Chapter 3
Information Representation
One of the most significant inventions of mankind is the printed word. The words on this page represent information stored on paper, which is conveyed to you as you read. Like the printed page, computers have memories for storing information. The central processing unit (CPU) has the ability to retrieve information from its memory much as you take information from words on a page.
Some computer terminology is based on this analogy. The CPU reads information from memory and writes information into memory. The information itself is divided into words. In some computer systems large sets of words, usually anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand, are grouped into pages.
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