Technology Questions and Answers

Answer: A

A stack in a digital computer is part of the memory unit.

It is a region of memory operated last-in first-out, with a stack pointer register marking the top. It holds return addresses, parameters and local variables for subroutine calls.

Answer: C

FORTRAN stands for Formula Translation.

John Backus and his team at IBM released it in 1957, the first widely used high-level language. It is still used for scientific and numerical computing, where its array handling and optimised compilers remain unmatched.

Answer: A

Every Excel formula begins with =.

The equals sign tells the program that what follows is to be evaluated rather than stored as text. Without it, =A1+B1 would simply appear in the cell as those characters.

Answer: C

Decimal is converted to hexadecimal by the hex dabble method.

The number is divided repeatedly by 16 and the remainders read in reverse order. The double dabble method does the same for binary, dividing by 2.

Answer: B

ROM stands for read only memory.

Its contents are fixed and non-volatile, surviving without power, which is why the firmware that starts a computer is held in it.

Answer: B

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics.

It was created in 1996 as a free replacement for GIF, whose compression was patent-encumbered. It compresses losslessly, supports true colour and offers a full alpha channel for transparency.

Answer: B

Explanatory text attached to a cell is a comment.

A cell carrying one shows a small red triangle in its corner and the note appears when the pointer hovers over it. Comments annotate a sheet without affecting its calculations.

Answer: C

SAP in networking stands for Service Access Point.

It is the point at which one protocol layer offers its services to the layer above, identified by an address so that several protocols can share the same lower layer.

Answer: B

BMP stands for bitmap.

It stores an image as a straightforward grid of pixel values, usually uncompressed, which makes files large but simple to read. It is the native raster format of Windows.

Answer: A

PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

The name is recursive; it was originally Personal Home Page tools. It is a server-side scripting language embedded in HTML, and WordPress, Wikipedia and Facebook were all built on it.