That Random Tech Guy: Tech-tionary (Part 1)

Hello everyone.

As I said on my last post, this blog post is going to be about the terms that are more commonly used in the tech industry for specifications. I will explain most common words but of course not everything that is involved with the hardware/specifications of computers and mobile devices.

I will do my best to explain the words in it's most generic form with using the least amount of terminology from the tech industry.

You might already know most of these words and how they work but not everyone does, this post, and most of my other posts are to help those that are not aware or understand the "behind the scenes" of how a computer, or more importantly, a mobile device works.

Let's begin.

One of the most important feature of your phone is what kind of a processor chip does it have?

What is a processor?

A processor, or more commonly known as Central Processing Unit (CPU), is a chip that carries information/instructions given to it from program(s) to it's correct destination so that your device does what you would like it to do. What makes it important is how fast the chip can "process" the instructions. The speed is measured in hertz. The performance of CPU is also increased by adding additional "cores", which is an individual CPU.

Since we are speaking about performance, another component that helps with the overall performance of your device is RAM.

What is RAM?

RAM stands for Random-Access Memory. RAM is the memory available on your device to run and programs or create items from a program. When you open a program, it is stored in RAM for as long it is running. The Random-Access part comes from the fact that files/programs can be "randomly" accessed and not in a sequence, which is mainly how your device saves information. In many cases, RAM will delete everything it has stored in it's memory when shutdown, unless saved.

Here is an example of how RAM works:

Imagine yourself opening up Microsoft Word to do an assignment, RAM stores Microsoft Word in it's (your device) memory, you open your file and start editing your assignment. You need some information from the web, so you let Microsoft Word running in the background and open up your browser (hopefully Chrome), now Chrome is in also stored in the RAM. Now you found the information you needed and you edit in your document, which is still in RAM, and you closed your assignment but forgot to click 'Save', I am sure this has happened to most of us at least once, the information you had changed is lost because your assignment is not stored in RAM anymore and since you did not save it (stored in HardDrive Disk).

What is HardDisk Drive (HDD)?

HDD, or more commonly known as just Hard Drive, is how much space you have in your computer to store information. This is where all the information that your device comes with preloaded is kept, like the Operating System (OS), applications, pictures, and then the files you save like your music, your pictures, your documents etc.

So far the three things that I have explained are all Hardware components that are physically in your device, whether it is a chip or a disk. I will continue with more information regarding more terms/components. For now, I will end it here, please wait for more information to come. If there is something specific you would like me to explain, or elaborate on, please leave a comment at the bottom.

Also, of course there are more to these terms than I have explained but it does get more technical. I have tried to explain it the best way I can without being technical.

PS: Most of the hardware components of your device is stored in the 'Motherboard', the picture shown in the beginning of the post.

As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated.

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