CGS EXAM 2 STUDY GUIDE Technology in Focus Computing Alternatives Application Software Alternatives Proprietary or commercial software is made by Apple and Microsoft to be sold for a profit It provides a source code that makes the program work Open source software is freely distributed no royalties occur to the creators contains the source code and can be distributed to others Can download free from websites install it as many times as you want redistribute it and make changes OpenOffice org suite is a free suite of productivity that provides functionality similar to that of Microsoft Office Components include word processing writer spreadsheet calc presentation impress and database programs base compatible to most programs o In Writer files automatically save as odt extension but can be changed to doc or docx o In Calc files save as ods MySQL com is the most used open source application most like free high end SQL database Is used to develop serious database applications Mozilla Thunderbird is an open source e mail client that had many enhancements that allow you to organize e mail with tagging folders search and saved search features Draw is used in OpenOffice that allows you to create simple graphs charts and diagrams Dia is a free program that allows you to create Visio like diagrams and charts that are Windows compatible SeaMonkey Composer is like Adobe Dreamweaver but it is a free open source that supports cascading style sheets positioned layers and dynamic image and table resizing GIMP is the free and the same as Photoshop you can crop reduce and fix distortion Operating System Alternatives o Linux is an open source OS that has less annoyances like viruses and hackers Linux is available for download in various packages known as distributions or distros These specify the make and model You can boot up from a flash drive on an existing Windows PC and run Linux without disturbing the existing Windows installation Hardware Alternatives o Mac OS X Snow Leopard is based on Apple s UNIX OS which is stable and reliable o It is not as vulnerable as Windows to the exploitation of security flaws by hackers o Finder is like Windows Explorer and controls the desktop and the windows with which you interact Mac uses System Preferences as its control panel Snow Leopard comes with an automatic firewall but should keep software up to date o Activity Monitor shows what programs or processes are currently running and how much memory they are using like Windows Task Manager Mac OS System Profiler displays all the hardware and software installed in a Mac including type of processor the amount of RAM installed and the amount of VRAM on the video card o When building your own Windows based computer you will need o Case ATX style new and has adequate cooling o Motherboard accommodate CPU you have chosen o Processor CPU Get the fastest for your buck o RAM check motherboard specifications to ensure correct type o Hard drives SSD are the fastest and most expensive o Power Supply adequate wattage to accommodate big loads o Video Card 512 MB or video memory are fine for normal computer use but for gaming must get 1GB or more o Sound card PCI card that is compatible with Sound Blaster o Optical Drives CD DVD necessary for software installation o Keyboard mouse monitor and OS software Chapter 6 Understanding and Assessing Hardware Evaluating Your System Moore s Law describes that pace at which CPUs central processing units are the small chips that can be thought of as the brains of the computer improve named after Gordon Moore the CPU chip manufacturer Intel This rule depicts that the number of transistors inside the CPU will increase so fast that the CPU capacity will double every 18 months The capacity of memory chips such as dynamic random access memory DRAM the most common form of memory found in personal computers increases about 60 percent each year Technology is advancing so quickly and the upgrades are so expensive it is hard to keep up o To determine what computer you need you need to determine your ideal system what you want to be able to do with your computer You need to determine if you need a computer for portability entertainment educational or business uses or all four o Next the decision if between Desktop and Notebook how and where you use it Notebook is portable while a desktop is not o Desktops are more reliable larger screen more difficult to steal and best value o Notebooks are often equipped with an Express Card slot these cards can add a solid state drive SSD eSATA external SATA that can add an external hard drive for more storage space and FireWire ports And are lightweight take up less space easier to ship and smaller video display o To determine whether your computer system has the right hardware components to do what you ultimately want it to do you need to conduct a system evaluation includes CPU memory storage video and audio subsystems o Evaluate the CPU your computer s central processing unit is critically important because it processes instructions performs calculations manages the flow of information through a computer system and is responsible for turning raw data into valuable information through processing information Compromised of two units the control unit and the arithmetic unit ALU o The control unit coordinated the activities of all the other computer components The ALU is responsible for performing all the arithmetic calculations and logic comparison decisions o Each CPU differs in core clock speed and cache memory A core is a complete processing section from a CPU embedded into one physical chip Clock speed is how quickly the processor can work o Hyperthreading provides a quicker processing of information by enabling a new set of instructions to start executing before their previous set has finished o Cache memory is a form of random access memory that is more accessible to the CPU than regular RAM ready access to CPU and is fastest o Front side bus FSB connects the processor in your computer to the system memory Processors are defined by processor speed front side bus speed and the amount of cache memory o Benchmarks are measurements used to compare CPU performance between processors Are generated by running software programs specifically designed to push the limits of CPU performance o Both Intel and AMD make processors for both Notebooks and Desktops o CPU usage is the percentage of time that your CPU is working o Evaluating RAM Random access memory RAM
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