COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND HARDWARE PART 2

Question 1

Some computers have a single chip containing the circuits for two microprocessors; this is called a _________ processor.

Answer 1

Dual core. Nowadays, quad core processors are available which contain four microprocessors.

For a computer to be able to take advantage of dual core or quad core technology, the installed operating system has to support

Question 2

Tests run by laboratories to compare the overall speed of microprocessors are called __________.

Answer 2

Benchmarks. Benchmarks are published on the Web and can be used to compare the performance of various microprocessors.

Question 3

A technique for increasing the speed of computer components such as motherboards, memory, processors, and graphics cards is called ____________.

Answer 3

Overclocking. Overclocking is popular with computer gamers but can be dangerous as components may overheat and be damaged or catch fire.

Question 4

One millisecond is one __________ of a second

Answer 4

Thousandth. To convert seconds to milliseconds, multiply by 1000 (i.e. 5 seconds is equal to 5,000 milliseconds). Access times for PC storage devices are measured in milliseconds

Question 5

The ____ is a set of instructions contained in ROM that tell the computer how to find the operating system and load it into RAM.

Answer 5

BIOS. The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) also enables the computer to interpret keyboard commands and display characters on the monitor.

Question 6

The particular operating system and processor model on which a computer system is based is called the ________.

Answer 6

Platform. Common platforms include Apple Macintosh, Windows platforms and PC platforms.

Question 7

_______ storage is temporary and holds data waiting to be processed.

Answer 7

Primary. Primary storage, also known as RAM or memory, is temporary data held in computer circuitry. This data is lost when the computer is turned off.

Question 8

A keyboard, _____, microphone, scanner, and camera are all examples of computer input devices.

Answer 8

Mouse. Input data can be text, images, numbers, or sounds

Question 9

The monitor, speakers, and printer are examples of computer ______ devices.

Answer 9

Output. Output is the result of processing

Question 10

A hard disk and USB drive are all examples of _________ storage.

Answer 10

Secondary. Secondary storage refers to devices and media that store data permanently. This data is not lost when the computer is turned off.

Question 11

A _______ is a peripheral device that converts physical documents into digital data.

Answer 11

Scanner. There are different types of scanners including flatbed, sheetfed, and drum scanners

Question 12

The main circuit board of the computer is called the ___________.

Answer 12

Motherboard. The motherboard contains the CPU and memory chips as well as connections for the keyboard, mouse, and printer

Question 13

_______ are computer depictions of humans often found in computer games and training software.

Answer 13

Avatars.

Question 14

Transferring data from a remote computer to a local computer is called ___________.

Answer 14

Downloading.

Question 15

Nowadays, cash registers have been replaced by ___ terminals.

Answer 15

POS. POS (Point of Sale) terminals are computer-based devices or systems that allow the merchant to process credit cards, track customer purchase habits, and manage inventory. Nowadays what you see in restaurants, grocery stores, department stores, etc., are not cash registers, but POS terminals

Question 16

_____________ are electronic payments for internet transactions as small as 25 cents.

Answer 16

Micropayments. Micropayments allow customers to purchase goods and services for amounts so small as to be impractical for credit card transactions. Apple iTunes is an example of a service which accepts micropayments.

Question 17

Cyberspace includes the Web, chat rooms, blogs, member based services, conference calls and ________________ machines (ATMs).

Answer 17

Automatic teller. Cyberspace is the world of communications in general; it includes wired and wireless communications, as well as the Internet.

Question 18

The Internet is a worldwide computer network that connects hundreds of thousands of smaller ________.

Answer 18

Networks. Networks connected by the internet include government, commercial, educational, nonprofit and individual networks.

Question 19

______________ are the most expensive and fastest computers available.

Answer 19

Supercomputers. Supercomputers can have thousands of processors and process data at several trillion calculations per second.

Question 20

Personal computers are also called ______________.

Answer 20

Microcomputers. Microcomputers include desktops and towers, laptops, and handheld computers.

Question 21

Embedded computers are also called microcontrollers and are small, specialized microprocessors installed in ____ and smart appliances

Answer 21

Cars. Examples of devices which contain microcontrollers include cellphones, microwave ovens, MP3 players, digital cameras and household appliances.

Question 22

A central computer that holds a collection of data and/or applications for providing services to workstations or PCs is called a ______.

Answer 22

Server. Servers can store files or provide services (i.e. printing) to clients on the network.

Question 23

All the ________ equipment in a computer system is called hardware.

Answer 23

Physical. Examples of hardware include physical memory, storage devices, the CPU, keyboard, mouse, printer, etc..

Question 24

External hard drive, DVD-RW, tape, and USB flash drive are all examples of ______ media.

Answer 24

Backup. These are examples of backup media choices available to consumers. Backups are used to restore files lost by operator error, viruses, or hardware failures

Question 25

Multimedia technology presents information in a format which includes ____, graphics, video and sound.

Answer 25

Text.

Question 26

Data consists of raw facts and figures that is processed to produce ___________.

Answer 26

Information.

Question 27

Computer __________ is the manipulation of data which transforms data into information.

Answer 27

Processing.

Question 28

When a computer performs several tasks simultaneously, this is called ________ processing.

Answer 28

Parallel. An example of parallel processing is when several processors work together sharing memory on the same task. This is often used in large computer systems designed to keep operating when one CPU fails.