Open ended questions

Briefly Describe how a computer works

• The CPU is a major actor
• To run a program or process data, the computer first transfers the program or data from disk to main memory
• To execute an instruction it moves the instruction from main memory into the CPU via the data channel or bus

Client vs Server Computers

• Contains software that enables them to connect to a network
• Users employ client computers for word processing, spreadsheets, database access, and so forth
• Servers provide some service
• May process emails,; Web sites, large shared databases
• Have multiple CPU's
• limited video displays
• only accessed from another computer via a network
• Sites with larger numbers of users are organized into a collection of servers called server farms

What is an operating system?

• What is an operating Sytem? How is it different from an application program?
• An operating system is a program that controls that computer's resources. Although the operating system makes the computer usable, it does little application-specific work. Application programs are software that are processed on the client or server computer such as weather apps

Spreadsheet vs Database

• The purpose of both a spreadsheet and a database is to keep track of things. However unlike a spreadsheet, a database offers the solution of being able to keep track of more than one type of data. Single themed data are for spreadsheets and multi-themed data are for databases

relational and non relational

• What dre databases? What has led to the development of new non-relational styles of database processing
• Databases that carry their data in the form of tables and that represent relationships using foreign keys are called relational databases. Recently, however new styles of database processing have started appearing. Part of the reason is that the major principles of the relational model-fixed-sized tables, representing relationships with foreign keys, and the theory of normalization-came about because of limited storage space and limited processing speeds back in the 1960's and early 1970's. Other reasons for the development of non-relational databases include the need to gain faster performance using many servers and to store new types of data such as images, audio, and videos.