Computer Fundamentals Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Correct answer: Small talk

Smalltalk, developed at Xerox PARC in the 1970s, was the first system built around a graphical user interface - overlapping windows, icons, pop-up menus and a mouse - and it ran on the Xerox Alto. The ideas it introduced were later taken up by the Apple Lisa and Macintosh. Ethernet, also from PARC, is a networking technology rather than an interface.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Semiconductor memory cells

ROM is a semiconductor device: its contents are fixed by the pattern of memory cells laid down on the silicon when the chip is made or programmed, and they survive with the power off. Magnetic cores were an earlier read–write technology, floppy disks are removable magnetic media, and a microprocessor is a processor rather than a memory.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Error detection

A parity bit is appended so that the number of 1s in the group is always even (or always odd). If a single bit is corrupted in transit or in storage, the count no longer matches and the error is detected - though parity locates nothing and so cannot correct it.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Internet protocol

IP is the Internet Protocol, the network-layer protocol that gives every host an address and routes packets from one to another across interconnected networks. It offers delivery on a best-effort basis; TCP above it adds the reliability.

Answer: B

Correct answer: formatting

Formatting writes the track and sector structure onto a blank diskette and lays down the directory and allocation table, so the operating system knows where it may put files. Until that is done the surface carries no organisation and nothing can be stored on it.

Answer: A

Correct answer: RAM

RAM - random access memory - is the working memory that holds the programs and data currently in use, and it is what is meant when a machine is described as having so many gigabytes of memory. DSL is a broadband connection, USB a connection standard, and LAN a local network.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Buses

A bus is the set of parallel conductors along which the processor, memory and controllers exchange information - the address bus carrying the location, the data bus the value, and the control bus the timing signals. Bays hold drives, flash memory stores data, and CMOS keeps the setup settings.

Answer: B

Correct answer: spreadsheet program

A spreadsheet arranges data in a grid of lettered columns and numbered rows, and each cell may hold a value or a formula that refers to other cells - so changing one figure recalculates everything that depends on it. A word processor handles running text and a graphics package handles images.

Answer: A

Correct answer: A file is a collection of information that has been given a name and is stored in secondary storage

A file is a named collection of related information held on secondary storage - a disk or other permanent medium. The name is how the operating system finds it again, and the file may hold a document, a picture, a program or anything else. Main storage holds only what is in use at the moment.

Answer: C

Correct answer: executable files

An application is a program, and a program is delivered as an executable file - one whose contents are machine instructions the operating system can load and run. Data files hold the material such a program works on; system software and the operating system are a different layer altogether.