Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
1. Give ONE example each to illustrate soft copy and hard copy. (2 marks)
2. Explain the difference between impact and non-impact printers. (2 marks)
3. Give an example of why a Dot Matrix Printer would be useful today. (2 marks)
4. What out devices would you use if you were to design a car or a house? Give reasons for your
answer. (2 marks)
5. What is a modem? Why is a modem both an input and an output device? (2 marks)
1.4 Memory
1. What is the difference between a bit, a byte, a word, and wordsize? (2 marks)
2. Give ONE similarity and ONE difference between RAM and ROM. (2 marks)
3. What is the difference between PROM and EPROM? (2 marks)
4. State TWO advantages of Flash Memory. (2 marks)
5. Explain why a Kilobyte is 1034 bytes instead of 1000 bytes. (2 marks)
6. What is the role of Cache Memory and how may it be used by computers? (2 marks)
1.8 Software I
1.9 Software II
1. You are reading a report to be sent to the computer technician. It reads ‘… other times you get no
warning – everything just freezes.’
a. What do you understand by the word ‘Freezes’? (2 marks)
b. Name TWO pieces of computer hardware that will indicate that the computer has frozen.
(2 marks)
2. What computer problems will cause you to examine the cables, connectors and power cords to
make sure they are connected properly? (2 marks)
3. a. Explain the types of hardware associate with hard copy and soft copy output. (4 marks)
b. Explain the following terms: i. Resolution ii. Refresh Rate (4 marks)
4. a. Explain the TWO states that a binary digit represents in a computer system. (1 mark)
b. Explain why computer memory and storage size is given in multiples of bytes such as KB,
MB, and GB. (2 marks)
c. Several types of memory combine the features of ROM and RAM.
i. Give an example of such a device. (1 mark)
ii. What would be the main purpose of such a device? (1 mark)
5. a. Explain the difference between secondary storage devices and primary storage devices.
(2 marks)
b. Explain why you should keep diskettes away from magnetic media and optical media.
(2 marks)
c. Name TWO of these magnetic sources. (2 marks)
d. State TWO advantages each of magnetic media and optical media. (2 marks)
d. What do the following terms stand for: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW and DVD? (4 marks)
e. Explain why you should keep diskettes away from magnetic sources. (2 marks)
f. CD-ROMs are read-only media. What does this mean? (2 marks)
g. Why are DVDs becoming increasingly popular? (2 marks)
7. a. Covert 27: i. Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) ii. Sign and Magnitude
iii. two’s complement (3 marks)
9. Explain the types of application that are included integrated software. (2 marks)
10. Explain with reasons, which type of interface would be more useful for:
a. Novice b. an Expert (2 marks)
11. a. Explain the difference between File Management and Disk Management. (4 marks)
b. What do you understand by Multi-tasking and Multi-users? (2 marks)
12. What drive letter(s) would typically be given to the following device:
a. Network b. Hard Drive c. CD Drive d. Floppy Drive (4 marks)
1. When a program makes a read request to the hard disk, the device which reads data from the disk
is moved along a radius to the particular concentric circle on which data is stored. When the
relevant part of the concentric circle of the disk arrives under the device, which reads the data, the
data is read and stored in a special area of memory from which data can be accessed.
State the proper technical terms for EACH of the FOUR underline phrases in the passage above.
(4 marks)
1998 CXC Question 2
2. Match the application with the most appropriate input device:
APPLICATION DEVICES
A letter is replaced by the letter five letters later in alphabetical order. For example, “F” replaces
the letter “A”, “B” is replaced by “G”, and so on. Note that the letter “A” is considered to
following the letter “Z”.
16. What does EACH of the following abbreviations stand for, and what is the purpose of EACH of
the components listed:
18. a. How does a ‘pull-down menu’ help you in completing your task more easily? (2 marks)
b. Give the MOST important advantage of Primary Storage over Tape Storage. (2 marks)
c. In using a diskette, one precaution is: “Keep diskettes away from magnetic fields.”
Give THREE further precautions in the use of diskettes to store files. (3 marks)
19. a. Which print output device is best suited for producing an architectural drawing of the front
view of a building and why? (3 marks)
b. A dot matrix printer is producing very faded output. Give ONE likely reason for this
problem, and explain what must be done to remedy it. (2 marks)
d. Explain the operation of the light pen. How is it different from that of a mouse? (3 marks)
e. Give ONE similarity and ONE difference between OCR and MICR operation. (2 marks)
20. A certain computer uses an unsigned number of binary floating point representation for positive
read numbers. The mantissa is an 8-bit normalized fraction and the exponent is an 8-bit, two’s
complement integer. In a particular case, the mantissa is 100100011 and the exponent is 00110011
2001 CXC Question 4 – 6