Fundamentals of Computer Science

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts in computer science, including definitions of terms related to computers, memory, data representation, and historical figures.

Computer

A device that can be instructed to carry out an arbitrary set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically.

John von Neumann

A mathematician whose team designed the first general-purpose stored program computer in the 1940s.

Turing Machine

A theoretical machine proposed by Alan Turing that formalizes the concept of computation.

CPU

Central Processing Unit; the microprocessor at the heart of a computer responsible for executing instructions.

Control Unit (CU)

Part of the CPU that decodes instructions and activates components to execute them.

Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)

The part of the CPU that performs arithmetic and logical operations.

Main Memory

Also known as primary memory; volatile memory that CPU accesses directly.

Binary

A base-2 numeral system that uses two symbols, typically 0 and 1, to represent values.

Hexadecimal Notation

A base-16 numeral system that uses sixteen distinct symbols; commonly used in computing.

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange; a character encoding standard for text.

Unicode

A comprehensive character encoding standard that includes characters from all writing systems.

I/O Devices

Input/Output devices used to transfer data into and out of the computer system.