Glossary | Glossary |
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A B Bit - A bit is the most basic unit used in computers. It is binary, meaning it is always either on (1) or off (0). For further explanations of what bits and bytes are, please check out this article. Byte - A Byte consists of 8 bits. F Flash memory - Flash memory is a type of non-volatile memory, meaning it isn't lost when you turn your equipment off, as opposed to volatile memory commonly used in computer systems. Flash memory is most familiar to people from its use in Portable Music Players and PDAs, though it is also in many children's toys and office equipment. G Gigabyte - A Gigabyte normally consists of 1024 Megabytes, though hard drive manufacturers say that it consists of 1000 Megabytes. Also known as a "gig". H Hard Drive - This is your computer's long term memory. Generally, this is where the programs you install on your computer are stored, and where you will store any documents you save on to your computer. This is why you will probably want to get as large of a hard drive as you can. The larger the hard drive, the more data files (including music, pictures, and videos!) you can store on your computer. A hard drive normally consists of several magnetic platters that spin extremely fast between magnetic readers, which read the data off of the hard drives. This is a much slower process than your system memory uses, and having mechanical parts makes it more prone to failure, but it is much less expensive for the capacity you get. Megabyte (MB) - A Megabyte normally consists of 1024 Bytes, though hard drive manufacturers say that it consists of 1000 Bytes. Also known as a "meg". Memory (system memory) - This is essentially your computer's short term memory. Basically, your computer keeps everything in this memory space that it needs to do whatever it is doing right at that moment. If your computer runs out of this memory, it will have to "borrow" some memory space from your computers hard drive, which is extremely slow in comparison. This is why you want to have as much system memory as possible in your computer, especially if you are running more than one program at a time. In most computers anything in this memory is lost when your computer is shut off, which is part of why you want to normally shut down your computer by giving it a shutdown command, and not just flipping the switch to off or pulling the plug. Also known as your computer's RAM (Random Access Memory), though that really is a specific type of system memory. Technically, Flash memory could be a type of system memory as well, but we're giving that it's own definition. mp3 player - See Portable Music Player. P Portable Music Player - A small portable device for playing music, such as the Apple iPod ®. While technically, a cassette player such as a Sony Walkman ® would qualify, generally we are referring to the newer players that play digital music files such as an mp3. Most of these store their music files in either flash memory or on a small hard drive. Also known as an mp3 player, since mp3s are the most common type of digital music file. See the Portable Music Player page for more information. R RAM - see Memory |
