TECH TERMS

Technical terms are frequently used without much explanation.  I will define a few of them for you here.

If you have a slow computer, a technician may diagnose the problem as your PC not having enough memory.  Many people confuse RAM memory with disk space. RAM (Random Access Memory) is what the computer uses when it is performing a task.  Your hard drive simply stores data.  The computer pulls programs and data off the hard drive and into RAM where it is processed.  When there isn’t enough RAM, the computer begins to use the hard drive as RAM.  The hard drive is much slower then RAM in reading and writing data.

You hear a lot of talk about new cell phones being 5G instead of 4G.  What does this mean?  5G refer to the fifth generation of mobile technology, while 4G refers to the fourth generation.  With 4G, the cellular provider has 2 networks; one for voice, and one for data.  A 4G phone can access both, thus using dedicated networks for the type of communication they need to do.  On the other hand, 5G is like 4G, but with higher performance and improved efficiency.  5G can deliver higher data speeds, has more reliability, more network capacity, and has low latency.

What is Cloud Computing?  The Cloud is a nickname for the internet.  Cloud computing is a relatively new concept where application programs, like accounting or engineering applications, are not running on your PC.  They are running on a computer you are accessing through the internet.  Your computer acts like a window to the main server running the application.  This way, your computer is not bogged down with running the program.  If your computer fails, your program is accessible with any other computer that has access to the internet.  Backing up your data would no longer be necessary.  It is not hard to visualize the current PC configuration becoming obsolete, and your computing tasks begin done through a tablet device or even your phone.