Parts of a Computer

"Brain of the computer"

Handles all instructions given to the computer--Faster it does this, the better

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

holds data long-term

Often measured in GB or TB

Storage

Printed circuit board on which the CPU, RAM chips and other electronic circuit elements of a digital computer are frequently located

Motherboard

Temporary storage--aka Memory--for working programs; Deleted when device is powered off

RAM

Set of instructions that tells the hardware what to do

Software

Necessary software controlling the computer and peripheral equipment (aka OS) ex: Windows, iOS, Android, Linux

Operating System

A device that supplies electric energy .

Power Supply

Device used to insert data into a computer or other device (ex: keyboard, mouse, microphone, scanner, voice recognition)

Input

Type of long term storage that uses more efficient flash memory

SSD

OLD type of long term storage that uses magnetic disks and moving parts

HDD

A printed circuit board or display adapter that controls the output to a display screen

Graphics Card

electronic device that has 4 things: input, storage, processing and output

computer

A series of instructions on how to accomplish a task

algorithm

Manages data flow between the computer's operating system (OS) and attached devices

bios

Input travels through a computer as 0s and 1s to become output

binary