FINLANDIA SCHOOLHumans count using ten symbols, 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. This is called the decimal system.
computers are electronic machines. They only understand electricity. Electricity can be in 2 simple states: ON(power is flowing) or OFF(power is not flowing).
To talk to computers, we use their language. We use 0 to mean OFF and 1 to mean ON. This language with only two numbers 0 and 1 is called the binary system.
BIT: This is the smallest unit of computer data. The name comes from Binary Digit. One bit is a single 0 or a single 1. its like a single bead in a necklace
BYTE: This is a group of 8 bits.
MEASURING DATA
1 BYTE= One character (e.g. , "A")
1 KILOBYTE (KB)= About 1000 bytes (like a short paragraph of text)
1 MEGABYTE (MB)= About 1000 kilobytes (like a 3 minutes song from your phone)
1 GIGABYTE (GB)= About 1000 megabytes (like a 30 minutes video or a computer game)
THE PROCESSING CYCLE
INPUT: This is how we give the computer information or instruction. We use input devices e.g. mouse, keyboard
PROCESSING: This is the computer thinking stage. The CPU(Computer's brain) takes input and work on it.
OUTPUT: This is how the computer shows or give us the result of its processing. We use output devices e.g. monitor, speaker
STORAGE: This is how the computer saves the work for later e.g. hard drive, USB flash drive or in cloud storage online
Computer performance factor
1. CPU speed (measured in Gigahertz, GHz)
2. RAM (Random Access Memory)
3. Storage type
a. Hard Disk Drive(HDD): older, slower, uses spinning disc
b. Solid State Drive (SSD): Newer, much faster and has no moving parts.