Unit 1 and Unit 2 Review Materials

Note: The questions on the exam will be based on variations of the following pool of questions and exercises in Unit 1 and Unit 2.

1. Benchmarks

a. With regard to computing, define the term benchmark.

b. What tasks does benchmarking software perform in order to measure the system being tested?

c. How can consumers use benchmarks to help them purchase a computer system?

d. How do benchmarks help identify slow points (bottlenecks) in the system?

2. Binary

a. Define bit.

b. Define byte.

c. Fill in the following chart, listing the prefixes used for the amount of bytes shown:

d.

e. Fill in the following chart, converting binary numbers to decimal and decimal numbers to binary:
(Note: The numbers that appear in the table below will differ on an exam from the numbers that appear on the exam's review sheet.)

f.

g. Although in sales literature 1000 bytes and 1024 bytes are both commonly referred to as a kilobyte, in computing the only correct number of bytes in a kilobyte is1024. Explain why 1024 is correct.

h. How can the difference in measuring bytes presented in part e impact a consumer when they are purchasing a hard disk drive?

3. Component Identification

Choose among the following components to label the image:

Motherboard
Power supply
BIOS ROM Chip
Cooling fan
Expansion slot
RAM chip
Expansion card
Disk drives
Chipset
IDE cable
Ethernet cable
PCI bus

a. Label A is _____.

b. Label B is _____.

c. Label C is _____.

d. Label D is _____.

e. Label E is _____.

f. Label F is _____.

g. Label G is _____.

Describe the functionality of each of the following components (in 2 sentences or less):

h. Microprocessor:

i. RAM:

j. Bus:

k. Expansion card:

l. Disk drive:

m. IDE cable:

4. Compression

a. What is compression?

b. Describe a benefit of compression.

c. Describe dictionary-based compression.

d. Describe run-length encoding.

e. Describe a benefit of lossy compression.

f. Name a file type that incorporates lossy compression.

5. Computer Speed

a. One Hz is one _____ per _____.

b. Define IPS.

c. Answer the following questions on the relationship of Hz to IPS.

i. Which is a better determiner of speed: MHz or IPS?

ii. Does a high Hz equal a high IPS, and can they be inversely proportional? Explain.

iii. How is it possible for a machine with a lower clock speed (Hz) to have a higher IPS than a machine with a higher clock speed?

d. What is the relationship between the system clock and Hz?

6. Hexadecimal

a. Define hexadecimal notation.

b. What advantages does hexadecimal have over binary?

c. Which number system, binary or hexadecimal, is used when referencing memory addresses and why?

d. Fill in the following chart, converting hexadecimal notation to decimal or decimal to hexadecimal notation:
(Note: The numbers that appear in the table below will differ on an exam from the numbers that appear on the exam's review sheet.)

7. Images

a. How are bitmapped images rendered?

b. How are vectored images rendered?

c. Which image type tends to be more photo-like in quality, bitmapped or vectored?

d. Which image type maintains a high image quality, regardless of how it is resized?

e. List three image editors.

8. I/O

a. Define I/O device.

b. Consider that a computer requires I/O devices to be able to interact with its environment. Explain why it is necessary for computers to have these devices.

c. Give four examples of I/O devices.

d. For each I/O device in your answer to part c, explain the device's function from the perspective of a user.

9. Magnetic Media

a. List two advantages of magnetic media over optical media.

b. Fill in the following chart matching the type of media with its storage capacity. The types of media to choose from are Jaz disk, Zip disk, hard disk drive, high-density floppy disk, and double density floppy disk.

c.

d. Consider that magnetic media is read by an electromagnet. How does the read/write head discern and transfer data from the magnetic media to the system?

10. Moore's Law

a. Define Moore's Law.

b. List two extrapolations of Moore's Law that are discussed in the course materials.

c. How can Moore's Law and the extrapolations from Moore's Law assist a consumer in purchasing a computer?

d. Define Parkinson's Law of Data.

e. Using Parkinson's Law, what projection can be made regarding memory and hard disk usage?

f. How can Parkinson's Law assist a consumer in purchasing software or components for a computer?

11. Optical Media

a. List two advantages of optical media over magnetic media.

b. Fill in the following chart. The types of media to choose from are CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM.

c.

d. Consider that optical media is read by a laser. How does the laser discern and transfer data from the optical media to the system?

e. Consider that a DVD and a CD are the same size. List two reasons a DVD holds more information than a CD.

12. Picture Quality

a. Explain resolution, with respect to a monitor.

b. List two typical monitor resolutions.

c. Explain color depth, with respect to a monitor.

d. List two typical monitor color depths.

e. Consider that the higher the resolution and the higher the color depth, the more system resources are required to display output on the monitor.

i. Use the resolutions from part b and the color depths from part d to calculate the amount of RAM required to display the image.

ii. Explain the calculation you made in part e.i in a way that confirms the statement made at the beginning of part e—that "the higher the resolution and the higher the color depth, the more system resources are required to display output on the monitor."

13. Port Identification

Consider the following devices:

Mouse
Printer
Keyboard
Modem
Speaker
Digital camera
Ethernet jack
Monitor

For the following questions, indicate which device(s) should be plugged in which port(s) A-H shown in the diagram below.

a. What device(s) can be plugged into port A?

i. What is the name of this port?

ii. Is this a serial port or parallel port?

b. What device(s) can be plugged into port B?

i. What is the name of this port?

ii. Is this a serial port or parallel port?

c. What device(s) can be plugged into port C?

i. What is the name of this port?

ii. Is this a serial port or parallel port?

d. What device(s) can be plugged into port D?

i. What is the name of this port?

ii. Is this a serial port or parallel port?

e. What device(s) can be plugged into port E?

f. What device(s) can be plugged into port F?

g. What device(s) can be plugged into port G?

h. What device(s) can be plugged into port H?

14. RAM

a. Define RAM.

b. What is the unit of measurement typically used for the speed of RAM?

c. What is SDRAM and how does it work?

d. Data on hard disk drives is accessed indirectly via the file system.

i. How is data in RAM accessed?

ii. What are the benefits of accessing RAM in this way?

e. With regard to RAM, what is volatility?

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 2330