Basic Terminology Category
Software and Hardware
Saving
The Web
More Terminology
100
The smallest unit of information storage.
What is a bit?
100
The parts of the computer that you can touch.
What is hardware?
100
An extra copy.
What is a backup?
100
Part of the internet with linked pages, picture, sounds, videos, etc.
What is the web?
100
Small devices that plug into the computer’s universal serial bus port and appear to the system as a disk drive.
What is a USB or flash drive?
200
The part of a computer that actually runs programs.
What is the CPU?
200
The programs that run on a computer.
What is software?
200
A type of memory that can hold data for long periods of time, even when there is no power to the computer.
What is secondary storage?
200
To get a file from another computer across a network.
What is download?
200
The computer’s work area. This is where the computer stores a program while the program is running, as well as the data that the program is working with.
What is memory? (main)
300
8 bits
What is a byte?
300
A document that puts data in rows and columns.
What is a spreadsheet?
300
A portable disc that stores about 650 MB of read-only information.
What is a CD-ROM?
300
A software program you use to explore the web. Examples are Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.
What is a browser?
300
Tiny dot of light on the screen.
What is a pixel?
400
Tiny piece of silicon with electronic circuits.
What is a chip?
400
The most fundamental set of programs on a computer. It controls the internal operations of the computer’s hardware, manages all of the devices connected to the computer, allows data to be saved to and retrieved from storage devices, and allows other programs to run on the computer.
What is an operating system?
400
A kind of memory that holds files while you are using them. Considered volatile. When the computer is turned off, the contents are erased.
What is RAM?
400
A set of 128 numeric codes that represent the English letters, various punctuation marks, and other characters.
What is American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)?
400
The component that collects the data and sends it to the computer (generic term).
What is an input device?
500
A bundle of computer wires.
What is a cable?
500
Programs that programmers use to create, modify, and test software. Assemblers, compilers, and interpreters are examples of programs that fall into this category.
What are software development tools?
500
DOUBLE JEOPARDY This type of drive has no moving parts and operates faster than a traditional disk drive.
What is a solid-state drive?
500
Created in the early days of computing as an alternative to machine language. Instead of using binary numbers for instructions, this uses short words that are known as mnemonics.
What is assembly language?
500
A set of instructions that a computer follows to perform a task.
What is a program?
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