BIG IDEA 4 · 11–15% OF THE EXAM · 3 TOPICS
Computer Systems and Networks
How the internet moves data, why it keeps working when parts of it fail, and how splitting work across processors speeds things up. Three topics, dense with vocabulary.
What the College Board expects you to walk away understanding
- The internet is a network of networks that moves data in packets using shared protocols, and it's designed so no single failure takes it down.
- Fault tolerance comes from redundancy — multiple paths and backups.
- Parallel and distributed computing split work across processors or machines, with a speedup limited by the parts that can't be split.
Topics in this Big Idea
Night-before review
Every key term and exam tip from this big idea on one printable page.
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