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Question 1

what is an input device?

Answer 1

a device that allows you to get information from the outside world so it can be processed and stored in a digital form

Question 2

what are some examples of input devices?

Answer 2

keyboards, cameras, card readers, microphones, barcode scanners, mice, web cameras and remote controls

Question 3

what is an output device?

Answer 3

a device which is able to take data which is stored in a digital form and convert it to another formant which humans can understand, eg. sounds, images and vibrations

Question 4

what are examples of output devices?

Answer 4

speakers, headphones, printers, projectors, monitors

Question 5

can some devices be both input and output devices?

Answer 5

yes, some devices such as games console can be considered both an input and an output device. In this case, the games console inputs the buttons pressed on the console by the user and outputs vibrations

Question 6

what is a storage device?

Answer 6

any computing hardware, which is used for either temporary or permanent storage of data. This can be internal or external to the computer

Question 7

what are example of internal storage devices?

Answer 7

magnetic hard drives, solid sate hard drives, RAM, ROM

Question 8

what are example of external storage devices?

Answer 8

DVDs , blue-ray disks, USB pens, SD cards, portable hard drives

Question 9

what is a magnetic storage device?

Answer 9

magnetic devices are any devices which store data using magnetic fields

Question 10

what are some examples of magnetic storage?

Answer 10

magnetic tapes, old floppy disks, and some hard disk drives

Question 11

how does magnetic storage work?

Answer 11

a series of magnetic disks known as platters are magnetised. A read write head moves very close to the magnetic surface if the platter. These read write heads are able to detect and modify magnetics properties of the platter. The tiny changes are recorded as binary

Question 12

what are the advantages of magnetic storage?

Answer 12

cheap, large storage capacity

Question 13

what are the disadvantages of magnetic storage?

Answer 13

slow access speed, moving parts makes it fragile

Question 14

what is an optical storage device?

Answer 14

any devices which uses markers which can be read by or written to by an optical laser

Question 15

what are some examples of optical storage devices?

Answer 15

CDs , DVDs and blu-rays

Question 16

how does optical storage work?

Answer 16

data is written to the surface of an optical disk using pits and lands. The disk has a transparent substrate at its base followed by a reflective metal layer which carries the actual information. It works by using a higher power laser which changes the chemical properties of sections of its surface. A laser set at a lower power is then used to read the disk back. It shines light onto the disk through the base and measures the amount of light reflected back. As the point where a pitt starts or ends the light is scattered and therefore it isn’t reflected as well. These changes in reflective and non-reflective areas are recorded as 1s and 0s

Question 17

what are the advantages of optical storage

Answer 17

cheap, lightweight, portable

Question 18

what are the disadvantages of optical storage?

Answer 18

slow access time, surface is prone to scratches

Question 19

what is solid state storage?

Answer 19

solid state storage devices, are any devices, which store data directly onto silicon microchips

Question 20

what are some examples of solid state storage?

Answer 20

USB, micro SD cards, portable hard drives

Question 21

how does solid state storage work?

Answer 21

It uses flash memory. Data is stored even when the power is turned off(non-volatile). Data is read and written directly to blocks and pages on the silicon microchips

Question 22

what are the advantages of solid state storage?

Answer 22

durable, fast access speeds

Question 23

what are the disadvantages of solid state storage?

Answer 23

costly, limited read/write cycles

Question 24

what does RAM stand for?

Answer 24

random access memory

Question 25

what is RAM?

Answer 25

Its primary storage anda type of temporary main memory, its used to store data and programs the computer is currently using. Its much quicker to access data in RAM than it is the access data that's being held in the computers hard drive or secondary storage.

Question 26

what does RAM hold?

Answer 26

Typically RAM will hold the operating system(or the part of the OS being used), the programs the c3mputer is currently running + the data the computer is accessing.

Question 27

why is RAM volatile?

Answer 27

RAM is volatile because it loses all its contents when the power is turned off. Data is stored as small charges of electricity in transistors that are on a circuit. This needs to be refreshed or the charge leaks out, hence why data is lost when the power Is switched off

Question 28

what does ROM stand for?

Answer 28

read only memory

Question 29

what is ROM?

Answer 29

Its a type of primary storage, it cant be changed by a program or a user. It is non-volatile so it retains its contents, even without power. They are embedded on the motherboard of a computer

Question 30

what does ROM hold?

Answer 30

ROM, hold the boot sequence for a computer to start up

Question 31

what is cloud storage?

Answer 31

it is storing data over the internet instead of a local storage device.

Question 32

what are the advantages of using cloud storage?

Answer 32

data can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection, data can be easily shared (dont need to copy data onto portable storage devices) , often considered limitless from the point of view of the user

Question 33

what are the disadvantages of using cloud storage?

Answer 33

expensive, slower access speed with slower access speeds

Question 34

where is data being stored, in cloud storage?

Answer 34

data is usually being hosted at a large data companies or on large magnetic or solid state drives

Question 35

what can virtual storage be referred to as?

Answer 35

virtual storage can also be referred to as the abstraction or separation of logical storage from physical storage

Question 36

how does RAM help?

Answer 36

RAM helps enable multitasking. Multitasking means having several programs open and using them at the same time. This is done by copying data needed by the programs at the time so that it can be passed to the CPU when it needs to process that data. It also stores all the instructions from the programs that are open that the CPU will require for processing

Question 37

how does RAM hold data?

Answer 37

it uses capacitors and transistors. capacitors can hold an electrical current, when it is holding a current it represents 1 when its not, it represents 0. A transistor acts like a switch that lets the computer read what is on the capacitor or empty/fill up a capacitor