CIS 111 Final Review Chapter 4

SCSI port

attaches the system unit toSCSI port attaches the system unit to SCSI peripherals, such as disk drives and printers.

FireWire Port

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

MIDI port

connects the system unit to a musical instrument.

Byte

A byte is another word for character; generally represented by 8 bits , provides enough different combinations of 0's and 1's to represent 256 individual characters

System Unit

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

Multi-core processor

A chip with 2 or more processor cores ie. dual- core and quad-core

Gigabyte

GB 1 billion

USB Port

Short for Universal Serial Bus, an external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps. A single USB port can be used to connect up to 127 peripheral devices, such as mice, modems, and keyboards

Expansion slot

Socket on a motherboard that can hold an adapter card.

Adapter card

Sometimes called an Expansion card is a circuit board that enhances functions of a component of the system unit and provides connection to a peripheral

Port

The point at which a peripheral attaches to or communicates with a system unit so that the peripheral can send data to or receive info from the computer

Docking station

an external device that attaches to a mobile computer or device, contains a power connection and provides connections to peripherals and usually also includes slots for memory cards, etc

Port replicator

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

Arithmetic logic unit (ALU)

performs arithmetic, comparison, and other operations.

AC adapter

External power supply

Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor

Also known as CMOS Technology that uses battery power to retain information even when the power to the computer is turned off

Processor

Also called Central Processing Unit (CPU), interprets and carries out the basic instructions that operate a computer

Video card

Also called Graphics Card; A computer expansion card that takes graphical data from the computer and converts it to a signal that can be transmitted to a monitor over a wire or cable.

System bus

Also called the Front Side Bus (FSB) Bus that is part of the motherboard and connects the processor to main memory

Flash memory

A type of nonvolatile computer memory that can be electrically erased and rewritten repeatedly.

Bluetooth

A wireless technology that uses short-range radio frequency transmissions.

Expansion Bus

Allows the processor to communicate with peripherals

Dual-core processor

Chip that contains 2 separate processor cores

Quad-core processor

Chip that contains 4 separate processor cores

Control Unit

Component of a processor that directs and coordinates most of the operations in the computer.

Control unit

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

Power supply

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

Backside Bus (BSB)

Connects the processor to cache

Nonvolatile memory

Does not lose its contents when the computer's power is turned off

List the 3 basic types of RAM chips R

Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Static RAM (SRAM), and magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM)

Bus

Electrical channel along which bits transfer within the circuitry of a computer, allowing devices both inside and attached to the system unit to communicate

Kilobyte

KB or K 1 thousand

Volatile memory

Loses its contents when the computer's power is turned off

Megabyte

MB 1 million

The display often is built into the what system unit

Mobile computers and devices

Which runs at a faster speed, multi-core or single-core processor?

Multi-core runs at a slower speed than Single-core processor

Bay

Opening inside the system unit

Clock speed

Pace of the system clock is measured by the number of ticks per second

Firmware

ROM chips that contain permanently written data, instructions, or information, recorded on the chips when they were manufactured.

List examples of Nonvolatile memory

ROM, flash memory, & CMOS

Digital

Recognize only two discrete states: off and on

Microprocess

Refer to a personal computer processor chip

Another name for Motherboard

System board, main circuit board of the system unit

Terabyte

TB 1 trillion

Decoding

Translating an instruction into signals a computer can execute

Memory module

a small circuit board, where the RAM chips reside ( SIMMS, DIMMS, RIMMS)

Random Access Memory (RAM)

a type of memory that can be read from and written to by the processor and other devices. * Ram memory is volatile.

Irda port

allows wireless devices to transmit signals to a computer via infrared light waves.

Memory

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

Peripheral

device that can be attached to or used with a computer, such as a keyboard, monitor, printer, or scanner

Sound card

enhances the sound-generating capabilities of a personal computer

eSATA port

external SATA; port that allows you to connect a high-speed external SATA (serial advanced technology attachment) hard disk to a computer

Connector

joins a cable to a port

Read only memory (ROM)

refers to memory chips storing permanent data and instructions

Bit

smallest piece of information used by the computer. Derived from "binary digit". In computer language, it is either a one (1) or a zero (0).

Binary system

which is a number system that has just two unique digits — 0 (for off) and 1 (for on) — called bits