It For Management Flashcards

Front 1

Bit-

Back 1

Basic unit of storage in a computer. All information is represented as strings of bits, each with a 0 or 1 value, (either 0 and 1, or “on” and “off).

Front 2

Byte-

Back 2

A grouping of 8 bits. Bytes represent single alpha-numeric characters using a coding scheme, (most common ASCII); e.g., in ASCII code, “1000001” represents the letter “A”.

Front 3

Kilobyte (KB)-

Back 3

Approximately one thousand bytes (exactly 1024 bytes)

Front 4

Megabyte (MB)-

Back 4

Approximately one million bytes (exactly 1024*1024 bytes)

Front 5

Gigabyte (GB)

Back 5

Approximately one billion bytes (exactly 1024*1024*1024 bytes)

Front 6

Terabyte (TB)-

Back 6

Approximately one trillion bytes (exactly 1024*1024*1024*1024 bytes)

Front 7

Petabyte (PB)-

Back 7

Approximately one quadrillion bytes (exactly 1024*1024*1024*1024*1024 bytes)

Front 8

Why 1024?-

Back 8

1024 is nice round number in binary math (i.e., 2 to the 10th power)

Front 9

What is measured in bytes and what is measured in bits?-

Back 9

Storage capacities are specified in bytes, but transmission speeds are specified in bits.

Front 10

How is the capitalization nomenclature different for bits and bytes?-

Back 10

When talking about bits the suffix is lower case. When talking about bytes the suffix is upper case. So, 10 Mb is (about) 10 million bits, while 10 MB is (about) 10 million bytes

Front 11

RAM-

Back 11

Stores all the programs you currently have loaded, and all the data those programs are working with. RAM chips forget their contents when the power is turned off.

Front 12

Flash memory-

Back 12

A special kind of semi-conductor memory that doesn’t forget its contents when the power is shut off. Slower and more expensive than RAM chips. Comes in flash cards and flash drives and USB flash drives.

Front 13

Flash cards-

Back 13

Used in small digital devices such as cameras and iPods.

Front 14

fFlash drives-

Back 14

Used as hard drive replacements in computers.

Front 15

USB flash drives-

Back 15

Highly portable devices that can be easily connected to any device with a USB port.

Front 16

Cache memory-

Back 16

Super fast kind of memory that resides on the microprocessor itself holding recently used data and programs. When a program needs data, looks in cache, then in regular RAM. Data in cache accessed 10x faster than data in RAM.

Front 17

Cache Concept-

Back 17

The concept of "caching" goes beyond memory. Cached webpages work the same

Front 18

Hard disk drives-

Back 18

Physical magnetic disks spinning at very high rate of speed that permanently store data. Most common in PC’s, less expensive than RAM and Flash memory. Slower, consume more power, are subject to shocks and bumps, so less commonly used in digital music players, PDAs, laptop computers, etc.

Front 19

Optical disk drive-

Back 19

Reads and writes data on optical media, (e.g. CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc. Data stored as a sequence of microscopic pits in the surfaces of the disk. Written/read by lasers (thus burned).

Front 20

CPU-

Back 20

The part of the computer that actually runs your programs.

Front 21

Microprocessor-

Back 21

CPU on a single semiconductor chip (diagram). Modern computers and digital devices of all sorts have microprocessors as their CPU.

Front 22

Multi-core processor-

Back 22

Two or more independent CPU’s on the same chip. Microprocessors from Intel and AMD have many millions of transistors.

Front 23

Transistor-

Back 23

The most basic building block of the circuitry in computers and electronics of all sorts.

Front 24

Integrated Circuits-

Back 24

Large numbers of transistors etched into semiconductor chips (microprocessors and memory chips).

Front 25

Clockspeed-

Back 25

How many "cycles" of work a microprocessor can perform in a second. Divided into cycles of standard duration for synchronization. For example, in one cycle two pieces of data can be fetched from memory; in the next the two pieces can be added; and then in the next the result can be sent to storage.

Front 26

Clockspeed Units of Measurement-

Back 26

Megahertz (millions of cycles per second) and gigahertz (billions of cycles per second)

Front 27

Microprocessor Performance Determinants-

Back 27

Clockspeed, cache memory, pipelining, # (i.e., how many operations the microprocessor can do simultaneously), # independent processors (if multi-core) & the word size (the number of bits the microprocessor can work with at one time).

Front 28

MIPS-

Back 28

millions of instructions per second. It is a better measure of the overall speed of a microprocessor than clockspeed, though still not perfect.

Front 29

Server Definition / Types of-

Back 29

Refers to server-class computer hardware, or any computer that is configured in such a way that it can act like a server. Server-class computers are typically quite powerful--with lots of processing power, memory, and hard drive space. They can be used to support large websites, but also to support large shared applications, such as ERP. So, you can buy hardware servers from Dell. Or you can turn your own computer (even a laptop) into a service by installing the right software (e.g., the Apache Web Server) and connecting it to the network.

Front 30

Server Purpose-

Back 30

The purpose of a server is to fulfill requests in a networking environment. The most common kinds of servers are web servers. Every time to you browse the internet, you are sending requests to a server, which processes your request (i.e., to display a web page) and then sends you the result.

Front 31

Mainframe-

Back 31

the largest and most powerful kind of computer in common use. Mainframes are capable of supporting hundreds of simultaneous users, each assessing the mainframe through a dedicated terminal. Years ago, all of an organization's computing would be typically be done on a single mainframe, which was so large it would fill an entire room. Mainframes have become comparatively rare as the work of computing has been taken over by personal computers and servers. Today's mainframes usually perform the role of servers, and in fact have been renamed as "enterprise servers".