Fundamentals Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: ROM and RAM

Main (primary) memory is of two kinds: RAM, which is read-write and volatile, and ROM, which is read-only and keeps its contents without power - where the start-up firmware lives. “Primary and secondary” describes main memory against disk, which is a different division altogether.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Motherboard

The motherboard is the main printed circuit board, carrying the processor, memory, chipset and expansion slots, and joining them by the system buses. Smaller boards that plug into it are called daughterboards; a breadboard is a prototyping device.

Answer: D

Correct answer: All of above

All three are true. Ada, Countess of Lovelace wrote the notes on Babbage’s Analytical Engine that contain what is generally called the first computer program, so she is regarded as the first programmer; she was the daughter of Lord Byron; and the language Ada, developed for the United States Department of Defense in the late 1970s, is named after her.

Answer: A

Correct answer: IBM 1650

The IBM 650 family - of which the 1650 is the designation used in this question - was the most widely sold computer of the first generation, with roughly two thousand delivered from 1954. The IBM 360 belongs to the third generation and the 1130 to the third as well.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Any of the above

All three describe the same quantity. Sixteen address lines give \(2^{16}\) distinct combinations, and

so “\(2^{16}\)”, “65,536” and “64K” are three notations for one number.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Both a and b

Sequential processing suits work where every record must be handled in a single run, in order - and both payroll and the processing of grades are of that kind. Nothing is gained by random access when the whole file has to be read anyway. Enquiry systems, where one record is wanted at a time, are the opposite case.

Answer: B

Correct answer: second generation

The IBM 1401, brought to Nepal in 2028 BS (1971) for the census, was a second-generation machine - built with discrete transistors rather than valves or integrated circuits. It was already an old design by then, but it did the work.

Answer: D

Correct answer: All the above

A computer does three kinds of thing: arithmetic (add, subtract, multiply, divide), logical comparisons (equal, greater, less), and storage and retrieval of data. The first two are the work of the ALU, the third of memory; everything else is built from them.

Answer: C

Correct answer: 1024 megabytes

The units go up in steps of 1024, which is \(2^{10}\): 1024 bytes to the kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes to the megabyte, and 1024 megabytes to the gigabyte - that is \(2^{30}\) bytes. (Disk manufacturers use powers of ten instead, which is why a “500 GB” drive shows as about 465 GB.)

Answer: B

Correct answer: Third generation

The third generation, from the mid-1960s, replaced discrete transistors with integrated circuits, making machines markedly smaller and more reliable. The first used vacuum tubes, the second transistors and the fourth microprocessors.