Cis Ch. 4

Front 1

system unit

Back 1

a case that contains electronic components of the computer used to process data

Front 2

motherboard

Back 2

the main circuit board of the system unit

Front 3

chip

Back 3

a small piece of semiconducting material on which integrated circuits are etched

Front 4

CPU/ Central Processing Unit

Back 4

intercepts and carries out the basic instructions that operate a computer

Front 5

Multi-Core Processor

Back 5

a chip with two or more seperate processor cores

Front 6

Control Unit

Back 6

the component of the processor that directs and coordinates most of the operations in the computer

Front 7

ALU/Arithmetic Logic Unit

Back 7

another component of the processor, performs arithmetic, comparison and other operations

Front 8

system clock

Back 8

crystal that processors rely on to control the timing of all computer operations

Front 9

clock speed

Back 9

the pace of the system clock

Front 10

binary system

Back 10

a number system that has just two unique digits, 1 and 0, called bits

Front 11

bit

Back 11

the smallest unit of data that a computer can process

Front 12

byte

Back 12

a unit created when 8 bits are combined

Front 13

memory

Back 13

consists of electronic components that store instructions waiting to be executed by the processor,data needed by those instructions and the results of processing data

Front 14

volatile memory

Back 14

temporary memory lost when power is turned off

Front 15

nonvolatile memory

Back 15

permanent memory

Front 16

RAM memory

Back 16

consists of memory chips that can be read and written to by the processor and other devices

Front 17

ROM memory

Back 17

memory chips storing permanent data and instructions

Front 18

memory module

Back 18

a small circuit board with RAM chips attached

Front 19

memory slot

Back 19

slot on the motherboard that holds memory modules

Front 20

cache

Back 20

a way to improve processing time

Front 21

L1 cache

Back 21

built directly in the processor chip

Front 22

L2 cache

Back 22

it is slightly slower than the L1 cache but has a much larger capacity

Front 23

ASCII/ American Standard Code Information Interchanging

Back 23

system to change binary code to alphabet

Front 24

ROM

Back 24

nonvolatile memory

Front 25

flash memory

Back 25

a type of nonvolatile memory that can be erased electronically and rewritten

Front 26

CMOS

Back 26

high speed processing and efficient on power chip that retains info even when power is off

Front 27

Access Time

Back 27

the amount of time it takes the processor to read data, instructions and information from memory

Front 28

nanosecond

Back 28

is one billionth of a second

Front 29

expansion slot

Back 29

a socket on the motherboard that can hold adapter cards

Front 30

adapter card

Back 30

a circuit board that enhances functions of a component of the system unit and provides connections to peripherals

Front 31

peripheral

Back 31

a device that connects to the system unit and is controlled by the processor in the computer

Front 32

video card

Back 32

converts computer output into a video signal that travels through a cable to the monitor

Front 33

sound card

Back 33

enhances the sound generating capabilities of a personal computer by allowing sound to be input through microphones and output through external speakers

Front 34

hub

Back 34

a device that plugs in a firewire or usb port on the system unit and contains multiple firewire/ usb ports in which you plug cables from

Front 35

graphic card

Back 35

converts computer output into a video signal that travels through a cable to the monitor

Front 36

memory card

Back 36

a removable flash memory device that you insert and remove from a slot in a personal computer, console, mobile device and card reader/ writer

Front 37

port

Back 37

the point at which a peripheral attached to or communicates with a system unit so that the peripheral can send data from the computer

Front 38

USB port

Back 38

can connect up to 127 different peripherals together with a single connector

Front 39

FireWire Port

Back 39

can connect multiple types of devices that require faster data transmission speed

Front 40

SCSI port

Back 40

allows you to attach SCSI peripherals

Front 41

port replicator

Back 41

an external drive that provides connections to peripherals through ports built into the device

Front 42

docking station

Back 42

an external drive that attaches to a mobile computer, contains a power connection and provides connections to peripherals

Front 43

bus

Back 43

each channel that allows the various devices both inside and attached to the system unit to communicate with each other

Front 44

system bus (front bus)

Back 44

part of the motherboard and connects the processor to main memory/ hard drive

Front 45

backside bus

Back 45

connects the processor to cache

Front 46

expansion bus

Back 46

allows the processor to communicate with peripherals

Front 47

bay

Back 47

an opening inside the system unit in which you can install additional equipment

Front 48

drive bay

Back 48

a rectangular opening that typically holds disk drives

Front 49

power supply

Back 49

the component of the system unit that converts the wall outlet AC power into DC power