Last min paper 1 notes

Question 1

What is meant by the term register

Answer 1

A temporary storsge space within the cpu, which may have a specific purpose

Question 2

What devices would use cisc or risc

Answer 2

Risc = portable device (phone\tablet)
cisc = desktop\laptop

Question 2

What are the benefits and limitations of parallel processing?

Answer 2

Benefits:
-makes maximum use of cpu
-execute code more efficient
-processing large amounts of data quicker

limitations:
-hardware is more expensive
-not all data is suitable

Question 3

Why would a self service system have its boot system stored in ROM?

Answer 3

-Rom leads to faster start-up times
- operating system is unlikely to be altered with

Question 4

What is interpreted language and compiled and advantages?

Answer 4

Interpreted language is translated from low level language to machine code, this is translated line by line
-easily spots errors
-no need to wait full compilation

compiled language is high level language to machine code this is translated in its entirety

-runs more quickly than interpreted
-can run without viewing
-

Question 5

What is lexical Analysis?

Answer 5

Unecessary spaces are removed
source code is broken into tables
unnecessary spaces are removed

Question 6

What is syntax analysis?

Answer 6

Order of tokens is checked to see whether the rules of the language are being followed,
parse tree is produced

Question 7

What is semantic analysis?

Answer 7

Checks that all variables used have been declared
checks that the operations are legal
checks that the data is assigned to appropriate data types

Question 8

Describe the role of linkers and loaders?

Answer 8

A linker combines multiple code objects and libraries into a single executable file , a loader is an operating system component that loads programs Into main memory

Question 9

why is a record more appropriate than an array for storing data?

Answer 9

An array cant store multiple data types , whereas a record can

Question 10

what are the benefirts of using an open source code?

Answer 10

free of cost
can tailor the program to their specific needs
can open for bugs to be opened and fixed

Question 11

what are the three basic programming constructs?

Answer 11

-Branching(selection)j
-sequence
-iteration

Question 12

What are functions? And examples

Answer 12

Functions returns a value

examples are :
int
print
input

Question 13

What is optical storage ? and its characteristics

Answer 13

-This is binary stored as variations on the surface of a dick,
this can be read from the lands and the pits of the surface area of a disk.
-Data is written with a laser

small capacity
good portability
easily damaged

Question 14

what is magnetic storage? and it charactersitcs

Answer 14

This consists of data magnetic hard drives and magnetic tapes, this understands data through electromagnets. parts of the surface are magnetised or demagnetised.

large capacity
cheap to buy
not durable
not portable

Question 15

what is a SSD ?

Answer 15

An SSD is a storage device through semi-conductors

small capacity compared to magnetic storage
very fast and reliable
expensive

Question 16

what is a damping factor ?

Answer 16

This is a value between 1 and 0 , this is the probability the user will not follow the link

Question 17

factors that effect the page rank algorithim?

Answer 17

number of links to the target site
the page rank of sites linking inwards

Question 18

how is a website indexed in the search engine ?

Answer 18

The system sends ‘web crawlers’ that continous search the www, for information that is relevant such as meta tags.This records the information then stores them in an index, then follows the link to the target page.

Question 19

what does ACID stand for and what does each mean

Answer 19

A-atomicity- The entire transaction must finish
C- consistency - helps ensures is in its correct state
I-isolation - concurrent execution
D-durability - non volite, even when the system has a failure it must still save it and function

Question 20

Describe what is lexical anaysis and syntax analysis

Answer 20

Lexical- This is the process of removing white space and coder comments, through scanning the source code, left to right and placing keywords into a symbol table, to keep track of the subroutine. This also creates tokens.

syntax analysis- This is the process of checking the code and making sure that it makes sense to the computer system, this creates an abstract syntax tree , and if an error of code is spotted it will flag up

Question 21

what are the stages of compilation?

Answer 21

Lexical

syntax

code generation

code optimisation

Question 22

what is code generation and code optimisation?

Answer 22

code generation - This is the process of converting the abstract code tree into object code

code optimisation- This is the process of removing redundant code and making it more effecting to run with less memory

Question 23

what is record locking ?

dis advantages

Answer 23

This is the process of locking data in a record to minimise is access to users, an example would be locking tickets to potential buyers for 10 mins.

DeadLock
wait time

Question 24

list a few methods of echaning data

Answer 24

CSV
XML
SQL
JSON

Question 25

what is a similarity between ASCII code and UNICODE?

what are differences between asci and uni code ?

Answer 25

A similairty is that ascii code and unicode both use binary to represent character sets

-UNI code can represents symbols whereas ascii cant
-ascii has fewer characters whereas unicode has more characters
-asci has 7bits whereas unicode has 16 bits ,

Question 26

What is a D-type flip flop ?
and state its purpose

what are the inputs and outputs

Answer 26

A D-type flip flop is a positive edge triggered flip flop circuit

The purpose is that it is used for intermediate storage of arithmetic calculations

clock signal and data