ITEC 1001- Hardware

Gigabyte

1 billion bytes, 1 pickup truck filled with books

Megabyte

1 million bytes, a short novel

Kilobyte

1 thousand bytes, 1/2 typed page

Petabyte

1,000 terabytes, 42,000 blu-ray discs

Video graphics array connectors

Analog connector used for monitors and televisions during the 1990s. Largely replaced by HDMI connectors. Since most LCD monitors and tvs now accept digital signals, VGA connectors are becoming rare. The photo shows a blue port.

Register

Extremely small piece of memory (size is measured in bits), located throughout the processor

Intel

Founded in 1968, this is the world's largest manufacturer of processors

AMD

Founded in 1969, this company's technology is featured inside every major next-generation gaming console and home entertainment system: Microsoft's Xbox One, Sony's PS4, and Nintendo's WiiU

Nvidia

Founded in 1993, produces popular mobile device processors

Common types of servers

Network, file, and web

Boot process

The device is powered on and the CPU activates BIOS, the Power-On Self-test is executed, the OS is loaded into RAM, the OS checks the registry settings and loads saved configuration settings

Bus

a channel in which information flows inside a computer

Sold in categories such as CAT5e (enhanced) or CAT6, - cable is commonly used for connecting devices in a network.

ethernet

RAM (Random Access Memory)

is memory that's connected to the processor via the memory or the front side bus

L1 cache

located directly on the processor itself

L3 cache

located next to the processor

Frequency

measured in hertz

L1 cache

memory located on the processor itself

Gigahertz

one billion cycles per second

Megahertz

one million cycles (instructions) per second

Connector

specialized end of a cable or device that plugs into a port, USB is one of the most popular types

Disk cache

used to increase disk efficiency

Most phones have - at least GB of RAM, most laptops have at least - GB of RAM

2 GB, 4 GB

Earphone jacks use - plugs

3.5 mm

Unicode

A coding standard using at least 16 bits to represent a character of information, represents languages all over the world

Server

A computer system in a network shared by multiple users

Protocol

A set rules for communication between devices that determines how data is transmitted and recieved

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

A standard interface for audio-video connectivity which allows for the transmission of high-definition audio and video signals

Plug and Play

A technology that allows the OS to detect and configure peripherals without downloading software or drivers

Thunderbolt

A type of Firewire port, commonly found on Apple computers.

Bus with

Amount of data a bus can carry, wider bus= faster data transfer

USB

Universal serial bus. Allows for data transfer between devices and for devices to be electrically charged

Memory cache

a relatively small area of memory (measured in kilobytes or megabytes) quickly accessible by a processor

Clockspeed

also referred to as clockrate

Wordsize

amount of data a processor can hold and process at one time

Bus width is measured in these

bits

1 Gigabyte

equal to approximately 1 billion bytes

1 Terabyte

equal to approximately 1 trillion bytes, 50,000 trees turned into paper and printed