Computer Science Chapter 4

Front 1

system unit

Back 1

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

Front 2

motherboard

Back 2

the elecronic componants and circutry of the system unit

Front 3

chip

Back 3

a small piece of semiconductiong material on which intigrated circuts are etched

Front 4

CPU (centeral processing unit)

Back 4

interprets and carries the basic instructions that operate the computer

Front 5

multi-core processor

Back 5

a chip with two or more seperate processor cores

Front 6

contrl unit

Back 6

the componant of the processor that directs and coordinates most of the operaions in the computer

Front 7

ALU (arithmatic logic unit)

Back 7

preforms arithmatic, comparison, and other operations

Front 8

system clock

Back 8

controls timing of all computer operations

Front 9

clock speed

Back 9

the pace of the system clock measured by # of ticks per second

Front 10

GHz

Back 10

1 billion ticks per second

Front 11

binary system

Back 11

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

Front 12

bit

Back 12

the smallest unit of data the computer can process

Front 13

byte

Back 13

8 bits grouped together

Front 14

memory

Back 14

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

Front 15

volatile memory

Back 15

looses its contents when power is turned off

Front 16

nonvolatile memory

Back 16

does not loose its contents when power is turned off

Front 17

RAM memory

Back 17

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

Front 18

ROM memory

Back 18

memory chips storing permenant data and instruction

Front 19

memory module

Back 19

a small circut board where ROM chips reside

Front 20

memory slot

Back 20

slots on the motherboard that hold memory chips

Front 21

cache

Back 21

place where commonly used codes are stored

Front 22

L1 cache

Back 22

built into processor chip, usually has small capacity

Front 23

L2 cache

Back 23

slower than L1 but has more capacity

Front 24

flash memory

Back 24

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

Front 25

CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor)

Back 25

provides computers with high speeds and consumes little power

Front 26

access time

Back 26

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

Front 27

nanosecond

Back 27

one billionth of a second

Front 28

expansion slot

Back 28

a socket on the motherboard tha holds an adapter card

Front 29

adapter card

Back 29

a circut board that enhances functions of a component of the system unit and/or provides connections to peripherals

Front 30

peripheral

Back 30

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

Front 31

video card

Back 31

converts computer output into a video signal that travels through a cable monitor, which displays an image on the screen

Front 32

sound card

Back 32

enhances the sound-generating capabilities of a personal computer by allowing the sound to be input through a microphone amd output through speakers

Front 33

hub

Back 33

a device that plugs into a USB port on the system unit and contains multiple USB ports in which you plug USB devices

Front 34

graphics card

Back 34

same as video card

Front 35

memory card

Back 35

a removable flash memory device that you insert and remove from a slot in a personal computer, game console, etc.

Front 36

port

Back 36

a point at which a peripheral attatches to communicates with a system unit so that peripherals can send data to or recieve info from the computer

Front 37

USB port (universal serial bus)

Back 37

can connect up to 127 different peripherals with 1 wire

Front 38

firewire port

Back 38

can connect multiple types of devices that require faster data transmission speeds to a single connector

Front 39

SCSI port

Back 39

allows you to attatch SCSI peripherals

Front 40

port replicator

Back 40

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

Front 41

docking station

Back 41

an external device that attatches to a mobile computer or device or that contains a power connection and provides connections to peripherals

Front 42

bus

Back 42

etched chanels in the circutry in which the info travels

Front 43

system bus

Back 43

connects processor to memory

Front 44

front side bus

Back 44

connects processor to memory

Front 45

backside bus

Back 45

connects processor to cache

Front 46

expansion bus

Back 46

allows processor to communicate with peripherals

Front 47

bay

Back 47

an opening inside the system unit in which you can install aditional equiptment

Front 48

drive bay

Back 48

a rectangular opening that usually holds disk drives

Front 49

power supply

Back 49

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