Fundamentals Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Correct answer: Fabricated on a tiny silicon chip

An integrated circuit is a complete circuit - transistors, resistors and the connections between them - fabricated together on one small piece of silicon. Making them all at once, by the same photolithographic process, is what makes the IC dramatically cheaper than the equivalent discrete components, not costlier.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 1.44 MB

A high-density double-sided 3.5-inch floppy held 1.44 MB: 80 tracks a side, 18 sectors a track, 512 bytes a sector, over two sides. The earlier double-density disk held 720 KB.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Vacuum Tubes and Valves

The vacuum tube, or valve, was the switching element of the first generation. Transistors and integrated circuits define the second and third generations.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Dumb terminals

The saving came from sharing: one processor with many cheap dumb terminals attached, each little more than a keyboard and screen. A small business could then give several people access to the machine for far less than the cost of a computer each - the standard arrangement before personal computers became affordable.

Answer: D

Correct answer: All of the above

A computer, in the von Neumann scheme, consists of a central processing unit to compute and control, a memory to hold instructions and data, and input and output units to communicate with the outside world. Remove any of them and what remains is not a computer.

Answer: C

Correct answer: 1642

Blaise Pascal built the Pascaline in 1642, at the age of nineteen, to help his father with tax accounts. Geared wheels performed addition and subtraction with automatic carrying - the first calculating machine to handle the carry mechanically.

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.

Answer: D

Correct answer: All of above

All three are true of machine language. It is machine dependent, since the binary codes belong to one processor’s instruction set; it is difficult to program, being written in binary with addresses managed by hand; and for the same reasons it is error prone, and errors are hard to find. Assembly language cured the worst of it, and high-level languages the rest.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Semiconductors

Chips are fabricated from semiconductors, silicon above all. A semiconductor conducts only under certain conditions, and it is that controllability - achieved by doping the crystal with impurities - which makes a transistor, and so a switch, possible. Buses and control units are things built from chips.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Temporary, permanent

Memory (RAM) is working space: fast, directly addressable and volatile, so its contents vanish when the power goes. Storage (disk) is slower but keeps its contents permanently, and is much larger. Anything to be kept must be saved from the first to the second.