terms of procedures steps logic blocks processing and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits that can be performed on computer memory these descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art a procedure computer executed step logic block process etc is here and generally conceived to be a self consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a desired result the steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities usually though not necessarily these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored transferred combined compared and otherwise manipulated in a computer system it has proven convenient at times principally for reasons of common usage to refer to these signals as bits values elements symbols characters terms numbers or the like it should be borne in mind however that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussions it is appreciated that throughout discussions utilizing terms such as u201c accessing u201d u201c writing u201d u201c including u201d u201c storing u201d u201c transmitting u201d u201c traversing u201d u201c associating u201d u201c identifying u201d or the like refer to the action and processes of a computer system or similar electronic computing device that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical electronic quantities within the computer system 39 s registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage transmission or display devices.