Computer Fundamentals Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: Multiplexer

A multiplexer channel interleaves the traffic of several slow peripherals onto one path to the processor, taking a byte or a burst from each in turn, so a single channel serves many devices instead of one channel each. A selector channel, by contrast, gives its whole capacity to one fast device at a time.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The control unit

The control unit fetches each instruction, decodes it and issues the signals that make the other components act. It performs no calculation itself, which is what distinguishes it from the arithmetic logic unit.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 8

The first microcomputers were built on 8-bit processors - the Intel 8080, the Motorola 6800, the MOS 6502 and the Zilog Z80. Eight bits is one byte, so a register held \( 2^8 = 256 \) distinct values, and the 16-bit address bus reached 64 KB of memory.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Schema

The schema is the complete description of the database’s structure - every table, the columns and data types within it, the keys and the constraints. It is defined once and stored in the data dictionary; the records are the data that then fills that structure.

Answer: C

Correct answer: PL/1

PL/1 was designed by IBM in the 1960s as one language for every kind of mainframe work, combining the numerical features of FORTRAN, the record and file handling of COBOL, and the block structure of ALGOL, so that scientific and commercial programming need not use separate languages.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Low-level language

A low-level language works in the terms the machine itself uses - its instructions, its registers, its addresses - so it is close to the hardware and tied to one processor family. Machine code and assembly language are the two levels of it; a high-level language hides the machine behind statements written for people.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Baud

The baud is the rate of signalling: the number of discrete signal elements (symbols) sent per second. It equals the bit rate only when each symbol carries one bit; a modem using four-level encoding sends 2 bits per symbol, so 1200 baud carries 2400 bits per second.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Input-Output device

A device that both feeds data in and accepts data out is an input–output device - a disk drive, a modem, a touch screen or a network card, each of which carries traffic in both directions. The ALU and the CPU process data rather than exchange it with the outside world.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Humanware

Humanware is the people side of a computing installation - the operators, programmers, analysts and managers who run and use the system - set alongside hardware (the machinery), software (the programs) and firmware (programs held permanently in a chip).

Answer: D

Correct answer: All of the above

A modern digital computer is fast, holds a great deal of data, and computes to whatever precision is asked of it - extra digits cost only extra words of storage and time. All three statements therefore hold, which is why the combined option is correct.