| A | B |
|---|
| Central Processing Unit | sometimes called the brain |
| CPU | located on the motherboard, its job is to carry out commands |
| megahertz (MHz) | processor's speed is measured in MHz |
| MHz | millions of instructions per second |
| gigahertz (GHz) | billions of instructions per second |
| motherboard | computer's main circuit board; connects directly or indirectly to every part of the computer |
| Power Supply Unit | converts the power from the wall outlet to the type of power needed by the computer |
| Random Access Memory | RAM |
| RAM | Random Access Memory |
| Random Access Memory | Short term memory---temporarily stores the data |
| RAM | short-term memory disappears |
| hard drive | acts as long-term storage. |
| megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB) | The more RAM you have, the more things your computer can do at the same time |
| bit | smallest unit of data in computer processing |
| byte | group of eight bits |
| megabyte | about one million bytes |
| gigabyte | about one billion bytes |
| hard drive | data center of the computer, which store data on a magnetic platter |
| solid-state drives | aka flash hard drives, faster and more durable than hard disk drives, but they are also more expensive |
| USB flash drive | removable flash hard drive that plugs into a USB port |
| Control Panel | Place to view information about your computer's RAM and processor speed |
| Expansion Cards | slots on the motherboard that allow you to add various types of peripherals |
| Video card | responsible for what you see on the monitor |
| Sound Card | also called an audio card, is responsible for what you hear in the speakers or headphones |
| Network Card | allows your computer to communicate over a network and access the internet |
| Bluetooth Card | technology for wireless communication over short distances |
