there are some things you just need to remember, so here are some acronyms so you don’t blank out. Good luck :)

translators:

C ompiler

I nterpreter

A ssembler

CPU ( the central processing unit):

R egisters

C ontrol unit

C ache

A rithmetic Logic Unit

B us

The OS ( operating system manages) :

P rocessor

I nput/Output devices

A pplication software

A ccess rights (security)

M emory

S torage allocation

Cyber Security Threats:

W eak passwords

O ut of date software

R emovable media, e.g USB sticks

M isconfigured access rights

M alicious code (malware)

S ocial engineering techniques

Social engineering techniques include:

B lagging

P hishing

P harming

S houldering (looking over somebody’s shoulder while they are entering their pin)

Malware:

V iruses

A dware

T rojans

S pyware

Security Measures:

B iometric measures ( e.g Face ID, thumbprint)

E mail confirmations

C APTCHA (hopefully you aren’t a robot)

A utomatic Software Updates

P assword Systems

Network Security Measures:

F irewall

A uthentication

M AC address fiiltering

E ncryption

TCP/IP layer (and protocols) :

A pplication Layer → (HTTP(S), IMAP, SMTP, FTP)

T ransport Layer → (TCP, UDP)

I nternet Layer → (IP)

L ink Layer → (Ethernet, Wi-fi)

Commonly used acronyms

Tip: In the exam you are allowed to refer to these as their acronym, but its helpful to remember their full form so you know what they relate to. Most of the acronyms come from Topic 4: Computer Systems.

CPU - Central Processing Unit (fetches, decodes and executes all instructions from the RAM)

RAM - Random Access Memory (volatile, stores running programs, data and the OS)

ROM - Read Only Memory (non-volatile, contains BIOS and Bootstrap)

HDD - Hard Disk Drive (entry storage for laptops/computers is around 128GB-256GB)

ODD - Optical Disk Drive

CD - Compact Disk (stores 640 mb)

DVD - Digital Versatile Disk (stores 4.7 gb)

MDD - Magnetic Disk Drive

HDMI - High Definition Multimedia Interface

USB - Universal Serial Bus

VGA - Video Graphics adapter

MICR - Magnetic Ink Character Recognition

OMR - Optical Mark Recognition

OCR - Optical Character Recognition

MCR - Magnetic Chip Readers

MSR - Magnetic Stripe Readers

CRT monitor - Cathode Ray Tube monitor

LCD monitor - Liquid Crystal Display monitor

TFT monitor - Thin Film Transistor monitor

R - Recordable

RW - Rewrite

EPROM - Electronically Programmable Read Only Memory

OS - Operating System (different depending on system, e.g MacOS, iOS)

MS DOS - Microsoft Disk Operating System

GUI - Graphics User Interface

WIMP - Windows Icons Menus Pointers

CLI - Command Line Interface

HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language

LAN - Local Area Network (covers small geographical location e.g school site)

WLAN - Wireless Local Area Network

WAN - Wide Area Network

VPN - Virtual Private Network

p2p - Peer to Peer

NIC - Network Interface Card (used to transport packets)

IP - Internet Protocol

CSS - Cascading Style Sheet (design options when designing a website)

URL - Uniform Resource Locator

HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (secure site)

ISP - Internet Service Provider

MODEM - Modulator Demodulator

.com - international

.co - company

.ac - university

.org - non-profitory

.info - information

.edu - educational establishment

.sch - school

CC - Carbon Copy

BCC - Blind Carbon Copy

RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

Boolean Logic Acronyms

XOR → Exclusive Or

This is just like or, however two power 1’s cancel each-other out, lets see this in a truth table

The symbol for XOR is this:

We can also see that the Boolean expression for XOR is ⊕

OR → Or gate

Or gate in a truth table:

If either inputs are switched on, the output is on. The key word to recognise OR gates in exam questions is “either”.

The logic symbol for OR is confusingly an + sign. Here’s how you don’t get mixed up between OR and AND logic symbol.

0 x 0 = 0

1 x 0 = 0

0 x 1 = 0

1 x 1 = 1

now you can replace the “x” with AND, however you cannot use the addition symbol instead for AND or the logic won’t be right. Also, some countries use a dot to show multiplication, and a dot is also the symbol for an AND gate. Now lets use “+” to see how it matches with the OR gate

0 + 0 = 0

1 + 0 = 1

0 + 1 = 1

(exception) 1 + 1 = 1

From the first three sums we can imagine the OR symbol + as a literal addition symbol. However 1+1 is unfortunately not still 1 :(

AND → and gate

And gate in a truth table:

^^^Here we can see that if ONLY both inputs are powered on, the output Q is switched on too.

The symbol for an AND gate is a dot “.”

NOT → Not Gate

Not gate in a truth table:

Like the name suggests, the NOT gate does the opposite of the input: 1 → 0 , 0 → 1

The symbol for a NOT GATE is a horizontal line on top of anything you want to “NOT”.

4 gates to remember: XOR, OR, NOT, AND