01:198:170 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Solution Stack, Control Unit, Operating System

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Computer Science
• Course: 01:198:170
• Professor: Stephen Stoll

Document Summary

4 things that a computer needs: input, output, processor, storage. Rom: hardware: physical parts of the computer. Software: program is a series of instructions expressing an algorithm (program is an algorithm, but an algorithm isn"t a program) Program = algorithm that"s written in computer"s own language (0s & 1s: programming languages have their own syntax & rules. If you don"t follow rules, program can"t even execute doesn"t even make it to the processor. Software stack: each layer can access layer above & below & utilize functionality of each layer (hardware = bottom, user = top) Memory: memory stores both program & data: memory = made of bits (smallest unit of memory) 8 bits = 1 byte: memory has an address/location so that software knows how to nd it, memory has nite capacity (can only hold so much data, random access memory (ram): processor uses ram.