Deck 2: The System Unit: Processing and Memory

Question 1

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

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Traditionally,PC Cards were used for notebook expansion.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

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

Answer 3

False

Question 4

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

Question 5

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

Question 6

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

Question 7

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

Question 8

MIDI ports are used to receive wireless transmissions from devices.

Question 9

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

Question 10

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

Question 11

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 12

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

Question 13

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

Question 14

Early computers required programs to be written in machine language.

Question 15

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 16

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

Question 17

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

Question 18

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 19

Each location in memory has an address.

Question 20

Pipelining increases the number of machine cycles completed per second.

Question 21

The system unit is the main case of a computer.

Question 22

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 23

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

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

Question 24

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

Question 25

ASCII is the coding system traditionally used with personal computers.

Question 26

The buses used to connect peripheral (typically input and output)devices to the motherboard are usually referred to as expansion buses.

Question 27

-The accompanying figure shows a DIMM RAM microprocessor.

Question 28

Cache memory today is usually external cache.

Question 29

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

Question 30

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

Question 31

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

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

Question 32

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

Question 33

A ____ is equal to 1,024 bytes.

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

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

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 36

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

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

Question 37

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

Question 38

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

Question 39

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

Question 40

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

Question 41

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 42

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 43

____ 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 44

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 45

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 46

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 47

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 48

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 49

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 50

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 51

____ 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 52

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 53

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

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

Question 54

____ 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 55

____ 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 56

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

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

Question 57

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 58

One of the most promising types of nonvolatile RAM is magnetic (or more precisely,____)(MRAM).

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

Question 59

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 60

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 61

____________________ data consists of still images,such as photographs or drawings.

Question 62

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

Question 63

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

Question 64

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 65

One nanometer (nm)is ____ of a meter.

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

Question 66

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 67

Case 2-2
Jack has a computer at home that he uses to access the Internet,store and edit personal photos,and create and edit documents.Recently,he has come to realize that in order to keep the computer performing at its best,he needs to carry out regular system maintenance on the computer.
Since Jack has a Windows system,he can right-click a hard drive icon in Windows Explorer,select Properties,and then select the ____ option on the Tools tab to check that hard drive for errors.

A)Check now
B)Disk Defragmenter
C)Defragment now
D)Windows Disk Cleanup

Question 68

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

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

Question 69

Some ____ must be added in pairs for optimal performance.

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

Question 70

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 71

Case 2-2
Jack has a computer at home that he uses to access the Internet,store and edit personal photos,and create and edit documents.Recently,he has come to realize that in order to keep the computer performing at its best,he needs to carry out regular system maintenance on the computer.
Jack can use the ____ program to locate and delete temporary files,such as installation files,Web browsing history,and files in the Recycle Bin.

A)Windows Registry
B)Disk Defragmenter
C)Temporary Files
D)Windows Disk Cleanup

Question 72

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 73

Case 2-2
Jack has a computer at home that he uses to access the Internet,store and edit personal photos,and create and edit documents.Recently,he has come to realize that in order to keep the computer performing at its best,he needs to carry out regular system maintenance on the computer.
Jess has pictures from her old computer saved on a flash drive.To transfer these to her new computer,she would use a(n)____ port.

A)SCSI
B)FireWire
C)modem
D)USB

Question 74

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 75

Case 2-2
Jack has a computer at home that he uses to access the Internet,store and edit personal photos,and create and edit documents.Recently,he has come to realize that in order to keep the computer performing at its best,he needs to carry out regular system maintenance on the computer.
Jack can speed up his computer by scanning it for viruses and ____.

A)RAM
B)Flash drives
C)spyware
D)bytes

Question 76

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 77

Case 2-1
Jess is a musician who has just bought a new computer.Now she has to determine how to connect this computer to the devices that were connected to her old computer.
To connect her external hard drive where her music files are stored to the computer,Jess needs to use the ____ port.

A)serial
B)USB
C)network
D)modem

Question 78

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

Question 79

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

Question 80

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 ____________________.