A Level CS (9618) 15 Hardware

This is based on the new syllabus' book by Hodder Education

CISC

"complex instruction set computer."

RISC

"reduced instruction set computer."

Pipelining

"allows several instructions to be processed simultaneously without having to wait for previous instructions to finish."

Parallel processing

"operation which allows a process to be split up and for each part to be executed by a different processor at the same time."

SISD

"single instruction single data

SIMD

"single instruction multiple data

MISD

"multiple instruction single data

MIMD

"multiple instruction multiple data

Cluster

"a number of computers (containing SIMD processors) networked together."

Super computer

"a powerful mainframe computer."

Massively parallel computers

"the linking together of several computers effectively forming one machine with thousands of processors."

Half adder circuit

"carries out binary addition on two bits giving sum and carry."

Full adder circuit

"two half adders combined to allow the sum of several binary bits."

Combination circuit

"circuit in which the output depends entirely on the input values."

Sequential circuit

"circuit in which the output depends on input values produced from previous output values."

Flip-flop circuits

"electronic circuits with two stable conditions using sequential circuits."

Cross-coupling

"interconnection between two logic gates which make up a flip-flop."

Positive feedback

"the output from a process which influences the next input value to the process."

Sum of products (SoP)

"a Boolean expression containing AND and OR terms."

Gray codes

"ordering of binary numbers such that successive numbers differ by one bit value only

Karnaugh maps (K-maps)

"a method used to simplify logic statements and logic circuits – uses Gray codes."