Fundamentals Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: Diligence

Diligence is the term for a machine’s ability to perform the same task, hour after hour, without tiring, losing concentration or becoming bored - the millionth calculation is done exactly as carefully as the first. Accuracy is freedom from error, reliability is consistent working, and versatility is the ability to do different kinds of job.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Fifth Generation

The fifth generation is the one still being worked towards: machines built round artificial intelligence, natural language, massive parallelism and reasoning rather than mere calculation. The fourth generation, of microprocessors and VLSI, is what we actually use.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Supercomputers are focused to execute few programs as fast as possible while mainframe uses its power to execute as many programs concurrently

The difference is in what each optimises. A supercomputer is built for raw speed on a small number of very heavy computations - weather models, simulations - and is measured in floating-point operations per second. A mainframe is built for throughput: thousands of concurrent transactions, with reliability and input-output capacity mattering more than arithmetic speed. Physical size has nothing to do with it.

Answer: C

Correct answer: It is a peripheral device

All four statements are true, but peripheral device is the one that covers the whole case. A VDU is a terminal - screen for output, keyboard for input - so calling it purely an output device is incomplete, and “hardware item” is true but says nothing useful.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 1980

The Which Computer? Show, Britain’s principal computing exhibition through the 1980s, began in 1980 - the moment the microcomputer was arriving in offices and homes.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Enhances the capabilities of the hardware machine

Software does not make the hardware faster - the clock rate is fixed. What it does is extend what the machine can do: the same processor becomes a word processor, a spreadsheet or a compiler according to the program loaded. Hardware supplies the capability; software directs it.

Answer: D

Correct answer: COM (Computer Output to Microfilm)

COM is an output technology: it writes computer output onto microfilm or microfiche for compact archival storage. OCR, optical scanners and voice recognition devices all take information into the machine.

Answer: D

Correct answer: POS terminal

A point-of-sale terminal is the checkout till: it takes payment like a cash register, is connected to the store’s computer as a terminal, and reads bar codes or characters optically. Combining all three is exactly what distinguishes it.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 11

The number of addressable locations is 2048, so the address lines must satisfy

giving 11 lines. The “× 4” describes the width of each location, four bits, and has no effect on how many address lines are needed.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Specify the problem completely and clearly

An algorithm sets out the steps of a solution in order, and a flowchart shows the same thing diagrammatically. Both exist to make the logic explicit before any code is written - which is where ambiguities and missing cases come to light. Neither has anything to say about memory, number bases or printers.