WEEK 2- Hardware and Software

Question 1

What is hardware?

Answer 1

Refers to any physical machinery that assists in the input, processing, storage, and output actions of an information system.

Question 2

What are the seven main hardware components of a typical hardware system?

Answer 2

Input Units
Output Units
Secondary Storage
Bus
Main Storage 
Cache Storage
CPU

Question 3

Identify and name common input and output devices used in information systems.

Answer 3

Examples of input units are keyboards, touch screens, the mouse, scanners, microphones, modems, and sensors.
Examples of output units are display screens, audio speakers, printers, plotters, modems, and controllers

Question 4

What is the role of the ‘bus’ in the Von Neumann architecture?

Answer 4

This is a common electrical pathway that all the other functional units - with the exception of cache memory - are connected to.

Question 5

What is secondary (mass) storage and the two significant characteristics?

Answer 5

Memory that stores all data and programs that may be used by the system and is

1. a huge capacity
2. stores data and programs while they are not being used.

Question 6

Name two examples of main memory device chips

Answer 6

RAM- Random Access Memory

ROM- Read only Memory

Question 7

What is cache storage?

Answer 7

Its function is to store the most recently used data values and instructions so that they can be passed back to the CPU if they are needed again.

Question 8

What are the three main performance characteristics of a memory device?

Answer 8

Capacity (ie Bytes)
Access Speed (how long to access data off the device)
Transfer Speed (how long it takes for data to move within the device)

Question 9

What is the difference between RAM and ROM?

Answer 9

ROM has its digital contents permanently ‘wired’ into the electronics of the device. The data stored in ROM can be read and used but it cannot be modified and is used for essential functions like start up.
RAM can be read and written, so its contents can be modified as required. General purpose computer systems like laptops, desktops etc. make use of much more RAM than ROM.

Question 10

What is the difference between sequentially organised memory and direct access memory?

Answer 10

In sequentially organised devices, data is stored as a sequence of locations with a starting location and a finishing location (all data before it needs to be scanned eg magnetic tape).
Devices with direct organisation store data in locations so that the time it takes to locate and access any location (address) is almost the same. Every memory location can be accessed ‘directly’ without having to work through other memory locations.

Question 11

Describe the role of a computer operating system (OS).

Answer 11

The broad role of an operating system is to manage the resources of the computer system so that the system will meet the needs of the user and the application software as efficiently as possible.

Question 12

Name and describe the two broadest categories of software.

Answer 12

Operating and application sfotware

Question 13

What is the difference between the address of a memory location and the contents of a memory location?

Answer 13

Need to find out more.

Question 14

What is the difference between main memory and secondary memory

Answer 14

Main memory is associated with the core of computer systems and it is intimately associated with the working of the system’s central processing unit (CPU). Secondary memory is used to store binary files containing data or program instructions that are not currently being used.

Question 15

Where is the development in secondary memory focused?

Answer 15

Capacity and speed.

Question 16

What are the processes known as analogue-to-digital conversion or digital-to-analogue conversion?

Answer 16

When data is transferred into a computer system, analogue values from the real world have to be converted into digital values that can be used inside the system. This process is known as analogue to digital conversion (or A-D conversion)

Question 17

What is a coding scheme?

Answer 17

A coding scheme is a strategy used to specify how a range of data values can be represented using digital binary codes and vice versa.

Question 18

What is meant by a computer system platform?

Answer 18

.

Question 19

What is the purpose of system software?

Answer 19

Systems software is the set of programs that coordinates the activities and functions of the hardware and other programs throughout the computer system. Systems software provides the ‘background’ processing of the system so that a user can then make use of the system to execute the application software that meets their needs.

Question 20

In what ways can software support different spheres of influence in an organisation?

Answer 20

Information systems that operate within the personal sphere of influence serve the needs of individual users.
When two or more people work together to achieve a common goal, they form a workgroup.
Information systems that operate within the enterprise sphere of influence support the business in its interaction with its environment.

Question 21

What is a device driver?

Answer 21

Device drivers are programs that manage the transfer of binary data and instructions between devices at the core of the computer system and devices at the peripheral of the system such as input units, output units and secondary storage devices.

Question 22

What is software?

Answer 22

Software is a generic name for computer programs that control the workings of computer hardware. EVERY computer program is a sequence of binary machine language instructions for the computer.

Question 23

What is application software?

Answer 23

Application software consists of programs that help users solve particular computing problems. In most cases, application software resides on the computer’s hard disk before it is brought into the computer’s memory and run

Question 24

What is the most important characteristic of a batch processing operating system?

Answer 24

Batch processing is where jobs are placed in a queue and when there are enough jobs in the queue all the jobs are run as a single ‘batch’.

Question 25

What is the most important characteristic of a multi-tasking operating system?

Answer 25

Several applications can be run at the same time.
In reality even modern computer systems can only execute one instruction of one program at any time. But because of the speed at which computers can process instructions and data, and because of the techniques of time-slicing, round-robin process scheduling, and interrupt handling, a multi-tasking operating system seems to be carrying out several programs simultaneously.