WGU Computer Architecture verified
Personal Computer(PC)
A computer designed for use by an individual, usually incorporating a graphics display, a keyboard,
and a mouse
Server
A computer used for running larger programs for multiple users, often simultaneously, and typically
accessed only via a network
Supercomputer
A class of computers with the highest performance and cost; they are configured as servers and
typically cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars
Embedded computer
A computer inside another device used for running one predetermined application or collection of
software.
Personal mobile devices(PMDs)
Are small wireless devices to connect to the internet; they rely on batteries for power, and software is
installed by downloading apps. Conventional examples are smart phones and tables
Cloud computing
refers to large collections of servers that provide services over the internet; some providers rent
dynamically varying numbers of servers as a utility
Software as a Service (SaaS)
delivers software and data as a service over the internet, usually via a thin program such as a browser
that runs on local client devices, instead of binary code that must be installed, and runs wholly on that
device. Examples include web search and social networking
Acronym
A word constructed by taking the initial letters of a string of words. For example: RAM is an acronym
for Random Access Memory, and CPU is an acronym for Central Processing Unit
Terabyte(TB)
Originally 1,099,511,627,776(2^40) bytes, although communications and secondary storage systems
developers started using the term to mean 1,000,000,000,000(10^12) bytes. To reduce confusion, we
now use the term
tebibyte(TiB)
for 2^40 bytes
Moore's Law
States that integrated circuit resources double every 18-24 months
,Abstraction to Simplify Design
Used to characterize the design at different levels of representation; lower-level details are hidden to
offer a simpler model at higher levels
Common Case Fast
Will tend to enhance performance better than optimizing the rare case.
Performance via parallelism
Since the dawn of computing, computer architects have offered designs that get more performance
by computer operations in parallel
Pipelining
Moves multiple operations through hardware units that each do a piece of an operation, akin to
water flowing through a pipeline
Prediction
In some cases it can be faster on average to guess the start working rather than wait until you know
for sure, assuming that the mechanism to recover from a misprediction is not too expensive and your
prediction is relatively accurate.
Hierarchy of Memories
This is used to address conflicting demands of fast, large, and cheap memory with the fastest,
smallest, and most expensive memory per bit at the top of the hierarchy and the slowest, largest, and
cheapest per bit at the bottom.
Dependability via Redundancy
We make systems Dependable by including redundant components that can take over when a failure
occurs.
System Software
Software that provides services that are commonly useful, including operating systems, compilers,
loaders, and assemblers
Operating system
Supervising program that manages the resources of a computer for the benefit of the programs that
run on that computer
Compiler
A program that translates high-level language statements into assembly language statements
Instruction
A command that computer hardware understands and obeys
Assembler
A program that translates a symbolic version of instructions into the binary version
, High-level programming language
A portable language such as C, C++, Java, or Visual Basic that is composed of words and algebraic
notation that can be translated by a compiler into assembly language
Input device
A mechanism through which the computer is fed information, such as a keyboard
Output device
A mechanism that conveys the result of a computation to a user, such as a display, or to another
computer
Liquid crystal display
A display technology using a thin layer of liquid polymers that can be used to transmit or block light
according to whether a change is applied
Active matrix display
A liquid crystal display using a transistor to control the transmission of light at each individual pixel
pixel
The smallest individual picture element. Screens are composed of hundreds of thousands to millions
of pixels, organized in a matrix
Integrated circuit
Also called a chip. A device combining dozens to millions of transistors
Central Processor unity(CPU)
Also called processor. The active part of the computer, which contains the datapath and control and
which adds numbers, tests numbers, signals I/O devices to activate, and so on
Datapath
The component of the processor that performs arithmetic operations
Control
The component of the processor that commands the datapath, memory, and I/O devices according to
the instructions of the program
Memory
The storage area in which programs are kept when they are running and that contains the data
needed by the running programs
Dynamic random access memeory(DRAM)
Memory built as an integrated circuit; it provides random access to any location. Access times are 50
nanoseconds and cost per gigabyte in 2012 was $5 to $10
Personal Computer(PC)
A computer designed for use by an individual, usually incorporating a graphics display, a keyboard,
and a mouse
Server
A computer used for running larger programs for multiple users, often simultaneously, and typically
accessed only via a network
Supercomputer
A class of computers with the highest performance and cost; they are configured as servers and
typically cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars
Embedded computer
A computer inside another device used for running one predetermined application or collection of
software.
Personal mobile devices(PMDs)
Are small wireless devices to connect to the internet; they rely on batteries for power, and software is
installed by downloading apps. Conventional examples are smart phones and tables
Cloud computing
refers to large collections of servers that provide services over the internet; some providers rent
dynamically varying numbers of servers as a utility
Software as a Service (SaaS)
delivers software and data as a service over the internet, usually via a thin program such as a browser
that runs on local client devices, instead of binary code that must be installed, and runs wholly on that
device. Examples include web search and social networking
Acronym
A word constructed by taking the initial letters of a string of words. For example: RAM is an acronym
for Random Access Memory, and CPU is an acronym for Central Processing Unit
Terabyte(TB)
Originally 1,099,511,627,776(2^40) bytes, although communications and secondary storage systems
developers started using the term to mean 1,000,000,000,000(10^12) bytes. To reduce confusion, we
now use the term
tebibyte(TiB)
for 2^40 bytes
Moore's Law
States that integrated circuit resources double every 18-24 months
,Abstraction to Simplify Design
Used to characterize the design at different levels of representation; lower-level details are hidden to
offer a simpler model at higher levels
Common Case Fast
Will tend to enhance performance better than optimizing the rare case.
Performance via parallelism
Since the dawn of computing, computer architects have offered designs that get more performance
by computer operations in parallel
Pipelining
Moves multiple operations through hardware units that each do a piece of an operation, akin to
water flowing through a pipeline
Prediction
In some cases it can be faster on average to guess the start working rather than wait until you know
for sure, assuming that the mechanism to recover from a misprediction is not too expensive and your
prediction is relatively accurate.
Hierarchy of Memories
This is used to address conflicting demands of fast, large, and cheap memory with the fastest,
smallest, and most expensive memory per bit at the top of the hierarchy and the slowest, largest, and
cheapest per bit at the bottom.
Dependability via Redundancy
We make systems Dependable by including redundant components that can take over when a failure
occurs.
System Software
Software that provides services that are commonly useful, including operating systems, compilers,
loaders, and assemblers
Operating system
Supervising program that manages the resources of a computer for the benefit of the programs that
run on that computer
Compiler
A program that translates high-level language statements into assembly language statements
Instruction
A command that computer hardware understands and obeys
Assembler
A program that translates a symbolic version of instructions into the binary version
, High-level programming language
A portable language such as C, C++, Java, or Visual Basic that is composed of words and algebraic
notation that can be translated by a compiler into assembly language
Input device
A mechanism through which the computer is fed information, such as a keyboard
Output device
A mechanism that conveys the result of a computation to a user, such as a display, or to another
computer
Liquid crystal display
A display technology using a thin layer of liquid polymers that can be used to transmit or block light
according to whether a change is applied
Active matrix display
A liquid crystal display using a transistor to control the transmission of light at each individual pixel
pixel
The smallest individual picture element. Screens are composed of hundreds of thousands to millions
of pixels, organized in a matrix
Integrated circuit
Also called a chip. A device combining dozens to millions of transistors
Central Processor unity(CPU)
Also called processor. The active part of the computer, which contains the datapath and control and
which adds numbers, tests numbers, signals I/O devices to activate, and so on
Datapath
The component of the processor that performs arithmetic operations
Control
The component of the processor that commands the datapath, memory, and I/O devices according to
the instructions of the program
Memory
The storage area in which programs are kept when they are running and that contains the data
needed by the running programs
Dynamic random access memeory(DRAM)
Memory built as an integrated circuit; it provides random access to any location. Access times are 50
nanoseconds and cost per gigabyte in 2012 was $5 to $10
