Tech+ Full Review

Printing process

Toner attracted to areas of lesser charge on the drum.

Cache L3

Larger, slower, shared across cores.

Cache L2

Intermediate between L3 and L1.

Cache L1

Smallest and fastest cache level in a processor; sits closest to CPU cores.

Hexadecimal

Base-16 system, with digits 0-9 and A-F representing 10-15.

Byte conversion

1,048,576 kilobytes (kb) in one gigabyte (gb).

Speed throughput units

From fastest to slowest: Tbps, Gbps, Mbps, Kbps.

Touchscreen types

Resistive: relies on pressure, more accurate; Capacitive: detects changes in electrical current, less accurate.

Server-based computer

Refers to data centers.

AMD EPYC

Type of embedded processor used in servers.

SATA 3.0 SSDs

Reliable, compatible storage devices used in server-based computers

Gyroscope

Detects the device's rotation.

IoT

Internet of things, with privacy concerns due to cloud storage of personal data.

Motherboard form factors

Baby-AT: older, larger; Pico-ITX: smaller, limited power; Mini-ITX: common in compact gaming builds.

Volatile storage

Holds data and loses it when the computer is turned off; example: Dynamic RAM.

Non-volatile storage

Retains data when power is off; examples: ROM, hard drives, flash drives.

Hard drive

Uses spinning metal platters to store data permanently.

Flash drive

Solid state memory chips; more expensive but faster.

DAS Storage

Directly attached storage that connects to a single computer.

NAS Storage

Network-attached storage that supports RAID configurations.

Drive interface

Physical and electrical connection linking storage devices to a computer.

SATA

Standard for hard drives and SSDs, supports hot-swapping.

SAS

High performance interface used in data centers.

Airplay

Streams audio and video.

NFC

Near-field communication for tap-to-pay transactions.

Network bandwidth

Always finite.

Type 2 hypervisor

Runs on top of the host OS; used for client-side testing.

Type 1 hypervisor

Runs directly on physical machine as OS; used in server-side virtualization.

KVM

Kernel-based Virtual Machine for Linux; supports virtualization.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Provides virtualized hardware resources.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Offers a development environment for building applications.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Delivered through a browser as a complete service.

Middleware as a Service (MaaS)

Provides integration and messaging components.

End user computing

Framework allowing secure access to company applications from any device.

On-premise clouds

Clouds hosted only within the company’s premises.

Hybrid clouds

Combines on-premises and public cloud resources.

Private cloud

Can be hosted on-premises or by a third party.

Switch

Provides additional wired ports; does not improve wireless coverage.

Router

Broadcasts a wireless network and can extend coverage.

Network-based firewalls

Require embedded hardware to inspect and filter traffic.

Software-only firewalls

Employed by individual users.

802.11n

Lower maximum throughput, less than 1 Gbps.

802.11g

Older standard limited to 54 Mbps.

802.11ax (WiFi 6)

Supports speeds beyond 8 Gbps with stronger range.

802.11ac

Fast but does not reach 8 Gbps, shorter effective range.

Video card performance

Expressed in teraflops, calculated with floats or real numbers.

Backups

Directly attached local storage backups are the fastest.

Cloud storage

Depends on internet speed, slower than local transfers.

Steps for updating the device driver

1. Open device manager, 2. Locate device category, 3. Search for drivers, 4. Update.

macOS Activity Monitor

Used to monitor system health and functionality.

Ubuntu System Monitor

Used to monitor system health and is Linux-based.

Kinetic sensors

Combination of accelerometer and gyroscope to detect motion.

Filesystems

XFS: high performance for Linux; APFS: default for iOS; FAT32: legacy file system limited to 4GB.