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Computing
Fichas del conjunto (51)
- 1What is a computer system?A system made up of hardware and software working together.
- 2How is system reliability measured?Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): The length of time between failures given by equipment manufacturers
System Availability: The percentage of a time period where the system was available. If the system was down for 1 hour in 100 hours, the system availability is 99% for those 100 hours. - 3What is Hardware Redundancy?A method of backup for computer systems, involving having two separate pieces of hardware doing the same job so that if one fails, the other can carry on the job.
- 4What is a disaster recovery plan?A plan put in place so a company can replace a failed computer system quickly if there is a failure, to minimize down time and therefore loss.
- 5What is RAID storage?Redundant Array of Independent Disks: A method of storing data where multiple independent disks are used. This increases storage capabilities, and also means that if one of the disk fails the data is transferred onto one of the other disks.
- 6Give the steps of the waterfall model of software development.Identify problem
-->Analyse requirements
-->Design
-->Code and test
-->Evaluation
-->Maintenance - 7What is RAD (Rapid Action Development)A model of software development where the client is much more involved in the process. It starts with a prototype that is developed gradually into a full solution with customer feedback at each stage.
- 8What is Open Source code? What is the professional standard applied to it?Code which someone writes, which they allow others to use at no cost. If a program is written with open source code, it is a professional standard to make that program open source code too.
- 9What is the data protection act?An act which states that anyone who stores personal details must keep them secure, make sure it is only kept for as long as is necessary and that it is only used for limited purposes and is not given to anyone else.
- 10What is the health and safety at work act?An act which makes employers responsible for their staff, so that their working conditions are made appropriate, such as having ventilated work places and adjustable chairs.
- 11What is the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act?An act which makes it illegal to use software without buying the appropriate licenses.
- 12What is proprietary software?Software built from scratch specifically for a single purpose, which is not shared like open source code.
- 13What is ASCII (American Standard Code of Information Interchange)?A character set used by most PCs which represent characters (lowercase, uppercase, punctuation & numbers) with numerical values which can be stored as binary in a computer.
- 14What is Unicode?Another character set which has a much wider range than ASCII, potentially holding foreign characters.
- 15What is software?The programs and other operating information used by a computer. The computer's instructions and data.
- 16Why does a computer system need software?So the user can interact and interface with the computer hardware.
- 17What is open source software?Software that has been released for free use, along with the code for the application so that other people can use it.
- 18What is bespoke software?Software specifically tailored for a single organisation or group of users that will fit their needs.
- 19What is off the shelf software?Purchasable software which provides a general set of features which a wide range of users will find useful (E.g. Web browsers, games, word processors etc.)
- 20What is proprietary software?Software which can only be used once a licence for it has been purchased, and it legally remains the product of the original creators.
- 21Give advantages of open source softwareIt is more likely to be compatible with more applications, it can be modified and adapted to fit specific purposes, it's free and it's continually evolving as more developers edit and add to it.
- 22Give disadvantages of open source software.The software can be less easy to use because it is often written to be developer friendly and not user friendly as the interface is often not looked at in detail, and since the code is public some users could exploit weaknesses in your version and cause problems.
- 23What is an operating system?A set of programs that controls hardware and lets users and applications work with the computer.
- 24What is system software?Software that controls the hardware of the computer.
- 25What is Application software?Software which handles real world jobs that users want to do e.g. word processors, browsers etc.
- 26What is utility software?Software which has limited functionality aimed at maintaining computer systems, e.g. disk defragmenter, firewall, anti-virus software etc.
- 27Describe how automatic update system utilities are usedThe software checks on the internet for newer versions of installed programs, and if found it downloads and installs the software.
- 28What is colour depth?The number of bits per pixel of a picture- depends on the number of colours in the whole picture.
- 29What is metadata?Data about a file itself e.g. for a picture data about the resolution and the colour depth.
- 30How does sound sampling work?The sound wave is measured and the amplitude is recorded at intervals and stored as binary. The shorter the interval, the higher quality of the sound.
- 31What is a sample resolution/ sampling interval?Resolution: The number of bits used to store each sample. More bits = better quality
Sample interval: The time period between taking samples. Higher sample rate = better quality. - 32What is sound synthesis?When a sound is re-created by the computer through speakers from a sound file.
- 33What is a vector graphic?An image file that is made up of lines and shapes with certain properties. The properties of each shape are stored to make up the image.
- 34What is an ADC?An analogue-digital converter. Takes real world analogue data and converts it to be stored on a computer.
- 35What is an instruction set?The group of instructions available for a specific processor to use. The number of instructions available depends on the number of bits used.
- 36What is the purpose of a CPU?Fetch instructions and data from main memory, decode the instructions, execute the instructions, perform calculations and manage the movement of instructions and data to and from peripheral devices.
- 37What is virtual memory?Memory from the hard disk used as main memory (RAM) instead of its normal function (ROM) when there is not enough RAM to execute all the instructions. The access speed to the disk is much slower, however.
- 38What is a bootstrap loader?A small program that loads the operating system of a computer.
- 39Give positives and negatives of Magnetic storageCheap and high capacity, but slow to read to and from, and less portable and reliable because of the moving parts.
- 40Give positives and negatives of optical storage mediaLow capacity, but inexpensive and can be mass distributed.
- 41Give positives and negative of solid state storageFast, portable and reliable (no moving parts) but more expensive so often less capacity.
- 42Give examples of validation checksRange check: number within valid range
Type check: correct data type
Length check: text within length range
Existence check: checks if an entity exists
Presence check: Checks if data left blank
Format check: Checks if format is appropriate e.g. postcode/email address - 43Describe bus topology
- 44Describe star topology
- 45Describe ring topology
- 46Why would someone want to use custom written software?There may not be any off the shelf software which does what they want, or existing off the shelf software might do exactly what they want.
- 47What is a database?A persistent organised store of data.
- 48What are the benefits of DBMS?Let multiple users access the database at once, allows for different levels of database access, avoids data redundancy. Also allows for queries and reports to be made of the data.
- 49What are the benefits of reducing data redundancy?It reduces the risk of data inconsistency, makes maintaining databases much easier and reduces the size of the database.
- 50What is a relational database?A collection of data stored in related tables, linked by key fields. The primary key is linked to the other database, where it is a foreign key.
- 51What is a flat file database?A persistent organised store of data where data is stored in a single file organised into fields and records.
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- Fichas sobre Computing, creado por Ben Levett el 25/02/2015.
- Creado por
- Ben Levett
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