Hardware and Software

Question 1

What is the definition of hardware?

Answer 1

The hardware of a computer is the physical components that it is assembled from.

Question 2

What is the definition of software?

Answer 2

The software of a computer is the sequences of instructions called programs which can be understood and executed by the hardware.

Question 3

What are system programs?

Answer 3

System programs are software which control the operation of the computer itself.

Question 4

What are application programs?

Answer 4

Application programs are software which solve problems for their uses.

Question 5

What is operating system software?

Answer 5

An operating system is a program or suite of programs which controls the entire operation of a computer.

Question 6

What are utility programs?

Answer 6

A systems program designed to perform a common place task.

Question 7

What are library programs?

Answer 7

A collection of compiled routines that other programs can link to and use.

Question 8

What do compilers do?

Answer 8

Compilers translate a high-level language program into a computer’s machine code.

Question 9

What do assemblers do?

Answer 9

Assemblers translate programs written in assembly language into machine code.

Question 10

What do interpreters do?

Answer 10

Interpreters translate and execute high-level language or intermediate-code program one statement at a time.

Question 11

What are the two major roles of an operating system?

Answer 11

• To hide the complexities of the hardware

- To manage the hardware resources

Question 12

What are low-level programming languages classified as?

Answer 12

• Machine code

- Assembly language

Question 13

What is machine code?

Answer 13

Machine code is a language consisting of bit patterns/binary codes that a machine can interpret.

Question 14

What is a machine code instruction?

Answer 14

A machine code instruction is an operation which a machine is capable of carrying out.

Question 15

What is a machine code language program?

Answer 15

A machine code language program is a program consisting of executable binary codes.

Question 16

State three advantages of programming in assembly language compared with programming in a high-level language?

Answer 16

• Fewer machine code instructions, code takes up less memory
• Better to code in assembly language for short sections of code which need to run quickly
• Allows for direct access to registers

Question 17

State three disadvantages of programming in assembly language compared with programming in a high-level language.

Answer 17

• Less readable
• More difficult to understand, maintain, debug and write without making errors
• Machine dependent and will only execute on processors that use this instruction set

Question 18

What are the major differences between compilation and interpretation?

Answer 18

• An interpreter both ‘translates’ and executes, whereas a compiler only translates
• Interpreters are usually easier to write than compilers
• If an interpreter is used then only the source code form of program is needed to execute the program

Question 19

What is bytecode?

Answer 19

Bytecode is an intermediate language between machine code and high-level language source code.