PAPER 2 PAST PAPERS

Question 1

Explain how unsigned binary integers can be converted to hexadecimal [2]

Answer 1

the bit pattern is split into sections of 4 bits, each section is converted to hexadecimal

Question 2

One advantage of using majority voting over a parity bit and explain how this advantage is achieved [2]

Answer 2

majority voting can correct as majority is taken as correct, can detect multiple errors as each triplet represents one and bit and error is identified per bit

Question 3

Describe the steps the ADC goes through [3]

Answer 3

takes samples of the signal at regular intervals, samples are quantised, each sample is assigned a binary value

Question 4

Explain why it is more appropriate for a band to save the song using lossless compression rather than lossy [2]

Answer 4

no data is lost during lossless compression, song can be reproduced identically to original with no loss of quality w lossless

Question 5

Explain the differences between an interpreter and a compiler [4]

Answer 5

compiler produces object code, interpreter does not, compiler translates whole source code, interpreter translates line by line, compiler will not produce an executable file if there is an error in code, interpreter will run program up until first error, compiler no longer needed to execute compiled program, interpreter is always needed

Question 6

A company is using a new processor in its latest microwave, why have they chosen to use assembly language rather than a high-level language [3]

Answer 6

may not be an interpreter for the chip as it is new, platform dependence is not relevant since code will only run on one type of device, for an interpreted solution the chip would have to incorporate an interpreter which would increase memory requirements

Question 7

Describe one difference between the way the Harvard and von Neumann architectures operate [2]

Answer 7

harvard uses separate memory/bus/address space while von neumann uses combined memory/bus/address space, for instructions and data

Question 8

Which type of computer architecture that is used for digital signal processing [1]

Answer 8

harvard

Question 9

Describe the steps involved in the Fetch-Execute cycle for the von Neumann [6]

Answer 9

fetch: contents of PC transferred to MAR,
address bus used to transfer to main memory
contents of addressed memory location loaded into MBR,
increment PC,
contents of MBR copied to CIR
decode: decode instruction hold by CIR,
control unit decodes instruction,
split into opcode and operand
execute: data is fetched or stored in memory if needed,
opcode identifies type of operation to be performed,
result stored in register,
operation performed by processor

Question 10

Explain the difference between direct addressing and immediate addressing [1]

Answer 10

direct addressing means that operand is the memory address/register number, immediate addressing means that the operand is the datum

Question 11

Describe two reasons why serial transmission might be preferred to parallel transmission [4]

Answer 11

parallel requires more wires so higher cost and more difficult to manage, parallel risk of data skew over long distances so limits transmission speed, parallel risk of crosstalk between wires so more chance of errors and limit transmission speeds

Question 12

Define bit rate [1]

Answer 12

frequency at which bits can be transmitted/transferred

Question 13

Define latency [1]

Answer 13

the delay between signal being transmitted and arriving

Question 14

Explain how disabling SSID broadcasting can increase the security of a wireless network [2]

Answer 14

SSID will not be visible when trying to connect to network so only users who know SSID of network can connect

Question 15

Explain how the use of a MAC address white list can increase the security of a wireless network [2]

Answer 15

MAC address is unique to every NIC and a whitelist only allows those MAC address that have been authorised to connect to the network

Question 16

Discuss legal ethical and cultural issues with Street View [9]

Answer 16

material may be of harm to children, requesting permission from any members of public, recording of adverts may lead to product placement, what harmful uses users might use the images for, dealing with copyrighted information, does google need permission to film in private buildings, may not be legal to film people without permission, copyrighted information caught may lead to legislation breach, ability to identify locations for crimes or terrorism, worldwide so need to consider worldwide legislation, offensive to cultures, pictures inside religious buildings may be inappropriate

Question 17

Describe how a laser printer prints an image to a piece of paper [6]

Answer 17

print drum coated in charge, printer generates bitmap of page from data, laser beams shone on print drum, laser is modulated, laser neutralises charge on drum where image is dark, toner given charge, toner transferred to paper, toner fused to paper

Question 18

In decimal, what is the most negative number that can be represented using 12-bit two’s complement binary integer? [1]

Answer 18

-2048

Question 19

Describe the difference between analogue and digital data [2]

Answer 19

analogue is continuous, digital is discrete

Question 20

State two advantages of representing music using MIDI instead of as sampled sound [2]

Answer 20

more compact representation, easy to modify notes, easy to change instruments

Question 21

What is encryption? [1]

Answer 21

convert a message into cipher text, requires key to decrypt

Question 22

Explain why the Vernam is a better choice than the Caesar cipher [2]

Answer 22

vernam is unbreakable as frequency analysis reveals nothing, more possible keys

Question 23

Which category of software does an operating system belong to?

Answer 23

system software

Question 24

State one resource that the operating system manages [1]

Answer 24

processors, memory, I/O devices

Question 25

State one role of the operating system, other than resource management [1]

Answer 25

hide the complexities of the hardware from the user

Question 26

What is the stored program concept? [2]

Answer 26

instructions are stored in main memory and fetched and executed serially by processor, programs can be moved in and out of main memory

Question 27

Ella’s program is compiled into an executable file but will not run on Josephine’s because they have different processors. Explain why different processors may have caused this issue [2]

Answer 27

different processors will have different instruction sets, program is in machine code and is platform dependent

Question 28

Why might a computer with one running at 3.2GHz complete tasks faster than one with fore cores running at 2.8 GHz [2]

Answer 28

a processor with clock speed of 3.2GHz may be able to execute instructions more quickly, where sequential processing is needed

Question 29

Discuss the ethical legal and cultural issues that may arise from creating driverless cars to provide a taxi service [9]

Answer 29

developers have to take responsibility for accidents, program needs to make moral decisions, need to be protected from hackers, putting taxi drivers out of business, other businesses may follow suit putting people out of business, if a customer is ill the taxi will not be able to handle that, legal responsibility for accidents, if videos/images taken during driving, driverless cars would need to be advertised as safer and reducing congestion

Question 30

Describe a digital image could be captured by a digital camera and compressed using run-length encoding [6]

Answer 30

light enters through lens on to sensor chip, each sensor produces an electrical signal, representing a pixel, ADC converts light intensity into binary data, colour filter applied, image is analysed to identify runs of same colour, colours and counts of pixel are stored

Question 31

Describe the difference between a physical and logical topology [2]

Answer 31

physical: the physical layout/architecture of the cabling, logical: how data flows around a network

Question 32

Explain the operation of a physical star topology [2]

Answer 32

every device is connected to central hub, every device sends data via central hub, hub sends packets of data to intended recipient only

Question 33

A new bank is setting up an internal network, explain why it should implement a client-server rather than peer-to-peer [6]

Answer 33

servers would need to be accessible at all times, p2p may be turned off, needs to have centralised backups reducing cost and time taken to ensure data is secure, centralised security ensuring anti-virus are up to date ensuring maximum security

Question 34

Explain why some compilers produce bytecode as the final output instead of executable code [1]

Answer 34

code may need to be run on multiple platforms so may need to be platform independent

Question 35

Describe how bytecode programs are executed after the bytecode has been produced [2]

Answer 35

a virtual machine interprets bytecode an instruction at a time and runs necessary code to carry out command

Question 36

Explain what is meant by the term imperative high-level language [2]

Answer 36

instructions are execute in programmer-defined order, describes how to solve a problem

Question 37

Explain the difference between the set of natural numbers and the set of integer numbers [1]

Answer 37

integers include negative numbers, natural numbers do not

Question 38

Explain the difference between rational and irrational numbers [1]

Answer 38

rational can be expressed as a fraction, irrational can not

Question 39

Explain why programmers often use hexadecimal to represent bit patterns instead of binary [1]

Answer 39

more compact when displayed, easier for people to understand, lower likelihood of an error when typing in data

Question 40

Explain why Unicode was introduced as an alternative to ASCII [2]

Answer 40

introduced to support a larger range of characters due to increased international communication

Question 41

What is meant by the term hardware? [1]

Answer 41

the physical components of computer system

Question 42

What is meant by the term software? [1]

Answer 42

instructions

Question 43

Explain the key difference between system software and application software [2]

Answer 43

system software controls the operation of computer system, application software is for carrying out tasks that are user-oriented

Question 44

When a processor writes data to the main memory it will make use of the address, control and data buses. Explain how each of these buses will be used during the write process [4]

Answer 44

address of memory to be written to is placed on address bus, data to be written is placed on data bus, signal to write is placed on control bus, control bus carries a clock signal to synchronise memory and processor

Question 45

Explain why computers have both hard disks and SSD rather than just one [2]

Answer 45

magnetic disk drives are useful where large capacity needed, ssd have faster access speeds

Question 46

Explain why it is faster to access data from solid state storage than from an optical disk [2]

Answer 46

no movable parts so no need for read/write heads to move to correct position, purely electronic so minimal latency

Question 47

Explain why a peer-to-peer network may be better for three students sharing a house who have set up p2p for sharing files and playing multi-user games [2]

Answer 47

does not need central server, easer to maintain, probably wont need extra security or extra services provided by client-server

Question 48

Define the term protocol [1]

Answer 48

a set of rules

Question 49

Define the term baud rate [1]

Answer 49

number of signal changes in a second

Question 50

Define the term bandwidth [1]

Answer 50

the range of frequencies that can be transmitted across a network connection

Question 51

Discuss how encrypting data with WPA/WPA2, disabling SSID broadcasting and MAC address whitelisting could enhance the security of a WiFi network [3]

Answer 51

WPA/WPA2 encrypted data reduces chance of unauthorised devices reading transmitted data, SSID broadcast disabled means that SSID wont show up in a search, MAC address whitelisting means only approved devices can join network

Question 52

Explain the process a transmitting device will go through to transmit data using CSMA/CA, RTS/CTS and majority voting [8]

Answer 52

transmitting device checks for traffic, if another transmission in progress transmitter waits, once channel is idle transmitter sends RTS, receiver responds with CTS, if CTS not received, transmitter waits random amount of time before resending RTS, when CTS received transmitter begins transmitting data, receiver sends ACK, if no ACK received then data is resent, majority voting: transmitter would send each bit an odd number of times, receiver checks bits received and if they are not all the same it assumes the one received most is correct

Question 53

Explain an advantage that majority voting has over using parity bits when transmitting data [1]

Answer 53

majority voting can correct errors, can detect multiple errors

Question 54

Describe two differences between machine code and assembly language [2]

Answer 54

machine code is binary but assembly language is written using mnemonics, machine code can be executed without needing to be translated but assembly code needs translating before it is run

Question 55

Describe one similarity and one difference between the role of an assembler and the role of a compiler [2]

Answer 55

both convert source code into object code, assembler takes assembly code as input while compiler takes complex instructions

Question 56

Discuss the ethical and legal issues raised by phone manufacturers to bypass access restrictions on a phone that may contain evidence of criminal activity [9]

Answer 56

breach of privacy, personal data may be lost, law officers may misuse phone, may contact victims, breach of trust between manufacturer and client, may have to let people go free if they cannot access data, breach of human rights of privacy, may be used to solve other crimes, officers may edit data on phone

Question 57

How many different values can be represented using two bytes? [1]

Answer 57

2^16

Question 58

Explain what a check digit is and outline how the check digit is generated [2]

Answer 58

digit is calculated using an algorithm from other digits

Question 59

State Nyquist’s theorem [2]

Answer 59

you must sample at a rate that is at least double the highest frequency in the original sound

Question 60

What is a register?

Answer 60

a memory location inside processor

Question 61

Explain why the data bus in a computer system must be bidirectional [2]

Answer 61

when instructions are fetched they have to be transferred from memory to processor, result may need to be transferred back to memory

Question 62

Describe four steps that a processor goes through during the fetch stage of Fetch-Execute [8]

Answer 62

contents of PC transferred to MAR so that PC can be updated, contents of MAR places onto address bus so the correct location in the main memory will be accessed, contents of addressed memory location received on data bus loaded into MBR so that it can cope with the speed difference between the processor and main memory, PC is incremented so that next instruction in sequence can be fetched, contents of MBR copied to CIR so that if data is written execute it does not overwrite the instruction

Question 63

What is immediate addressing? [1]

Answer 63

the operand is the datum

Question 64

Explain why, under the correct conditions, the Vernam cipher is perfectly secure [1]

Answer 64

frequency analysis cannot provide clues to the plaintext

Question 65

Discuss moral, ethical, legal, cultural issues that may arise from using a life blogging device that records audio and video, the data is collected on a server accessed by a website and not telling residents about it [9]

Answer 65

unethical to collect data about people without them knowing what it is used for, unethical to have them wear something without them knowing what it does, observers may watch streams for reasons other than monitoring, invasion of privacy, will data be stored securely, who can see data, data protection regulations, who is responsible for device, how long will data be stored

Question 66

Explain two reasons why an SSD is a better choice for storing and uploading data to a server than a magnetic hard disk [4]

Answer 66

SSDs have lower power drain, faster access time, produce less heat

Question 67

State one reason why a user might choose to compress an image file [1]

Answer 67

takes up less storage space

Question 68

Describe one advantage of lossless over lossy compression [1]

Answer 68

file can be reproduced exactly as it was originally, original data can be fully recovered,

Question 69

Explain how data can be compressed using dictionary-based compression [3]

Answer 69

length strings of symbols of original data are represented by single tokens, a table is formed using the tokens as the key, the strings of symbols are used as the entries

Question 70

Explain the operation of a logical bus network topology [3]

Answer 70

a node broadcasts data, all nodes on network can read the data, only one node can transmit data at a time

Question 71

Explain how it is possible for the bit rate of a comms channel to be higher than its baud rate [1]

Answer 71

bit rate can be higher than baud rate if more than one bit is encoded in each signal change

Question 72

Explain how the receiver will perform error detection on a received bit through even parity [2]

Answer 72

if the number of 1s received is even, the data is assumed to have been received correctly, if the number of 1s received is odd the data has been corrupted

Question 73

State two advantages of serial data transmission and how these are achieved [4]

Answer 73

serial is cheaper as needs fewer wires, does not suffer from crosstalk as only one transmission line, does not suffer from data skewing as only bit transmitted at a time, can be used over long distances as less wires/only one bit at a time

Question 74

During the decode and execute stages of the F-E cycle the instruction is stored in CIR. Explain why the instruction could not be processed directly from the MBR [2]

Answer 74

to execute the instruction other data may need to be fetched, further memory fetches would overwrite the contents of the MBR

Question 75

Explain why the Harvard architecture is sometimes used in preference to the von Neumann architecture [2]

Answer 75

instruction and data can be accessed simultaneously, avoids possibility of data being executed as code

Question 76

State two conditions that must be met for the Vernam cipher to offer perfect security [2]

Answer 76

key must be at least as long as plaintext, key must not be reused, key must be truly random, key must be kept securely

Question 77

Explain the difference between a symmetric and an asymmetric cipher system [1]

Answer 77

symmetric: same key is used to encrypt and decrypt, asymmetric: different keys for encryption and decryption

Question 78

If each voltage level encodes the value of one group of bits, how many bits can be in a group that is encoded by a voltage level, given that eight different voltage levels are used?

Answer 78

3 (2^3= 8)

Question 79

Explain why serial communication is more appropriate than parallel communication [2]

Answer 79

data skew may occur if parallel used, as the longer the distance the higher the likelihood of data skew

Question 80

Explain the general purpose of a D-type flip-flop [1]

Answer 80

used as a memory

Question 81

One input to a D-type flip-flop is a data signal. State what the other input is and what it is used for [2]

Answer 81

clock so state of data input is stored, or to synchronise operation of a group of flip-flops

Question 82

State the purpose of the operand part of an instruction and explain how the addressing mode is related to this [2]

Answer 82

an operand is a value that will be used by an operation, the addressing mode indicates how the value in the operand should be interpreted

Question 83

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of programming using a high-level language compared to assembly language [4]

Answer 83

program code is easier to understand, faster development time, programs are more portable, assembly language code may execute more quickly, uses less memory, gives direct access to computer hardware

Question 84

Between 2008 and 2010, a company that was gathering data for an online
mapping system, using cars fitted with cameras and WiFi equipment, collected
some information that was being transmitted on personal WiFi networks. The
company apologised for doing this and an investigation found that a small
number of software developers had been responsible for adding this functionality
to the mapping system data collection software.
In the context of this example, discuss:
* how it was possible for this data to be collected.
* what steps the owners of the networks could have taken to prevent the
data from being collected.
* what legal and ethical issues might have arisen as a result of collecting
this data.
* what lessons the company might have learnt from the incident and how
their practices might have changed as a result of it. [12]

Answer 84

how: WiFi signal can travel outside of property, any receiver can read the data packets, a protocol that does not encrypt the transmissions may have been used, to prevent: use a protocol that encrypts data transmissions, limit power of transmitter so does not travel outside, use cabled network, legal: data protection act, computer misuse act, company financially liable for collecting data, different countries have different legislations, what if company had discovered illegal activity, lessons: need for scrutiny of code, need to review guidelines, improved training

Question 85

Explain why a sample rate of 20 000 Hz is not high enough for a faithful reproduction of a sound with a highest frequency of 14 500Hz [2]

Answer 85

Nyquist’s theorem states that the sample rate must be at least twice the frequency of the highest frequency in the original signal, 20000 is less than double of 14500, the sample rate should be at least 29000

Question 86

Explain how MIDI represents music and the advantages of using MIDI for representing music instead of using sampled sound [4]

Answer 86

music represented as sequence of MIDI message, usually two or three bytes long, first byte is a status byte, more compact representation, easy to modify, no data lost through sampling

Question 87

Explain the differences between client-server and peer-to-peer networking [4]

Answer 87

client-server: resources stored on server, clients access resources from servers, centralised security, more complex to set up, p2p: resources stored on each individual device, any device can access resources from any other, each device has equal status, management of security is more difficult, no dependence on server

Question 88

Describe how a vector graphic is represented [3]

Answer 88

image is represented as objects, objects have properties which are stored, things such as fill colour, outline colour, width, height of shape are stored

Question 89

Explain why run length encoding is not able to compress an image (with many colours and details) [2]

Answer 89

runs will be of shorter length, the additional run length may cancel out the reduction in storage of pixel colour data

Question 90

Employees at a bank use client computers to access data that is stored on a box
database server.
The database server uses software to query and modify data stored in a database on
hard disk drives. It returns the results of these queries to the clients over the bank’s
computer network.
The performance of the system is unsatisfactory: the time-delay between a client
sending a query to the server and the client receiving the results is unacceptably
long.
Explain how the performance of the system might be improved. You should consider
the following factors that might be affecting the performance:
* the hardware of the server
* the design of the computer network
* the database and software running on the server [12]

Answer 90

hardware: replace processor with one which has more cores, more cache memory, faster clock speed, processor with bigger word size, more RAM, network: replace network cable with one with higher bandwidth, replace wireless connection with wired, use star topology, more efficient protocol, database: use functional programming language, ensure software is compiled, non-relational database system

Question 91

Explain the purpose of the DHCP system, why the DHCP system is used, what will happen during the communication [4]

Answer 91

to automate the configuration of hosts connecting to a network, reduce the need for expert knowledge when configuring a host, host sends request to discover a server, server offers configuration from server

Question 92

The web server, which has the IP address 192.168.16.12, must be accessible from
computers that are connected to the Internet but outside the company’s own network.
As the web server has a non-routable IP address, it cannot be accessed directly from
outside the network. Therefore, access to the web server will be facilitated by the
External Router, which supports Network Address Translation (NAT) and port
forwarding.
Explain how the External Router will have been configured so that the web server can
be accessed by computers outside the network. [2]

Question 93

Describe the principles of operation of an optical disk drive that is used to read data from an optical disk such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM [6]

Question 94

USB Flash Drives (type of SSD) are more popular for transferring files than CD-Rs (optical disk) [1]

Question 95

State two reasons why database designs are usually normalised [2]

Question 96

Explain some of the challenges that face legislators in the digital age [3]

Question 97

Describe two security measures that should be put in place to ensure that the wireless access point (WAP) is secure and explain how these security measures will make wireless connections to the access point more secure [2]

Question 98

One character of a data set that will classify it as Big Data is it containing a variety of different forms of info. Describe two more characteristics of Big Data [2]

Question 99

Describe two different types of resource management that an operating system is responsible for [2]

Question 100

(0 2 . 1 A company is setting up a computer network to help manage its business.
The company sets up a computer that will act as a server. The server’s primary role
will be to act as an email server. It will also allow technicians to remotely login so that
the server can be managed from other computers.)
State the names of two application layer protocols that a server must implement and explain what each will be used for [4]

Question 101

Explain how the transport layer of the TCP/IP stack determines which application layer software on the server should deal with a received request [1]

Question 102

Describe one function of the network layer of the TCP/IP stack [1]

Question 103

Explain how a paragraph of text could be compressed using dictionary-based method [2]

Question 104

Explain why dictionary-based compression is not very effective for small amounts of text [1]

Question 105

A student has written a computer program using an imperative high-level
programming language. The program could be translated using either a compiler or
an interpreter.
Describe the steps that must be completed to translate and execute the program.
Your description should include:
* why translation is necessary
* the differences between how a compiler and an interpreter would translate the
program
* how the machine code instructions that are used to carry out the program will be
fetched and executed by the processor from main memory. [12]

Question 106

4 The database is stored at the practice’s head office. Staff at the individual surgeries
access it using a client-server database system, which enables the management of
concurrent access to the database.
Describe an example of a problem that could occur if no system were in place to
manage concurrent access to the database. [3]

Question 107

Two methods that can be used to manage concurrent access are:
* record locks
* timestamp ordering.
Select one of these methods and describe how it manages concurrent access [2]

Question 108

Explain the difference between asynchronous and synchronous communication [1]

Question 109

How is using majority voting instead of parity bit and Unicode instead of ASCII an improvement? Discuss any disadvantages that will result from them. [4]

Question 110

How does a wider data bus speed up the execution of programs [1]

Question 111

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of representing an image as a vector graphic instead of as a bitmap. Include an example of when to use each [6]

Question 112

Explain what it means for a cipher to be described as computationally secure [1]

Question 113

Explain what the key exchange problem is, in relation to a symmetric cipher [2]

Question 114

A message is to be transmitted from computer A to computer B. The message will be
encrypted using asymmetric encryption. To enable computer B to authenticate that
the message was sent by computer A, a digital signature will also be sent with the
message.
Explain how computer B will decrypt the message and verify that it was sent by
computer A.
In your response you should refer to the specific keys that will be used in this process.
You do not need to explain how computer A will encrypt the message or create the
digital signature [4]

Question 115

State one advantage of using a floating point system over fixed and one advantage of fixed over floating [2]

Question 116

How many kibibytes is 4 gibibytes equivalent to?

Question 117

Describe the role of interrupts during the Fetch-Execute cycle [2]

Question 118

Explain the volatile environment (contents of registers) must be saved before an interrupt is serviced [2]

Question 119

Explain the relationship between hardware and software [1]

Question 120

State two reasons why it could be argued that JSON is better than XML [2]

Question 121

State one advantage of using the DHCP system [1]

Question 122

Explain how two or more computers connected to the Internet can have the same IP address and still communicate with each other [2]

Question 123

Explain four different ways that a firewall can protect computers on a LAN [4]

Question 124

A packet of data is to be transmitted across the Internet from Computer A in the UK
to Computer B in Belgium. A checksum will be used to attempt to detect if any errors
have occurred during the transmission.
Explain how:
* Computer A will use a subnet mask to determine whether or not it can send the
packet directly to Computer B across the LAN or if the packet must be sent via the
Internet
* the packet will be routed across the Internet
* the checksum can be used to determine if the received packet has been changed
during the transmission. [12]

Question 125

Explain why warehouse owners might prefer the individual products to be identified using RFID tags [2]

Question 126

Explain why product manufacturers or supermarket owners might prefer the individual products to be identified using barcode labels [2]

Question 127

A company provides a box social media service through which members can share
information about themselves and view information and news from their friends.
The service also displays current affairs news stories to its members. The service
does not have journalists who write the stories but instead it uses algorithms to select
news stories written by other organisations and individuals and shows these.
Different news stories may be shown to different members.
Discuss:
* how algorithms might determine which current affairs news stories to display to an
individual member
* the moral, ethical and legal considerations that the developers of the system and its
operators should consider in relation to how the algorithms work and which news
stories are displayed. [6]

Question 128

Explain what a higher-order function is [2]

Question 129

Why do vector graphics take up less storage space than bitmap representations? [3]

Question 130

Describe what thin-client computing is and explain two reasons why a thin-client system might be preferred to a thick-client system [3]

Question 131

If a comms system transmits 4 different signals, with each signal representing two bits of data, describe the relationship between the bit rate and baud rate [1]

Question 132

Explain why a laser printer with a built-in wireless network adapter is likely to be a suitable choice for a printer for a small office [3]

Question 133

Big D box ata is an important application area for modern computer science.
* Describe what Big Data is, using examples to illustrate your description.
* Explain some of the challenges that Big Data brings with it and the approaches that
can be taken to overcome these, in relation to programming and hardware.
* Consider some of the ethical and legal issues that might arise in applications that
store data, particularly data about people. [12]

Question 134

Explain why the relative error is more important than the absolute error [1]

Question 135

Describe what utilities are and given an example of one [2]

Question 136

Describe the role of the control unit [3]

Question 137

One method that can be used to improve the performance of a processor is to
increase the amount of cache memory.
Describe:
* what cache memory is
* what cache memory is used for
* how increasing the amount of cache memory can improve the performance of a
processor. [4]