Selasa, 23 Mac 2010

CPU


A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations. As long as most memory accesses are cached memory locations, the average latency of memory accesses will be closer to the cache latency than to the latency of main memory.
When the processor needs to read from or write to a location in main memory, it first checks whether a copy of that data is in the cache. If so, the processor immediately reads from or writes to the cache, which is much faster than reading from or writing to main memory.
The diagram on the right shows two memories. Each location in each memory has a datum (a cache line), which in different designs ranges in size from 8[1] to 512[2] bytes. The size of the cache line is usually larger than the size of the usual access requested by a CPU instruction, which ranges from 1 to 16 bytes. Each location in each memory also has an index, which is a unique number used to refer to that location. The index for a location in main memory is called an address. Each location in the cache has a tag that contains the index of the datum in main memory that has been cached. In a CPU's data cache these entries are called cache lines or cache blocks.
Most modern desktop and server CPUs have at least three independent caches: an instruction cache to speed up executable instruction fetch, a data cache to speed up data fetch and store, and a translation lookaside buffer used to speed up virtual-to-physical address translation for both executable instructions and data.

LCD


A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a thin, flat panel used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures. Its uses include monitors for computers, televisions, instrument panels, and other devices ranging from aircraft cockpit displays, to every-day consumer devices such as video players, gaming devices, clocks, watches, calculators, and telephones. Among its major features are its lightweight construction, its portability, and its ability to be produced in much larger screen sizes than are practical for the construction of cathode ray tube (CRT) display technology. Its low electrical power consumption enables it to be used in battery-powered electronic equipment. It is an electronically-modulated optical device made up of any number of pixels filled with liquid crystals and arrayed in front of a light source (backlight) or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome. The earliest discovery leading to the development of LCD technology, the discovery of liquid crystals, dates from 1888.[1] By 2008, worldwide sales of televisions with LCD screens had surpassed the sale of CRT units.

Virus


A virus (from the Latin virus meaning toxin or poison) is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the cells of other organisms. Most viruses are too small to be seen directly with a light microscope. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea.[1] Since the initial discovery of tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898,[2] about 5,000 viruses have been described in detail,[3] although there are millions of different types.[4] Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and these minute structures are the most abundant type of biological entity.[5][6] The study of viruses is known as virology, a sub-specialty of microbiology.
Unlike prions and viroids, viruses consist of two or three parts: all viruses have genes made from either DNA or RNA, long molecules that carry genetic information; all have a protein coat that protects these genes; and some have an envelope of fat that surrounds them when they are outside a cell. (Viroids do not have a protein coat and prions contain no RNA or DNA.) Viruses vary from simple helical and icosahedral shapes to more complex structures. Most viruses are about one hundred times smaller than an average bacterium. The origins of viruses in the evolutionary history of life are unclear: some may have evolved from plasmids—pieces of DNA that can move between cells—while others may have evolved from bacteria. In evolution, viruses are an important means of horizontal gene transfer, which increases genetic diversity.[7]
Viruses spread in many ways; plant viruses are often transmitted from plant to plant by insects that feed on sap, such as aphids, while animal viruses can be carried by blood-sucking insects. These disease-bearing organisms are known as vectors. Influenza viruses are spread by coughing and sneezing. The norovirus and rotavirus, common causes of viral gastroenteritis, are transmitted by the faecal-oral route and are passed from person to person by contact, entering the body in food or water. HIV is one of several viruses transmitted through sexual contact and by exposure to infected blood.
Viral infections in animals provoke an immune response that usually eliminates the infecting virus. Immune responses can also be produced by vaccines, which confer an artificially acquired immunity to the specific viral infection. However, some viruses including those causing HIV and viral hepatitis evade these immune responses and result in chronic infections. Microorganisms also have defences against viral infection, such as restriction modification systems which restrict the growth of viruses. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses, but several antiviral drugs have been developed.