Badm Lecture 5

Front 1

Hardware

Back 1

refers to the physical equipment used for the input, processing, output and storage activities of a computer system.

Front 2

CPU

Back 2

manipulates the data and controls the tasks performed by the other components.

Front 3

Primary storage

Back 3

internal to the CPU; temporarily stores data and program instructions during processing.

Front 4

Secondary storage

Back 4

external to the CPU; stores data and programs for future use

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Input technologies

Back 5

accept data and instructions and convert them to a form that the computer can understand

Front 6

Output technologies

Back 6

present data and information in a form people can understand.

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Communication technologies

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provide for the flow of data from external computer networks (e.g. the Internet and intranets) to the CPU, and from the CPU to computer networks.

Front 8

Central processing unit (CPU)

Back 8

performs the actual computation or “number crunching” inside any computer

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Microprocessor

Back 9

made up of millions of microscopic transistors embedded in a circuit on a silicon chip.

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Control unit

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sequentially accesses program instructions, decodes them and controls the flow of data to and from the ALU, the registers, the caches, primary storage, secondary storage and various output devices.

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Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU)

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performs the mathematic calculations and makes logical comparisons.

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Registers

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are high-speed storage areas that store very small amounts of data and instructions for short periods of time.

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Binary form

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The form in which data and instructions can be read by the CPU – only 0s and 1s.

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Machine instruction cycle

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The cycle of computer processing, whose speed is measured in terms of the number of instructions a chip processes per second.

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Clock speed

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The preset speed of the computer clock that times all chip activities, measured in megahertz and gigahertz

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Word length

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The number of bits (0s and 1s) that can be processed by the CPU at any one time.

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Bus width

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The size of the physical paths down which the data and instructions travel as electrical impulses on a computer chip

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Line width

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The distance between transistors; the smaller the line width, the faster the chip.

Front 19

Moore’s Law

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is that microprocessor complexity would double every two years as a result of the following changes:
Increasing miniaturization of transistors.
Making the physical layout of the chip’s components as compact and efficient as possible.
Using materials for the chip that improve the conductivity (flow) of electricity.
Targeting the amount of basic instructions programmed into the chip.

Front 20

what are the two most common microprocessor architectures are

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complex instruction set computing (CISC) and reduced instruction set computing (RISC).

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Microcontrollers

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are computer chips, embedded in products and technologies, that usually cost less and work in less-demanding applications than microprocessors.

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Primary storage

Back 22

stores small amounts of data and information that will be immediately used by the CPU.

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Secondary storage

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stores much larger amounts of data and information (an entire software program, for example) for extended periods of time

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Bit

Back 24

Short for binary digit (0s and 1s), the only data that a CPU can process

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Byte

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An 8-bit string of data, needed to represent any one alphanumeric character or simple mathematical operation.

Front 26

Primary storage or main memory

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stores three types of information for very brief periods of time:
Data to be processed by the CPU;
Instructions for the CPU as to how to process the data;
Operating system programs that manage various aspects of the computer’s operation.

Front 27

motherboard

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Primary storage takes place in chips mounted on the computer’s main circuit board

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four types of primary storage

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register, random access memory (RAM), cache memory and read-only memory (ROM).

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Registers

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registers are part of the CPU with the least capacity, storing extremely limited amounts of instructions and data only immediately before and after processing.

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Random access memory (RAM):

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The part of primary storage that holds a software program and small amounts of data when they are brought from secondary storage.

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Cache memory

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A type of primary storage where the computer can temporarily store blocks of data used more often.

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Read-only memory (ROM):

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Type of primary storage where certain critical instructions are safeguarded; the storage is nonvolatile and retains the instructions when the power to the computer is turned off.

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Flash memory

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A form of rewritable read-only memory that is compact, portable, and requires little energy.

Front 34

Magnetic tape

Back 34

A secondary storage medium on a large open reel or in a smaller cartridge or cassette

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Sequential access

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Data access in which the computer system must run through data in sequence in order to locate a particular piece.

Front 36

Magnetic disks

Back 36

A form of secondary storage on a magnetized disk divided into tracks and sectors that provide addresses for various pieces of data; also called hard disks.

Front 37

Hard drives

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A form of secondary storage that stores data on platters divided into concentric tracks and sectors, which can be read by a read/write head that pivots across the rotating disks.

Front 38

Direct access

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Data access in which any piece of data be retrieved in a nonsequential manner by locating it using the data’s address

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Optical storage devices

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A form of secondary storage in which a laser reads the surface of a reflective plastic platter.

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Compact disk, read-only memory (CD-ROM):

Back 40

A form of secondary storage that can be only read and not written on.

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Digital video disk (DVD

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An optical storage device used to store digital video or computer data

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Fluorescent multilayer disk (FMD-ROM):

Back 42

An optical storage device with much greater storage capacity than DVDs.

Front 43

Memory cards

Back 43

Credit-card-size storage devices that can be installed in an adapter or slot in many personal computers (i.e. memory sticks, thumb drives).

Front 44

Expandable storage devices

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Removable disk cartridges, used as backup storage for internal hard drives of PCs.

Front 45

Enterprise storage system

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An independent, external system with intelligence that includes two or more storage devices.

Front 46

Redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID):

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An enterprise storage system that links groups of standard hard drives to a specialized microcontroller that coordinates the drives so they appear as a single logical drive.

Front 47

Storage area network (SAN):

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An enterprise storage system architecture for building special, dedicated networks that allow rapid and reliable access to storage devices by multiple servers.

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Storage over IP

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Technology that uses the Internet Protocol to transport stored data between devices within a SAN; sometimes called IP over SCSI or iSCSI.

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Network-attached storage (NAS)

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device is a special-purpose server that provides file storage to users who access the device over a network; plug-and-play.

Front 50

human data-entry

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devices include keyboards, mouse, trackball, joystick, touchscreen, stylus and voice recognition;

Front 51

source-data automation

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devices input data with minimal human intervention (e.g. barcode reader).
Speed up data collection;
Reduce errors;
Gather data at the source of a transaction or other event.

Front 52

Multimedia technology

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is the computer-based integration of text, sound, still images, animation and digitized motion video.

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Grid computing

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involves applying the resources of many computers in a network to a single problem at the same time.

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Utility computing (also called subscription computing and on-demand computing)

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is when a service provider makes computing resources and infrastructure management available to a customer as needed for a charge based on specific usage rather than a flat rate.

Front 55

Nanotechnology

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refers to the creation of materials, devices and systems at a scale of 1 to 100 nanometers (billionths of a meter).