CXC IT Thoery Jan 2001 Attempt ALL questions.

1) (a) State TWO differences between Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM). (2 marks) (b) State TWO essential features of the operation of an EPROM unit. (2 marks) (c) Give ONE situation where EPROM units are particularly useful. (1 mark) Total marks 5 2) (a) Give TWO advantages and TWO disadvantages of using customized software. (4 marks) (b) Explain TWO differences between a plotter and a dot matrix printer (2 marks) Total marks 6 3) (a) Give TWO differences between a bar- code and a marking to be used by an Optical Mark Reader. (3 marks) (b) Describe BRIEFLY the operation of a Voice Data Entry system, and give ONE example of a situation where it would be useful. (2 marks) (c) Give ONE situation where a robot is preferable to a human operator, and explain why the robot would be preferred. (2 marks) (d) What is Videotex? (1 mark) Total marks 8 4) (a) Describe BRIEFLY the following: i. Modem ii. Bulletin board iii. Telemarketing

(6 marks)

(b) Give TWO differences between a LAN and a WAN. (2 marks) Total marks 8 5) (a) Describe BRIEFLY the operation of a touch screen or touch terminal, and explain TWO ways how it could be more advantageous than a mouse. (3 marks) (b) Give the difference between a batch processing system and an online processing System and give ONE advantage that EACH type holds over the other. (3 marks) 6) It has been decided that all medical records should be merged into a single

computerized National Health database. (a) Give THREE advantages and ONE disadvantage of having such a database system. (4 marks) The database is now set up. For EACH person, information was put into the fields. (b) A scientific researcher wishes to understand the way diseases are spreading. Select from the following list the fields that this researcher would NOT need to use, and for EACH one selected, explain why it would not be necessary. ID Number, Birth-place, List of ailments with dates. (3 marks) Give TWO measures that can be applied to ensure EACH of the following: (i) Confidentiality of a persons record. (ii) Security of a persons record. (3 marks) (d) List TWO skills that would be needed by a doctor or his staff in order to benefit from this National Health Database. (2 marks) Total marks 13 7. (a) Describe BRIEFLY the use of the parity bit. (2 marks) (b) Why is the binary digital representation of information appropriate for the operation of the computer? (1 mark) (c) Convert the binary number 110011 to its decimal equivalent. (1 mark) (d) Convert the decimal number 50 to a binary number. (1 mark) (e) The binary digits 10011101 to represent a negative number in a twos complement representation. What is the decimal equivalent? (1 mark) Total marks 6 8. (a) Explain the difference between a compiler and an interpreter. (2 marks) (b) Explain the difference between testing and debugging. (2 marks) (c) (i) What is a virus? (2 marks) (ii) Describe briefly TWO ways to protect a system from viruses. (2 marks) 9. (a) What is a virus? (2 marks) (b) How can an Expert System be helpful in the medical profession? (2 marks) Total marks 4

(c)

10. (a) Write a program in Pascal, Basic or any language, to read in THREE numbers and to find and display the smallest of the THREE numbers. (6 marks) (b) In the following variables X,Y and Z are REAL numbers. X=4 Y=2 Z=8 FOR I = 1 TO 2 IF X < Y THEN X =X*Y Y=X/Y X=X/Y ENDIF PRINT I,X,Y,Z IF Y < Z THEN Z=Y/Z Y=Y/Z Z=Y*Z ENDIF PRINT 1, X, Y,Z NEXT 1 Each print statement is done twice, so that four lines of output are printed. Give in your answer book, the four lines of output that are printed. (You may use a trace table, or any other means, to analyze the sequence of the program.) (5 marks) Total marks 11 Grand Total 75 marks