IT Terminology - Matric IEB with Answers

Access Modifier - A keyword defining the visibility of a method or field in a class. Digitizer Tablet / Digitizer / Graphics Tablet - A tool used to convert hand-drawn images into a format suitable for computer processing. Images are usually drawn onto a flat surface with a stylus and then appear on a computer monitor or screen. Accessor - A typed method (function) that returns the value of a private field in an object. ADSL Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line. - Used by homes and businesses for dedicated digital high speed connection to the internet over conventional phone lines. Attenuation - the reduction in signal strength while transmitting data. The further the signal gets from the source the weaker it will become Attribute - Fields or property of a class defining the data associated with each object. BIOS - the essential start up instructions of a computer, stored in ROM on the motherboard. BitTorrent - a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol designed to reduce the bandwidth required to transfer files. For example, if a user begins downloading a movie file, the BitTorrent system will locate multiple computers with the same file and begin downloading the file from several computers at once Botnets / Zombie Army - A group of computers which have been infected by malware and are controlled from a server to run related software programs and scripts. Often utilised to forward spam. Centralised Prcoessing vs Distributed Processing - Major processing tasks in a network are performed by one central powerful computer in comparison to many computers which have sufficient processing to complete complex tasks themselves Class - the definition used to create instances of itself, called objects. Classes define the attributes and methods that each object created from that class will have. Client-Server - 1: A computer terminal that retrieves information from or uses resources provided by a server. 2: A powerful computer which provides services to clients on a network Cloud Computing - an interent service which can provide on-line applications, store data on-line and in a recent trend provide hardware for use on-line. CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor A technology for producing the type of memory that stores the various user configurable computer startup settings that can be updated or changed A type of memory where the BIOS settings are saved Compiler vs Interpreter - A program that translates an entire high level program source code into object code. The object code is machine code which may be used to create standalone 'executable files'