Computer Fundamentals Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Correct answer: SIMULA

SIMULA 67, written by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard, extended ALGOL 60 with classes, objects and inheritance so that simulations could be described directly - and in doing so introduced object-oriented programming. ADA, SNOBOL and PILOT come from other lines of descent.

Answer: D

Correct answer: All of the above

Computer memory covers all three: RAM is the volatile working memory that holds what is running, ROM holds the firmware that survives with the power off, and PROM is a read-only memory written once after manufacture. All are forms of the machine’s memory.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Static memory

Static RAM holds each bit in a flip-flop, which keeps its state as long as power is supplied and needs no attention from outside. Dynamic memory stores each bit as a charge on a tiny capacitor that leaks away, so it must be refreshed every few milliseconds or its contents change on their own.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Output data

A report card and a merit list are what emerges when the marks have been processed - the results presented for use. That makes them output; the marks entered at the start were the input, and the calculation between them was the processing.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Fixed point number

In a fixed point representation the binary point is at an agreed position, so every value carries the same number of fractional digits and no exponent is stored. Floating point is the standard exponential form, holding a mantissa and an exponent so the point can move.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Control memory

Control memory - the control store - holds the microprogram: the sequence of micro-instructions that a microprogrammed control unit executes to carry out each machine instruction. It is usually a fast read-only memory, but what identifies it is its contents and its role, not the technology.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Magnetic bubble storage

Andrew Bobeck demonstrated magnetic bubble memory at Bell Labs in 1966: tiny cylindrical magnetic domains moved through a thin garnet film by a rotating field, giving non-volatile storage with no moving parts. It was overtaken by cheap semiconductor memory and disks.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Architecture

Computer architecture is the organisation of the machine and the interconnection of its parts - the instruction set, the register and memory arrangement, and the buses along which the units communicate. It is the description a programmer or designer works from, as distinct from the physical implementation.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Encryption

Encryption transforms data with a key so that anyone intercepting it sees only meaningless output, and only a holder of the matching key can recover the original. A bar code and a mnemonic merely re-express data in another notation, with nothing kept secret.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Volatile

RAM is volatile: its contents last only while power is applied and vanish the moment the machine is switched off. That is why it serves as short-term working memory and why anything to be kept must be written to disk.