Aqa Gcse Computing 8525 Computer Systems Study Guide Rated A+

Software {Ans: The sets of instructions that tell the hardware what to do. Programs.}Hardware {Ans: The physical parts of the computer system}Magnetic storage {Ans: Magnetic devices such as hard disk drives use magnetic fields to magnetise tiny individual sections of a metal spinning disk. Each tiny section represents one bit. A magnetised section represents a binary '1' and a demagnetised section represents a binary '0'. These sections are so tiny that disks can contain terabytes (TB) of data.}ROM {Ans: Read Only Memory. Non volatile. Stores the boot up program.}Decode {Ans: the instruction is decoded to workout what it is}Bus {Ans: Collection of wires that carry data between different components inside the computer.}High level programming language {Ans: A programming language that is structured more like English to make it easier for humans to read, understand and use. Most programming is done in high level languages}Cache memory {Ans: Cache is a small amount of high-speed random access memory (RAM) built directly within the processor. It is used to temporarily hold data and instructions that the processor is likely to reuse. This allows for faster processing as the processor does not have to wait for