faster as it is can get data more quickly
How does more ram make the CPU smoother?
Allows the CPU to grab data more quickly
What is the function of a GPU?
They are specialised circuits for handling graphics and images. Processing
What is primary storage?
The memory areas the CPU can access quickly like registers, ROM and RAM
What is secondary storage?
Is nonvolatile storage where all the data is stored when not in use
What is a hard disk?
High capacity , reliable storage they are the traditional internal storage is for PC and laptop
What’s a hard drive is made up of
Magnetic discs
What is a solid state drive?
Fast and reliable, secondary storage with no moving parts
Advantages of hard drives
Cheaper
Higher capacity
Hiya, read write life
Advantages of SSD
Faster
Don’t need defragmenting
More shock proof
Make less noise
What is an optical disc?
A disc like a cd or DVD that can hold data
What are the three where is the optical discs come?
Read only
Write once
Rewritable
What are magnetic tape used for?
Archiving
What does the operating system do?
Communicate with a total of external hardware via drivers
Provide a user interface, allowing users to interact with computers
Provide a platform for different applications to run
I love the computer to multitask by controlling memory resources and the CPU
Deal with fire management and disc management
What is a user interface?
And interface that allows a user to interact with a computer system
What are the two types of interface?
Graphical user interface
Command, lines face
What are the benefits of a graphical user interface?
Easy to use
Optimised for specific input methods
Intuitive
What does wimp stand for?
Windows icons, menus and pointers
What is a command line interface?
A text based interface with a user enters specific commands to complete tasks
Benefits of command line interface
Less resource, heavy
Can access all settings easily
And efficient
What is defragmentation?
The process of storing like data on a hard drive close together
How does defragmentation speed up the hard drive?
Read ahead has to move l less
What is encryption?
Encryption software scrambles the data to stop third parties from accessing
Name some utility software
Defragmentation
Compression
Encryption
