CSCI - Unit 1 Parts of a Computer

Monitor

The physical video display or screen used to view information from the computer.

Motherboard

The main circuit board of a computer that connects and allows communication between the CPU, memory, and all other hardware components.

CPU (Processor)

Central Processing Unit

SATA sockets

Connectors on the motherboard used to attach storage devices like hard drives and optical drives.

Main memory (DRAM)

Dynamic Random Access Memory

Expansion cards

Printed circuit boards that can be inserted into the motherboard to add extra functionality to a computer (e.g., video cards, sound cards).

Power supply unit (PSU)

The component that converts electrical power from an outlet into usable power for the computer's internal components.

Optical disc drive

A drive that uses laser light to read from or write data to optical discs like CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays.

Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD)

Non-volatile storage devices used to save programs and data long-term.

Keyboard

An input device used to enter text and commands into the computer.

Mouse

An input device used to control a cursor and interact with elements on the screen.

Transistors

Microscopic semiconductor devices on a silicon wafer chip that act as switches to process data within the CPU.

Cores

Multiple individual processors contained within a single CPU chip that allow instructions to be executed in parallel.

Memory address

A specific numbered location in DRAM (starting with zero) used to identify where data or instructions are stored.

Instruction Cycle

The sequence of operations a processor performs to execute a program, consisting of fetching, decoding, executing, and repeating.

Fetch Stage

The first stage of the instruction cycle, where the next machine instruction is retrieved from memory.

Decode Stage

The second stage of the instruction cycle, where the instruction is interpreted, data locations are determined, and data is loaded into a register.

Execute Stage

The third stage of the instruction cycle, where the CPU performs the operation required by the machine instruction.

Register

A small, high-speed storage location directly inside the CPU used to hold data temporarily during execution.

Bit (Binary digit)

A single binary digit of information (zero or one).

Byte

Eight bits

Word

Either four bytes (32-bit processor) or eight bytes (64-bit processor) representing one machine instruction.

Machine instruction

An instruction that can be executed by a CPU to compare or manipulate data. A set of machine instructions comprise a program.

Kilo

Thousands (10^3)

Mega

Millions (10^6)

Giga

Billions (10^9)

Tera

Trillions (10^12)

Peta

Quadrillions (10^15)

Exa

Quintillions (10^18)

Storage

Programs (sequences of executable instructions) or data (information used by programs) stored on non-volatile storage devices.

Non-volatile storage

Storage devices that retain data when power is turned off (e.g., SSD, HDD, Archival devices, Flash drives).

SSD

Solid-state disk drives

HDD

Hard-disk drives

Archival devices

Storage devices used to store backup data, such as CDROM, DVD, Blu-ray, or Tape drives.

Input Devices

Devices from which the computer reads (gets) information, which may be entered by a person (e.g., keyboard, mouse, trackpad, microphone, web camera, scanner, sensor).

Output Devices

Devices to which the computer writes (sends) information, which may be viewed by a person (e.g., video monitor/display, speakers, printer, projector).

Hardware

Physical components of a computer system.

Software

Executable instructions that run on the hardware.

Program

A set of instructions designed to perform some task.

Application Program

An application (app) designed to perform a task for a user.

System Program

A program that runs (often long-term or indefinitely) and manages other programs or is used to build other programs.

Operating Systems

A system program used to run a computer and manage application programs on the computer (e.g., Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android).

Compiled Language

A programming language where the program is converted to machine code by a compiler and then directly executed by the processor (e.g., C, C++).

Compiler

The program that converts source (original) code into machine code.

Interpreted Language

A programming language where a special program called an interpreter reads the source code and executes the source program line by line (e.g., Python, Flowgorithm).

Interpreter

A program that reads and executes source code line by line.