Name: Surname: Group:

COMPUTER PLATFORMS
First Year Higher National Diploma 2009-2010

Worksheet 1:

Hardware Components and Performance

1. MEASURING PERFORMANCE Expand the acronym for each of the following units and identify the hardware device(s) for which it is used, explaining what it measures. Unit(s) Hz, MHz, GHz Expanded Acronym Device(s) Measuring

MB, GB

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MB/s

FPS

RPM

ms

dB

MIPS

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FLOPS

PPW

CPI

CCD

PMPO

RMS

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2. HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS Identify and explain at least 3 factors (or features) which affect the choice of the following hardware devices: Mouse

Keyboard

Hard Disk Drive

CPU

RAM

Video Card

Monitor

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Projector

Sound Card

Speaker System

Computer Case

Performance HDD

SSD

Backing Storage Drive (DVD, BluRay)

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Digital Video Camera

Digital Photo Camera

Printer

3. CPU COMPONENTS a. List and explain the use of the 4 main CPU Registers used in the FEC. Register 1: ______________________

Register 2: ______________________

Register 3: ______________________

Register 4: ______________________

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b. Why is it important to fuse toner in the laser-printing process?

c. Why isnt it possible to read a SS-SL DVD using a CD ROM drive?

d. What is the mechanism used by CD/DVD/BluRay Drives to decode the change from lands to pits into data known as?

e. Identify and explain two ways in which a DVD Disc could become unreadable from wear-and-tear.

f. Identify 3 types of Expansion Slots, and 4 Ports associating the devices which could be connected to them.

g. Which RAID configuration is the most reliable between RAID 0, 1 and 5. Explain.

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7.