These are important words to know.
Chapter 1 words:
1. hardware: the physical parts of a computer system (ex. keyboard, monitor, circuit boards)
2. software: programs and data
3. program: a series of instructions executed by hardware, one after another
4. CPU: the hardware that controls the main activity of a computer
5. input devices: (ex. disc, modem, scanner, keyboard)
6. output devices: (ex. printer, monitor, speakers)
7. main memory: the hardware where prgroams and data are stored when they are needed by the CPU
8. secondary memory: hardware storage devices that store information more or less permanently (ex. disks, tapes)
9. types of software: there are two types of software, the operating system and application programs
10. operating system: a collection of programs that includes the user interface as well as software that manages resources such as memory and the CPU 11. GUI: a visual element, such as a button or text field. stands for Graphical User Interface. 12. analog information: analog is a measurement that is in direct proportion to the source of the information
13. digital information: digital is a representation that breaks information down into pieces, represetned as numbers. (all modern computer systems are digital)
14. bit: a binary digit, either 0 or 1
15. byte: a unit of binary storage equal to eight bits
16. computer architecture: the structure and interaction of the computer hardware. there are three determining factors in building a computer: 1. amount of memory space, 2. speed, 3. price
17. ROM: any memory device whose stored information is stored permanently when the device is created. it can be read from, but not written to. stands for Read Only Memory.
18. RAM: basically the same as main memory. should probably be called Read-Write memory to distinguish it from Read Only Memory.
19. control unit: hardware device that transfers data and insturctions between main memory and the registers in the CPU and also controls the circuitry in the ALU.
20. ALU: does calculations and makes decisions. stands for arithmetic/logic unit.
21. registers: small storage areas in the CPU
22. microporcessor: a chip that is on the main circuit board of the computer that contains the CPU
23. network: two or more computers connected so that they can exchange data and share resources
24. LAN: a computer network that spans short distances and connects a small number of computers. stands for local-area network.
25. WAN: a computer network that connects two or more local-area networks, usually across long distances. stands for wide-area network
26. Internet: a worldwide computer network
27. low level language: there are two low level languages, assembly language and machine language
28. high level language: a programming language in which each statement represents many machine level instructions (ex. Java, C++, BASIC)
29. compiler: a program that translates code from one language to another by reading through the entire code once
30. interpreter: a program that translates and executes code on a particular machine one line at a time
31. compile-time error: any error during compilation often indicating problems with language syntax or data types. also called syntax error.
32. run-time error: this is a problem during execution that causes the program to crash
33. logical error: problem caused by inappropriate code processing. It does not cause the program to crash, but it produces incorrect results.