Fundamentals of Computer Science

These flashcards cover key terms and concepts related to microprocessors, microcontrollers, and their development in computer science.

Microprocessor

A computer on a silicon chip that executes programs stored in external memory.

Microcontroller

A compact integrated circuit designed to govern a specific operation in an embedded system, containing its own firmware and having dedicated functionality.

Moore's Law

The observation that the number of transistors on a chip will double approximately every two years, leading to increased performance and reduced cost.

Fetch-execute cycle

The process by which a CPU retrieves an instruction from memory, decodes it, executes it, and then stores the result.

Integrated Circuit (IC)

A microchip that consists of multiple electronic components miniaturized and embedded on a silicon substrate.

Pipelining

A technique in CPU architecture that allows overlapping the execution of instructions to improve performance.

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

The primary component of a computer that performs most of the processing inside the machine.

Intel 4004

The first commercial microprocessor, which was a 4-bit microprocessor introduced in the early 1970s.

Transistor Count

A measure of the number of transistors on a microprocessor chip, which correlates with its processing power.

Von Neumann architecture

A computer architecture model where the CPU executes software instructions by fetching and executing them sequentially.