For more information, see Computer science on Wikipedia.
Computer science, also abbreviated CS, is a branch of science dealing strictly with computers, both physically and virtually. Computer science is very broad as it has many aspects including programming, hardware development and assembling, planning, and mathematical incorporations into algorithms. Scratch aims to teach children programming, a branch of computer science for developing computer software, games, etc. Throughout the years, the studies of computer science have progressed greatly, as seen in the latest technology.
Programming
- Main article: Programming Language
Programming deals with developing the code for programs to run properly on a machine for an end user. There are two main types of programming: text-based and object-oriented. Text-based programming languages require programmers to type in various codes based on a language's syntax. An object-oriented language uses visual objects and interpretations to further abstract programming. Scratch is an object-oriented language, and utilizes the objects of blocks to program.
Algorithms
An important part of computer science is the study of algorithms. Computer scientists strive to develop algorithms which are efficient in both space (memory usage) and time (execution length).
Hardware
Hardware refers to the physical parts that make up a computer. The main parts of a computer include:
- Central Processing Unit (CPU): This makes millions of calculations per minute, and is like the "brain" of the computer.
- Graphics processing unit (GPU): This displays graphics such as pictures and video on a screen, both 2D and 3D.
- Random Access Memory (RAM): This stores data of what is currently open on your computer, for example, the Scratch program.
- Basic input/output system (BIOS): Programs stored in read-only memory (ROM) run before booting that initialises components and peripherals.
- Hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD): This stores data, for example, applications and files.
- Power supply unit: This provides electricity to a computer
- Motherboard: This acts as a large circuit board which allow components in your computer to share data with each other.
- Monitor (built-in or external, depending on the machine): This a screen which displays content
See Also
- Concurrency
- Computer Colors
- Lag
- Programming Language
- Computer science on Wikipedia
