Technology Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Several processors sharing access to common memory modules form a shared memory multiprocessor.

Every processor sees one address space, which makes programming straightforward, but contention for the memory limits how many processors can usefully be added.

Answer: C

Printer resolution is measured in dpi - dots per inch.

300 dpi is adequate for text and 1,200 dpi or more for photographic printing. Screen resolution is expressed as pixels instead.

Answer: D

The operation in an instruction is specified by the opcode.

The operation code says what to do - add, load, jump - and the rest of the instruction says what to do it to. The number of bits in the opcode limits how many distinct instructions the processor can have.

Answer: B

The AutoContent Wizard has three steps between Start and Finish.

It asked for the type of presentation, the output medium and the title and footer, then generated an outline with suggested content. It was removed after PowerPoint 2003.

Answer: C

ADC stands for analog to digital converter.

It samples a continuously varying voltage at intervals and represents each sample as a binary number. Resolution is the number of bits per sample and sampling rate the number of samples per second.

Answer: B

A laser printer is a non-impact printer.

Nothing strikes the paper: a laser writes a charge pattern on a drum, toner sticks to it, and heat fuses it to the page. Dot matrix and daisy wheel printers strike the paper through a ribbon and are impact printers.

Answer: D

The word length of a home computer is given here as 8 bits.

Word length is the number of bits a processor handles at once. The early home computers of the 1970s and 1980s were 8-bit; modern processors are 64-bit.

Answer: A

Plotters print large charts, drawings, maps and three-dimensional illustrations.

A pen plotter draws with a moving pen rather than building the image from dots, so lines are continuous and precise at any size - which is what architectural and engineering drawings need.

Answer: A

ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network.

It carried voice and data digitally over ordinary telephone lines, giving 64 kbps per channel. It was the main alternative to dial-up before DSL.

Answer: B

PDF stands for Portable Document Format.

Adobe created it in 1993 so that a document would appear identically on any system, embedding fonts and layout in the file itself. It became an open ISO standard in 2008.