topic 4 - Introduction to Hardware Flashcards

• Flash memory devices

  Non-volatile electronic storage devices
• Optical storage devices


  Storage devices that use lasers to read reflective surfaces
• Solid State Drive


  Storage device using chips instead of rotating disks
• Hard Drive


  Magnetic disk storage medium
• Secondary Storage (continued)


  Magnetic tape, magnetic disk, solid state drives, optical storage devices, flash memory devices
• Primary Storage (continued)


  Registers, cache memory, RAM, ROM
• Memory Capacity


  Units of measurement for computer memory
• Two Basic Categories of Computer Memory

  Primary storage and secondary storage
• Advances in Microprocessor Design

  Moore's Law, miniaturized transistors, multicore chips, three-dimensional chips
• CPU Components

  Control unit, arithmetic-logic unit, registers, primary storage
• The Microprocessor


  The chip or microprocessor of a CPU
• The Central Processing Unit


  Component that performs computations in a computer
• Multimedia Technology


  Integration of text, sound, images, animation, and video
• Output Technologies (continued)

  Technologies that provide information from computers
• Gesture-based input

  Technologies that interpret human gestures
• Input Technologies (continued)

  Technologies for data entry and interpretation of human gestures
• Augment Reality

  Enhancement of real-world environment with computer-generated input
• Wearable computers

  Miniature computers worn by users
• Fat-client systems

  Clients that have locally installed software
• Thin client systems

  Clients that access applications over the network
• Microcomputers

  Smallest, least expensive general-purpose computers
• Clients

  Computers that access servers through a network
• Servers


  Computers that provide services for clients
• Strategic Hardware Issues

  Challenges in keeping up with hardware advancements
• Communication technologies

  Technologies used for data transmission between devices
• Output technologies

  Methods of providing information from a computer system
• Input technologies

  Methods of entering data into a computer system
• Secondary storage


  Storage for larger amounts of data for extended periods
• Primary storage

  High-speed storage for data and instructions for CPU
• Central Processing Unit (CPU)

  Main component that performs computations in a computer
• Overall Trends in Hardware


  Smaller, faster, cheaper, more powerful
• Appropriateness

  Consideration of task suitability for hardware
• Hardware


  Physical equipment for computer-based information system