Deck 2: The System Unit: Processing and Memory

Question 1

To convert analog sound to digital sound, several thousand samples-digital representations of the sound at a particular moment-are taken every second.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The main circuit board inside the system unit is called the megaboard.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

MIDI ports are used to receive wireless transmissions from devices.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Each location in memory has an address.

Question 5

The decode unit coordinates and controls the operations and activities taking place within the CPU.

Question 6

As a hard drive begins to get full, it takes less time to locate and manipulate the data stored on the drive.

Question 7

Several of the original ports used with desktop computers-such as the parallel ports traditionally used to connect printers-are now considered standard ports.

Question 8

Pipelining increases the number of machine cycles completed per second.

Question 9

Each pixel in a monochrome graphic can be only one of two possible colors (such as black or white).

Question 10

The number of bits being transmitted at one time is dependent on the bus width.

Question 11

USB ports are used to connect a computer to a phone outlet via telephone connectors.

Question 12

The backside bus (BSB) has been one of the most common types of expansion buses in past years.

Question 13

The control unit takes the instructions fetched by the prefetch unit and translates them into a form that can be understood by the control unit, ALU, and FPU.

Question 14

Traditionally, PC Cards were used for notebook expansion.

Question 15

The binary numbering system uses only two symbols-the digits 0 and 1-to represent all possible numbers.

Question 16

ROM (read-only memory), also called main memory, is used to store the essential parts of the operating system while the computer is running.

Question 17

The process of representing data in digital form so it can be used by a digital computer is called decimal byte representation.

Question 18

Typically, 3D chips are created by layering individual silicon wafers on top of one another.

Question 19

Early computers required programs to be written in machine language.

Question 20

Unlike ASCII, Unicode is a universal coding standard designed to represent text-based data written in any language, including those with different alphabets.

Question 21

The accompanying figure shows a DIMM RAM microprocessor. _________________________

Question 22

With bitmapped images, the color of each ____ is represented by bits; the more bits used, the better the image quality.

A) pixel
B) vector
C) map
D) byte

Question 23

Benchmark tests typically run the same series of programs on several computer systems that are identical except for one component (such as the CPU) and measure how long each task takes in order to determine the overall relative performance of the component being tested. _________________________

Question 24

Eight bits grouped together are collectively referred to as a ____.

A) kilobit
B) byte
C) pixel
D) binary

Question 25

Most recent software programs, including the latest versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and Microsoft Office, use ASCII. _________________________

Question 26

Today's CPUs contain hundreds of millions of transistors, and the number doubles approximately every 18 months, a phenomenon known as Moliere's Law. _________________________

Question 27

A ____ is equal to 1,024 bytes.

A) kilobyte (KB)
B) megabyte (MB)
C) gigabyte (GB)
D) terabyte (TB)

Question 28

The CPU-also called the microprocessor or just the board-does the vast majority of the processing for a computer. _________________________

Question 29

Because of its large size, when audio data is transmitted over the Internet it is often encrypted to shorten the download time. _________________________

Question 30

Cache memory today is usually external cache. _________________________

Question 31

With pipelining, a new instruction begins executing as soon as the previous one reaches the next stage of the pipeline. _________________________

Question 32

Keyboards and mice are typically connected to a computers using parallel ports. _________________________

Question 33

ASCII is the coding system traditionally used with personal computers. _________________________

Question 34

The numbering system we commonly use is called the decimal numbering system because it uses ____ symbols to represent all possible numbers.

A) 2
B) 5
C) 10
D) 16

Question 35

Memory refers to the amount of long-term storage available to a PC. _________________________

Question 36

The central processing unit (CPU) consists of a variety of circuitry and components that are packaged together and connected directly to the motherboard. _________________________

Question 37

Each place value in a binary number represents ____ raised to the appropriate power.

A) 0
B) 1
C) 2
D) 10

Question 38

Each machine language instruction in a CPU's instruction set is broken down into several smaller, machine-level instructions called supercode. _________________________

Question 39

The system unit is the main case of a computer. _________________________

Question 40

A ____ is the smallest unit of data that a binary computer can recognize.

A) byte
B) datum
C) pixel
D) bit

Question 41

One type of nonvolatile RAM, called MRAM, uses ____ polarization rather than an electrical charge to store data.

A) magnetoselective
B) magnetobalanced
C) magnetic
D) magnetocharged

Question 42

The term ____ refers to chip-based storage used by the computer.

A) storage media
B) memory
C) hard drive
D) Zip drive

Question 43

One measurement of the speed of a CPU is the ____, which is rated in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz).

A) system speed
B) CPU clock speed
C) system rpm
D) CPU rpm

Question 44

A(n) ____ instruction might look like a meaningless string of 0s and 1s, but it actually represents specific operations and storage locations.

A) COBOL language
B) ASCII
C) programming language
D) machine language

Question 45

Most network cards contain a port that accepts a(n) ____, which looks similar to a telephone connector but is larger.

A) RJ-11 connector
B) RJ-12 connector
C) RJ-14 connector
D) RJ-45 connector

Question 46

____ are small components typically made out of aluminum with fins that help to dissipate heat.

A) ACs
B) Fans
C) Heat buses
D) Heat sinks

Question 47

A ____ is an electronic path over which data can travel.

A) bus
B) lane
C) word
D) cache memory

Question 48

Most computers today support the ____ standard, in which the computer automatically configures new devices as soon as they are installed and the PC is powered up.

A) Plug and Play
B) Match
C) Serial port
D) Parallel port

Question 49

The bus width and bus speed together determine the bus's ____ or bandwidth; that is, the amount of data that can be transferred via the bus in a given period of time.

A) clock speed
B) throughput
C) machine cycle
D) memory

Question 50

____ are very small pieces of silicon or other semiconducting material onto which integrated circuits are embedded.

A) Pixels
B) Pentiums
C) Chips
D) Motherboards

Question 51

The ____ enables up to 127 devices to be connected to a computer through a single port on the computer's system unit.

A) HyperTransport bus
B) USB standard
C) AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) bus
D) PCI Express Bus

Question 52

The key element of the microprocessor is the ____-a device made of semiconductor material that acts like a switch controlling the flow of electrons inside a chip.

A) processor
B) transistor
C) chipbus
D) S-card

Question 53

____ have begun to replace ROM for storing system information, such as a PC's BIOS.

A) Motherboards
B) Microprocessors
C) Adapter cards
D) Flash memory chips

Question 54

A computer ____ is the amount of data (measured in bits or bytes) that a CPU can manipulate at one time.

A) word
B) character
C) statement
D) unit

Question 55

Like graphics data, ____-such as a song or the sound of someone speaking-must be in digital form in order to be stored on a storage medium or processed by a PC.

A) pixel data
B) giga data
C) audio data
D) audio programs

Question 56

In a 16.8-million-color (called photographic quality or ____) image, three bytes (24 bits) are used to store the color data for each pixel in the image.

A) mega color
B) true color
C) real color
D) full color

Question 57

Video data-such as home movies, feature films, and television shows-is displayed using a collection of ____.

A) slides
B) pixels
C) vectors
D) frames

Question 58

The ____ takes instructions from the prefetch unit and translates them into a form that the control unit can understand.

A) register
B) decode unit
C) ALU
D) internal cache

Question 59

____ consists of nonvolatile memory chips that can be used for storage by the computer or the user.

A) RAM
B) Register
C) SDRAM
D) Flash memory

Question 60

A USB ____ is a device that plugs into your PC's USB port to convert one port into several USB ports.

A) hub
B) module
C) bus
D) connector

Question 61

The power supply inside a desktop computer connects to the ____________________ to deliver electricity to the computer.

Question 62

One nanometer (nm) is ____ of a meter.

A) one-billionth
B) one-millionth
C) one-thousandth
D) one-tenth

Question 63

____________________ is a special group of very fast memory circuitry located on or close to the CPU.

Question 64

Instructions and data flow in and out of the CPU via the ____.

A) control unit
B) prefetch unit
C) decode unit
D) bus interface unit

Question 65

The ____ orders data and instructions from cache or RAM based on the task at hand.

A) ALU
B) prefetch unit
C) control unit
D) decode unit

Question 66

A(n) ____________________ is a thin board containing chips and other electronic components.

Question 67

Like the CPU, RAM consists of circuits etched onto chips. These chips are arranged onto circuit boards called ____________________.

Question 68

The ____ tries to predict what data and instructions will be needed and retrieves them ahead of time, in order to help avoid delays in processing.

A) control unit
B) floating point unit
C) arithmetic / logic unit
D) prefetch unit

Question 69

____________________ are collections of electronic circuits containing microscopic pathways along which electrical current can travel.

Question 70

____________________ are locations on the motherboard into which expansion cards can be inserted to connect those cards to the motherboard.

Question 71

Terascale computing is the ability of computers to process one ____ floating-point operations per second (teraflops).

A) million
B) billion
C) trillion
D) quadrillion

Question 72

Text-based data is represented by fixed-length binary coding systems specifically developed for text-based data-namely, ASCII, EBCDIC, and ____________________.

Question 73

Expansion buses connect directly to ____________________ on the system unit case or to expansion slots on the motherboard.

Question 74

Most CPUs today are ____________________ CPUs; that is, CPUs that contain the processing components or cores of multiple independent processors on a single CPU.

Question 75

In order to synchronize all of a computer's operations, a ____-a small quartz crystal located on the motherboard-is used.

A) cycle chip
B) fetch unit
C) system clock
D) microprocessor

Question 76

____________________ are the connectors located on the exterior of the system unit that are used to connect external hardware devices.

Question 77

Some ____ must be added in pairs for optimal performance.

A) interfaces
B) memory modules
C) USB ports
D) hard drives

Question 78

One of the most common methods for storing graphics data is in the form of a bitmap-a grid of hundreds of thousands of dots, called ____________________.

Question 79

Today's CPUs are formed using a process called ____ that imprints patterns on semiconductor materials.

A) vectoring
B) lithography
C) serigraphy
D) imprintment

Question 80

The ____ is the section of the CPU that performs arithmetic involving integers and logical operations.

A) FPU
B) control unit
C) decode unit
D) ALU