15 Computer Systems

Let’s Think
1. The safety system of an elevator brings the elevator to a safe emergency stop if it
overspeeds in the downward direction.
2. Microwave oven / washing machine / air conditioner / video game console
(any three)
3. Any reasonable answers

Concept Map
1. H
2. E
3. D
4. F
5. C
6. A
7. B
8. G

Concept Checker
1. T
2. F
3. F
4. T
5. T

Multiple Choice questions

1. B
2. C
3. B
4. C
5. D
6. B
7. B
8. D
9. D
10. C

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Short Questions
1. (a) Real-time system (1)
(b) Real-time system (1)
(c) Online interactive system (1)
(d) Batch processing system (1)
(e) Batch processing system (1)

2. (a) (i) Online action game (1)

(ii) E-banking (1)
(iii) Application of a training course through http://www.gov.hk (1)
(b) ‧It is more cost effective.
‧It is more flexible to build distributed processing systems of different
scales.
‧It is not necessary to build software using special programming languages
which allow high degree of pipelining.
‧Resources can be managed more efficiently.
‧It is more fault tolerant than a single powerful computer.
(any three × 1)

3. Online ticketing reservation of a cinema network in Hong Kong: mainframe /

network server (any one × 1)
The processing power of the computer system has to be large enough to provide
online interactive booking service for large amount of customers. (1)
Real-time surveillance of all road traffic in Hong Kong: supercomputer /
mainframe (any one × 1)
The processing power of the computer system should be high enough to manage
digital video streams from hundreds or even thousands of video cameras around
Hong Kong. (1)

4. (a) Processing capability / expandability / cost / portability / time of

continuous operation / durability / power consumption (any four × 1)
(b) ‧The operating system does not match the requirements of the
computer game.

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 ‧The capacity of the main memory is not large enough to run the computer
game.
‧The display setting does not match the requirements of the computer
game.
‧The capacity of hard disk is smaller than the requirement of the
computer game.
(any three × 1)

5. (a) Network computers (1) and workstations (1)

Network computers: lower cost (1)
Workstations: higher processing power for graphic design tasks (1)
(b) (i) ‧Replace the video display card. (1)
‧Increase the capacity of the main memory. (1)
‧Add a faster hard disk to each computer.
‧Add a hard disk with larger storage capacity.
(any one × 1)
(ii) ‧Insert the new video display card into an expansion slot. (1)
‧Insert the new memory module into a memory slot. (1)
‧Insert the new hard disk into an empty hard disk bay and connect the
power cable and the connection cable. (1)

Long Questions
1. (a) Online interactive system (1) and multi-user system (1)
(b) Mainframe computer (2)
(c) ‧The computer hardware is much more expensive.
‧The speed bottleneck comes from the access of database tables instead of
CPU processing speed. Parallel processing system cannot take advantage
of its parallel processing power.
‧The development cost would be higher in order to program a database
system supporting parallel processing.
(any two × 2)
(d) (i) Problem 1: The network traffic is overloaded. (1)
Problem 2: The web browser has not installed plug-ins required for

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 loading the homepage. (1)
(ii) Problem 1: Replace with network devices and services of high
communication bandwidth. (1)
Problem 2: Install the necessary plug-ins to the web browser. (1)

2. (a) (i) PDA. (1) It is portable/handy. (any one × 1)

(ii) Notebook computer. (1) It is portable. (1)
(iii) Mainframe computer. (1) It can handle large capacity of data at high
speed. (1)
(iv) Supercomputer. (1) It has very high computation power to
handle large number of calculations in a very short time. (1)
(b) (i) ‧Save power (0.5)
‧Lower cost (0.5)
(ii) ‧Use an internal flash memory instead of a hard disk.
‧Use a free operating system.
‧Use only USB ports for connecting peripherals.
‧Use an operating system which requires lower system requirement.
(any two × 1)
(iii) ‧It reduces a lot of cost of setting up a computer network in the
long run.
‧Computer resources can be effectively shared among computers
with the wireless networking device. As a result, the cost can be
reduced money in the long run.
(any one × 1)

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