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OCRALEVELCSKEYTERMS

KEY TERMS FOR OCR A LEVEL COMPUTER SCIENCE H446

Term	Definition
ALU	Arithmetic Logic Unit: “The part of the CPU where data is processed and manipulated. This processing and manipulation normally consists of arithmetic operations or logical comparisons allowing a program to make decisions.”
Control Unit	The part of the CPU that manages the execution of instructions. The control unit fetches each instruction in sequence
Register	Tiny areas of extremely fast memory located in the CPU normally designed for a specific purpose
PC	Program Counter: “A register in the control unit which holds the address of the next instruction to be executed.”
ACC	Accumulator: “A special register within the ALU. It is used to hold the data currently being processed by the central processor. Any data to be processed is stored temporarily in the accumulator
MAR	"Memory Address Register: “A register in the CPU that stores the address of the memory location currently in use. In the fetch phase
MDR	"Memory Data Register: “A register in the CPU that stores data being transferred to and from the immediate-access store. It acts as a buffer
CIR	Current Instruction Register: “A register in the control unit that stores the address of the next instruction currently being executed and decoded.”
Busses	“A common physical pathway shared by signals to and from several components of a computer.”
Data Bus	“The part of the bus which carries the actual information.”
Address Bus	“The part of the bus which carries identification about where the data is being sent.”
Control Bus	“This bus carries command and control signals to and from every other component of a computer.”
Fetch-Decode-Execute	"“The complete process of retrieving an instruction from store
CPU	"Central Processing Unit: “The main part of the computer
Clock Speed	"“Measured in Hertz
Cores	"“A part of a multi-core processor. A multi-core processor is a single component with two or more independent actual CPUs
Cache	"“A part of the main store between the central processor and the rest of the memory. It has extremely fast access
Pipelining	"“Successive steps of an instruction sequence are executed in turn by a sequence of cores able to operate concurrently
Von Neumann Architecture	“Traditional computer architecture that forms the basis of most digital computer systems. A single control unit manages program control flow following a linear sequence of “fetch-decode-execute””
Harvard Architecture	"“A computer architecture with physically separate storage and signal pathways for instructions and data. These early machines had data storage entirely contained within the central processing unit
Contemporary Architecture	"“Any modern set of disciplines that describes the functionality
CISC	Complex Instruction Set Computer: “A design that produces a complicated and expensive integrated circuit capable of performing a large variety of complex instructions. Complex instructions can be executed with few machine cycles.”
RISC	"Reduced Instruction Set Computer: “A design that produces a simple
GPU	Graphical Processing Unit: “A specialised electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display. Modern GPUs highly parallel structure makes them more effective than general-purpose CPUs for algorithms where processing of large blocks of data is done in parallel.”
Multicore System	“Development of CISC architecture with several sets of CPU components in one microprocessor.”
Parallel Processor System	“The simultaneous use of several processors to perform a single job. A job may be split into a number of tasks each of which may be processed by any available processor.”
Input Device	"“Any peripheral device that can accept data
Output Device	“Any peripheral device that translates signals from the computer into a human-readable form or into a form suitable for reprocessing by the computer at a later stage.”
Storage Device	"“Any medium (optical
Magnetic Storage	“Storage medium which uses surfaces coated with a layer of magnetic material on which data can be stored by magnetically setting the arrangement of the magnetic material. This is done by electromagnetic read/write heads.”
Flash Storage	“Collection of memory chips that is controlled by its own software to make the collection of chips act like a disk drive.”
Optical Storage	“Storage medium that uses plastic discs on which the data is stored as patterns on the surface in pits and lans.”
RAM	"Random Access Memory: “Volatile main memory. Access times are very fast. Often referred to as Main Memory
ROM	"Read Only Memory: “Memory for which the contents may be read by cannot be written to by the computer system. Software in ROM is fixed during manufacturing. It typically holds system boot up instructions. ROM is non-volatile. More modern types of ROM can be written to in limited ways
Virtual Storage	“Data stored on remote hard disks accessed over the internet.”
Operating System	"“Collection of systems software that manages the computer. Usually supplied with the computer. Most common operating systems are Windows
Memory Management	“The process of organising the flexible use of the computer’s main memory.”
Paging	"“The organisation of memory into fixed-sized units
Segmentation	“The splitting of a large program unto a number of smaller programs or segments. Each segment is a complete program that is executed separately. The function of the large program is achieved by running segments consecutively. Segmentation allows a large program to be executed on a computer with insufficient memory to store the whole program by carving up memory logically rather than physically.”
Virtual Memory	"“Used when sufficient immediate-access store is not available. Part of a disk drive is allocated to be used as if it were main memory. This is very slow
Interrupt	“A signal generated by a source such as an input or output device or a systems software routine that causes a break in the execution of the current routine. Control passes to another routine in such a way that the original routine can be resumed after the interrupt.”
ISR	Interrupt Service Routine: “A software routine that hardware invokes in response to an interrupt. ISRs examine an interrupt and determine how to handle it.”
Scheduling	“The method by which central processor time is allocated in a multi-access system.”
RR	Round Robin: “A scheduling algorithm that deals with each user or task to be processed in turn.”
FCFS	"First Come First Serve: “A scheduling algorithm that deals with each user or task in the order in which they arrive
MLFQ	"Multi-Level Feedback Queue: “A complex scheduling algorithm that deals with tasks based on a set of priorities and rules across different league tables
SJF	Shortest Job First: “A scheduling algorithm that deals with each user or task based on the getting the smaller ones out of the way.”
SRT	Shortest Remaining Time: “A scheduling algorithm that deals with each user or task based on a calculating an estimated time remaking to complete.”
Distributed OS	"“An operating system where the software is spread over a collection of independent
Embedded OS	"“A highly specialised
Multi-tasking OS	“Any type of system that is capable of running or appearing to run more than one program at a time.”
Multi-user OS	"“Any operating system designed to allow multiple users to log in and connect to it from different locations / machines at the same time. Specially designed for the sharing of resources such as files
Real Time OS	"“An operating system intended to serve real-time application process data as it comes in
BIOS	Basic Input / Output System: “Part of the operating system that handles the input and output of the computer. It enables the operating system to use the particular features of the hardware being used.”
Device Drivers	“A computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer.”
Virtual Machine	"“An emulator of a particular computer system. Virtual machines operated based on the computer architecture and functions of a real or hypothetical computer
Intermediate Code	“Half-way type of code which is standard across machine types. Runs on a virtual machine.”
Application	"“Any program
Utilities	"“A systems program that performs some specific task in the operation of the computer
Open Source	“Software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. – Open source file types are often able to be opened on many different types of applications.”
Closed Source	“Often called Proprietary is a type of computer program for which the software code is not shared with the public for anyone to look at or make changes to – Closed / Proprietary file types are often only able to be opened if you own a version of the software they were originally made in.”
Source Code	“Original code typed in by the programmer in the native language. This is the code as it appears before it is compiled or interrupted.”
Translator	“A program that translates a program written in assembly language into machine code.”
Interpreter	“Translates and executes a program one statement at a time.”
Compiler	"“A program that translates a high-level language program
Assembler	“A program that translates (assembles) a program written in assembly language into machine code.”
Compilation	"“The translation process that produces an equivalent program in a low-level language. Compilation involves analysing the language structure of the source program
Lexical Analysis	"“The stage in compilation of a program that puts each statement into the form best suited to the syntax analyser. The standard components of each statement
Syntax Analysis	"“The stage in compilation where language statements are checked against the rules of the language
Code Generation	“The stage in compilation that produces a machine-code program that is equivalent to the source program.”
Optimisation	“The stage of compilation that ensures that the executable program if optimised at least as much as the compiler can predict. e.g. removing reference to unused variables or routines.”
Linker	“Software tool that allows already compiled object code files or modules to be combined with the compiled program.”
Loader	“A program that copies an object program held on backing store into main store ready for execution.”
Libraries	“A collection of pre-compiled routines which can be incorporated into a program.”
SDLC	"Systems Development Life Cycle: “The various stages in designing and implementing a new computer system. These stages – typically analysis
Waterfall Model	“An earlier abstract description of the system lifecycle where each identified stage of development flows from the previous one and down to the next one. Feedback from each to the previous takes place independently of the forward flow.”
Agile Methodologies	“Describes the responsive development of a system made of small software modules (often web-based applications) by a group of collaborators who work concurrently and closely under a leader who ensures engineering best practice and delivery of the customer requirements.”
Extreme Programming	"“A software development methodology which is intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. It is a form of agile development
Spiral Model	"“An abstract description of the systems life cycle where there are four defined quadrants – planning
RAD	Rapid Application Development: “A design strategy that includes online development and repeated prototyping and repeated prototyping and evaluation. It is particularly suited to interactive systems.”
Programming Paradigm	"“The word ‘paradigm’ means to describe an example or pattern. In a Computing context
Procedural Language	"“Any high level language in which program statements can be grouped in self-contained blocks called procedures and functions. These procedures have their own variables
Assembly Language	“A language which is related very closely to the computer’s own machine code. ”
Machine Code	“Set of all possible instructions made available by the hardware design of a particular processor. Closest to pure binary.”
Low Level Language	“A language which is close to machine code. Related closely to the design of the machine.
	A one-to-one language”
High Level Language	"“A language designed to help a programmer express a computer program in a way that reflects the problem that is being solved
	One-to-many language.”
LMC	"Little Man Computer: “An instructional model of a computer
Immediate Addressing	"“Uses the data in the address field
Direct Addressing	“Uses the data in the address field without alteration. This is the simplest method of addressing and also the most common.”
Indirect Addressing	“Uses the address field to hold the address of a location that contains the required address.
Indexed Addressing	"“Modifies the address (either a direct or an indirect address) in the address field by the addition of a number held in a special-purpose registers
OO	Object Orientation: “Looking at systems by classifying them into real world objects”
OOP	Object Oriented Programming: “A method of programming which classifies real world objects into classes and encapsulates those objects attributes and behaviours.”
Class	“A type definition of an object”
Object	“An instance of a class.”
Base Class	“Base class contains attributes and methods. It is the highest class and does not inherit from any other class.”
Superclass	“A class that has been extended by another class. It allows the extending class to inherit its attributes and methods.”
Subclass	“A class that extends another class. The subclass inherits the methods and attributes of the class it extends.”
Derived Class	“A derived class is any class that inherits attributes and methods from any other derived class or base class.”
Instantiation	“The process of creating an actual named instance of class. The instantiated named copy of the class in an object of that class.”
Overriding	“A method in a subclass or derived class which has the same name as a method in one or more of its superclass's. The method supersedes all other versions of the method above it in the inheritance tree.”
Method	“A program routine contained within an object designed to perform a particular task on the data within the object. A method can broadly be thought of as a procedure / function from more traditional procedural programming languages.”
Attribute	“A single bit of data within a record”
Inheritance	“When a derived class is defined it also has all the attributes and methods of the base class.”
Encapsulation	“All of the object's attributes are contained and hidden in the object and access to them is restricted to operations of that class.”
Polymorphism	"“Polymorphism
Lossy Compression	“A compression scheme where their generally involves a loss of resolution in parts of the image where experiences shows that it will be least noticed.”
Lossless Compression	“A compression scheme that allows the original images to be recreated.”
Length Encoding	"“A very simple form of data compression in which runs of data (that is
Dictionary Coding	“A class of lossless data compression algorithms which operate by searching for matches between the text to be compressed and a set of strings contained in a data structure (called the ‘dictionary’) maintained by the encoder.”
Symmetric Encryption	"“The oldest and best-known encryption technique. A secret key
Asymmetric Encryption	"“This method of encryption involves using a pair of keys to encrypt and decrypt a message so that it arrives securely. Initially
Hashing	"“The process of calculating a numeric value from one or more data items. While this value obviously depends on the value of the data items
Relational Database	“Allows the user to specify information about multiple tables and the relationship between those tables”
Flat File	"“A database that allows the user to specify data attributes (columns
Primary Key	“A field that uniquely identifies a record in a table”
Foreign Key	“The linking field in the foreign table formed when a relationship is made. The FK becomes by default the PK of the new table.”
Concatenated Primary Key	“When more than one field is added together to form a unique primary key for a table.”
Secondary Key	“A key field which can be used to access a table in a different way”
ERM	"Entity Relationship Modelling: “The process of producing a data model for describing the data or information aspects of a business domain or its process requirements
Normalisation	“The process of arranging data in tables and setting their relationships to move them through normal forms”
Indexing	The process of creating a database index. Speeds up searching but the index needs to be stored
0NF	“A table with no normalisation. All data and all fields in one table”
1NF	First Normal Form: “A relationship with repeating groups removed. That is a relation in which the intersection of each tuple and attribute contains one and only one value.”
2NF	"Second Normal Form: “A relation that is in 1NF and every non-primary key attribute is fully dependant on the primary key. That is
3NF	"Third Normal Form: “A relation that is in 1NF and 2NF
Normal Forms	"“A way of structuring the data in a relational database according to formal rules
SQL	Structured Query Language: “The language and syntax used to write and run database queries”
Referential Integrity	“A measure of the consistency of the data in a database. It is violated when the relation to which a foreign key refers to no longer exists.”
Transaction Processing	"“Information processing that is divided into individual
ACID	"Atomicity
Record Locking	"“A technique of preventing simultaneous access to data in a database
Redundancy	"“Redundancy occurs in database systems which have a field that is repeated in two or more tables For instance
Protocol	“A set of rules that allow two devices to communicate.”
TCP/IP Stack	Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol: “The most common general-purpose standard protocol that allows any networked computers (including those on The Internet) to communicate with each other whatever their equipment.”
DNS	"Domain Name System: “The Internet’s equivalent of a phone book. They maintain a directory of domain names and translate them to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. This is necessary because
Protocol Layering	“The concept of a protocol not simply being a set of rules but those rules being built up into very specific layers and those rule layers behind built on top of each other in a deliberate order creating a layered protocol stack. This results in the rules of a protocol being executed in a specific sequence as you move through the protocol stack.”
LAN	"Local Area Network: “A collection of computers / computing devices on the same network which are physically close together
WAN	"Wide Area Network: “A collection of computers / computing devices on the same network which are spread out over a geographically large area
Packet Switching	"“A method of sending data over a wide area network in which the message is broken into a number of parts which are sent independently
Circuit Switching	“A method of sending data over a wide area network in which two network nodes establish a dedicated communications channel through the network before the nodes may communicate. All data then follows this same path for the duration of the data transfer.”
Firewall	“A computer application used in a network to prevent external users gaining unauthorised access to a computer system.”
Proxies	“A computer application that accesses data on a different computer system or network. It controls the access of authorised users to data and allows the operation of the system to be isolated from control by external users.”
Encryption	“The process of making data in a computer system unintelligible.”
Client-Server	“A method of network organisation in which network stations make use of resources available at one or more servers.”
Peer to Peer	"“A method of network organisation in which network stations can share resources on other network stations
HTML	"HyperText Markup Language: “A mark-up language developed for multimedia documents
CSS	"Cascading Style Sheets: “A definition of the formatting and layout of elements of an HTML document. The stylesheet may be part of the HTML document
JavaScript	“An object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers.”
Search Engine Indexing	"“The method of collecting
PageRank Algorithm	“An algorithm used by Google Search to rank websites in their search engine results. It works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a rough estimate of how important the website is. The underlying assumption is that more important websites are likely to receive more links from other websites.”
Sever Side Processing	"“Server-side processing refers to operations that are performed by the server in a client-server relationship in computer network. Typically
Client Side Processing	"“Client-side processing refers to operations that are performed by the client in a client-server relationship in a computer network. Typically
Primitive Data Types	"“The basic data types provided by a programming language as building blocks. Most languages allow more complicated composite types to be recursively construction starting from basic types. E.g. char
Integer	“A data type used to store positive and negative whole numbers
Real	"“A data type used to store an approximation of a real number in a way that can support a trade-off between range and precision. A number is
Floating Point	"“A data type used to store an approximation of a real number in a way that can support a trade-off between range and precision. A number is
Character	“A single alphanumeric character or symbol.”
String	“A sequence of alphanumeric characters and or symbols. e.g. a word or sentence.”
Boolean	"“Used to store the logical conditions TRUE / FALSE. Often translated to On/Off
Binary	"“Binary describes a numbering scheme in which there are only two possible values for each digit: 0 and 1. The term in computing refers to any digital encoding system in which there are exactly two possible states. E.g. in memory
Sign and Magnitude	"“A method in computing of being able to store negative numbers as string of pure binary digits. It works by turning the MSB into a sign bit
Two’s Complement	"“A method in computing of being able to store and represent floating point real numbers (both positive and negative) as a string of pure binary digits. Uses the concepts of two’s complements
Hexadecimal	“A numerical system of notation which uses 16 rather than 10 as its base. The 16 Hex base digits are 0-9 and the letters A-F.”
Denary	“A numerical system of notation which uses 10 as its base. The 10 Decimal base digits are 0-9.”
Floating Point Arithmetic	“The mathematical process of performing simply calculations on more than one floating-point number stored in binary notation.”
Bitwise Manipulation	"“The act of algorithmically manipulating bits or other pieces of data shorter than a word. Programming tasks that require a bit manipulation include low-level device control
Shifts	"“An operation that moves the bits held in a register
AND	“A logical operator used within a program. AND works by only returning TRUE if both values being compared are TRUE.”
OR	“A logical operator used within a program. OR works by returning TRUE as long as either value being compared is TRUE.”
XOR	“A logical operator used within a program. XOR stands for exclusive OR. It will return TRUE if the two items being compared are different.”
Character Sets	"“The set of symbols that may be represented in a computer at a particular time. These symbols
ASCII	America Standard Code for Information Interchange: “A character set devised for early telecommunication systems but proved to be ideal for computer systems. ASCII codes use 7-bits giving 32 control codes and 96 displayable characters (the 8th bit is often used for error checking).”
UNICODE	“Standard character set that replaces the need for all the different character sets. It incorporates characters from almost all the world’s languages. It is a 16-bit extension of ASCII.”
Array	“A set of data items of the same type grouped together using a single identifier. Each of the data items is addressed by the variable name and a subscript.”
Records	A data structure which consists of a collection of elements. The record type is a data type that describes such values and variables. Most modern computer languages allow the programmer to define new record types. The definition includes specifying the data type of each field and an identifier by which it can be accessed.”
Lists	"“An abstract data type that represents a sequence of values. Values each have an index. A list is mutable and dynamic.
Tuple	A data structure that can stored multiple items accessed by an index. It is immutable and static.
Linkedlist	“A list where each item contains the data together with a pointer to the next item. There may be an additional pointer to the previous item. This means the items can be accessed in order even if they are not stored in order; they do not have to be stored in adjacent memory locations.”
Directed Graph	"“In a directed graph edges
Undirected Graph	"“In an undirected graph
Stack	“A stack is a dynamic data structure of the form Last In First Out (LIFO).”
Queue	“A queue is a dynamic data structure of the form First In First Out (FIFO).”
Tree	“A tree is a non-linear dynamic data structure where data items can be thought of as occurring at different levels. There are links between items at one level and their descendants at the next. Each data item has data that relates in some way to its unique parent node. The data items are usually called nodes with the links known as branches. The top level nodes is called the root node.”
Binary Search Tree	"“A data structure very similar to a tree with the following additional restrictions. Each node can have only 0
Hash Table	"“A data structure where the calculated value is used to mark the position in the table where the data item should be stored
Boolean Logic	"“Named after the nineteenth-century mathematician George Boole
Karnaugh Maps	"“Also know as the K-Map
Boolean Algebra	"“A set of rules for manipulating truth values according to truth tables. Very important in computing as truth values in Boolean algebra are True and false
De Morgan’s Law	Two laws in Boolean algebra which state that AND and OR "2) ‘The negation of a disjunction is the conjunction of the negations.’ Or more informally as 1) ""not (A and B)"" is the same as ""(not A) or (not B)"" and also 2) ""not (A or B)"" is the same as ""(not A) and (not B)""." The purpose of De Morgan’s laws is to simplify the design of electronic circuits.”
Distribution	“A rule or law in Boolean algebra which permits the multiplying or factoring out of an expression.”
Association	“A rule or law in Boolean algebra which permits the removal of brackets from an expression and regrouping of the variables.”
Commutation	“A rule or law in Boolean algebra which stats that the order of application of two separate terms is not important: A AND B = B AND A.”
Double Negation	“A rule or law in Boolean algebra where if you invert a term twice it is equal to its original term: (NOT NOT A) = A”
Logic Gate Diagram	“A method of expression Boolean Logic in a diagrammatic form using a set of standard symbols representing the various Logic Gates such as AND NOT OR NAND etc.”
Truth Table	“A notation used in Boolean algebra for defining the output of a logic gate or logic circuit for all possible combinations of inputs.”
D Type Flip Flops	"“Also known as a data or delay flip flop. This is a circuit or logic design which can be viewed as a memory cell. It has two stable states. Using appropriate input signals
Half Adders	“A unit which adds together two input variables. A half adder can only add the inputs together.”
Full Adders	“A unit which adds together two input variables. A full adder can a bit carried from another addition as well as the two inputs.”
DPA	The Data Protection Act 2018: “Legislation which protects individuals from unreasonable use of their store personal data.”
CMA	"The Computer Misuse Act 1990: “Legislation which defines electronic vandalism
CDPA	"The Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988: “Legislation which gives creators of literacy
RIPA	"The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: “Legislation which regulates the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation
Abstraction	"“The process of separating ideas from specific instances of those ideas at work. Computational structures are defined by their meanings
Abstract Model	"“Any model of a system which has been taken from
System Inputs	“Anything which will be required to go into a system in any form in order for it to operate as intended. These inputs are then processed by the system following the rules or algorithms of the system.”
System Outputs	“Anything which exits a system in any form in order for it to operate as intended. These outputs are often the result of complex processing of inputs along with other data.”
Solution Preconditions	“Any condition which pre-exists the suggested solution. For example for a road traffic speed camera program their would be pre-conditions which could be as simple as requiring a road in place and a vehicle traveling along it.”
Concurrent Processing	“Any situation in the design or programming of a system when you would want more than one thing happening at the same time.”
Sequence	“One of the 3 basic programming constructs. Instructions happening one after the other in order is sequence.”
Iteration	“One of the 3 basic programming constructs. A selection of code which can be repeated either a set number of times (count controlled) or a variable number of times based on the evaluation of a Boolean expression (condition controlled) is iteration.”
Branching / Selection	“One of the 3 basic programming constructs. Instructions which can evaluate a Boolean expression and then branch the code to one or more alternatives paths is branching / selection.”
Recursion	“An advanced programming construct in which a block of code (often a function) is able to call itself. Recursion algorithms must be designed carefully so that terminating condition will be met.”
Global Variable	“A variable which can be used anywhere in the program.”
Local Variable	“A variable which is defined and can only be used within one part of the program (normally a single function or procedure).”
Modularity	“A technique of code design where a solution is broken down into a number of small self-contained and manageable chunks. Each Module of code should be designed to perform one set specific purpose. If during design it is found that the module starts to grow and performs more than one task then the additional functionality should be split out into a new module.”
Functions	“A block of code given a unique identifiable name within a program. A function can take either zero or more parameters when it is called and should return a value. The function should be designed and written to perform one task or action which is clearly indicated by its name.”
Procedures	“A block of code given a unique identifiable name within a program. A procedure can take either zero or more parameters when it is called. The procedure should be designed and written to perform one task or action which is clearly indicated by its name.”
Parameters	“Data structures passed into a Procedure or Function when they are initially called.”
Parameter Passing	"“The process of providing a procedure
- By Value	"“If a data item is passed by value
- By Reference	"“If a data item is passed by reference
IDE	"Integrated Development Environment: “Software that performs the various stages of software design and implementation in a single integrated system. It will usually include facilities for project management
Debugging	"“The process of removing syntactical
Computational Methods	"“Describes any method which does something related to computation
Problem Recognition	“The acknowledgement and definition of an issue that does or may arise during the performance of a process.”
Problem Decomposition	"“The process by which a complex problem or system is broken down into parts that are easier to conceive
Divide and Conquer	"“Another term for decomposition which is the process by which a complex problem or system are broken down into parts that are easier to conceive
Backtracking	"“An algorithm for finding a complete solution. This is a refined brute force methodology. It is a very general algorithm for finding all (or some) solutions to computational problems. It incrementally builds to the solution
Data Mining	"“The analysis of a large amount of data in a data warehouse to provide new information. For example
Heuristics	“Rules that are not derived purely from logic but are derived from the experience (of a person). These are also known as ‘rules of thumb’.”
Performance Modelling	“This is the process of carrying out mathematical approximations of how well models perform. e.g. How efficient they are.”
Visualisation	"“The process of turning data in a visual representation which is easier for humans to understand
Algorithm	“A sequence of steps designed to perform a particular task. An algorithm may be constructed to describe the operation of a complete system or to describe a particular part of it.”
Big O Notation	"“Used in computer science to describe the performance or complexity of an algorithm. Big-O specifically described the worst-case scenario
Bubble Sort	“A simple algorithm popular with inexperienced programmers. It is inefficient when sorting large amounts of data as the time taken is related to the square of the number of items. If 10 items take 1ms then 100 times will take 100ms (this is 10 times the number of items and so the time will be 102 or 100 times longer).”
Insertion Sort	"“A simple sorting algorithm that builds the final sorted array (or list) one item at time. It is much less efficient on large lists than more advanced algorithms such as quicksort
Merge Sort	"“A type of divide and conquer algorithm that was incited by John von Neumann. First the list is divided into the smallest unit (1 element)
Quick Sort	“A type of divide and conquer algorithm which sorts the given sequence in place meaning that it doesn’t require extra storage as would be needed in a merge sort. The basic idea is dividing the sequence into two sub-lists around an element which is called the pivot such that all elements in the lower sub-list are less than the value of the pivot element and all elements in the higher sub-list are greater than the pivot element.”
Dijkstra’s Shortest Path	"“A graph search algorithm that solves the single-source shortest path problem for a graph with non-negative edge path costs
A* Algorithm	"“Widely used in pathfinding and graph traversal
Binary Search	"“A particularly efficient search method. It only works if records in the file are in sequence. A binary search involvers accessing the middle record in the file and determining if the target record has been found or
Linear Search	“Involves examining each entry in turn in the file until the time is found or the end of the file is reached. Unless the file is in some useful order a serial search has to be used.”

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