External Hard Drive Definition
Nearly all personal computers come with an internal hard drive. This drive stores the computer's operating system, programs, and other files. For most users, the internal hard drive provides enough disk space to store all the programs and files. However, if the internal hard drive becomes full or if the user wants to back up the data on the internal hard drive, and external hard drive may be useful.
External hard drives typically have one of two interfaces - USB o...
Read More
HDD Definition
HDD Definition
Stands for "Hard Disk Drive." "HDD" is often used interchangeably with the terms "hard drive" and "hard disk." However, the term "hard disk drive" is technically the most accurate, since "hard drive" is short for "hard disk drive" and the "hard disk" is actually contained within the hard disk drive.
The HDD is the most common storage device used to store data. Most computers made in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s include an internal hard disk drive. The first PCs had hard drives tha...
Read More
SSD Definition
SSD Definition
Stands for "Solid State Drive." An SSD is a type of mass storage device similar to a hard disk drive (HDD). It supports reading and writing data and maintains stored data in a permanent state even without power. Internal SSDs connect to a computer like a hard drive, using standard IDE or SATA connections.
While SSDs serve the same function as hard drives, their internal components are much different. Unlike hard drives, SSDs do not have any moving parts (which is why they are cal...
Read More
Optical Media Meaning
Optical Media Meaning
Media, in the computer world, refers to various types of data storage. For example, hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and USB drives are all different types of media. Optical media refers to discs that are read by a laser. This includes CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, and all the variations of the two formats -- CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, Blu-ray, and many others.
Optical media typically does not have as fast of a seek time as hard drives (the time it takes to access information on different ...
Read More
Flash Memory Definition
Flash Memory Definition
Flash memory is a type of electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). Whew, that's a mouthful. The name comes from how the memory is designed -- a section of memory cells can be erased in a single action or in a "flash." A common use of flash memory is to store the BIOS settings in a computer's ROM. When the BIOS needs to be changed, the flash memory can be written in blocks, rather than bytes, making it easy to update. Most modems use flash memory for t...
Read More
OS X Definition
OS X Definition
OS X is Apple's operating system that runs on Macintosh computers. It was first released in 2001 and over the next few years replaced Mac OS 9 (also known as Mac OS Classic) as the standard OS for Macs. It was called "Mac OS X" until version OS X 10.8, when Apple dropped "Mac" from the name.
OS X was originally built from NeXTSTEP, an operating system designed by NeXT, which Apple acquired when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. Like NeXTSTEP, OS X is based on Unix and use...
Read More
Byte Definition
Byte Definition
A byte is a data measurement unit that contains eight bits, or a series of eight zeros and ones. A single byte can be used to represent 28 or 256 different values.
The byte was originally created to store a single character, since 256 values is sufficient to represent all lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols in western languages. However, since some languages have more than 256 characters, modern character encoding standards, such as UTF-16, use two bytes, or 16...
Read More
Bit Definition
Bit Definition
A bit (short for "binary digit") is the smallest unit of measurement used to quantify computer data. It contains a single binary value of 0 or 1.
While a single bit can define a boolean value of True (1) or False (0), an individual bit has little other use. Therefore, in computer storage, bits are often grouped together in 8-bit clusters called bytes. Since a byte contains eight bits that each have two possible values, a single byte may have 28 or 256 different values.
The terms...
Read More
Register Definition
Register Definition
A register is a temporary storage area built into a CPU. Some registers are used internally and cannot be accessed outside the processor, while others are user-accessible. Most modern CPU architectures include both types of registers.
Internal registers include the instruction register (IR), memory buffer register (MBR), memory data register (MDR), and memory address register (MAR). The instruction register fetches instructions from the program counter (PC) and holds each in...
Read More
What is the difference between a 32-bit and 64-bit system?
What is the difference between a 32-bit and 64-bit system?
A: The terms "32-bit" and "64-bit" are commonly seen in system requirements and other technical literature, but few people actually know what these terms mean. Do they refer to hardware or software specifications? What makes a system 64-bit and what is the difference between a 64-bit computer and a 32-bit model? In most cases, you simply need to know if your operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit in order to run a certain program. However,...
Read More