RCS0093 Information Processing
Review Questions
Computer and Digital Basics
- What is a computer?
- What is data representation and why it is needed in computer?
- Describe the characteristic of a digital device.
- Describe the difference between numeric data and character data. Give four codes that computers typically use for character data.
- What are the usages of Integrated Circuits?
- What are a motherboard and a processor?
- Describe how compliers and interpreters work with high-level programming languages, source code and object code.
- What are the two main parts inside a processor? Describe the functions and operations of these two parts.
- Describe how a processor executes instructions in the instruction cycle.
- Describe the difference between a computer program and an instruction set?
Computer Hardware
- List the important factors to be considered when shopping for a new computer.
- Suggest the computer upgrades that can be performed, instead of buying a new computer.
- List all the necessary components when you need to assemble a new desktop computer. For each component, point out the factors to be considered while purchasing.
- What are the performance factors of a processor?
- What are Computer Benchmarks?
- List four types of memory and briefly describe how each one works.
- Describe the advantages and disadvantages of magnetic storage, optical storage and solid state storage. Give two examples for each technology.
- What criteria should you use to compare storage devices?
- Describe the factors which are used to compare display devices’ image quality.
- Create a table to summarizedifferent types of printer and their applications.
- What features should you look for when buying a printer?
- Describe how sound card, graphic card andperipheral devices transfer data to processor.
Computer Software
- What are the categories of software? Give an example for each category.
- What is the function of utility software in general? Give two examples.
- What are desktop widgets? Give an example.
- What is a device driver?
- After installing software, what types of files it may consist of? What file extension it could be for each type of files?
- What types of security software are classified?
- What is malicious software?
- How does a computervirus spread?
- What are the differences between computer virus and computer worm?
- What are the differences between computer worm and Trojan horse?
- What are zombie and Botnet?
- What is spyware? How your computer would be getting infected?
- List three activities that done by Malware.
- How do you avoid security threats?
Operating System
- What is an operating system?
- Give an example to illustrate how an operating system coordinates the activities among the hardware and application software.
- Describe what important resources an operating system would manage in a computer system?
- How do operating systems manage computer’s resources?
- What is multitasking, multithreading and multiprocessing?
- If an operating system fails to manage memory RAM when the user runs more than one program at a time, what might happen?
- When starting a computer, how does operating system be loaded into RAM?
- List any four major events in the boot process.
- Give an example of handheld operating systems?
Networks
- What are the four classifications of networks?
- Give an example of each of the four classifications of networks.
- Briefly describe networked peripheral and network device. Provide an example of each.
- What are the clients and servers in a client-server network?
- Give two examples of servers in client-server networks.
- What is a peer-to-peer network?
- Give an example of an application used in peer-to-peer networks.
- Give three types of network topology and draw the corresponding diagrams.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of wired networks when compared to wireless networks?
- Draw a diagram of an (Ethernet) network that connects three computers, a printer and the other necessary devices to the Interne. Label each device.
- Describe two types of wireless network setups.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using local area networks (LAN)?
Internets
- What are Internet backbones?
- What are Internet service providers (ISP)?
- What are Internet Protocols?
- Give three examples of Internet Protocols.
- What are IP addresses and domain names?
- Describe how domain names can be converted into IP addresses.
- Give four examples of top-level domains.
- Give three different ways of gaining fixed Internet access.
- Briefly describe three services that could be provided through the Internet.
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