IT Hardware, Operating Systems, and System Maintenance

Vocabulary flashcards covering power supplies, computer components, mobile repair, display technologies, operating system architecture, and system administration terms.

Power Supply

Converts AC electricity from the wall outlet into low voltage DC power usable by computers.

Voltage

Electrical pressure; using the wrong voltage can damage devices.

Current (Amps)

The flow of electricity; higher amps can charge devices faster.

Wattage

The product of volts and amps; power supplies must provide enough wattage for the system.

Motherboard

The main circuit board connecting all computer components, housing the CPU, memory slots, expansion slots, and connectors for peripherals.

RAM (Random Access Memory)

The computer's short-term memory used to store data for active processes.

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)

A sudden and momentary flow of electric current between two electrically charged objects caused by contact, an electrical short, or dielectric breakdown.

Thermal Paste

A substance used to better connect the CPU and heat sink so heat transfers effectively between them.

Heat Sink

A component used to dissipate heat away from the CPU.

Standoffs

Hardware used to raise and attach the motherboard securely to the computer case.

Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA)

The process of receiving returned merchandise and authorizing a refund, or sending devices to external vendors when self-repair is not permitted.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

Display technology using liquid crystals manipulated by electricity that requires backlighting, making it thicker and less flexible.

In-Plane Switching (IPS)

A type of LCD offering vibrant colors and wide viewing angles.

Twisted Nematic (TN)

A type of LCD with fast response times but poor color accuracy.

Vertical Alignment (VA)

A type of LCD offering good contrast and mid-range performance.

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED)

Display technology that emits light directly using organic materials, allowing thinner, flexible displays with high picture quality and energy efficiency.

Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED)

An OLED variant with fast response times and integrated touchscreens, sensitive to moisture and prone to burn-in.

Mini-LED (mLED)

Display technology using smaller LEDs for backlighting, offering high brightness and thin panels, but higher cost than OLEDs.

Micro-LED (̥LED)

Display technology with even smaller LEDs providing superior brightness, durability, and color, but costly and not yet mass-produced.

Address Bus

Connects the CPU to the MCC and sends over the location of data, but not the data itself.

ATA

The most common interface that hard drives use to connect to a system.

ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended)

The most common form factor for motherboards.

Backward Compatible

Characteristic meaning older hardware works with newer hardware.

BIOS (Basic Input Output Services)

Software that helps initialize the hardware in a computer and gets the operating system up and running.

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

Refers to the practice of allowing people to use their own personal devices for work.

Cache

The assigned stored location for recently or frequently accessed data.

Charge Cycle

One full charge and discharge of a battery.

Chipset

Decides how components talk to each other on a machine.

Clock Cycle

Occurs when a voltage is sent to the clock wire.

Clock Speed

The maximum number of clock cycles a CPU can handle in a set period of time.

Clock Wire

Wire that sends a voltage when sending or receiving data to let the CPU know it can start doing calculations.

CPU Sockets

A series of pins that connect a CPU's processor to the motherboard.

DDR SDRAM

Double Data Rate SDRAM; a type of RAM that is faster, takes up less power, and has a larger capacity than earlier SDRAM versions.

Drivers

Software containing instructions the CPU needs to understand external devices like keyboards, webcams, and printers.

External Data Bus (EDB)

A row of wires that interconnects the parts of a computer.

Factory Reset

Resetting a device to the settings it came with from the factory.

Form Factor

A mathematical way to compensate for irregularities in the shape of an object by using a ratio between its volume and height.

HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

Storage drive that uses a spinning platter and a mechanical arm to read and write information.

Instruction Set

A list of instructions that a CPU is able to run.

ITX (Information Technology eXtended)

A form factor for motherboards that is much smaller than ATX boards.

Land Grid Array (LGA)

A type of CPU socket where the pins stick out of the motherboard.

Memory Controller Chip (MCC)

A bridge between the CPU and the RAM.

Northbridge

Chipset component that interconnects high-speed components like RAM and video cards.

NVMe (NVM Express)

Interface standard which allows greater throughput of data and increased efficiency.

Overclocking

Increases the rate of CPU clock cycles in order to perform more tasks.

Peripherals

External devices connected to a computer that add functionality, like a mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

Pin Grid Array (PGA)

CPU socket design where the pins are located on the processor itself.

POST (Power On Self Test)

Initial process that figures out what hardware is on the computer during boot.

Reimaging

The process of wiping and reinstalling an operating system using a disk image.

ROM Chip (Read Only Memory)

A read-only memory chip where the BIOS is stored.

Safe Operating Temperature

The temperature range in which rechargeable batteries must be kept in order to avoid damage.

SATA

The most popular serial ATA drive interface using one cable for data transfers.

SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM)

Type of RAM synchronized to the system clock speed, allowing quicker processing of data.

SOC (System On a Chip)

Packs the CPU, RAM, and sometimes storage onto a single chip.

Southbridge

Chipset component that maintains input/output controllers like hard drives and USB devices.

SSD (Solid State Drive)

A high-speed solid-state storage drive.

UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)

Modern firmware interface designed to replace traditional BIOS.

Abstraction

To take a relatively complex system and simplify it for our use.

Algorithm

A series of steps that solves specific problems.

ASCII

The oldest character encoding standard used to represent the English alphabet, digits, and punctuation marks.

Binary System

The base-2 numeral system used for computer communications.

Byte

A group of 8 bits.

Character Encoding

Used to assign binary values to characters so that humans can read them.

Cryptography

The overarching discipline that covers the practice of coding and hiding messages from third parties.

Digital Divide

The growing skills gap between people with and without digital literacy skills.

Logic Gates

Components that allow transistors to perform complex tasks based on logical conditions.

Open Source

Development model where developers let others share, modify, and distribute software for free.

UTF-8

The most prevalent encoding standard used today.

Kernel

Main OS part that manages hardware and system resources.

User Space

OS environment including programs and interfaces outside the kernel that users interact with directly.

File System

Organizes how data is stored and accessed on a hard disk.

Metadata

Important information about files, including creation date, modification date, access permissions, and file type.

Process

An executing program managed by the OS kernel.

Time Slice

A very short amount of CPU time given to a process to run before the CPU switches to another process.

Virtual Memory

Memory management method combining RAM and hard disk space to provide more usable memory.

Swap Space

The portion of the hard drive used for virtual memory to swap pages between RAM and disk.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Visual interaction environment with icons and menus, common in everyday devices.

Command Line Interface (CLI)

Text-based interface where commands are entered and interpreted by a shell.

Logs

System event records that track computer events such as startup, driver loads, and errors to help diagnose technical problems.

Virtual Machines (VMs)

Isolated operating systems running on a single physical computer.