Which generation of computer is still under development?
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.
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A register organised to allow move-left and move-right operations is called a ____
Answer: D
Correct answer: Shift register
A shift register moves its contents one bit position left or right on each clock pulse. That makes it the natural way to convert between serial and parallel data, and shifting left or right by one is also multiplication or division by two.
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Which was the most popular first generation computer?
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.
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Which is considered a direct entry input device?
Answer: D
Correct answer: All of the above
Direct entry means data enters the machine without being keyed. An optical scanner, a light pen, and a mouse or digitiser all qualify: each converts a physical action or image straight into machine-readable form. A keyboard, by contrast, is a keying device.
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A set of information that defines the status of resources allocated to a process is
Answer: D
Correct answer: Process description
The process description (or process control block) is the operating system’s record of a process: its state, its program counter and registers, its memory allocation, and the files and devices assigned to it. It is what the system saves and restores at a context switch.
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Each set of Napier’s bones consisted of ______ rods.
Answer: C
Correct answer: 11
A set of Napier’s bones comprised eleven rods - one index rod plus one for each digit, with the multiples of that digit engraved down its length. Laying the rods for the digits of a number side by side reduced multiplication to reading off partial products and adding them - and division to the same process in reverse. Napier described them in 1617.
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BCD is
Answer: A
Correct answer: Binary Coded Decimal
BCD encodes each decimal digit separately in four bits, so 59 is stored as 0101 1001 rather than as the binary 111011. It wastes space, since six of the sixteen combinations are unused, but it converts to and from decimal without rounding - which is why it survives in financial and display applications.
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When was the world’s first laptop computer introduced in the market and by whom?
Answer: B
Correct answer: Epson, 1981
The Epson HX-20, announced in 1981, is generally counted the first true laptop: a full keyboard, a small LCD, a printer and rechargeable batteries, all in about 1.6 kg. Earlier “portables” such as the Osborne 1 were luggable rather than lap-sized.
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From which generation operating systems were developed?
Answer: C
Correct answer: Third
Operating systems in the modern sense - multiprogramming, time-sharing and job scheduling - belong to the third generation, with IBM’s OS/360 and the time-sharing systems of the late 1960s. Earlier machines had at most a simple batch monitor, and were often run one job at a time by hand.
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The first firm to mass-market a microcomputer as a personal computer was
Answer: C
Correct answer: Radio Shack
Radio Shack brought out the TRS-80 in 1977 and sold it through its own chain of shops - the first microcomputer to be genuinely mass-marketed as a personal computer, alongside the Apple II and the Commodore PET of the same year. IBM did not enter the market until 1981.
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