CMPSC 201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Usability, Auxiliary Memory, Computer Hardware
15 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Things that must be designed for a computer program: the logical ow of instructions, mathematical procedure, appearance on the screen. 4: program"s user friendliness, manuals and other forms of written documentation the way info is presented to the user. Hardware- physical components a computer is made of. Arithmetic and logic unit (alu)- performs mathematical operations. Program- sequence of instructions stored in a computer"s memory. Decode- decodes the encoded number and generates as a signal. Execute- signal is routed to all the components. Memory is lost as soon is computer is shut off. Has bytes bytes is divided into 8 bits bits- positive number on switch, negative number- off switch. Secondary storage- stores data for a long time. Common secondary storage device is disk drive stores data by magnetically encoding it onto a circular disk. External disks can be used as backup copies. Optical devices (cd and dvd) stores data by encoding series of pits on the disc surface.
