What Is Program Documentation?

Program documentation includes hard-copy or electronic manuals that enable users, program developers, and operators to interact successful with a program. User documentation normally consists of a user's manual. This manual may provide instructions for running the program. A description of software commands, several useful examples of applications, and troubleshooting guide to help with difficulties. Program developers include people who design, write, test and maintain programs that is anyone contributing to the software development process.

Developer documentation usually consists of tools that will simplify any development task. Such tools might include program examples, a description of the design tools incorporated into the product, instructions for debugging and testing, maintain tips and so on. Since developers are highly literate about computers, developer documentation is written at a more technical level than documentation. Developer documentation is also increasingly becoming electronic. Operator documentation includes online and hard-copy manuals that assist machine operators in setting up hardware devices, learning the ins and outs of successful hardware operation, and diagnosing machine malfunctions. Operator documentation is machine dependent and unless one has a good grounding in hardware specifies, it can be difficult to read through

The program documentation is a kind of documentation that gives a comprehensive procedural description of a program. It shows as to how software is written. Program documentation even has the capability to sustain any later maintenance or development of the program. The program documentation describes what exactly a program does by mentioning about the requirements of the input data and the effect of performing a programming task.

Thus, if you want to know what a program is meant to do and how it has to be executed, you should refer to the program documentation. The most common examples would be the instruction manuals for a software product, which is given to the end-user. Thus the instruction manual for a programming language like Java or for understanding a word processor can come under the purview of program documentation. The description languages used are informal and are intended to make life easy for the end-user.

There is also another kind of program documentation that is written for the sake of programmers who write the actual software and may have to modify it or use it as a part of another program which they write in the future. While the end-user documentation has a user-friendly language about the software, the program documentation describes things in a language which can befit the programmer.

Definition of CPU

The CPU (central processing unit) is the part of a computer controls the interpretation and execution of instructions. Generally, the CPU is a single microchip, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case. In the consumer desktop and laptop market, the CPU market is dominated by Intel, AMD, and IBM. These manufacturers supply the computer makers such as Dell, HP, and Apple.

Due to its importance to every computing task, the speed of the CPU, usually measured in gigahertz (GHz) is the number that most vendors use in their marketing campaigns. In the past, the larger the number, the faster the computer could be expected to be. However, in recent years, the speed of the CPU has had less impact as other components of a computer take on more and more of the workload. Also, differences in technology mean that a slower chip that performs more calculations per cycle can actually be faster than a higher rate chip doing fewer calculations per cycle.

What is a CPU?

The definition of a CPU has changed a bit since initially appearing in the early 1960s. As a general definition, a CPU is any machine that can run computer software.

In recent years, though, the CPU's definition has become more refined. Now, a CPU is typically regarded as computer chip that executes and processes commands, also called a microprocessor. The CPU can be a standardized chip, allowing it to work in a variety of devices across numerous platforms.

CPUs now appear in all kinds of devices, including personal computers, cellular phones, televisions, and automobiles. They can be designed and manufactured by one company, an Integrated Device Manufacturer, or designed by one fabless company that contracts a merchant foundry to manufacture them. Some companies also rely on available CPUs for their products instead of designing and building or sourcing their own.

Essentially, CPUs can perform four functions.

Optical fiber

(or "fiber optic") refers to the medium and the technology associated with the transmission of information as light pulses along a glass or plastic strand or fiber. Optical fiber carries much more information than conventional copper wire and is in general not subject to electromagnetic interference and the need to retransmit signals. Most telephone company long-distance lines are now made of optical fiber. Transmission over an optical fiber cable requires repeaters at distance intervals. The glass fiber requires more protection within an outer cable than copper. For these reasons and because the installation of any new cabling is labor-intensive, few communities have installed optical fiber cables from the phone company's branch office to local customers (known as local loops). A type of fiber known as single mode fiber is used for longer distances; multimode fiber is used for shorter distances.

Fiber optics

A technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads (fibers) to transmit data. A fiber optic cable consists of a bundle of glass threads, each of which is capable of transmitting messages modulated onto light waves.

Fiber optics has several advantages over traditional metal communications lines:

· Fiber optic cables have a much greater bandwidth than metal cables. This means that they can carry more data.

• Fiber optic cables are less susceptible than metal cables to interference.

· Fiber optic cables are much thinner and lighter than metal wires.

• Data can be transmitted digitally (the natural form for computer data) rather than analogically.

The main disadvantage of fiber optics is that the cables are expensive to install. In addition, they are more fragile than wire and are difficult to splice.

Fiber optics is a particularly popular technology for local-area networks. In addition, telephone companies are steadily replacing traditional telephone lines with fiber optic cables. In the future, almost all communications will employ fiber optics.