CHAPTER 9: BEHIND THE SCENES: A CLOSER LOOK AT SYSTEM HARDWARE Multiple Choice: 1. A(n) ____________ is a device inside the computer that can be flipped to an on or off state. A. conductor B. electrical switch C. instruction set D. component Answer: B 2. Reference: Electrical Switches Difficulty: Easy Before the invention of the transistor, electrical switches were: A. integrated circuits. B. binary switches. C. made of silicon. D. vacuum tubes. Answer: D 3. Reference: Electrical Switches Difficulty: Easy The language consisting of 0s and 1s that computers understand is called ____________ language. A. instruction B. electronic C. numerical D. binary Answer: D Reference: Electrical Switches Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. Difficulty: Moderate 1 Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 4. ____________ are very small regions of semiconductor material that support a huge number of transistors. A. Integrated circuits B. Binary switches C. Vacuum tubes D. Electrical switches Answer: A 5. Reference: Electrical Switches Difficulty: Easy Chip is a common nickname for a(n): A. transistor. B. integrated circuit. C. resistor. D. semiconductor. Answer: B 6. Reference: Electrical Switches Difficulty: Easy The ____________ number system is also known as decimal notation. A. arithmetic B. binary C. base 10 D. base 2 Answer: C 7. Reference: The Binary Number System Difficulty: Moderate The ____________ number system is also known as the binary number system. A. decimal B. computer C. base 10 D. base 2 Answer: D Reference: The Binary Number System Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. Difficulty: Moderate 2 Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 8. Today’s chips are composed of tens of millions of: A. vacuum tubes. B. transistors. C. digital dividers. D. hertz. Answer: B 9. Reference: Electrical Switches Difficulty: Easy ____________ are electrical switches that are built out of a special type of material called a semiconductor. A. Vacuum tubes B. Circuits C. Transistors D. Capacitors Answer: C 10. Reference: Electrical Switches Difficulty: Moderate ____________ uses 8 bits to represent each letter or character. A. Binary B. ASCII C. EBCDIC D. Unicode Answer: B 11. Reference: The Binary Number System Difficulty: Moderate Eight binary digits combine to form one: A. notation. B. base 10 number. C. byte. D. command. Answer: C Reference: Representing Letters and Symbols: ASCII and Unicode Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 3 Difficulty: Easy Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 12. The decimal number 133 translates into the binary number: A. 11001111. B. 11100011. C. 10101010. D. 10000101. Answer: D 13. Reference: Representing Numbers in the Binary Number System Difficulty: Challenging Using 8 bits, the ____________ code can represent the 26 uppercase letters and the 26 lowercase letters in the English language and punctuation symbols as well as special characters. A. EBCDIC B. ASCII C. Unicode D. hexadecimal Answer: B 14. Reference: Representing Letters and Symbols: ASCII and Unicode Difficulty: Moderate The base 16 numbering system is also known as: A. binary notation. B. decimal notation. C. hexadecimal notation. D. integer notation. Answer: C Reference: Dig Deeper: Advanced Binary and Hexadecimal Notation… 15. Difficulty: Moderate The CPU’s processing power is determined by the number of ____________ on each CPU. A. instructions B. transistors C. chips D. semiconductors Answer: B Reference: The CPU: Processing Digital Information Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 4 Difficulty: Moderate Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 16. The ____________ connects all of the system’s electric components: the CPU, memory, expansion slots, and electrical paths that connect these components. A. motherboard B. transistor board C. adapter board D. microprocessor board Answer: A 17. Reference: The CPU: Processing Digital Information Difficulty: Moderate The CPU advancement that allows quicker processing of information by enabling a new set of instructions to start before the previous set had finished is known as: A. clock speed. B. execution speed. C. cache memory. D. hyperthreading. Answer: D 18. Reference: The CPU: Processing Digital Information Difficulty: Challenging The most recent improvement in PC processors is ____________, a technology whereby there are two processors on the same chip, enabling the execution of two sets of instructions at the same time. A. hyperthreading technology B. dual-core technology C. multitasking technology D. PowerPC technology Answer: B 19. Reference: The CPU: Processing Digital Information Difficulty: Moderate The ____________ is measured in hertz (Hz), a unit of measure that describes how many times something happens per second. A. clock speed B. machine cycle C. register speed D. processing cycle Answer: A Reference: The System Clock Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. Difficulty: Moderate 5 Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 20. The “ticks” of the system clock are known as the: A. microprocessor speed. B. machine cycle. C. clock cycle. D. system speed. Answer: C 21. Reference: The System Clock Difficulty: Easy Today’s system clocks are measured in gigahertz (GHz), which would translate into ____________ of clock ticks per second. A. millions B. thousands C. billions D. tens of millions Answer: C 22. Reference: The System Clock Difficulty: Easy The ____________ of the CPU manages the on/off switches inside the CPU. A. microprocessor B. ALU C. transistors D. control unit Answer: D 23. Reference: The Control Unit Difficulty: Moderate A specific set of commands understandable by the CPU is called the: A. clock cycle. B. instruction set. C. program instructions. D. instruction code. Answer: B Reference: Stage 2: The Decode Stage Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. Difficulty: Moderate 6 Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 24. The proper sequence of actions in a machine cycle is: A. decode fetch execute store. B. fetch decode execute store. C. fetch execute decode store. D. execute decode store fetch. Answer: B 25. Reference: The CPU Machine Cycle Difficulty: Challenging Level 1 cache is a block of memory that is built onto the: A. motherboard. B. RAM chips. C. CPU chip. D. expansion boards. Answer: C 26. Reference: Cache Memory Difficulty: Moderate Just as ACSII is the binary code for letters and characters, ____________ is the binary code for computer instructions. A. hexadecimal B. EBCDIC C. machine language D. program language Answer: C 27. Reference: Stage 2: The Decode Stage Difficulty: Challenging Computer instructions are written by humans in: A. hexadecimal. B. assembly language. C. machine language. D. EBCDIC. Answer: B Reference: Stage 2: The Decode Stage Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. Difficulty: Challenging 7 Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 28. The ____________ is the part of the CPU designed to perform mathematical calculations and compare values. A. instruction set B. cache C. ALU D. control unit Answer: C 29. Reference: Stage 3: The Execute Stage Difficulty: Moderate The most frequently used instructions of a computer program are likely to be fetched from: A. the hard disk. B. cache memory. C. RAM. D. registers. Answer: B 30. Reference: Cache Memory Difficulty: Easy ____________ is the set of memory chips located on the motherboard that store data and instructions that cannot be changed or erased. A. ROM B. Level 1 cache C. Dynamic RAM D. Level 2 cache Answer: A 31. Reference: Types of RAM Difficulty: Easy The time it takes a device to locate data and instructions and make them available to the CPU is known as: A. clock speed. B. a processing cycle. C. CPU speed. D. access time. Answer: D Reference: RAM: The Next Level of Temporary Storage Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 8 Difficulty: Challenging Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 32. The level of memory with the fastest access time is/are the: A. Level 1 cache. B. CPU registers. C. physical RAM. D. ROM. Answer: B 33. Reference: RAM: The Next Level of Temporary Storage Difficulty: Challenging Retrieving data from RAM is measured in: A. milliseconds. B. seconds. C. nanoseconds. D. clock cycles. Answer: C 34. Reference: RAM: The Next Level of Temporary Storage Difficulty: Moderate Getting data and instructions from the hard drive to the CPU is measured in: A. milliseconds. B. seconds. C. nanoseconds. D. clock cycles. Answer: A 35. Reference: RAM: The Next Level of Temporary Storage Difficulty: Moderate The ____________ is responsible for decoding instructions. A. ALU B. Level 1 cache C. Level 2 cache D. control unit Answer: D Reference: Stage 2: The Decode Stage Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. Difficulty: Moderate 9 Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 36. The ____________ determines how many bits of data can be sent along a given bus at any one time. A. control unit B. bus speed C. bus width D. amount of memory Answer: C 37. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Moderate The ____________ are on the motherboard and run between the CPU and the main system memory. A. expansion buses B. local buses C. RAM buses D. ROM buses Answer: B 38. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Easy Bus clock speed is measured in: A. megahertz (MHz) B. gigahertz (GHz) C. milliseconds (ms) D. nanoseconds (ns) Answer: A 39. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Moderate The amount of data a CPU can process is based in part on the amount each ____________ can hold. A. register B. transistor C. bus D. instruction set Answer: A Reference: Stage 3: The Execute Stage Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. Difficulty: Challenging 10 Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 40. The data transfer rate of a bus is calculated by multiplying the bus clock speed by the: A. processor speed. B. bus width. C. processor’s word size. D. processing time. Answer: B 41. Reference: Busses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Challenging Video cards and sound cards use the ____________ to communicate with the motherboard. A. expansion bus B. Level 1 cache C. local bus D. Level 2 cache Answer: A 42. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Moderate All of the following are types of expansion buses EXCEPT: A. AGP. B. ISA. C. PCI. D. ALU. Answer: D 43. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Easy Peripherals communicate with the CPU through the: A. local buses. B. control unit. C. CPU registers. D. expansion buses. Answer: D Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 11 Difficulty: Easy Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 44. A system’s local bus runs between the: A. motherboard and system ports. B. CPU and main RAM. C. hard disk and the main RAM. D. control unit and the CPU’s registers. Answer: B 45. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Moderate The type of expansion bus used in modern computer systems for providing connections to typical expansion cards such as network and sound adapters is a(n): A. PCI bus. B. ISA bus. C. EISA bus. D. AGP bus. Answer: A 46. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Moderate Which modern bus architecture is used especially for 3-D graphics? A. PCI B. ISA C. AGP D. EISA Answer: C 47. Reference: Figure 9.13: Bus Design Evolution Difficulty: Challenging Pipelining refers to: A. splitting an instruction into pieces, with each sent to a separate processor. B. processing multiple instructions simultaneously, each at a different stage of the machine cycle. C. applying a common instruction to multiple data items at the same time. D. installing several CPUs into the computer, in order to enable processing instructions in parallel. Answer: B Reference: Pipelining Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. Difficulty: Moderate 12 Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 48. ____________ refers to the principle of transferring computational work from overloaded computers, in a computing cluster, to those with more available computing resources. A. Clustering B. Dual-core processing C. Dual processing D. Load balancing Answer: D 49. Reference: Bits and Bytes: Does Your Computer Need More… Difficulty: Moderate Which of the following statements clearly explains the difference between a dual-processor design and dual-core processors? A. Dual-processor design is two CPU chips installed on the same system and dual-core processors have two separate parallel processing paths. B. Dual-core processors means there are two CPU chips installed on the same system and dualprocessors have two separate parallel processing paths. C. Dual-processor design is computer clustering and dual-core processors have two separate processing paths. D. There is no difference. The terms are interchangeable. Answer: A 50. Reference: Multiple Processing Efforts Difficulty: Challenging A large network of computers each working on a portion of the same problem simultaneously is known as: A. hyperthreading. B. dual-processing. C. clustering. D. parallel processing. Answer: D Reference: Multiple Processing Efforts Difficulty: Challenging Fill in the Blank: 51. ____________, which is found in common sand, is the semiconductor material used to make transistors. Answer: Silicon Reference: Electrical Switches Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 13 Difficulty: Moderate Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 52. Integrated circuits, also known as____________, are very small regions of semiconductor material that support a huge number of transistors. Answer: chips 53. Reference: Electrical Switches Reference: The Binary Number System Reference: Representing Letters and Symbols:... Difficulty: Moderate Reference: The Binary Number System Difficulty: Easy Computers describe a number as powers of 2, which is known as the ____________ number system. Answer: binary 60. Difficulty: Easy The base 10 number system is also known as ____________. Answer: decimal notation 59. Reference: Representing Letters and Symbols:... Most of today’s personal computers use the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard code, called ____________, to represent each letter or character as an 8-bit (1-byte) binary code. Answer: ASCII 58. Difficulty: Challenging Bit is shorthand for ____________. Answer: binary digit 57. Difficulty: Easy ____________, a base 16 numbering system, can be used on Web pages to represent color. Answer: Hexadecimal notation Reference: Dig Deeper: Advanced Binary and… 56. Difficulty: Moderate A(n) ____________ is an organized plan for representing a number such as binary and hexidecimal. Answer: number system 55. Difficulty: Moderate Integrated circuits have enabled computer designers to create small yet powerful ____________, which are the chips that contain a CPU. Answer: microprocessors 54. Reference: Electrical Switches Reference: The Binary Number System Difficulty: Easy The ____________, or microprocessor, is the “brains” of the computer. Answer: central processing unit (CPU) Reference: The CPU: Processing Digital Information Difficulty: Easy 61. The combination of the processor and the operating system is referred to as the computer’s ____________. Answer: platform 62. Difficulty: Easy In the store phase of the CPU machine cycle, the results of mathematical and logical calculations are stored in ____________. Answer: registers 63. Reference: The CPU: Processing Digital Information Reference: The CPU Machine Cycle Difficulty: Moderate The series of steps that the CPU follows to perform its tasks is known as the ____________. Answer: machine (or processing) cycle Reference: The CPU Machine Cycle Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 14 Difficulty: Easy Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 64. ____________, which consists of small blocks of memory located directly on and next to the CPU chip, is a layer of storage that has faster access than RAM. Answer: Cache memory 65. Reference: Cache Memory Two processors on the same chip, enabling the execution of two sets of instructions at the same time, is known as ____________. Answer: dual-core technology Reference: The CPU: Processing Digital Information 66. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Easy Reference: Stage 4: The Store Stage Difficulty: Moderate Random access memory is located on the ____________ of the system unit. Reference: RAM: The Next Level of Temporary… Difficulty: Easy Bus clock speed is measured in ____________. Answer: megahertz (MHz) 75. Reference: Stage 3: The Execute Stage The results calculated by the ____________ are placed into registers during the store stage of the machine cycle. Answer: motherboard 74. Difficulty: Moderate A program’s mathematical and logical calculations are performed by the CPU’s ____________. Answer: Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) 73. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Easy Reference: The CPU: Processing Digital Information Answer: Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) 72. Difficulty: Moderate ____________ is a technique that allows the CPU to process a new set of instructions before the previous set has finished. Answer: Hyperthreading 71. Difficulty: Moderate The ____________ bus was designed to handle three-dimensional graphics data better. Answer: Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) 70. Difficulty: Moderate The ____________ determines how many bits of data can be sent along the bus at one time. Answer: bus width 69. Reference: The CPU Machine Cycle ____________ buses are located on the motherboard and run between the CPU and main system memory. Answer: Local 68. Difficulty: Moderate The ____________ are special memory storage areas built into the CPU that are the most expensive and fastest memory in the computer. Answer: (CPU) registers 67. Difficulty: Moderate Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Moderate Peripheral devices are connected to the motherboard and CPU through ____________. Answer: expansion buses Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 15 Difficulty: Easy Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit True and False: 76. Supercomputers measure processing speed in terms of trillions of operations per second. Reference: Bits and Bytes: Today’s Supercomputers:… Difficulty: Easy Answer: True 77. A dual-processor design has two separate CPUs installed in the same system. Answer: True 78. Reference: Multiple Processing Efforts More cache memory improves the performance of the CPU. Answer: True 79. Reference: Cache Memory Reference: The CPU Machine Cycle Difficulty: Easy Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Moderate Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway Difficulty: Moderate Moore’s Law predicted that the number of transistors on a processor would double every 18 months. Reference: Making Computers Even Faster: Advanced... Difficulty: Moderate Dual processor systems are often used for computer simulations. Answer: True 88. Reference: Types of RAM Local buses expand the capability of the computer by allowing the addition of expansion cards. Answer: True 87. Difficulty: Easy The rate at which data moves on a bus is the bus clock speed. Answer: False (Expansion) 86. Difficulty: Easy Random Access Memory (RAM) is nonvolatile storage. Answer: True 85. Reference: The System Clock Reference: Types of RAM Answer: False (volatile) 84. Difficulty: Moderate The access time of RAM is measured in nanoseconds (ns). Answer: True 83. Difficulty: Moderate The pace of the system clock, measured in Hz, is known as clock “ticks.” Answer: False (clock speed) 82. Reference: The CPU Machine Cycle When a program begins to run, the program’s binary code must be “fetched” from RAM. Answer: True 81. Difficulty: Moderate The most expensive and fastest memory in the computer is ROM. Answer: False (registers) 80. Difficulty: Easy Reference: Multiple processing Efforts Bus width is measured in terms of hertz (Hz). Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 16 Difficulty: Moderate Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit Answer: False (bits) 89. Reference: Buses: The CPU’s Data Highway The time it takes a device to locate data and instructions and make them available to the CPU for processing is known as clock speed. Answer: False (access time) Reference: RAM: The Next Level of Temporary Storage 90. Difficulty: Challenging Difficulty: Moderate The control unit manages the switches inside the CPU. Answer: True Reference: The Control Unit Difficulty: Easy Matching: 91. Match the following acronyms to their descriptions: I. EBCDIC II. AMD B. mainframe character code representation III. EISA C. faster RAM used in cache memory IV. SRAM D. 8-bit character code representation V. ASCII E. expansion bus architecture Answer: B, A, E, C, D 92. A. chip manufacturer Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Difficulty: Moderate Match the following acronyms to their descriptions: I. AGP A. organization that developed standard for floating point representation II. ROM B. organization that developed standard for ASCII character representation III. DRAM C. memory that cannot be changed or erased IV. IEEE D. relatively fast memory technology that includes rechargeable capacitors V. ANSI E. bus architecture dealing with video graphics Answer: E, C, D, A, B Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 17 Difficulty: Moderate Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 93. Match the following terms to their definitions: I. cache II. assembly B. the “brains” of the computer III. pipeline C. fast memory located in the CPU IV. CPU D. symbolic notation, such as MOV, ADD, representing machine language V. Unicode E. CPU architecture enabling parallel instruction processing Answer: C, D, E, B, A 94. Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Difficulty: Moderate Match the following terms to their definitions: I. transistor A. semiconducting electrical switch II. microprocessor B. machine cycle stage III. decode C. eight binary digits IV. register D. CPU storage unit V. byte E. complete CPU on a single integrated circuit Answer: A, E, B, D, C 95. A. 16-bit character encoding scheme Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Difficulty: Easy Match the following terms to their definitions: I. hexadecimal A. small regions of semiconductor material supporting many transistors II. sign bit B. denotes a negative number III. decimal C. processing cycle IV. machine cycle D. base 10 number system V. integrated circuit E. base 16 number system Answer: E, B, D, C, A Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 18 Difficulty: Challenging Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 96. Match the following terms to their definitions: I. binary II. semiconductor B. material that can conduct electricity or act as an insulator III. silicon C. 8 bits IV. byte D. binary digit V. bit E. base 2 number system Answer: E, B, A ,C, D 97. Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Difficulty: Challenging Match the following acronyms to their definitions: I. ASCII A. represents letters and numbers using 8 bits II. DDR SDRAM B. older computers use this bus architecture III. ROM C. a type of RAM IV. ISA D. memory that cannot be changed V. AGP E. bus architecture used for graphics Answer: A ,C, D, B, E 98. A. semiconductor material used to make transistors Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Difficulty: Easy Match the following terms to their definitions: I. nanosecond (ns) A. the pace of the system clock ticks II. gigahertz (GHz) B. one billion clock ticks per second III. clock speed C. clock speed is measured in this IV. hertz (Hz) D. manages the switches inside the CPU V. control unit E. one billionth of a second Answer: E, B, A ,C, D Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 19 Difficulty: Moderate Chapter 9: Behind the Scenes: Inside the System Unit 99. Match the following terms to their definitions: I. system clock A. volatile memory II. hertz (Hz) B. includes only 1s and 0s III. machine cycle C. a unit of measure that describes how often something happens per second IV. RAM D. a series of similar steps performed by the CPU V. binary E. a special crystal on the motherboard Answer: E, C, D, A, B Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Difficulty: Moderate 100. Match the following terms to their definitions: I. vacuum tubes II. circuit board A. contains resistors, capacitors, diodes, and transistors B. an old version of electronic switches III. electrical switches C. can be switched between two states on and off IV. digital D. 0s and 1s V. motherboard E. main circuit board in a computer Answer: B, A ,C, D, E Reference: Multiple locations in chapter Copyright © 2008 Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved. 20 Difficulty: Easy