Chapter 4

Question 1

Brief history of computers.

Answer 1

Early computer(Vacuum tubes)1939-52, Mainframes(Transistors)1952-present, Microcomputer(Integrated circuit)1972-present, Networking Personal computers 1985-present Local area networks and Wide area networks, mobile and tablet computing late 1990s-present, Cloud computing 2010-present.

Question 2

What is hardware?

Answer 2

Hardware consists of electronic components and related gadgetry that input, process, output, and store data according to instructions encoded in computer programs of software.

Question 3

What are basic hardware categories?

Answer 3

Input, processing, output and storage.

Question 4

What is input hardware?

Answer 4

Input hardware accept or capture data to be entered into computing system.

Question 5

What are the examples of human direct input devices?

Answer 5

Keyboard, mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen etc.

Question 6

What are the examples of human indirect input devices?

Answer 6

Scanners, digital cameras, audio digitizers.

Question 7

What output hardware consists of?

Answer 7

Video output(Monitors), Printed output(Printers), Sound output(Speaker).

Question 8

How binary digits(bits) represent data?

Answer 8

Bits represent data as ether zero or one.

Question 9

What are bytes?

Answer 9

Bits grouped in 8-bit chunks (represent one character)

Question 10

What is a motherboard?

Answer 10

Electronic circuit which provides the means to connect various computers hardware together.

Question 11

What is a CPU and what it does?

Answer 11

Central processing unit- transfers program or data from disk to main memory, moves instruction from main memory via data channel or bus, speed is expressed in Hertz, has small amount of very fast memory called cache.

Question 12

What is RAM?

Answer 12

Main memory(Random Access Memory) contains program instructions, contains Operating system instructions, too little means constant memory swapping. Is volatile (turn off the computer RAM goes away) Working memory, can be added to the motherboard.

Question 13

Explain memory swapping.

Answer 13

Main memory is too small to hold all data, CPU loads program into memory in chunks, places new programs into unused memory, if none available, OS would remove chunk being used and replace with requested data

Question 14

What is ROM?

Answer 14

Read only memory, non volatile and used to “boot-up” machine.

Question 15

What are characteristics of a magnetic disks?

Answer 15

Fixed Disk Drives(Hard Drive), non-volatile, capacity is measured in Bytes, Uses a multi-platter designs, Records in tracks & sectors.

Question 16

What kind of optical disks are there?

Answer 16

Compact disk(CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW), Digital Versatile (or Video) Disk (DVD)(red laser), Blue-ray Disk(BD)(blue-violet laser)

Question 17

What kind of flash memory is there?

Answer 17

Flash Memory Device, Flash Memory card, Solid state drive.

Question 18

What is cloud sorage

Answer 18

Hard drive space available via internet

Question 19

What is a client computer?

Answer 19

Computers used to review and process information.

Question 20

What is a server computer?

Answer 20

Provide access to information and application.

Question 21

What is a thin client?

Answer 21

An application that requires nothing more than a browser on the client.

Question 22

What is a thick client?

Answer 22

An application that requires programs other than a browser on the user’s computer.

Question 23

What is Firmware?

Answer 23

Computer software installed into devices, coded like other software, installed into non-volatile ROM, can be changed and updated.

Question 24

What is BIOS?

Answer 24

Basic input/output system used when a computer is initially booted up, required because all volatile memory is lost when the computer is shut down.

Question 25

What types if computer software are there?

Answer 25

Operating system(OS) and Application Programs. A particular version of an operating system is written for a particular type of hardware, application programs are written to use a particular operating system.

Question 26

What is an application software?

Answer 26

Application Software consists of programs that perform a business function, some are general purpose some are specific. Could be bought off the shelf, could be customized, or fully custom developed.

Question 27

What is a horizontal-market application software?

Answer 27

It provides capabilities common across all organizations and industries, typically general purpose software.

Question 28

What is a vertical-market application software?

Answer 28

Serves need of specific community/industry, usually altered or customized.

Question 29

What kind of malware are there?

Answer 29

Virus(replicates itself, consumes resources), Macro viruses(attaches themselves to various documents), Worm(propagates using networks), Zombies(subsequent computers infected with worm or virus)