CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

computing process.
Figure 2-10 The computing process
Modern computing devices almost always have two other stages:
• Data storage
• Network connection
Data storage means saving a permanent copy of your work so that you
can come back to it later. It works like this. First, you tell the computer to
save something. Second, the CPU processes that command and stores the
data. Third, the computer shows you something, such as a message saying
that the data is stored. Any work that you don’t save is lost when you turn the
computer off or exit the application.
Most computing devices connect to other devices to access other
resources. A network connection often describes how one computer connects
to one or more other computers. And it doesn’t just apply to a couple of
office computers. Every smartphone, for example, can connect to the Internet
and play a video from YouTube (assuming you have a signal from a cell
tower and a data plan).
At this point, students often ask me a fundamental question: “Why should
I care about the computing process?” The answer to this question defines