CGS2100 Exam 2 Study Guide Technology in Focus Computing Alternatives Vocabulary Binary language Computer language represented by 1s and 0s Electrical switches Devices within the computer that are flipped between two states of 1 and 0 signifying on or off Vacuum tubes The earliest generation of electronic computers used vacuum tubes as switches act as switches by allowing or booking the flow of electrical current Transistor Electrical switches built out of layers of a special type of material called a semiconductor semiconductor Any material that can be controlled either to conduct electricity or to act as an insulator Integrated circuits chips Tiny regions of semiconductor material that support a huge number of transistors most are no more than a quarter inch in size and can hold billions of transistors microprocessor The chips that contain a central processing unit CPU Number system An organized plan for representing a number Binary number system base 2 number system can still represent all values that a base 10 number system can Describes the number as a the sum of powers of two Hexadecimal notation base 16 number system meaning it uses 16 digits to represent numbers rather than the 10 digits used in base 10 uses 0 9 and a f to represent values America Standard Code for Information Interchange ASCII pronounced askey a code to provide consistent means for representing letters and other characters and dictates binary formats most of today s personal computers use ASCII represents 26 uppercase and 26 lowercase letters along with many other punctuation and special characters using 8 bits bit A single binary digit CGS2100 Exam 2 Study Guide P 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 byte 8 binary digits Unicode A new encoding scheme using 16 bits which can represent 1 115 000 characters letters symbols used for other languages Fetch First step of the CPU machine cycle processing cycle 1s and 0s of the binary coade are fetched from their temporary stroage locatio in RAM decode step 2 of CPU machine cycle processing cycle once the programs s binary code is in the CPU it is decoded into commands the CPU understands execute step 3 of the CPU machine cycle processing cycle the CPU actially peroforms the work described in the commands store step 4 for the CPU machine cycle processing cycle the result of the operation is stored in one of the registers special memory storage areas built into the CPU control unit the part of the CPU that magnages the switches inside the CPU system clock an internal clock of the motherboard acutally a special crystal that acts as a metronome keeing a steady beat and controlling with the CPU moves to the next stage of processing clock cycle pace by which the computer moves from process from process clock speed describes how many times something happens per second measured in hertz Hz cache memory has an even faster access to the CPU than RAM consists of small blocks of memory located directly on and next to the CPU chip hold place for for recently or frequently used instructions or data that the CPU needs most level 1 cache a block of memory built onto the CPU chip to store data commands that have just been used CGS2100 Exam 2 Study Guide P 2 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 level 2 cache either located on the CPU chip but slightly farther away from the CPU that level 1 or is located on a separate chip next to the CPU assembly language a symbolic form of machine language that is easier for people to read as compared to binary language level 3 cache checked by the CPU after level 1 and 2 but before RAM Instruction set whole set of instructions that the CPU can understand machine language programming language category that uses binary coded instructions arithmetic logic unit ALU the pat of the CPU designed to perform mathematical operations word size the number of bits a computer can work with at a time pipelining a technique that allows the CPU to work on more than one instruction at the same time thereby boosting CPU performance parallel processing processing system in which a large network of computers with each computer working on a portion of the same problem simultaneously Chapter 6 Understanding and Assessing Hardware Evaluating Your System Objectives 1 What kind of computer is best for me 2 What does the CPU do and how can I evaluate its performance 3 How does memory work in my computer 4 How do I evaluate how much memory I need 5 What are the computer s storage devices 6 How do I evaluate my storage devices 7 What components affect the quality of video on my computer 8 How do I know if I need better video performance 9 What components affect my computer s sound quality 10 How can I improve the reliability of my system Vocabulary Express Card Moore s Law A rule of thumb in the computer industry which describes the rate at which the CPUs improve says CPU capacity doubles every 2 years which mostly holds true predicts that in 2020 this will no longer hold true because the way that CPUs are manufactured will change CGS2100 Exam 2 Study Guide P 3 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 1 2 Laptops are often equipped with an expresscard slot The expresscard can an a solid state drive new kinds of ports and other compatibilities to the system System evaluation The process of looking at a computers subsystems what they do and how they perform to determine whether the computer system has the right hardware components to do what the users ultimately wants it to do Control unit Part of the CPU that coordinates all the activities of all the other components arithmetic logic unit ALU Part of the CPU that is responsible for performing all the arithmetic calculations and makes logical comparisons Machine cycle The cycle the CPU goes through every time it performs a program instruction 1 Fetches required data or instruction from RAM 2 decodes the instruction 3 Executes the instruction 4 Stores the result in RAM before moving on to the next instruction Clock Speed Determines how many instruction can process each second Measured in GHz or billions per second Overclocking when the user runs the CPU at a faster speed than the manufacturer recommends produces more heat and a shorter CPU lifespan often done in gaming core contains the part of the CPU required for processing Hyperthreading Provides quicker processing of information by enabling a new set of instructions before the previous is finished allowed CPUs to execute more than 1 instruction at a time Cache memory A form of RAM that gets
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