Computer Science Terms

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Transistor

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A smaller, faster, cheaper, and more durable electronic device that replaced mechanical relays, which were slow and tended to wear down over time.

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Microchip

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An electronic device that allowed entire computers to be built into a single board, replacing modules for each part of the computer. Microchips paved the way for personal computer ownership.

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World Wide Web

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A system for making digital resources publicly available over the internet using a web browser that paved the way for email, chatrooms, and social media sites.

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Supercomputers

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The fastest, most powerful computers that exist at a given time. These computers have processing capabilities designed to solve problems that are too complex for regular computers. They play vital roles in the advancement of national defense, science, and social change.

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Input

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Information that a user physically enters into a computer by pressing a key on a keyboard, clicking a mouse, tapping a touch screen, pushing a button on a game controller, speaking into a microphone, etc.

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Processing

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The operations performed by a computer to retrieve, transform, or classify information.

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Output

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Information that a computer returns to a user such as images on a screen, sounds from speakers, and printed pages.

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Bit

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The smallest unit of digital information. Each individual one and zero in a binary sequence is a bit.

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Byte

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Eight bits together form a byte. The value of a single byte can range from 0 (eight 0s) to 255 (eight 1s).

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Kilobyte (KB)

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One kilobyte is equal to 1,000 bytes.