How to Speak Computerese

How to Speak Computerese
"Computer for sale: P150, 24 MB RAM, 2 GB Hard Drive, 12X CD-ROM, 28.8 modem, SVGA monitor". Do computer ads seem little more than confusing gibberish? Despite all the cryptic abbreviations and explanations offered by magazines, a computer, at its simplest, is nothing more than a series of millions of tiny switches linked together. The seemingly complex computer can be easily understood by looking at the way it "thinks" (the processor) , its parts (the hardware) , and how to tell it what to do (writing programs) .

The "brain" of the computer is the processor. The processor is made of millions of tiny electrical switches. The position of these switches direct the computer in its actions. A solitary switch is called a bit. A bit can be either on (1) or off (0). On digital, or number-based, computers, all data is recorded this way -- text, video, and sound. By combining eight bits a byte is formed. A byte can hold one of 256 (2^8) possible values. A byte is ...