1. BCT Section 1.2 Terms
Data Communications, Networks
1. Data Communications The Technology that enables computers to
communicate
2. Sender The computer that is sending the message
3. Receiver The computer receiving the message
4. Channel The media that carries the message. (telephone
wire, coaxial cable, microwave signal, or fiber
optic)
5. Protocol The rules that govern the orderly transfer of the
data sent.
6. Network when computers are connected to other
computers, they can share information.
7. Local Area Network Computers connected together in a relatively
close location such as in the same building or
department
8. Wide Area Network When local area networks are expanded to
include several local area networks within a city,
state, region, territory, country, continent, or the
world
9. Central Processing Unit Brains of the Computer
10. Arithmetic/Logic Unit performs arithmetic computations and logical
operations; by combining these two operations
the ALU can execute complex tasks
11. Control Unit is the “boss” and coordinates all of the CPU’s
activities
12. Random Access Memory Memory on the motherboard that is short term;
where data, information, and program
instructions are stored temporarily on a RAM
chips
13. Read Only Memory Memory on the motherboard - Where the Specific
Instructions that are needed for the computer to
operate are stored
14. Basic Controllers on the motherboard, a device that controls the
transfer of data from the computer to a peripheral
device and vice versa
15. Serial & Parallel Ports used to connect our peripheral devices to the
computer; usually one serial and one parallel port

2. on a computer
16. Universal Serial Bus a new standard that supports data transfer rates
of up to 12 million bits per second.
17. Motherboard Central to all of this is the motherboard or system
board that mounts into the case, is a circuit
board (a thin plate or board that contains
electronic components) that contains many
integral components
18. ASCII Code ASCII (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange): the most popular and widely used
standardized coding system
19. Byte eight bits or combinations of ones and zeros
represent a character
20. Megabyte Megabyte or roughly 1 million bytes
Gigabyte Gigabyte or roughly one billion bytes