Fundamentals of

Computer Science
Definitions

‫مازن هشام معتصم عبدالفتاح‬

 Chapter 1
Website A collection of related web pages usually belonging to an organization or
individual.

Uniform Resource An internet address, usually beginning with http://, that uniquely identifies a
Locator (URL) Web page.

Computer A programmable, electronic device that accepts data input, performs processing
operations on that data, and outputs and store results.

Tablet computer A portable computer about the size of a notebook that is designed to be used
with a digital pen.

Processing Performing operations on data that has been input into a computer to convert
that input to output.

Storage The operation of saving data, programs, or output for future use.

Supercomputer The fastest, most expensive, and most powerful type of computer.

Software The instructions, also called computer programs, that are used to tell a computer
what it should do.

Hardware The physical parts of a computer system, such as the keyboard, monitor, printer,
and so fourth.

Input is the operation in which data is entered into the computer.

Hybrid notebook-tablet is a portable computer designed to function as both a notebook and a tablet PC.
computer

[Server] Virtualization is frequently used with servers today to create several separate environments on
a single server that function as separate servers.

E-mail Electronic messages sent over the internet that can be received by the recipient
at his or her convenience.

Web Browser Allows access to resources located on the internet.

Operating system Supervises the running of all other programs on the computer.

Application Software Enables users to perform specifics tasks on a computer.

Programming language Allows the creation of application programs.

Hyperlink Text or an image on a Web page that is clicked to access additional Web
resources.

The Internet is an example of a Network, a collection of computers and other devices

connected together to share resources and communicate with each other.

Homepage The starting page of a website

 Chapter 2
Bit The smallest piece of data (a 0 or 1) that can be represented by a
computer.

Byte A group of 8-bit

Byte size; numbered 1-9 sm-lrg: 1
Kilobyte Byte size; numbered 1-9 sm-lrg: 2

Megabyte Byte size; numbered 1-9 sm-lrg: 3

Gigabyte Byte size; numbered 1-9 sm-lrg: 4

Terabyte Byte size; numbered 1-9 sm-lrg: 5

Petabyte Byte size; numbered 1-9 sm-lrg: 6

Exabyte Byte size; numbered 1-9 sm-lrg: 7

Zettabyte Byte size; numbered 1-9 sm-lrg: 8

Yottabyte Byte size; numbered 1-9 sm-lrg: 9

ASCII A fixed-length, binary coding system used to represent text-based data for
computer processing on many types of computers

Binary numbering system The numbering system that represents all numbers using just two symbols
(0 and 1).

Unicode an international coding system for text-based data using any written
language
Motherboard The main circuit board of a computing device located inside the system
unit, to which all computer system components connect.

RAM (Random Access Memory used to provide a temporary location for the computer to hold
Memory) data and program instructions while they are needed.

Central Processing Unit The chip located on the motherboard of a computer that preforms most of
(CPU) the processing for a computer.

Quad-Core CPU A CPU with 4 separate processing cores.

Parallel processing A processing technique that uses multiple processors or processing cores
simultaneously, usually to process a single job as fast as possible.
Port is a connector on the exterior of a computer into which a peripheral device
may be plugged.

Bus is a pathway, such as on the motherboard or inside the CPU, along which
bits can be transferred.

Universal Serial Bus (USB) A universal bus used to connect up to 127 peripheral devices to a
computer w/o requiring the use of additional expansion cards.

Nanotechnology The science of creating tiny computers and components by working at the
individual atomic and molecular levels.
Tera-Scaling The ability of a computer to process data at a teraflop speed.

Control Unit The part of the CPU that coordinates its operations

ALU The part of the CPU that preforms logical operations and integer
arithmetic.
Graphene Flat sheets of carbon that are one atom thick, are extremely light and
strong, and are a great conductor of electricity

PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express)

GPU Graphic Processing Unit

Chapter 3
Storage area A network of hard drives or other storage devices that provide storage for a
network (SAN) network of computers.

Cloud Storage Refers to using a storage device that is accessed via the internet.

Disk Cache Memory used in conjunction with a magnetic hard drive to improve performance.

File Something stored on a storage medium, such as a program, document, or an image.

Folder A named place on a storage medium into which the user can place files in order to
keep the files on that medium organized.

Hard Drive the primary storage system for most computers; used to store most programs and
data used with that computer.

Optical Disc A type of storage medium read from and written to using a laser beam.

RAID A storage method that uses several hard drives working together, typically to
increase performance and/or fault tolerance.

Solid-state drive A hard drive that uses flash memory chips instead of metal magnetic hard discs.
(SSD)

SSHD A hard drive that contains both magnetic hard drive and flash memory.

Flash memory card a small, rectangular flash memory storage medium, such as a Secure Digital (SD).

Smart Card It looks similar to a credit card but contains a chip and other circuitry that can store
data.
 Chapter 4
Mouse A common pointing device that the user slides along a flat surface to move a
pointer around the screen and clicks its buttons to make selections.

RFID tag A device containing a tiny chip and a radio antenna that is attached to an object
so it can be identified using radio frequency identification technology.

Touch screen A display device that is touched with the finger to issue commands or otherwise
provide input to the connected device.

Laser printer An output device that uses toner powder and technology similar to that of a
photocopier to produce images on paper.

OLED display A type of flat panel display that uses emissive organic material to display
brighter and sharp images than LCDs.

Pixel The smallest colourable area in an electronic image (such as a scanned

document, digital photograph, or image displayed on a display screen).
Scanner An input device that reads printed text and graphics and transfers them to
computer in digital form.

Stylus An input device that is used to write electronically on the display screen.

Digital Camera An input device that takes pictures and records them as digital images.

Ink-jet printer An output device that sprays droplets of ink to produce images on paper.

Optical character The ability of a scanning device to recognize scanned text characters and convert
recognition (OCR) them to electronic form as text, not images.

Scanner It can be used to convert flat printed documents, such as a drawing or

photograph, into digital form.

Smart Glasses A wearable display device that looks like a pair of glasses but has a built-in
display