The components or tools of a computer system can be grouped into what two categories?
Hardware and software
What section/unit is the brain of a computer system?
Central processing unit
What section/unit is the computing center of a computer system?
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is made up of which of the following sections?
Control, internal storage, and arithmetic-logic
When a program is so large and complex that it exceeds the memory capacity of a stored-program computer, where is the overflow stored?
Auxiliary memory
What part of the computer dictates how and when each specific operation is to be performed?
Control section
Of the four major types of instructions, which one has the basic function of moving data from one location to another?
Transfer
To send commands to devices not under direct command of the control section, what type of instructions are used?
Control
Operations like adding and multiplying are performed by what section?
Arithmetic-logic
When processing is taking place, data is transferred back and forth between what two sections?
Internal storage and arithmetic-logic
The process by which instructions and data are read into a computer is called what?
Loading
An auxiliary (wired) memory is used in some computers to permanently store a small program that makes manual loading unnecessary. What is this program called?
Bootstrap
The tiny doughnut-shaped rings used to make up magnetic core storage are made of what material?
Ferrite
Data is stored in computers in what form?
Binary
The state of each core in magnetic core storage is changed by what?
The direction of current
Electronic circuits are placed on a silicon chip by what method?
Etched
Each of the individual electronic circuits on a silicon chip is called what?
A bit cell
Semiconductor storage has which of the following drawbacks?
It is volatile
Using a very thin crystal made of semiconductor material, what type of memory can be created?
Bubble
In bubble memory, where is the control circuit imprinted on the crystal of semiconductor material?
The top
Who installs the programs in read-only memory?
The manufacturer
Programs that are tailored to certain needs and permanently installed in ROM by the manufacturer are called what?
Firmware
What kind of memory used inside computers has a read/write capability without any additional special equipment?
RAM
A special device is needed to burn the program into what type of memory?
PROM
EPROM can be erased by what method?
With a burst of ultra-violet light
To coat magnetic disks, what magnetizable recording material is used?
Iron oxide
What is the size range of the diameters of magnetic disks?
3 inches to 4 feet
Data is stored on all disks in a number of invisible concentric circles called what?
Tracks
A floppy disk surface has what maximum number of tracks?
77
When data is written on a disk in the same area where data is already stored, the old data is affected in which of the following ways, if at all?
It is replaced
How are records on a track separated?
By a gap in which no data is recorded
To increase the amount of data we can store on one track, what technique can be used?
Blocking
Designers were able to increase the data density of a disk by increasing the number of tracks. What code name was given to this technology?
Winchester
During reading and writing, which of the following changes are achieved by reducing the distance of the read/write heads over the disk surface?
Data density can be improved and storage capacity increased
To physically organize data on diskettes, what method is used?
Cylinder
The lengths of magnetic tapes used with computers have what range?
From 600 to 3,000 feet
Magnetic tapes can be packaged in which of the following ways?
Open reel, cartridge, and cassette
By which of the following methods are magnetic tape units categorized?
Type of packaging used for tape
What determines if a standard 1/2-inch tape will have either seven or nine tracks of data?
The read/write heads installed in the tape unit
For multitrack tapes, what is the range of common recording densities in bits/bytes per inch (bpi)?
From 200 to 6,250 bpi
On magnetic tape, the size of a record that holds the data is restricted in what two ways?
By the length of the tape and the capacity of internal storage
In computer terminology, what is called a file?
A collection of records
In order for data to be read from or written on a magnetic tape, the tape must do what?
Move at a predetermined speed
Storing single records on a magnetic tape has which of the following disadvantages?
Too much of the recording surface is wasted
The magnetic drum is another example of what type of access storage device?
Direct
What is the speed range of a magnetic drum?
600 to 6,000 rpm
When using a magnetic drum, what is rotational delay?
Time that occurs in reaching a desired record location
What is the storage capacity range of magnetic drums in characters or bytes of
data?
From 20 million to more than 150,000 million
Input data may be in any one of how many forms?
Three
When data is input from a keyboard, a high average speed is how many characters per second?
Two to three
Output information is made available in how many forms?
Three
Magnetic tape stores data in what manner?
Sequential
The magnetic tape unit reads and writes data in channels or tracks along the length of the tape. How are these tracks referenced to each other?
Vertical
How does a two gap head allow for increased speed?
By checking while writing
What are the most common tape densities in bits/bytes per inch?
800 and 1,600 bpi
The drive motor of a disk drive unit rotates the disk at a constant speed, normally how many revolutions per minute?
3,600 rpm
The usual range of rotational speed for floppy disks is what?
300 to 400 rpm
The distance between the read/write head and the surface of a hard disk is called
what?
The flying height
Floppy disks come in several sizes with diameters of what size range?
3 to 8 inches
In the character-at-a-time impact printer class, which printer has the most professional-looking, pleasing-to-the-eye
print?
Daisy-wheel
What is another name for the dot-matrix printer?
Wire-matrix
Dot-matrix printers have which of the following ranges of speeds in characters per second?
60 to 350 cps
Ink jet printers have what maximum speed in characters per seconds?
300 cps
Laser printers can print up to approximately what total number of characters per second?
26,666 cps
What are the two styles of typewriter keyboard arrangements used with a computer?
QWERTY or DVORAK
When working with display devices, what does the term soft-copy mean?
The information displayed is not permanent
On a raster scan crt, a raster is a series of what type of lines across the face of a
crt?
Horizontal
Each field of a raster scan crt is made up of approximately how many lines?
525
In a video monitor, what do the frequency bandwidth, the number of characters to be displayed on a line, and the physical size of the screen determine?
Actual number of picture elements
A monitor that uses 1,000 picture elements per line with a horizontal resolution of 1,000 can display what total number of vertical lines?
1,000
A raster frame is displayed approximately how many times a second?
30
To reduce the depth of the crt caused by the length of the tube, what type of displays were designed?
Flat panel
Compared to the gas plasma and electroluminescent displays, a liquid crystal display differs in which of the following ways?
It does not generate its own light for the picture elements
The operation of an electroluminescent display requires what total number of volts?
20
What must you load into a computer to manage its resources and operations?
Operating system
What program controls the execution of other programs according to job information?
An operating system
The simplest and most commonly used operating systems on microcomputers are which of the following types?
Single user/single tasking
Which of the following programs must be compatible with the operating system in use?
Applications
To overcome the applications software compatibility problem, which of the following is done so the application can be run under several different operating systems?
Some software comes in several versions
What is another term for "initial program load" the system?
Boot
When the symbol A> is on the screen of a computer crt, it tells the operator/user which of the following information?
The system is ready, and drive A is assigned as your primary drive
The three characters following each directory entry are called what?
Extensions
Commands built into the operating system that control actions, like diskcopy and rename, are what type of commands?
Utility
To eliminate the need for programmers to write new programs when all they want to do is copy, print, or sort a data file, which of the following types of programs can be used?
Utility
What is the term given to arranging records in a predefined sequence or order?
Sorting
On a computer, what is the sequence of characters called?
Collating sequence
To sort a data file, what must you tell the sort program?
The data field or fields to sort on
Sort-merge programs usually have which of the following characteristics?
Phases
What personnel or methods are used to generate programs to print detail and summary reports of data files?
Report program generators
What are report program generators designed to save?
Programming time
Each time there is a control break, what does the program developed by the report program generator print?
Summary information
A computer language that is a string of numbers which represents the instruction code and operand addresses is what type?
Machine
Mnemonic instruction codes and symbolic addresses were developed early in what decade?
1950s
An instruction that allows the programmer to write a single instruction which is equivalent to a specified sequence of machine instructions is what type of instruction?
Macroinstruction
What does the acronym COBOL stand for?
Common business oriented language
PASCAL is being used by many colleges and universities to teach programming for which of the following reasons?
It is fairly easy to learn and more powerful than BASIC
The development of Ada was initiated by what organization?
U. S. Department of Defense
What are the two most familiar of the procedure-oriented languages used for scientific or mathematical problems?
BASIC and FORTRAN
Compared with programs written in symbolic languages, programs written in procedure-oriented languages differ in which of the following ways?
They can be used with a number of different computer makes and models
Compared with symbolic languages, procedure-oriented languages have which
of the following disadvantages?
They require more space in memory, and they process data at a slower rate
Which of the following is a simple definition of programming?
The process of planning the computer solution to a problem
Which of the following is NOT a basic characteristic of a computer?
It can think
How many fundamental and discrete steps are involved in solving a problem on a computer?
Four
In the advance planning phase of programming, what are the first two steps?
Problem understanding/ definition and flowcharting
Which of the following is NOT part of defining every aspect of a problem?
What is the computation time
Once you have a thorough understanding of the problem, what is the next step in programming?
Flowcharting
The method of pictorially representing a step-by-step solution to a problem before computer instructions are written to produce the desired results is called what?
Flowcharting
What two types of flowcharts are there?
System and programming
What are the four basic tools used in flowcharting?
Fundamental symbols, graphic symbols, flowcharting template, and flowcharting worksheet
Within a flowchart, what type of symbols are used to specify arithmetic operations and relational conditions?
Graphic symbols
To develop a flowchart, which of the following must you know first?
What problem you are to solve
In solving a problem, which of the following ways does a computer operate?
One step after another in specified order
What is the step called in which you code a program that can be translated by a computer into a set of instructions it can execute?
Program coding
Before sitting down to code the computer instructions to solve a problem, you should complete which of the following activities?
Planning and preparation
What is the fundamental element in program preparation?
Instruction
The first part of a computer instruction, which answers the question what, is known by which of the following terms?
Command or operation
The second specific part of the predicate in a computer instruction, known as the operand, in general answers what question?
Where
What part of the program must the programmer prepare according to the format required by the language and the computer to be used?
Instructions
To copy data from one storage location to another and to rearrange and change data elements in some prescribed manner, what type of instructions are used?
Data movement
Transfer of control instructions are classified as which of the following types?
Conditional and unconditional
Errors caused by faulty logic and coding mistakes are referred to as what?
Bugs
The process of carefully checking the coding sheets before they are keyed into the computer is known as what?
Desk-checking
A definition of the problem, a description of the system, a description of the program, and operator instructions make up what package?
Documentation
Which of the following is another name for packaged software?
Off-the-shelf programs
What type of software allows you to enter data and then retrieve it in a variety of ways?
Data management
You can use all printers for graphics output.
False
In using a digital computer, which of the following is one of the major problems we face?
Communicating with the computer
In computer terminology, what is a general term to describe raw facts?
Data
In computer terminology, when data has been processed with other facts and has meaning, it is described as which of the following?
Information we can understand and properly use
Data is represented by which of the following means?
By symbols
What is data to be represented called?
Source data
Raw data is typically written on some type of paper document referred to as what type of
document?
Source document
Numeric, alphabetic, and special characters are represented in a computer's internal storage and on magnetic media through the use of what kind of system?
Coding
It is possible to represent maximum of 256 different characters or bit combinations by
using which of the following codes?
8 - b i t
In addition to four numeric bits, there are four other bitpositions used in an a-bit code,
what are they called?
Zone bits
Which of the following numbering systems has a base of 16?
Hexadecimal
Representing two numeric characters in one byte (eight bits) is referred to as what?
Packing
By packing data within an 8-bit code, which of the following results are achieved?
Storage space required decreases and processing speed increases
Through the cooperation of several manufacturers, what a-bit code was developed for transmitting and processing data?
ASCII
An additional bit in each storage location called a parity bit is used for what purpose?
To detect errors
The parity bit is also called what?
Check bit
The test for bit count is called what?
Parity check
What storage area accepts and holds input data to be processed?
Input
A single binary digit is called what?
BIT
What symbol is used when we refer to the size of computer memory?
K
When many magnetic cores are strung together on a screen of wire, what type of plane is formed?
A core plane
When a core is magnetized, what characteristic of magnetism determines whether it contains a binary 0 or a binary 1?
Direction
The storage capacity of an address is designed and built into the computer by which of the following people or organizations?
Manufacturer
Computers that are built to retrieve , manipulate, and store a fixed number of characters in each address are said to be which of the following types of computer
Fixed-word-length
Computers that store a single character in each address location are said to be which of the following types of computers?
Character-addressable
Different word lengths, such as half-word, full-word, and doubleword, are possible with what type of computer?
Byte-addressable
When a flexible computer is working in a fixed-word-length environment, each address
identifies what group of elements that can be operated on as a unit
Bytes
To automatically retrieve, manipulate, and store a fixed word of data as a unit on a
flexible computer, what means can a programmer use?
Program instructions
In computer terminology, a group of related bits is known by which of the following terms?
Word
What group of related items form a record?
Fields
When data can be obtained quickly from anywhere on the media without having to read the records in front of it, which of the following types of storage is being used?
Direct-access
Which of the following is an example of random-access storage?
Thin film
Any system composed of one or more computers and terminals is the definition for what?
Network
When dissimilar machines have the ability to communicate, they act in which of the following ways?
As a team
For local area networks, what two designs are used?
Broadband and baseband
The communications channel that uses the basic frequency band of radio waves and a coaxial cable is what type?
Baseband
The transmission of voice as well as data and text can be handled by what type of communications channels?
Broadband
Wide area networks are sometimes referred to as which of the following networks?
Global
The first successful communications satellite for business applications was launched in what year?
1965
When we transmit data directly to a computer over long distances, it becomes necessary to add two other devices, one at each end of the communications line. These devices are called what?
Modems
A modem converts the digital signal produced by your terminal or the computer to what type of signal suitable for transmission over the communications line?
Audio
If conversion of the digital signal to be transmitted were not carried out, it would degenerate and become what?
Garbled
Telephone lines are a frequently used type of communications channel. They are often referred to by which of the following terms?
Land lines
In communications, what name is given to those devices that serve to interconnect?
Interface elements
When using a modem, what are the two methods of data transmission?
Asynchronous and synchronous
The transmission method that uses a single set of start and stopmessage characters per block of data is which of the following types?
Synchronous
Whenever data is transferred between devices, it also involves an exchange of prearranged signals known as what?
Handshaking
The specific set of rules used to govern handshaking and message characters is called what?