Section 4 - Hardware and software

Question 1

What is hardware?

Answer 1

physical components of the computer system

Question 2

What is software

Answer 2

code/programs that are executed

Question 3

what are the two classifications of software

Answer 3

system and application

Question 4

what is system software

Answer 4

The software needed to run the computers hardware and application programs

Question 5

what are the parts of system software

Answer 5

• operating system
• utility programs
• libraries
• programming language translators

Question 6

what is a utility program

Answer 6

system software designed to optimise the performance of the computer or perform tasks

Question 7

what are library programs

Answer 7

ready complied programs that can be run when needed, included pre written code

Question 8

what are some examples of utility programs

Answer 8

virus scanners, disk defragmenters, system monitors, file managers

Question 9

what are translators

Answer 9

convert source code into machine code

Question 10

what are the types of application software

Answer 10

general purpose and special purpose

Question 11

what is general purpose software

Answer 11

software that can be used for many different purposes.
such as a word processor, spreadsheet or graphics package

Question 12

what is special purpose software

Answer 12

performs single specific tasks

Question 13

what is application software

Answer 13

programs that perform specific user-orientated tasks`

Question 14

what is an operating system

Answer 14

set of programs that manages the operations of the computer for the user

Question 15

what are the functions of an operating system

Answer 15

• provides user interface
• memory management
• processor scheduling
• backing store management
• management of all inputs and outputs

Question 16

what does OS memory management mean

Answer 16

each program open must be allocated a specific area of memory whilst the computer is running

Question 17

what does OS processor sceduling mean

Answer 17

allocating processor time to each application

Question 18

what does OS backing store management

Answer 18

managing files and applications that have been transferred to backing storage, and manage free areas of storage.

Question 19

what is machine code

Answer 19

a low-level programming language in binary where every instruction contains an operation (opcode) and an operand (data or address of data)

Question 20

what is assembly language

Answer 20

a low-level programming language where each opcode is a mnemonic

Question 21

differences between machine code and assembly language

Answer 21

• machine code written in binary, assembly code written in mnemonics
• assembly language needs translating before it can run, machine code doesn’t

Question 22

what is a low-level programming language

Answer 22

a language where the code reflects how the computer actually carries out the instruction

Question 23

what is a high-level programming language

Answer 23

each instruction is a command to perform a step in the program
each instruction will be translated to several low-level language instructions.

Question 24

advantages of high-level compared to low-level

Answer 24

• high-level languages are easier for humans to interpret
• high-level languages have extra features like abstract data types and built in functions
• high-level have a wider range of programming structures
• high-level languages are easier to understand/debug/maintain
• high-level languages are quicker to write

Question 25

advantages of low-level languages compared to high-level languages

Answer 25

• not all low-level languages need to be translated, unlike high-level
• low-level languages use less memory when executing
• low-level languages execute faster
• low-level languages can directly control hardware

Question 26

what is an assembler

Answer 26

translates an assembly language program into machine code
input is called source code, output is called object code

Question 27

what is a compiler

Answer 27

a program that translates high-level languages (source code) into machine code (object code)
it scans through the code several times and then saves the object code produced

Question 28

what is an interpretter

Answer 28

a program that translates high-level languages
it looks at each line of the source code and if it has no errors, executes the command
if it finds an error it does not attempt to run any of the program till its fixed

Question 29

what is bytecode

Answer 29

most high-level languages use combined compiling and interpreting that results in bytecode, executed by a bytecode interpreter

Question 30

what are the advantages of bytecode

Answer 30

• platform independence means many computers can run it
• it provides an extra security layer between the computer and the program, meaning you only have to run the bytecode interpreter rather than the bytecode itself

Question 31

what are the advantages of compilers over interpreters

Answer 31

• compilers produce object code that can be saved onto a disk an run whenever required
• object code executed faster than interpreted code
• object code from a compiler can be executed without having a compiler
• compiler object code is more secure

Question 32

what are the advantages of interpreters over compilers

Answer 32

• if an error is found in compilers object code the whole thing has to be recompiled
• interpreters mean there’s no lengthy recompilation every time an error is discovered
• interpreters are easier to partially test and debug programs