COMPUTE R SCI ENCE INFORMATION

REPRESENTATION
Compiled: By Engr. Shahzadah Ashraf Bande’Shah

Notes + Topical Past

Papers + Marking Scheme

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A Levels With
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Page 1 of 129
 Cambridge International AS & A Level Computer Science 9618 syllabus for 2021, 2022 and 2023.  Subject content

1 Information representation

1.1 Data Representation

Candidates should be able to:
Show understanding of binary magnitudes and the
difference between binary prefixes and decimal
prefixes
Show understanding of the basis of different number
systems
Perform binary addition and subtraction
Describe practical applications where Binary Coded
Decimal (BCD) and Hexadecimal are used
Show understanding of and be able to represent
character data in its internal binary form, depending
on the character set used
1.2 Multimedia
Graphics
Candidates should be able to:
Show understanding of how data for a bitmapped
image are encoded
Perform calculations to estimate the file size for a
bitmap image
Show understanding of the effects of changing
elements of a bitmap image on the image quality and
file size
Show understanding of how data for a vector graphic
are encoded
Justify the use of a bitmap image or a vector graphic
for a given task
Notes and guidance
Understand the difference between and use:
• kibi and kilo
• mebi and mega
• gibi and giga
• tebi and tera
Use the binary, denary, hexadecimal number bases
and Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) and one’s and two’s
complement representation for binary numbers
Convert an integer value from one number base /
representation to another
Using positive and negative binary integers
Show understanding of how overflow can occur
Familiar with ASCII (American Standard Code for
Information Interchange), extended ASCII and
Unicode. Students will not be expected to memorise
any particular character codes
Notes and guidance
Use and understand the terms: pixel, file header,
image resolution, screen resolution, colour depth/bit
depth
Use the terms: image resolution, colour depth/bit
depth
Use the terms: drawing object, property, drawing list

Sound
Candidates should be able to: Notes and guidance
Show understanding of how sound is represented and Use the terms: sampling, sampling rate, sampling
encoded resolution, analogue and digital data
Show understanding of the impact of changing the Impact on file size and accuracy
sampling rate and resolution

1.3 Compression
Candidates should be able to: Notes and guidance
Show understanding of the need for and examples of
the use of compression
Show understanding of lossy and lossless compression
and justify the use of a method in a given situation
Show understanding of how a text file, bitmap image, Including the use of run-length encoding (RLE) Page 2 of 129
vector graphic and sound file can be compressed
Page 3 of 129
Chapter 1 (Information Representation)

1.2 Numbers and quantities

There are several different types of numbers within the denary system. Examples of these are
provided in Table.

Type of number Examples Comments

Integer
Signed integer
Fraction
A number with a whole
number part and a fractional
number part
A number expressed in
exponential notation
3 or 47 A whole number used for counting
−3 or 47 The positive number has an implied + sign
2/3 or 52/17 Rarely used in computer science
The positive number has an implied + sign
−37.85 or 2.83
−3.6 × 108 or 4.2 × 10–9 The value can be positive or negative and the
exponent can be positive or negative

Table 1.05 Different ways to express a value using the denary number system

We will focus on how large values are represented. If we have a quantity that includes units of
measurement, it can be written in three different ways. For example, a distance could be written in
any one of these three ways:

• 23 567 m

• 23.567 × 103 m

• 23.567 km

The second example has used an exponential notation to define the magnitude of the value. The
third example has added a prefix to the unit to define this magnitude. We read this as

23.567 kilometres.

The ‘kilo’ is an example of a decimal prefix. There are four decimal prefixes commonly used for large
numbers. These are shown in Table.

Decimal prefix name Symbol used Factor applied to the value

kilo k 103
mega M 106
giga G 109
tera T 1012
The decimal prefixes

Decimal prefix: A prefix to define the magnitude of a value. Examples are kilo, mega, giga and tera
representing factors of 103, 106, 109 and 1012 respectively

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Unfortunately, for a long time the computing world used these prefix names but with a slightly
different definition. The value for 210 is 1024. Because this is close to 1000, computer scientists
decided that they could use the kilo prefix to represent 1024. So, for example, if a computer system
had the following values quoted for the processor speed and the size of the

Memory and of the hard disk: 7

Processor speed 1.6 GHz

Size of RAM 8 GB

Size of hard disk 400 GB

The prefix G would represent 109 for the processor speed but would almost certainly represent 1024
× 1024 × 1024 for the other two values.

This unsatisfactory situation has now been resolved by the definition of a new set of names which can
be used to define a binary prefix. A selection of these is shown in Table.

Binary prefix name Symbol used Factor applied to the value

kibi Ki 210
mebi Mi 220
gibi Gi 230
tebi Ti 240
Some examples of binary prefixes

Binary prefix: A prefix to define the magnitude of a value. Examples are kibi, mebi, gibi and tebi
representing factors of 210, 220, 230 and 240 respectively.

When a number or a quantity is presented for a person to read it is best presented with either one
denary digit or two denary digits before the decimal point. If a calculation has been carried out, the
initial result found may not match this requirement. A conversion of the presented value will be
needed by choosing a sensible magnitude factor. For example, consider the following two answers
calculated for the size of a file:

a) 34 560 bytes

Here, a conversion to kibibytes would be sensible using the calculation:

344560B = 34560 / 1024 KiB = 33.75 KiB

b) 3 456 000 bytes

Here, a conversion to mebibytes would be sensible using the calculation:

3456000 = 3456000B / 1024 x 1024 MiB = 3.296 MiB

If a calculation is to be performed with values quoted with different magnitude factors there must
first be conversions to ensure all values have the same magnitude factor. For example, if you needed
to know how many files of size 2.4 MiB could be stored on a 4 GiB memory stick there should be a
conversion of the GiB value to the corresponding MiB value.

The calculation would be: (4 × 1024)MiB / 2.4MiB = 1076

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Binary arithmetic

Binary Addition

For binary addition, starting at the least significant position still applies. The rules for the addition of
binary digits are:

• 0+0=0

• 0+1=1

• 1 + 1 = 0 with a carry of 1

• 1 + 1 + 0 = 0 with a carry of 1

• 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 with a carry of 1

The last two rules are used when a carried 1 is included in the addition of two digits.

As an example, the addition of the binary equivalent of denary 14 to the binary equivalent of denary
11 can be examined.

1 0 1 1
+ 1 1 1 0
1 1 0 0 1

The steps followed from right to left are:

• 1 + 0 = 1 with no carry

• 1 + 1 = 0 with carry 1

• 0 + 1 + carried 1 = 0 with carry 1

• 1 + 1 + carried 1 = 1 with carry 1

The rules have correctly produced the 5-bit answer which is the binary equivalent of 25. In a paper
exercise like this these rules for addition will always produce the correct answer.

Binary Subtraction

For binary subtraction, starting at the least significant position still applies. The rules for the
subtraction of binary digits are:

• 0–0=0

• 0 – 1 = 1 after a borrow

• 1–0=1

• 1–1=0

Page 6 of 129
As an example, the subtraction of the binary equivalent of denary 11 from the binary equivalent of
denary 14 can be examined.

1 1 1 0
− 1 0 1 1
0 0 1 1

The steps followed from right to left are:

• 1 is larger than 0 so 1 is borrowed giving subtraction of 1 from 10 leaving 1

• Because of the borrow the 1 is reduced to 0 so that 1 is to be subtracted from 0. This

requires a further borrow giving subtraction of 1 from 10 leaving 1

• Because of the borrow the 1 is reduced to 0 leaving subtraction of 0 from 0

• 1 – 1 gives 0

The answer is the binary value for denary 3.

Overflow: a condition when the result of a calculation is too large to fit into the number of bits defined
for storage

Page 7 of 129
Denary/Decimal:
Denary is the number system that you have most probably grown up with. It is also another
way of saying base 10. This means that there are 10 different numbers that you can use for
each digit, namely:

0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

Notice that if we wish to say 'ten', we use two of the numbers from the above digits, 1 and 0.

Thousands Hundreds Tens Units

10^3 10^2 10^1 10^0
1000 100 10 1
5 9 7 3

Using the above table, we can see that each column has a different value assigned to it. And if
we know the column values we can know the number, this will be very useful when we start
looking at other base systems. Obviously, the number above is: five-thousands, nine-hundreds,
seven-tens and three-units.

5*1000 + 9*100 + 7*10 + 3*1 = 597310

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Binary:

You should know denary pretty well by your age, but there are different base systems out
there, and the most important one for computing is the binary base system. Binary is a base-2
number system; this means that there are two numbers that you can write for each digit:

0, 1
With these two numbers we should be able to write (or make an approximation) of all the
numbers that we could write in denary.

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

2^7 2^6 2^5 2^4 2^3 2^2 2^1 2^0

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0

Using the above table, we can see that each column has a value assigned to it that is the power
of two (the base number!), and if we take those values and the corresponding digits we can
work out the value of the number:

1*64 + 1*32 + 1*8 + 1*2 = 106.

If you are asked to work out the value of a binary number, the best place to start is by labelling
each column with its corresponding value and adding together all the columns that hold a 1.
Let's take a look at another example:

000111112
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1

So now all we need to do is to add the columns containing 1s together:

1*16 + 1*8 + 1*4 + 1*2 + 1*1 = 31

Page 9 of 129
Hexadecimal:

You may notice from the table that one hexadecimal digit can represent exactly 4 binary bits.
Hexadecimal is useful to us as a shorthand way of writing binary, and makes it easier to work
with long binary numbers.
Hexadecimal is a base-16 number system which means we will have 16 different numbers to
represent our digits. The only problem being that we run out of numbers after 9, and knowing
that 10 is counted as two digits we need to use letters instead:

0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, A, B, C, D, E, F
We can do exactly the same thing as we did for denary and binary, and write out our table.

16^5 16^4 16^3 16^2 16^1 16^0

1 048 576 65536 4096 256 16 1

0 0 3 4 A F

So now all we need to do is to add the columns containing values together, but remember that
A = 10, B = 11, C = 12, D = 13, E = 14, F = 15.

3*4096 + 4*256 + (A)10*16 + (F)15*1 = 1348716

You might be wondering why we would want to use hexadecimal when we have binary and
denary, and when computer store and calculate everything in binary. The answer is that it is
entirely for human ease. Consider the following example:

Representation Base

EFFE11 base-16 hexadecimal

15728145 base-10 denary

111011111111111000010001 base-2 binary

Page 10 of 129
All the numbers are the same and the easiest version to remember/understand for humans is
the base-16. Hexadecimal is used in computers for representing numbers for human
consumption, having uses for things such as memory addresses and error codes.
NOTE: Hexadecimal is used as it is shorthand for binary and easier for people to remember. It
DOES NOT take up less space in computer memory, only on paper or in your head! Computers
still have to store everything as binary whatever it appears as on the screen.

Hexadecimal Binary Denary

0 0000 0

1 0001 1

2 0010 2

3 0011 3

4 0100 4

5 0101 5

6 0110 6

7 0111 7

8 1000 8

9 1001 9

A 1010 10

B 1011 11

C 1100 12

D 1101 13

E 1110 14

F 1111 15

10 0001 0000 16

Page 11 of 129
Converting Between Bases:

The sum that you saw previously to convert from hex to denary seemed a little cumbersome
and in the exam you wouldn't want to make any errors, we therefore have to find an easier way
to make the conversion.
Since 4 binary bits are represented by one hexadecimal digit, it is simple to convert between
the two. You can group binary bits into groups of 4, starting from the right, and adding extra 0's
to the left if required, and then convert each group to their hexadecimal equivalent.
For example, the binary number 0110110011110101 can be written like this:

0110 1100 1111 0101

And then by using the table above, you can convert each group of 4 bits into hexadecimal:

0110 1100 1111 0101

6 C F 5

So the binary number 0110 1100 1111 0101 is 6CF5 in hexadecimal. We can check this by
converting both to denary.
First we'll convert the binary number, since you already know how to do this:

32768 16384 8192 4096 2048 1024 512 256 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1

By multiplying the columns and then adding the results, the answer is 27893.
Notice that the column headings are all 2 raised to a power,

1=20 , 2=21,4=22 ,8=23 ,

and so on. To convert from hexadecimal to denary, we must use column headings that are
powers with the base 16, like this:

Page 12 of 129
 163 =4096 162 =256 161 =16 160 =1

6 C F 5

5x1=5
15 x 16 = 240 (You should memorize the values A-F)
12 x 256 = 3072
6 x 4296 = 24576
Totaling them all up gives us 27893, showing that 0110 1100 1111 0101 is equal to 6CF5.

To convert from denary to hexadecimal, it is recommended to just convert the number to

binary first, and then use the simple method above to convert from binary to hexadecimal.
In summary, to convert from one number to another we can use the following rule:
Hexadecimal <-> Binary <-> Denary

Page 13 of 129
Two's complement:

Nearly all computers work purely in binary. That means that they only use 1’s and 0’s, and
there's no -vie or +vie symbol that the computer can use. The computer must represent
negative numbers in a different way.
We can represent a negative number in binary by making the most significant bit (MSB) a sign
bit, which will tell us whether the number is positive or negative. The column headings for an 8-
bit number will look like this:

-128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

MSB LSB

1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1

Here, the most significant bit is negative, and the other bits are positive. You start with -128,
and add the other bits as normal.
The example above is -67 in denary because:
(-128 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 1 = -67)
-1 in binary is 1111 1111.
Note that you only use the most significant bit as a sign bit if the number is specified as signed.
If the number is unsigned, then the MSB is positive regardless of whether it is a 1(one) or not.

Signed binary numbers

If the MSB is 0 then the number is positive, if 1 then the number is negative.

0000 0101 (positive)

1111 1011 (negative)

Page 14 of 129
Method: Converting a Negative Denary Number into Binary Twos Complement

Let's say you want to convert -35 into Binary Twos Complement. First, find the binary
equivalent of 35 (the positive version)

32 16 8 4 2 1
1 0 0 0 1 1

Now add an extra bit before the MSB, make it a zero, which gives you:

64 32 16 8 4 2 1
0 1 0 0 0 1 1

Now 'flip' all the bits: if it's a 0, make it a 1; if it's a 1, make it a 0:

64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 0 1 1 1 0 0

This new bit represents -64 (minus 64). Now add 1:

64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 0 1 1 1 0 0
+1
1 0 1 1 1 0 1

If we perform a quick binary -> denary conversion, we have:

-64 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 1 = -64 + 29 = -35

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Example: binary subtraction

When it comes to subtracting one number from another in binary things can get very messy.

X (82 denary) 0101 0010

Y (78 denary) 0100 1110 −

An easier way to subtract Y from X is to add the negative value of Y to the value of X

X−Y = X+(−Y)

To do this we first need to find the negative value of Y (78 denary)

0100 1110 find the right most one

0100 1110
1011 0010 flip all the bits to its left

Now try the sum again

0101 0010 X( 82 denary)

1011 0010 + Y(−78 denary)
0000 0100
(¹)¹¹¹ ¹ the one carried over the bit 9 is ignored

Which comes out as:

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
4 = 4 = 82-78

Page 16 of 129
Converting Negative Numbers:

To find out the value of a two’s complement number we must first make note of its sign bit
(the most significant, left most bit), if the bit is a zero we work out the number as usual, if it's a
one we are dealing with a negative number and need to find out its value.

Method 1: converting twos complement to denary

To find the value of the negative number we must find and keep the right most 1 and all bits to
its right, and then flip everything to its left. Here is an example:

1111 1011 note the number is negative

1111 1011 find the right most one

1111 1011
0000 0101 flip all the bits to its left

We can now work out the value of this new number which is:

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
4 + 1 = −5 (remember the sign you worked out earlier!)

Method 2: converting twos complement to denary

To find the value of the negative number we must take the MSB and apply a negative value to
it. Then we can add all the heading values together

1111 1011 note the number is negative

-128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1
-128 +64 +32 +16 +8 +0 +2 +1 = -5

Page 17 of 129
ASCII and Unicode:
ASCII:
ASCII normally uses 8 bits (1 byte) to store each character. However, the 8th bit is used as a
check digit, meaning that only 7 bits are available to store each character. This gives ASCII the
ability to store a total of
2^7 = 128 different values.
If you look carefully at the ASCII representation of each character you might notice some
patterns. For example:

Binary Dec Hex Glyph

110 0001 97 61 a

110 0010 98 62 b

110 0011 99 63 c

As you can see, a = 97, b = 98, c = 99. This means that if we are told what value a character is
we can easily work out the value of subsequent or prior characters.
Without looking at the ASCII table above! If we are told that the ASCII value for the character
'5' is 011 0101, what is the ASCII value for '8'.
We know that '8' is three characters after '5', as 5,6,7,8. This means that the ASCII value of '8'
will be three bigger than that for '5':
011 0101 (ASCII '5')
+ 011
--------
011 1000 (ASCII '8')

If you are worried about making mistakes with binary addition, you can deal with the decimal
numbers instead. Take the example where you are given the ASCII value of 'g', 110 0111, what
is 'e'?

Page 18 of 129
We know that 'e' is two characters before 'g', as e, f, g. This means that the ASCII value of 'e'
will be two smaller than that for 'g'.
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 1 0 0 1 1 1= 10310 = ASCII value of 'g'

103 - 2 = 10110

64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 1 0 0 1 0 1= 10110 = ASCII value of 'e'

Unicode:

The problem with ASCII is that it only allows you to represent a small number of characters
(~128 or 256 for Extended ASCII). This might be OK if you are living in an English speaking
country, but what happens if you live in a country that uses a different character set? For
example:

 Chinese characters 汉字
 Japanese characters 漢字
 Gujarati ગુજરાતી
 Urdu ‫اردو‬

You can see that we quickly run into trouble as ASCII can't possibly store these hundreds of
thousands of extra characters in just 7 bits. What we use instead is unicode. There are several
versions of unicode, each with using a different number of bits to store data:

Page 19 of 129
 Name Descriptions

UTF-8 8-bit is the most common unicode format. Characters can take as little as 8-bits,
maximizing compatibility with ASCII. But it also allows for variable-width encoding
expanding to 16, 24, 32, 40 or 48 bits when dealing with larger sets of characters

UTF-16 16-bit, variable-width encoding, can expand to 32 bits.

UTF-32 32-bit, fixed-width encoding. Each character takes exactly 32-bits

With over a million possible characters we should be able to store every character from every
language on the planet.
Decimal digit BCD
8 4 2 1
BCD (Binary Coded Decimal): 0 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 1
2 0 0 1 0
If there is an application where single denary digits are required
to be stored or transmitted, BCD offers an efficient solution. The 3 0 0 1 1
BCD code uses 4-bits (a nibble) to represent a denary digit. A 4 0 1 0 0
four-bit code can represent 16 different values so there is a
5 0 1 0 1
scope for a variety of combinations. This discussion only
considers the simplest BCD coding which expresses the value 6 0 1 1 0
directly as a binary number. 7 0 1 1 1

If a denary number with more than one digit is to be converted 8 1 0 0 0

to BCD, there has to be a group of 4 bits for each denary digit. 9 1 0 0 1
There are, however, two options for BCD; the first is to store one
BCD code in one byte leaving 4 bits unused. The other option is packed BCD where two 4-bit
codes are stored in one byte.

For example, number 8503 can be represented as:

One BCD digit per Byte 0000 1000 0000 0101 0000 0000 0000 0011

Two BCD digit per Byte 1000 0101 0000 0011

Page 20 of 129
There are a number of applications where BCD can be used. The obvious
type of application is where (1) denary digits are to be displayed, for
instance on the screen of a calculator or in a digital time display or in an
elevator display panel (These all are examples of 7 segment display).

A somewhat unexpected application is for the (2) representation of -

currency values. When a currency value is written in a format such as
$300.25 it is as a fixed-point decimal number (ignoring the dollar sign).
It might be expected that such values would be stored as real numbers
but this cannot be done accurately. One solution to the problem is to
store each denary digit in a BCD code.

Page 21 of 129
1.1.2 Images

A large part of using modern computers involves sending pictures and films to each other, along with using a
graphical user interface. All of this involves computers saving and processing images. This section will cover the
two main image types: vector and bitmap, along with some compression techniques.

A comparison between a vector and bitmap representation of an image.

Bitmap Graphics - a collection of pixels from an image mapped to specific memory locations holding their binary
color value

Pixel - the smallest possible addressable area defined by a solid color, represented as binary, in an image

This example shows a Bitmap image with a portion greatly enlarged, in which the individual pixels are rendered
as little squares and can easily be seen. Try looking closely at your monitor or mobile phone screen to see if you
can spot the pixels

Page 22 of 129
Bitmaps are very good for storing things such as photographs

Resolution
Image Resolution - how many pixels an image contains per inch/cm

Screen Resolution - the number of pixels per row by the number of pixels per column

The higher the resolution, the more pixels are available. Therefore the crisper the picture

Page 23 of 129
There are many different video display formats out there, with different widths and heights, and total numbers
of pixels

Example: Calculating screen resolutions

Using the diagram above we are going to work out how many pixels are required to display a single
frame on a VGA screen.

Checking the resolution:

Height = 480

Width = 640

Area = Width * Height = Total Pixels

Area = 640 * 480 = 307200

Page 24 of 129
Exercise: Calculating screen resolutions
Q. What is a Pixel?
Answer:
The smallest possible addressable area defined by a solid color, represented as binary, in an image.

Q. What is Image Resolution?

Answer:
The amount of pixels an image contains per inch/cm

Q. What is Screen Resolution?

Answer:
the number of pixels per row by the number of pixels per column

Q. What is the resolution of a 100 pixel by 70 pixel image?

Answer:
100 * 70 = 7000 pixels

Q. What is the resolution of a 30 pixel by 40 pixel image?

Answer:
30 * 40 = 1200 pixels

Q. What is the resolution of HD 1080p image? (use the diagram above to help)
Answer:
1920 x 1080 = 2073600 pixels

Q. If I have an image resolution of 700 pixels, and the height is 35, what is the width of the image?
Answer:
700 / 35 = 20 pixels

Q. What is a benefit of having a higher resolution image?

Answer:
higher resolution images are able to display more detail, providing crisper images

Q. What might be a drawback of having a very high resolution image

Answer:
It will require a lot of space to store it. Meaning you'll quickly run out of memory, or it'll take a long time to transmit
images across the internet or other data route.

Page 25 of 129
Color Depth
Color depth - The number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel

Color depth 1 bit 2 bit 4 bit

Example

Mono-chrome, only
Description stores 4 colors: Stores limited colors
stores black and white

Number of
colors 21 = 2 22 = 4 24 = 16
per pixel

Color depth 8 bit 24 bit

Example

hard to see any difference

Description close to reality
between reality

Number of
colors 28 = 256 224 = 16777216 (16m)
per pixel

Page 26 of 129
It seems pretty obvious that the higher the color depth, the closer the picture will look to reality. Why then
don't we just ramp up the color depth on every image that we make? The answer should be obvious, for a fixed
resolution, the higher the color depth, the larger the file size.

Example: Calculating file size for different color depths

All the images above are of the same resolution:

300*225 = 67500 pixels

If the first image uses 1 bit to store the color for each pixel, then the image size would be:

Number of Pixels * Color Depth = Image Size

67500 * 1 bit = 67500 bits

For the second image uses 2 bits to store the color for each pixel, then the image size would be:

Number of Pixels * Color Depth = Image Size

67500 * 2 bit = 135000 bits

Page 27 of 129
Exercise: Color Depth

Q. What does color depth mean?

Answer:
The number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel

Q. For a color depth of 8 bits, how many colors could each pixel store?
Answer:
28 = 256

Q. To represent 1024 colors per pixel, what color depth would I need?
Answer:
210 = 1024

Q. For an image of 30 by 40 pixels, what would the file sizes be for the following color depths: 4 bits
Answer:
30 x 40 x 4 = 4800 bits

Q. How many colors can each pixel store if it has a color depth of 4bits?
Answer:
24 = 16 colors

Q. How many bits does the color depth have to be if we want to store 64 colors per pixel?
Answer:
6 as: 26 = 64 colors

Q. How many bits would an image be that has a size of 20 by 30 pixels, with each pixel able to display 8 colors?
Answer:
8 colors is 3 bits per pixel as: 23 = 8 colors
h * w * b = 20 * 30 * 3 = 1800 bits

Q. When might one want to decrease the color depth for an image?
Answer:
you want to save file space or when you only need a specific palate of colors such a mono-chrome

Page 28 of 129
Vector Graphics

Vector Graphics - images defined using mathematics and geometry such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or
polygon(s). Allowing for scalability. Objects and properties stored mathematically.

Drawing list - a set of commands used to define a vector image

Vector graphics are made up of objects and their properties. An object is a mathematical or geometrically
defined construct such as a rectangle, line or circle.

<rect ... />

<line ... />

<circle ... />

Rectangle Circle Combination

Image

<rect

width="100" height="80"

x="0" y="70"
<rect x="14" y="23" <circle cx="100" fill="green" />
width="250" height="50" cy="100" r="50"
<line
Drawing fill="green" fill="red"
x1="5" y1="5"
List stroke="black" stroke-
stroke="black" stroke-
width="5" /> x2="250" y2="95"
width="1" />
stroke="red" />

<circle

cx="90" cy="80"

r="50"

Page 29 of 129
 fill="blue" />

<text x="180" y="60">

Un text

</text>

Note that the circle is on top, this is because

Note that the center it was drawn last.
x and y give the top left co-ordinate is defined To leave out an edge stroke don't put the
Notes
start location through cx and cy stroke command in.
r gives the radius The line has start x1, y1 and end x2, y2
coordinates.

Each of these objects has properties to tell you the size, color, position etc. Take a look at the next example to
see how drawing lists are built from objects and properties.

Exercise: Vector Graphics

Q. What is a drawing list
Answer:
a set of commands used to define a vector image

Q. Give some objects that can be used in vector graphics:

Answer: Line, Text, Rectangle, Circle

Q. Give the properties needed to display a rectangle:

Answer: (X,Y), (width, height), (fill), (stroke (color), stroke-width)

Q. Give the properties needed to display a line:

Answer: (x1,y1 - start coordinates), (x2,y2 - end coordinates), (width), (fill), (stroke (color))

Q. Give the definition of a vector image:

Answer: Images defined using mathematics and geometry such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s).
Allowing for scalability

Page 30 of 129
Comparison between Bitmap (Raster) Image and Vector Image

This image illustrates the difference between bitmap and vector images. The bitmap image is composed of a
fixed set of dots (pixels), while the vector image is composed of a fixed set of shapes. In the picture, scaling the
bitmap reveals the pixels and scaling the vector image preserves the shapes.

 Vector images scale without file size increase / decrease

 Bitmap images scale resulting in file size increase / decrease

 Vector images scale without distortion to the image

 Bitmap images distort (pixelate) when scaling

 Bitmaps are better for photo editing

 Bitmaps require less processing power to display

Exercise: Vector vs. Bitmap

Q. You wish to create an image that will be made into a giant banner for the side of a building. What type should
you use and why?

Answer: Vector, as it allows for scaling without distortion and retaining its file size

Q. You wish to create an image that will be used in a game that will run on a mobile phone and a home console.
What type should you use and why?

Answer: Vector, as it allows for scaling without distortion and retaining its file size. You would only need one
image to use on all the different systems.

Q. You want to take an image of a local cat stuck in a tree. What type should you use and why?

Answer: Bitmap as it is better for photographs.

Page 31 of 129
1.1.3 Sounds

A speaker works by moving its center cone in and out, this causes the air particles to bunch together forming
waves. These waves spread out from the speaker travelling at 340 m / s. If your ear is in the way, then the waves
of sound particles will collide with your ear drum, vibrating it and sending a message to your brain.

This is how you hear:

This section of the book will cover how we record, store and transmit sound using computers. Sound waves in
nature are continuous, this means they have an almost infinite amount of detail that you could store for even
the shortest sound. This makes them very difficult to record perfectly, as computers can only store discrete
data, data that has a limited number of data points.

The discrete approximations (in red) can be used to recreate the

original sound (grey). However, due to limitations in the number
Sound is a continuous set of data points
of samples we take we are often unable to truly represent a
formed by a wave.
sound wave, though we can get close enough for the human ear
Computers sample this sound at discrete not to notice the difference.
points to store a digital approximation

Page 32 of 129
Analogue and digital:
For a computer to store sound files we need to get the continuous analogue sound waves into discrete binary
values:

An analogue sound wave is picked up by a microphone and sent to an Analogue to Digital (ADC) converter in the
form of analogue electrical signals. The ADC converts the electrical signals into digital values which can be stored
on a computer.

Once in a digital format you can edit sounds with programs such as audacity.

To play digital audio you convert the sound from digital values into analogue electrical signals using the DAC,
these signals are then passed to a speaker that vibrating the speaker cone, moving the air to create sound waves
and analogue noise.

Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC) - Converts analogue sound into digital signals that can be stored on a
computer.

Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC) - Converts digital signals stored on a computer into analogue sound that
can be played through devices such as speakers.

Page 33 of 129
Fig 1. The original analogue sound wave is a continuous set
of points.

Fig 2. ADC converts sound into digital data.

Fig 3. DAC converts digital data into analogue sound, the

analogue wave produced may differ significantly from the
original sound wave.

*Why is it difficult to save analogue sound waves in a digital format?

--Analogue is continuous data, converting continuous data to discrete values

may lose some of the accuracy.

Page 34 of 129
Sampling Rate:

Sampling Rate - The number of samples taken per second.

Hertz (Hz) - the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon.

Sampling resolution - the number of bits assigned to each sample.

*As you saw earlier, different sounds can have different volumes. The sampling resolution allows you to set the
range of volumes storable for each sample. If you have a low sampling resolution then the range of volumes will
be very limited, if you have a high sampling resolution then the file size may become unfeasible. The sampling
resolution for a CD is 16 bits used per sample.

Bit rate - the number of bits required to store 1 second of sound

To work out the size of a sound sample requires the following equation:

File Size = Sample Rate * Sample Resolution * Length of sound

This is the same as saying:

File Size = Bit Rate * Length of sound

Let's look at an example:

Example: Sound File Sizes

If you wanted to record a 30 second voice message on your mobile phone you would use the following:

Sample Rate = 8,000 Hz

Sample Resolution = 16 bit

Length of Sound = 30 seconds

Therefore the total file size would be:

8,000 * 16 * 30 = 3 840 000 Bits = 480 000 Bytes

Page 35 of 129
Exercise: Analogue and digital

Q. What is the difference between analogue and digital data?

Answer:
Analogue data is continuous, allowing for an infinite number of possible values. Digital data is discrete, allowing for a finite
set of values

Q. Name the device used by computers to convert sound files into sound coming out of the speaker
Answer:
Digital to Analogue converter

Q. Name a peripheral that could be used to feed sound into an ADC

Answer:
A microphone

Q. This is a diagram of a system set up for recording, storing and saving sound. Fill in the numbers from the following
options

 ADC
 DAC
 Headphones
 Main Memory
 Microphone
 Secondary Storage

Answer:

1. Microphone 5. Headphones
2. ADC 6. Secondary Storage
3. DAC
4. Main Memory

Page 36 of 129
Q. Why is it difficult to save analogue sound waves in a digital format?
Answer:
Analogue is continuous data, converting continuous data to discrete values may lose some of the accuracy

Exercise: Sampled sound

Q. Why might a digital representation of a sound struggle to be a perfect representation?

Answer:

A sound wave is continuous data, whilst digital data is discrete and the representation is an approximation of
the original

Q. Why might you choose to have a lower sampling rate than a higher one for storing a song on your computer?

Answer:

The higher the sampling rate the more data is needed to be stored, meaning the larger the file size.

Q. What is the sampling resolution?

Answer:

The number of bits assigned to each sample, affecting the range of volumes that can be stored in a sample

Q. What is the equation to work out the bit rate of a song?

Answer:

Sampling Rate * Sampling Resolution

Q. For the following sound sample work out its size:

Sample Rate = 16,000 Hz

Sample Resolution = 8 bit

Length of Sound = 10 seconds

Answer:

16,000 * 8 * 10 = 1 280 000 Bits

Page 37 of 129
Q. Work out the sample rate of the following sound file:

Sound File = 100,000 bits

Sample Resolution = 10 bit

Length of Sound = 5 seconds

Answer:

100,000 / (10 * 5) = 2,000 Hz

Q. Why might a song recorded with the following settings?

Sample Rate = 22,000 Hz

Sample Resolution = 16 bit

Length of Sound = 10 seconds

Have a file size of 7,040,000 bits?

Answer:

The file might be recorded in stereo, meaning twice the amount of data would have to be stored

Compression techniques

As you can see we have some serious issues with the size of sound files. Take a look at the size of a 3-minute pop
song recorded at a sample rate of 44 kHz and a sample resolution of 16 bits.

44,000 * 16 * 180 = 126 720 000 bits (roughly 15 MB)

As you are probably aware an mp3 of the same length would be roughly 3Mb, a fifth of the size. So what gives?
It is easy to see that the raw file sizes for sounds are just too big to store and transmit easily, what is needed it a
way to compress them.

Page 38 of 129
Lossless

Lossless compression - compression doesn't lose any accuracy and can be decompressed into an identical copy
of the original audio data
WAV files don't involve any compression at all and will be the size of files that you have calculated already.
There are lossless compressed file formats out there such as FLAC which compress the WAV file into data
generally 50% the original size. To do this it uses run length encoding, which looks for repeated patterns in the
sound file, and instead of recording each pattern separately, it stores information on how many times the
pattern occurs in a row. Let us take a hypothetical set of sample points:

00000000000000000000012345432100000000000000000123456787656789876

As you can see the silent area takes up a large part of the file, instead of recording these individually we can set
data to state how many silent samples there are in a row, massively reducing the file size:

(21-0)123454321(17-0)123456787656789876

Another technique used by FLAC files is Linear prediction.

Lossy

FLAC files are still very large, what is needed is a format that allows you to create much smaller file sizes that can
be easily stored on your computer and portable music device, and easily transmitted across the internet.

Lossy compression - compression loses file accuracy, generally smaller than lossless compression

As we have already seen, to make smaller audio files we can decrease the sampling rate and the sampling
resolution, but we have also seen the dreadful effect this can have on the final sound. There are other clever
methods of compressing sounds, these methods won't let us get the exact audio back that we started with, but
will be close. This is lossy compression.

Some audiophiles stick by vinyl records as this uncompressed music format doesn't lose audio accuracy like an
mp3. However dirt and wear degrade the quality of vinyl

There are many lossy compressed audio formats out there including: MP3, AAC and OGG (which is open source).
The compression works by reducing accuracy of certain parts of sound that are considered to be beyond the
auditory resolution ability of most people. This method is commonly referred to as perceptual coding. It uses
psychoacoustic models to discard or reduce precision of components less audible to human hearing, and then
records the remaining information in an efficient manner. Because the accuracy of certain frequencies are lost
you can often tell the difference between the original and the lossy versions, being able to hear the loss of high
and low pitch tones.

Page 39 of 129
Exercise: Sound compression

Q. Why is it necessary to compress sound files?

Answer:

So that they take up less space and can be sent quickly across the internet or stored on portable music
players

Q. Name the two categories of compression available and give a file format for each

Answer:

Lossy (mp3/AAC/ogg) and lossless(FLAC)

Q. perform run length encoding on the following sound file

012344444444444432222222222222211111111111111000000000000

Answer:

0123(12-4)3(14-2)(14-1)(12-0)

Q. Describe a technique used to compress mp3 files

Answer:

perceptual coding reduces the quality of frequencies stored in a sound file that are beyond the auditory
resolution of most people

Q. When would it be best to use FLAC instead of ogg and vice-versa?

Answer:

when you really care about the sound quality and you're not bothered about the file size

when you are trying to make a sound file as small as possible

Page 40 of 129
Page 41 of 129
1 (i) Convert the following binary number into hexadecimal.

10111000
...............................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) Convert the following denary number into BCD format.

97
...............................................................................................................................................[1]

(iii) Using two’s complement, show how the following denary numbers could be stored in an 8-bit
register:

114

- 93
[2]

9608/12/M/J/15 Page 42 of 129

2 (a) Sound can be represented in a computer in a digital format.

(i) Give the definition of the term sampling.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) Give one reason why 16-bit sampling is used in an audio compact disc (CD).

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(iii) Explain what is meant by the term sampling resolution.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(iv) Give one benefit and one drawback of using a higher sampling resolution.

Benefit ...............................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Drawback ..........................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(b) Describe two typical features found in software for editing sound files.

1 ................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

2 ................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[2]

(c) Explain the difference between lossless and lossy data compression techniques.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[3]

9608/12/M/J/15 Page 43 of 129

1 (a) (i) Using two’s complement, show how the following denary numbers could be stored in an
8-bit register:

124

–77
[2]

(ii) Convert the two numbers in part (a) (i) into hexadecimal.

124 ..................................................................................................................................

–77 ...................................................................................................................................
[2]

(b) Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) is another way of representing numbers.

(i) Write the number 359 in BCD form.

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Describe a use of BCD number representation.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

9608/13/M/J/15 Page 44 of 129

2 (a) Convert the following denary integer into 8-bit binary.

55

[1]

(b) Convert the following Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) number into denary.

10000011

...............................................................................................................................................[1]

(c) Convert the following denary integer into 8-bit two’s complement.

-102

[2]

(d) Convert the following hexadecimal number into denary.

4E

...............................................................................................................................................[1]

9608/12/M/J/16 Page 45 of 129

4 A group of students broadcast a school radio station on a website. They record their sound clips
(programmes) in advance and email them to the producer.

(a) Describe how sampling is used to record the sound clips.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[3]

(b) The students use software to compress the sound clips before emailing them.

(i) Circle your chosen method of compression and justify your choice.

Lossy / Lossless

Justification: .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[3]

Students also email images to the radio station for use on its website.

These are compressed before sending using run-length encoding (RLE).

(ii) Explain what is meant by run-length encoding.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[3]

9608/12/M/J/16 Page 46 of 129

(iii) The following diagrams show:

• the denary colour code that represents each colour

• the first three rows of a bitmap image

Colour symbol Colour code

(denary)

B 153

W 255

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

0 B B B B B B B B B B W W W B B B

1 B B B B B B B B B W W W W W W B

2 B B B B B B B W W W W W W W W W

95

Show how RLE will compress the first three rows of this image.

Row 1: ...............................................................................................................................

Row 2: ...............................................................................................................................

Row 3: ...........................................................................................................................[2]

9608/12/M/J/16 Page 47 of 129

6 (c) Bit streaming is used for both real-time and on-demand services.

Describe one difference between real-time and on-demand bit streaming.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[2]

Page 48 of 129
9608/12/M/J/16
2 (a) Convert the following 8-bit binary integer into denary.

01001101

.............................................................................................................................. .................[1]
..............................................................................................................................

(b) Convert the following denary number into Binary Coded Decimal (BCD).

82
...............................................................................................................................................[1]

(c) Convert the following two’s complement integer number into denary.

11001011
...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[2]

(d) Convert the following denary number into hexadecimal. Show your working.

198

...............................................................................................................................................[2]

9608/13/M/J/16 Page 49 of 129

3 (a) A computer has a microphone and captures a voice recording using sound editing software.

The user can select the sampling resolution before making a recording.

Define the term sampling resolution. Explain how the sampling resolution will affect the
accuracy of the digitised sound.

Sampling resolution ..................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Explanation ...............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[3]

(b) The computer also has bitmap software.

(i) Define the term image resolution.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) A picture is drawn and is saved as a 16-colour bitmap image.

State how many bits are used to encode the data for one pixel.

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(iii) A second picture has width 8192 pixels and height 256 pixels. It is saved as a 256-colour
bitmap.

Calculate the file size in kilobytes.

Show your working.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[3]

(iv) The actual bitmap file size will be larger than your calculated value as a bitmap file has a
file header.

State two items of data that are stored in the file header.

1 ........................................................................................................................................

2 ....................................................................................................................................[2]
9608/12/M/J/17 Page 50 of 129
3 (a) A computer has a microphone and captures a voice recording using sound recording software.

Before making a recording, the user can select the sampling rate.

Define the term sampling rate. Explain how the sampling rate will influence the accuracy of
the digitised sound.

Sampling rate ...........................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Explanation ...............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[2]

(b) The computer also has bitmap software.

(i) Define the terms pixel and screen resolution.

Pixel ...................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Screen resolution ..............................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[2]

(ii) A picture has been drawn and is saved as a monochrome bitmap image.

State how many pixels are stored in one byte.

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(iii) A second picture has width 2048 pixels and height 512 pixels. It is saved as a 256-colour
image.

Calculate the file size in kilobytes.

Show your working.

........................................................................................................................................... [3]

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
(iv) The actual bitmap file size will be larger than your calculated value.
State another data item that the bitmap file stores in addition to the pixel data.
...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

9608/13/M/J/17 Page 51 of 129

5 (c) Computer scientists often write binary representations in hexadecimal.

(i) Write the hexadecimal representation for the following instruction.

0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(ii) A second instruction has been written in hexadecimal as:

16 4D

Write the assembly language for this instruction with the operand in denary.

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

9608/12/M/J/17

4 (c) Using an 8-bit operand, state the maximum number of memory locations, in denary, that can
be directly addressed.

......

.........................................................................................................................................
[1]

(d) Computer scientists often write binary representations in hexadecimal.

(i) Write the hexadecimal representation for this instruction:

0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(ii) A second instruction has been written in hexadecimal as:

05 3F

Write the equivalent assembly language instruction, with the operand in denary.

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

9608/13/M/J/17 Page 52 of 129

4 (a) The Accumulator is a register. The current contents of the Accumulator are:

1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1

The current contents of the Accumulator represent an unsigned binary integer.

(i) Convert the value in the Accumulator into denary.

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) Convert the value in the Accumulator into hexadecimal.

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(iii) The current contents of the Accumulator represent a two’s complement binary integer.

Convert the value in the Accumulator into denary.

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(b) The binary integer represents a character from the computer’s character set.

(i) Define the term character set.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) Explain the differences between the ASCII and Unicode character sets.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(iii) The ASCII code for ‘A’ is 41 in hexadecimal.

Calculate the ASCII code in hexadecimal for ‘Z’. Show your working.

Working .............................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

ASCII code in hexadecimal for ‘Z’ .....................................................................................

[2]

9608/12/M/J/18 Page 53 of 129

5 A student has recorded a sound track for a short film.

(a) Explain how an analogue sound wave is sampled to convert it into digital format.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[3]

(b) Explain the effects of increasing the sampling resolution on the sound file.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[2]

(c) The original sound was sampled at 44.1 kHz. The sample rate is changed to 22.05 kHz.

Explain the effects of this change on the sound file.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[3]

9608/12/M/J/18 Page 54 of 129

 9

(d) The student uses sound editing software to edit the sound file.

Name two features of sound editing software the student can use to edit the sound file.

Describe the purpose of each feature.

Feature 1 ...................................................................................................................................

Purpose .....................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Feature 2 ...................................................................................................................................

Purpose .....................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[4]

9608/12/M/J/18 Page 55 of 129

3 (c) H is a register. The current contents of H are:

1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

The current contents of register H represent an unsigned binary integer.

(i) Convert the value in register H into denary.

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) Convert the value in register H into hexadecimal.

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(iii) The current contents of register H represent a two’s complement binary integer.

Convert the value in register H into denary.

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(iv) State why register H does not currently contain a Binary Coded Decimal (BCD).

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

9608/13/M/J/18 Page 56 of 129

6 A black and white bitmap image is shown.

(a) State the minimum number of bits needed to represent each pixel in this image.

...............................................................................................................................................[1]

(b) Run-length encoding (RLE) is used to store the image with the following colour codes.

Colour Code
Black 1A
White 3B

Show how run-length encoding is used to store the image.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[3]

(c) An image has 30 different colours.

State the minimum number of bits needed to represent each pixel in the 30-colour image.

...............................................................................................................................................[1]

9608/13/M/J/18 Page 57 of 129

(d) When the image is saved, a header is added to the file.

State the purpose of the file header. Give two examples of the file header contents.

Purpose ....................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Example 1 .................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Example 2 .................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[3]

(e) Graphics software is used to edit a digital photograph.

Give three features of graphics software that can be used to edit the photograph.

Describe the effect each has on the photograph.

Feature 1 ...................................................................................................................................

Effect .........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Feature 2 ...................................................................................................................................

Effect .........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Feature 3 ...................................................................................................................................

Effect .........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[6]

Page 58 of 129
9608/13/M/J/18
 2

1 Devices connected to the Internet have IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.

(a) Three IPv4 addresses are given.

Circle either Valid or Invalid to indicate whether each address is valid or invalid. Explain your
decision.

Address 1: 3A.21.2H.1 Valid / Invalid

Explanation ...............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Address 2: 299.53.2.2 Valid / Invalid

Explanation ...............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Address 3: 192.2.1.0 Valid / Invalid

Explanation ...............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[3]

(b) A website can be accessed using either the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or the IP
address.

Describe how a URL is converted into its matching IP address.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [3]

(c) People use the Internet to stream media.

Complete the following statements by filling in the names of the missing methods of bit
streaming.

................................................. bit streaming is used when watching a live stream of events

that are currently taking place. The event is captured live with a video camera connected to a
computer, and it cannot be paused or rewound.

................................................. bit streaming is used when watching an event that has taken
place in the past. Existing media are encoded to bit streaming format and uploaded to a
server. It can be paused and rewound.
[2]
© UCLES 2019 9608/11/M/J/19 Page 59 of 129
 3

(d) A recording of a concert is stored as a file. The file is compressed using lossy compression
before it is streamed to users.

(i) State why this file needs to be compressed.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Define the term lossy compression.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(iii) The file could be compressed using lossless compression.

Explain why lossy compression is a more appropriate compression technique than

lossless for this file.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [3]

© UCLES 2019 9608/11/M/J/19 Page 60 of 129

 8

(d) The ASCII character code for ‘A’ is 65 in denary.

(i) Convert the denary ASCII character code for ‘A’ into 8-bit binary.

[1]

(ii) Convert the denary ASCII character code for ‘A’ into hexadecimal.

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(iii) The Unicode character code for ‘G’ is 0047 in hexadecimal.

State, in hexadecimal, the Unicode character code for ‘D’.

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

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 13

5 Xander creates a presentation that includes images, video and sound.

(a) The images are bitmap images. A bitmap image can be made up of any number of colours.
Each colour is represented by a unique binary number.

Draw one line from each box on the left, to the correct box on the right to identify the minimum
number of bits needed to store each maximum number of colours.

Maximum number of colours Minimum number of bits

1
68

2
256

127

2
8

249
9

[3]

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 6

4 A digital camera takes a bitmap image. The image is 2000 pixels wide by 1000 pixels high with a
colour depth of 24-bits.

(a) Calculate an estimate of the file size for the image. Give your answer in megabytes. Show
your working.

Working .....................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Answer .......................................................... MB
[3]

(b) A second image is taken, this time in black and white. It has the same number of pixels, but
the file size is smaller.

Explain why the file size is smaller.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [2]

(c) The digital camera allows a user to add text to an image. The text is encoded as ASCII
values.

The table shows the ASCII denary values for five characters.

Character ASCII denary value

a 97

b 98

c 99

d 100

e 101

(i) Give the 8-bit binary value for the ASCII character ‘b’.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

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 7

(ii) Complete the table by writing the ASCII denary value for the character ‘t’ and its
hexadecimal equivalent.

Character t

ASCII denary value

Hexadecimal value
[2]

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 2

1 Samira is creating an interactive, multimedia presentation for the entrance to her hotel.

(a) The presentation will be on a device that has a resistive touchscreen for user input.

Complete the following paragraph about the basic operation of a resistive touchscreen.

The resistive touchscreen has two layers with ...................................................... between

the layers. When a finger touches the screen, the ...................................................... moves

to touch the ...................................................... ; this creates a point of contact.

The ...................................................... and ...................................................... position of this

point is calculated.
[4]

(b) Samira uses a computer to draw a logo for her hotel and saves it as a vector graphic. The
logo will be placed on the multimedia presentation and elsewhere, such as on signs at the
entrance of the hotel.

Samira emails the logo to a company that prints signs, and other documentation for the hotel.

(i) Describe how the logo is represented by the computer.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [3]

(ii) State two reasons why the hotel logo is saved as a vector graphic instead of a bitmapped
graphic.

1 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

2 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[2]

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 3

2 Amir has created a sound file using his desktop computer.

(a) Complete the table by writing the missing definitions and term about sound.

Term Definition

....................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................
Sampling
....................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................

......................................
The number of samples per unit time
......................................

....................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................
Sampling resolution
....................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................
[3]

(b) The file is too large to be emailed and the file size needs to be reduced.

(i) Name one lossless compression technique that can be used to reduce the size of the
sound file.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Describe one lossy compression technique that can be used to reduce the size of the
sound file.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

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3 A touch screen has three squares where a selection can be made:

S T U

(a) The x-coordinate of the centre of the three squares is held in three memory locations:

Address Memory contents

S 40 0000 1011 0100

T 41 0010 0101 0100
U 42 0100 0110 1100

(i) Give the hexadecimal value of the memory contents for U.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) Convert the denary number 40 into binary.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

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 5

(b) Bitmap graphics are used to represent squares S, T and U.

These can be saved in a number of different image resolutions.

(i) Give the number of bits required to store each pixel for a black and white bitmap.

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) Identify how many bits are required to store each pixel for a 256-colour bitmap.

Explain your answer.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(c) Images can be compressed to reduce file size.

(i) Describe how lossless compression techniques work.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(ii) Describe how lossy compression techniques work.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

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4 (a) Sound can be represented digitally in a computer.

Explain the terms sampling resolution and sampling rate.

Sampling resolution ..................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Sampling rate ............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[4]

(b) The following information refers to a music track being recorded on a CD:

• music is sampled 44 100 times per second

• each sample is 16 bits
• each track requires sampling for left and right speakers

(i) Calculate the number of bytes required to store one second of sampled music.
Show your working.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(ii) A particular track is four minutes long.

Describe how you would calculate the number of megabytes required to store this track.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

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(c) When storing music tracks in a computer, the MP3 format is often used. This reduces file size
by about 90%.

Explain how the music quality is apparently retained.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[3]

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1 (a) Explain the term bit streaming.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[2]

(b) A person watches a film streamed from a website on a tablet computer.

(i) Give two benefits of using bit streaming for this purpose.

1 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

2 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[2]

(ii) State two potential problems of using bit streaming for this purpose.

1 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

2 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[2]

(c) Explain the terms on-demand bit streaming and real-time bit streaming.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[4]

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8 (a) Six computer graphics terms and seven descriptions are shown below.

Draw a line to link each term to its correct description.

Term Description

Measured in dots per inch (dpi); this

value determines the amount of detail
an image has

Bitmap graphic

Picture element

Image file header

Image made up of rows and columns of

picture elements

Image resolution

Image made up of drawing objects. The

properties of each object determine its
shape and appearance.

Pixel

Specifies the image size, number of

colours, and other data needed to
display the image data

Screen resolution

Number of samples taken per second to

represent some event in a digital format

Vector graphic
Value quoted for a monitor specification,
such as 1024 × 768. The larger the
numbers, the more picture elements will
be displayed.

[6]

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2 (a) When recording a video, state what is meant by frame rate.

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[1]

(b) Video streaming can use either interlaced encoding or progressive encoding.

Describe what is meant by the following terms.

Interlaced encoding

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Progressive encoding

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[4]

(c) (i) Name the video terms described below:

Description Term

Pixels in two video frames have the same value

in the same location. There is duplication of data
between frames. ................................................................

A sequence of pixels in a single video frame have

the same value.
................................................................

[2]

(ii) Give one file technique that could be applied when either of the two features, described
in part (c)(i), are present.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

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4 Hexadecimal, Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) and binary values are shown below.

Draw a line to link each value to its correct denary value.

Hexadecimal, BCD, binary Denary

93

Hexadecimal:

3A
–65

BCD representation: 58
0100 1001

–63

Binary integer:

01011101
73

Two’s complement
binary integer: 49

11000001

–93

[4]

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3 (a) (i) Convert the denary number 46 to an 8-bit binary integer.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) Convert the denary integer – 46 to an 8-bit two’s complement form.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(iii) Convert the denary number 46 into hexadecimal.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(b) Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) is another way of representing numbers.

(i) Describe how denary integers larger than 9 can be converted into BCD.
Give an example in your answer.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(ii) Describe how an 8-bit BCD representation can be converted into a denary integer.
Give an example in your answer.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

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6 A user watches a video available on a website. The website uses on-demand bit streaming.

Describe how it is possible to watch the video without it continually pausing.

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................................[4]

7 (b) The images contained in the magazines are produced using either bitmap or vector graphics
software.

Give four differences between bitmap and vector graphics.

1 ................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

2 ................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

3 ................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

4 ................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[4]

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8 (c) The program used the ASCII coding system for character codes. An alternative coding
system is Unicode.

(i) Give two disadvantages of using ASCII code.

........

1 ............................................................................................................................ ....

...........................................................................................................................................
........

2 ............................................................................................................................ ....

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(ii) Describe how Unicode is designed to overcome the disadvantages of ASCII.

...........................................................................................................................................
................................................................................ ...........

..............................................................................................................................
.............................................. ..

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

9608/13/O/N/16 Page 77 of 129

1 (a) Each of the following bytes represents an integer in two’s complement form.

State the denary value.

(i) 0111 0111 Denary .................................................. [1]

(ii) 1000 1000 Denary .................................................. [1]

(iii) Express the following integer in two’s complement form.

-17

[1]

(iv) State in denary, the range of integer values that it is possible to represent in two’s
complement integers using a single byte.

Lowest value ..................................................

Highest value .................................................. [1]

(b) (i) Convert the following denary integer into Binary Coded Decimal (BCD).

653

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(ii) A 3-digit BCD representation has been incorrectly copied. It is shown as:

0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0

State how you can recognise that this is not a valid BCD representation.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

(iii) Describe a practical application where BCD is used.

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[1]

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 13

5 (a) The bit depth of an image dictates how many different colours can be represented by each
pixel.

(i) State the number of different colours that can be represented by a bit depth of 8 bits.

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) One binary colour is represented by 0100 1110

Convert the unsigned binary number 0100 1110 into denary.

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(b) Convert the denary number −194 into 12-bit two’s complement.

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(c) (i) Convert the Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) value 0110 1001 into denary.

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Identify one practical application where BCD is used.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(d) One example of a character set used by computers is ASCII.

Describe how one character is represented in a character set.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [2]

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 14

(e) Data can be compressed using either lossy or lossless compression.

Tick (✓) one box in each scenario to identify whether lossy or lossless compression should
be used. Justify your choice.

(i) A program written in a high-level language.

Lossy Lossless

Justification .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

(ii) A photograph that needs to be emailed to a friend.

Lossy Lossless

Justification .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

(iii) You need to upload a video that you have created to a website.

Lossy Lossless

Justification .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

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 12

(b) The tablet computer’s secondary storage is solid state (flash) memory.

(i) Give one reason why the tablet computer needs secondary storage.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Describe solid state memory.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [3]

(c) The tablet computer has RAM and ROM memory.

State the purpose of RAM and ROM memory in the computer.

RAM ..........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

ROM .........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[2]

(d) Dominic’s tablet captures a video of Dominic to send to other people. The video is made of a
sequence of images and a sound file.

(i) Describe how the images and sound are encoded into a digital form.

Images ..............................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Sound ................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[4]
© UCLES 2019 9608/12/O/N/19 Page 81 of 129
 5

2 Leonardo’s mobile phone has an operating system (OS).

(a) Describe the following key management tasks that the mobile phone operating system carries
out.

Process management ...............................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Memory management ...............................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[6]

(b) Leonardo uses the mobile phone to record his voice.

(i) Describe how sound sampling is used by the mobile phone to encode the sound.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

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 6

(ii) Leonardo records his voice twice. Each recording is the same length and has the same
sampling resolution.

The first recording has a sampling rate of 44 100 Hz. The second recording has a
sampling rate of 21 000 Hz.

Describe how the different sampling rates will affect the recording and the sound file.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

(iii) Leonardo transfers the recordings to his laptop computer. He uses sound editing
software to delete some sections of the recordings, and copy and paste to replicate other
sections.

Describe two other features of sound editing software Leonardo can use to edit the
recordings.

1 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

2 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[4]

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 9

4 (a) Convert the unsigned binary number 0101 1111 1100 into denary.

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(b) Convert the denary number −239 into 12-bit two’s complement.

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(c) Convert the two’s complement number 0110 0101 into denary.

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(d) Convert the Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) value 0110 0101 into denary.

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(e) Convert the denary number 222 into hexadecimal.

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

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 14

6 (a) Convert the following denary number into a 12-bit two’s complement binary form.

-245

[1]

(b) Convert the following hexadecimal number into denary.

F0

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(c) Convert the following unsigned binary integer into denary.

10101111

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(d) Convert the following Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) into denary.

100001010011

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

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 15

7 Anne is downloading a sound file from a web server. She had the choice of a sampling rate of
44.1 kHz or 98 kHz before she downloaded the sound file.

Explain the differences between the two sound files stored on the server.

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................................... [4]

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 2

1 Different types of data can be represented in a computer system.

(a) Numeric is one type of data.

(i) Convert the following denary number into Binary Coded Decimal (BCD).

105

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Convert the following two’s complement binary integer into denary.

10111111

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(iii) Convert the following hexadecimal number into denary.

AB

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

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 3

(b) Character is another type of data.

The following tables show part of the ASCII code character set.

Character Denary value Character Denary value

A 65 a 97
B 66 b 98
C 67 c 99
D 68 d 100
E 69 e 101

(i) Describe how the computer uses ASCII codes to represent characters.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

(ii) Convert the following string into ASCII codes.

Bed

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(iii) Give the denary ASCII code for the following character.

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

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 4

2 One method of compressing a file is run-length encoding (RLE).

(a) Describe, using an example, how a text file is compressed using RLE.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [3]

(b) Explain why run-length encoding will sometimes increase the size of a text file.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [2]

3 (a) Complete the following statements about CPU architecture by filling in the missing terms.

The Von Neumann model for a computer system uses the ....................................... program
concept.

A program is a series of instructions that are saved in ....................................... .

The processor ....................................... each instruction, ....................................... it and then

....................................... it.

The processor uses several ....................................... to store the data and instructions from

the program because they can be accessed faster than main memory.
[6]

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 12

7 Wilbur uses vector graphics to create a logo for his company.

Wilbur Designs

(a) Describe how the logo is represented and encoded by the computer.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [4]

(b) Wilbur scans a hand drawn image. The scanned image uses 8 bits to store the colour for
each pixel. The image is 2048 pixels wide by 1024 pixels high.

(i) Calculate an estimate of the file size of the scanned image. Give your answer rounded to
the nearest MB.

Show your working.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Answer ................................. MB
[2]

© UCLES 2020 9608/13/O/N/20 Page 90 of 129

 13

(ii) Wilbur wants to compress the scanned image before emailing it to his colleague.

Describe one lossy compression technique that Wilbur can use to compress this image.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [3]

© UCLES 2020 9608/13/O/N/20 Page 91 of 129

Page 92 of 129
 Page 2 Mark Scheme Syllabus Paper
Cambridge International AS/A Level – May/June 2015 9618 12

1 (i) B 8 [1]

(ii) 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 [1]

(iii)

114 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0

– 93 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1
[2]

Page 2 Mark Scheme Syllabus Paper

Cambridge International AS/A Level – May/June 2015 9608 13

1 (a) (i)
124 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0

–77 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1
[2]

(ii) 124: 7C

–77: B3 [2]

(b) (i) 0 0 1 1 0101 1001 [1]

(ii) • when denary numbers need to be electronically coded

• e.g. to operate displays on a calculator where each digit is represented
• decimal fractions can be accurately represented [2]

Page 93 of 129
 Page 2 Mark Scheme Syllabus Paper
Cambridge International AS/A Level – May/June 2015 9618 12

2 (a) (i) Any one from:

• amplitude of sound wave taken at different points in time

• measurement of value of analogue signal at regular time intervals/a point in time [1]

(ii) Any one from:

• bit depth/sampling resolution sufficient for good quality sound

• higher bit depth/sampling resolution would mean bigger files
• ...hence less (music) content on each CD
• can represent dynamic range of about 90 dB
• 90 dB is basically the maximum dynamic range of human hearing
• compromise between quality and reasonable file size [1]

(iii) Any two from:

• resolution is the number of distinct values available to encode/represent each

sample
• specified by the number of bits used to store/record each sample
• sometimes referred to as bit depth
• the higher the sampling resolution, the smaller the quantization error
• a higher sampling resolution results in less distortion of the sound
• usually 8 bit, 16 bit, 24 bit or 32 bit [2]

(iv) 1 mark for benefit and 1 mark for drawback.

benefit

• allows for larger dynamic ranges

• ...as dynamic range is approximately six times the bit depth
• more accurate representation/crisper sound quality

drawback

• bigger files/occupies more memory/storage

• longer to transmit data/download music
• greater processing power needed [2]

Page 94 of 129
Page 3 Mark Scheme Syllabus Paper
Cambridge International AS/A Level – May/June 2015 9618 12

(b) Any two from:

• edit start time, stop time and duration of any sound/timeline

• extract/delete/save part of a clip
• frequency, amplitude, pitch alteration
• fade in/out of a clip
• mix/merge multiple sound sources/tracks
• combine different sources at various volume levels
• pan between tracks/channels
• use of filters
• playback to speakers, processors or recording medium
• conversion between different audio file formats
• etc... [2]

(c) Any three from:

For full marks both techniques must be mentioned.

• lossless designed to lose none of the original detail/lossless allows original file to be
recreated exactly
• lossless technique based on some form of replacement
• mention of type of replacement, for example RLE, FLAC etc.
• by example: e.g. 000–1111–222222–333 = 3–0, 4–1, 6–2, 3–3 etc.
• maximum compression about 50%
• lossy may result in loss of detail compared to original file/lossy does not allow original file
to be re-created exactly
• lossy techniques make decision about what parts of sound/sound file are important and
discards other information
• only keeps sounds human ear can process/discards sounds most people cannot hear
• ... then applies lossless technique, for further reduction
• lossy compression can reduce to about 10%
• an example of jpeg, mp3 or other correct examples of compressed formats.

No double credit to opposite answers, e.g. lossless maintains detail, but lossy loses detail
just one mark.
[3]

Page 95 of 129
 Page 2 Mark Scheme Syllabus Paper
Cambridge International AS/A Level – May/June 2016 9618 12

2 (a) 00110111 [1]

(b) 83 [1]

(c) 10011010 [2]

Marks allocated as follows:

1 mark for the most significant bit

1 mark for the remaining 7 bits

(d) 78 [1]

Page 2 Mark Scheme Syllabus Paper

Cambridge International AS/A Level – May/June 2016 9608 13

2 (a) 77 [1]

(b) 1000 0010 [1]

(c) −

53 [2]

One mark for ‘53 ’ and one mark for ‘−‘

(d) C6 [2]

One mark for the answer, one mark for the method

• Working e.g. 198 / 16 = 12, 198 − (12*16) = 6

© Cambridge International Examinations 2016

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4 (a) Three from: [3]

• The height/amplitude of the (sound) wave is determined.

• At set (time) intervals // by example of sensible time period.
• To get an approximation of the sound wave
• And encoded as a sequence of binary numbers // and converted to a digital signal.
• Increasing the sampling rate will improve the accuracy of the recording.

(b) (i) No mark awarded for identifying method. Three marks for justification. [3]

Lossy – Three points from:

• The human ear will not notice that the decompressed stream will not be identical to
the original (file) / that parts of the original data have been discarded / removed /
deleted.
• File size reduction is greater than using lossless.
• Email has limits on file sizes (on attachments) / a smaller file will take less time to
transmit.
• The file may not need to be of high precision / accuracy.
• The producer has requested an mp3 file.

Lossless – Three points from:

• The file needs to be high precision / accuracy.
• None of the original data is lost / the decompressed file will be identical to the
original.
• The producer has requested a flac file.

(ii) Three points from: [3]

• Lossless method of compression.

• Reduces (the physical size of) a string of adjacent, identical characters/pixels / bytes
etc..
• The repeating string (a run) is encoded into two values.
• One value represents the number of (identical) characters in the run (the run count).
• The other value is the code of the character / colour code of pixel etc. in the run (the
run value).
• The run value and run count combinati on may be preceded by a control character.
• Any valid example given.

(iii) Two marks for three correct rows, one mark for two correct rows. [2]

Row 1: 153 10 255 3 153 3

Row 2: 153 9 255 6 153 1
Row 3: 153 7 255 9

Alternative correct answer:

Row 1: 153 9 255 2 153 2

Row 2: 153 8 255 5 153 0
Row 3: 153 6 255 8

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6 (c) One pair from: [2]

• Real-time - a live stream of an event that is currently taking place

• On-demand - streaming of an event/programme that has taken place in the past

• Real time – the event is captured live with a video camera connected to a computer
• On-demand – Existing media are encoded to bit streaming format and uploaded to a
server

• Real-time – cannot be paused / rewound etc

• On-demand – can be paused / re-wound / fast forwarded etc

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Question Answer Marks

3(a) Definition: Max two from: Max 3

• The number of distinct values available to encode/represent each
sample 1
• Specified by the number of bits used to encode the data for one
sample 1
• Sometimes referred to as bit depth 1

Explanation: Max two from:

• A larger sampling resolution will mean there are more values available to
store each sample 1
• A larger sampling resolution will improve the accuracy of the digitised sound
// A larger sampling resolution will decrease the distortion of the sound 1
• Increased sampling resolution means a smaller quantization error 1

3(b)(i) One from: 1

• The number of pixels per unit measurement 1
• The number of pixels in an image 1
• The number of pixels wide by the number of pixels high 1
• Number of pixels per row by the number of rows 1

3(b)(ii) 4 1

3(b)(iii) Working: Max two from: 3

• Number of pixels is 8192 × 256 1
• One pixel will be stored as one byte 1
• Number of kilobytes = (8192 × 256) / 1024 1
Answer: One mark:
Number of kilobytes = 2048 KB 1

3(b)(iv) Two from: Max 2

• Confirmation that the file is a BMP 1
• File size 1
• Location/offset of image data within the file 1
• Dimensions of the image (in pixels) // image resolution 1
• Colour depth (bits per pixel, 1, 4, 8, 16, 24 or 32) 1
• Type of compression used, if any 1

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Question Answer Marks

5(c)(i) 14 5E 2

14 1
5E 1

5(c)(ii) LDR #77 2

LDR 1
#77 1

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Question Answer Marks

4(a)(i) 500 1

4(a)(ii) 496 1

4(a)(iii) 502 1

4(a)(iv) 86 1

4(b) 3
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1

Both correct op codes 1

Operand 0001 0001 1
Operand 0110 0001 1

4(c) 256 1

4(d)(i) 07 C2 2

07 1
C2 1

4(d)(ii) LDI 63 2

LDI 1
63 1

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Question Answer Marks

3(a) Sampling rate 2

The number of samples taken per unit time // the number of times the amplitude is
measured per unit time 1
Increasing the sampling rate will increase the accuracy / precision of the digitised
sound // Increasing the sampling rate will result in smaller quantisation errors. 1

3(b)(i) Pixel 2
Smallest picture element which can be drawn 1
Screen resolution
The number of pixels which can be viewed horizontally and vertically on the screen //
or by example - A typical screen resolution is 1680  pixels × 1080 pixels. 1

3(b)(ii) 8 1

3(b)(iii) Working: Max two from: 3

• Number of pixels is 2048 × 512 1
• One pixel will be stored as one byte 1
• Number of kilobytes = (2048 × 512) / 1024 1
Answer: One mark:
Number of kilobytes = 1024 KB 1

3(b)(iv) One from: 1

• Confirmation that the file is a BMP 1

• File size 1
• Location/offset of image data within the file 1
• Dimensions of the image in pixels // image resolution 1
• Colour depth (bits per pixel) 1
• Type of compression used, if any 1

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Question Answer Marks

4(a)(i) 219 1

4(a)(ii) DB 1

4(a)(iii) −

37 1

4(b)(i) 1 mark from: 1

• The symbols that the computer recognises/uses

• A list of characters recognised by the computer hardware and
software

Question Answer Marks

4(b)(ii) 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2

• UNICODE has greater range of characters than ASCII

• UNICODE represents most written languages in the world while ASCII
does not ASCII used for English only
• ASCII uses 7 or 8 bits or one byte whereas UNICODE uses up to 4
bytes per character
• UNICODE is standardised while ASCII is not

4(b)(iii) 1 mark for correct working, 1 mark for correct answer 2

Working:

Code for Z = Code for A + 25 10

Code for Z = 41 16 +25 10
Code for Z = 41 16 + 19 16
Code for Z = 5A16

Answer: 5A16

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Question Answer Marks

5(a) 1 mark per bullet to max 3 3

• Amplitude (of the sound wave) measured

• At set / regular time intervals / per time unit / time period
• Value of the sample is recorded as a binary number

5(b) 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2

• (Increasing the sampling resolution means) more bits per sample //

larger range of values
• Larger file size
• More accurate representation of sound

5(c) 1 mark per bullet to max 3 3

• Fewer samples (per unit time)

• File size will decrease
• Larger gaps / spaces between samples // Greater quantization errors
• Sound accuracy will reduce // not as close to original sound

Question Answerr Mark

ks

5(d) 1 mark forr naming feature/tool,

a 11 mark for description.
d Max 2 feattures 4
e.g.
• Fading
• Change the volume
v of a section of the sound ffor it get louuder/quieterr

• R emoving sound
o / elem
ments
• D elete sectio ound wave , for example, backgroound noise
ons of the so

• C opy
• R epeat elements
m of the sound wavve

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Question Answer Marks

6(a) 1 1

6(b) 1 mark for correct method (colour code and number of pixels) 3
1 mark for first 7 groups correct
1 mark for remainder correct

• 3B9 1A3 3B3 1A2 3B1 1A2 3B2

• 1A1 3B3 1A1 3B2 1A2 3B1 1A2 3B3 1A3 3B9

6(c) 5 1

Question Answer Marks

6(d) 1 mark for purpose 3

• Stores data about the file contents/image/metadata

Max 2 marks for examples of contents

• Confirmation that the file is a BMP // confirmation of file type

• File size
• Location / offset of image data within the file
• Dimensions of the image (in pixels) // image resolution
• Colour depth (bits per pixel, 1, 4, 8, 16, 24 or 32)
• Type of compression used (if any)

6(e) 1 mark for naming tool, 1 mark for describing effect on the photograph 6
e.g.
• Resize
• Increase / decrease the size of the image

• Crop
• Remove part of the image

• Blur
• Reduce the focus

• Red eye reduction

• Reduces red (light reflected from human eyes)

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Question Answer Marks

1(a) 1 mark for each correct indication and explanation 3

3A.21.2H.1 Invalid
H is not a valid hexadecimal digit

299.53.2.2 Invalid
299 is not in the correct range

192.2.1.0 Valid
Consists of four numbers in the range 0–255 separated by
full stops

1(b) 1 mark per bullet point to max 3 3

• URL is parsed to obtain the Domain name

• Domain name is sent to the nearest Domain Name Server (DNS)
• DNS holds a list of Domain names and matching IP addresses
• DNS name resolver searches its database for the Domain name
• If DNS does not find the Domain name, the request is forwarded to a
higher level DNS
• If the Domain name is found, the IP address is returned
• If the Domain name is not found, the request is passed to a higher level
server
• If the Domain name is finally not found, an error message is generated

1(c) 1 mark for each correct term 2

Real-time

On-demand

1(d)(i) 1 mark per bullet point to max 1 1

• The data files are very large

• It would take a long time to send the uncompressed file // Compressed
files will download faster
• A higher bandwidth would be needed to transmit the uncompressed file

1(d)(ii) 1 mark per bullet point to max 1 1

• Data is lost
• The decompressed file is not the same as the original

1(d)(iii) 1 mark per bullet point to max 3 3

• Lossy creates a smaller file than lossless // lossy compresses further

than lossless
• The recording of the concert is a large file size and needs significant
reduction in size
• Lossy removes detail which can be lost without people noticing
• By example e.g. reduction in sound quality will not be noticed

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Question Answer Marks

3(d)(i) 1 mark for correct answer 1

0100 0001

3(d)(ii) 1 mark for correct answer 1

41

3(d)(iii) 1 mark for correct answer 1

0044

Question Answer Marks

4(a)(i) 1 mark per bullet point to max 3 3

• The microphone has a diaphragm / ribbon (accept equivalent)

• The incoming sound waves cause vibrations (of the diaphragm)
• causing a coil to move past a magnet (dynamic microphone) //
changing the capacitance (condenser microphone) // deforms the
crystal (crystal microphone) etc.
• An electrical signal is produced

4(a)(ii) 1 mark per bullet to max 3 3

• The revolving drum is initially given an electrical charge

• A laser beam (bounces off moving mirrors) scans back and forth across
the drum
• ...discharging certain points (i.e. ‘drawing’ the letters and images to be
printed as a pattern of electrical charges)
• The drum is coated with oppositely charged toner (which only sticks to
charged areas)
• The drum rolls over electro-statically charged paper // Electro-statically
charged paper is fed (towards the drum)
• The ‘pattern’ on the drum is transferred to the paper
• The paper is passed through the fuser to seal the image
• The electrical charge is removed from the drum // the excess toner is
collected

4(b) 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2

• Stores all the scan lines for an entire frame // displays / records all the
frame data at the same time // not split into fields
• Complete frames are displayed in sequence
• The rate of picture display is the same as the frame rate.

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Question Answer Marks

5(a) 1 mark for each correctly linked box on the right 3

Maximum number Minimum number
of colurs of bits

68

256

127

249

5(b)(i) 1 mark for correct answer 1

40 images or frames are displayed/recorded each second

5(b)(ii) 1 mark per bullet to max 4 4

• Progressive – each frame contains (all the lines for) the complete
image
• Interlaced – each frame contains half the (number of lines) of the
complete image

• Progressive – frames are not divided into fields

• Interlaced – each frame divided into two fields // One field contains
the data for the even numbered rows / lines and the other has the
data for the odd numbered rows / lines.

• Progressive – complete frames are displayed in sequence

• Interlaced – data from two frames is displayed simultaneously

• Progressive – the number of images stored is the same as the

frame rate // the rate of picture display is the same as the frame
rate.
• Interlaced – the rate of picture display (the field rate) is twice the
rate of image frame display (the frame rate).

• Progressive means the entire frame is refreshed each time

• Interlaced means only half the frame is refreshed

• Progressive has high bandwidth requirements

• Interlaced halves the transmission bandwidth requirements.

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Question Answer Marks

3(c) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 2

• Assigns the value 2 to the variable $number1

• Outputs to the screen
• the result of $number1 to the power of 3

Question Answer Marks

4(a) 1 mark per bullet point 3

• 2000 * 1000 * 24 = 48 000 000 bits

• 48 000 000 / 8 / 1024 / 1024
• = 6 MB or 5.7 MB

4(b) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 2

• Only 1 bit needed to store the colour of each pixel ...

• ... so number of pixels * bit depth is 2000 * 1000 * 1 (rather than 2000 *
1000 * 24)
• ... so the calculation (in part 4(a)) results in smaller figure for file size

4(c)(i) 0110 0010 1

4(c)(ii) 1 mark for each correct line 2

Character t

ASCII denary value 116

Hexadecimal value 74

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Question Answer Marks

1(a) 1 mark for each correct term 4

The resistive touchscreen has two layers with a gap / an air gap between the
layers. When a finger touches the screen, the top layer moves to touch the
bottom layer; this creates a point of contact.
The horizontal and vertical position of this point is calculated.

1(b)(i) 1 mark per bullet point to max 3 3

• It is a series of (geometric) shapes / lines / objects

• Stored coordinates
• Contains a drawing list
• Commands / formulae for creating each individual object
• and the attributes/property for that object
• E.g. the colour, thickness of line etc.

1(b)(ii) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 2

• Needs to be large for the signs without becoming pixelated.

• Smaller file size means faster transfer rates are possible.
• Smaller file size reduces storage requirements when stored many times
(on multiple documents).

Question Answer Marks

2(a) 1 mark for each correct term/definition 3

Term Definition

The amplitude of the analogue sound wave is

Sampling
recorded at regular/set intervals

Sampling rate The number of samples per unit time

Sampling resolution The number of bits used to store each sample

2(b)(i) 1 mark only from: 1

• Run-length encoding
• Huffman Coding
• Any other valid encoding method

2(b)(ii) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 2

• Reduce sampling rate

• ... fewer samples taken per second means less data is being stored

Or

• Reduce sample resolution

• ... fewer bits are used to represent each sample, so less data is stored

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3 (a) (i) 46C [1]

(ii) 1 0 1 0 0 0 [1]

(b) (i) 1 bit [1]

(ii) – 8 bits are needed

– Each colour is represented by one of 256 values
– values 0 to 255/0000 0000 to 1111 1111
8
– 256 = 2 [2]

4 (a) Sampling resolution (two marks)

– representation used to write samples in digital sound recording

– resolution is the number of distinct values available to encode/represent each sample
– specified by the number of bits used to store/record each sample
– sometimes referred to as bit depth
– the higher the sampling resolution the smaller the quantization error
– a higher sampling resolution results in less distortion of the sound
– usually 8 bit, 16 bit, 24 bit or 32 bit

Sampling rate (two marks)

– number of times that the amplitude of (analogue) sound wave is taken/measured

– per unit time/per second
– higher sampling rate results in more accurate digital representation [4]

(b) (i) one mark for correct calculation, one mark for the answer

44100 × 16 × 2
(1 mark)
8

176 400 bytes (1 mark)

[2]

(ii) Allow follow through from part (i) on 176 400

4 × 60 × 176400
1024 × 1024 one mark for numerator [2]
one mark for denominator

(c) any three from:

– mp3 is a lossy compressed format

– uses psycho-acoustic modelling
– and perceptual music/noise shaping
– certain parts of the music can be eliminated without significantly degrading the listener’s
experience
– removes sound that the human ear can’t hear
– only keeps sounds human ear can hear better than others
– discards softer sound if two sounds played together [3]

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3 (a) (i) 4 6 C [1]

(ii) 101000 [1]

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1 (a) any two from:

– sequence of digital signals / bits

– over a communication path / Internet
– transfer of data at high speed
– requires fast broadband connection
– requires some form of buffering
– bits arrive in the same order as sent [2]

(b) (i) any two from:

– no need to wait for a whole file to be downloaded

– no need to store large files on user’s computer
– allows on demand playback
– no specialist software is required for playback in browser [2]

(ii) any two from:

– video stops / hangs if very slow Internet / broadband speed low

– video stops / hangs if inadequate buffering capacity
– loss of Internet means can’t access films / files
– may require specific software to run the files / films
– viruses can be downloaded from the websites [2]

(c) 2 marks for on-demand and 2 marks for real-time

on-demand

– digital video tape, analogue video tape, or digital files are converted to bit streaming –
format for broadcasting on the net; this is known as encoding these encoded streaming
video files are then uploaded to a dedicated server
– a link for the encoded video is placed on a web site
– a user clicks on the link to download the encoded streaming video; the streamed video is
– then broadcast to the user as and when they require it
– can be paused / can go back and re-watch / fast-forward, etc.

real-time

– an event is captured live with a video camera

– the video camera is connected to a computer
– the video signal is converted to streaming media files (encoded) on the computer
– the encoded feed is then uploaded from the computer to a dedicated streaming server
via cable, DSL, or a high-speed internet connection
– the server then sends the live images it to all users requesting it as real-time video
streaming
– cannot be paused etc. [4]

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8 (a)

Measured in dots per inch (dpi); this

value determines the amount of detail
an image has
Bitmap graphic

Picture element

Image file header

Image made up of rows and columns

of picture elements

Image resolution

Image made up of drawing objects.

The properties of each object
determine its shape and appearance
Pixel

Specifies the image size, number of

colours, and other data needed to
display an image
Screen resolution

Number of samples taken per second

to represent some event in a digital
format

Vector graphic

Value quoted for a monitor

specification, such as 1024 x 768. The
larger the numbers, the more picture
elements will be displayed

1 mark for each correct line, two lines from one box is incorrect [6]

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2 (a) The number of images / frames recorded per second / unit time.
// The frequency with which the images/frames are recorded.
[1]

(b) ONE mark per bullet point below. MAX THREE marks per type of encoding.

Interlaced encoding

• The data from a single frame are encoded as two separate fields.
• One containing the data for the even numbered rows / lines and the other has the data
for the odd numbered rows / lines.
• The image is rendered by alternating between the even field and the odd field (of each
successive frame).
• The viewer sees data from two frames simultaneously
• The rate of picture display (the field rate) is twice the rate of image frame display (the
frame rate).
• Originally used in television broadcasting and adapted for video recordings.
• Produces what appears to the eye to be a high refresh rate.
• Halves the transmission bandwidth requirements.

Progressive encoding

• Stores the data for an entire frame and displays all the frame data at the same time.
• The rate of picture display is the same as the frame rate.
• Used by traditional film / video digitised from a film camera / computer displays
progressive encoding.
• High bandwidth requirements.
[4]

(c) (i) ONE mark per term.

Description Term

Pixels in two video frames have the same value

in the same location. There is duplication of data Temporal redundancy
between frames.

A sequence of pixels in a single video frame have

Spatial redundancy
the same value.
[2]

(ii) (File) compression

[1]

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4 ONE mark for each correct line.

Extra lines from left hand box, no mark for that box.
93

Hexadecimal:

3A
- 65

BCD representation:
58
0100 1001

- 63

Binary integer:

01011101
73

Two’s complement
binary integer: 49
11000001

- 93

[4]

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6 Any four from:

• User needs high-speed broadband (connection)

• Data is streamed to a buffer (in the computer)
• Buffering stops video pausing as bits streamed
• As buffer is emptied, it fills up again so that viewing is continuous
• Actual playback is (a few seconds) behind the time the data is received by computer [4]

7 (b) Four from:

• Bitmap is made up of pixels

// Vector graphic store a set of instructions about how to draw the shape

• Bitmap files are usually bigger than vector graphics files // Take up more memory space

• Enlarging a bitmap can mean the image is pixelated

// vector graphic can be enlarged without the image becoming pixelated

• Bitmap images can be compressed (with significant reduction in file size)

// Vector graphic images do not compress well

• Bitmaps are suitable for photographs / scanned images

// Vector graphics are suitable for more geometric shapes

• Bitmap graphics use less processing power than vector graphics

• Individual elements of a bitmap cannot be grouped

// Individual elements of a vector graphic can be grouped

• Vector graphics need to be ‘rasterised’ in order to display or print [4]

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3 (a) (i) 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 [1]

(ii) 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 [1]

(iii) 2 E [1]

(b) (i) One mark for the explanation and one mark for the example

• Each denary digit is written as a 4-bit binary number

• Example: 46 = 0100 0110 [2]

(ii) One mark for the explanation and one mark for the example

• Binary number is split up into groups of 4 bits (starting from the right)
// Each group of 4 bits is converted to a denary digit
• Example: 0011 0111 = 37
[2]
8 (c) (i) Any two from:

• Only 128 / 256 characters can be represented

• Uses values 0 to 127 (or 255 if extended form) / one byte
• Many characters used in other languages cannot be represented
• In extended ASCII the characters from 128 to 255 may be coded differently in
different systems [2]

(ii) Any two from:

• Uses 16, 24 or 32 bits / two, three or four bytes

• Unicode is designed to be a superset of ASCII
• Designed so that most characters (in other languages) can be represented
[2]

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Question Answer Marks

1(a)(i) 119 1

1(a)(ii) –120 1

1(a)(iii) 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1

1(a)(iv) Lowest value: −128 1

Highest value: +127

1(b)(i) 0110 0101 0011 1

1(b)(ii) The second block of four binary digits represents a digit larger than 9 // 14 1

1(b)(iii) A string of digits on any electronic device displaying numeric values 1

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Question Answer Marks

5(a)(i) 256 1

5(a)(ii) 78 1

5(b) 1111 0011 1110 1

5(c)(i) 69 1

5(c)(ii) Any scenario where a single digit needs to be transmitted / displayed 1

e.g. calculator / digital clock

5(d) 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2

• Each character is represented by a unique

• « denary / hexadecimal / binary number

5(e)(i) 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2

Lossless:
• All the data is needed // the original file is fully restored
• If any data is lost, the program will not run
• Probably does not require significant reduction in file size // a program
written in a high-level language is just text, so does not need much
reduction in size

5(e)(ii) 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2

Lossy:
• All the data is not required
• The number of colours / resolution can be reduced without the user
noticing
• Email requires a significantly smaller file size // takes less time to
transmit
Lossless:
• A high quality image may be needed
• All of the data is needed // cannot afford to lose any data // the original
file is fully restored

5(e)(iii) 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2

Lossy:
• Some loss of quality will not be noticed // high quality video not needed
on the website
• A more significant reduction may be needed
• Takes a shorter time to upload / download // requires less bandwidth
Lossless:
• A high quality video may be needed
• Might only be a short video clip
• All of the data is needed // cannot afford to lose any data // the original
file is fully restored

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Question Answer Marks

6(a)(i) 1 mark for touchscreen being both 2

1 mark for remaining 3 devices

Device Input Output

Touchscreen 9 9

Webcam 9

Microphone 9

Fingerprint scanner 9

6(a)(ii) 1 mark for any 1 correct letter in the correct position 4

2 marks for any 2 correct letters in the correct positions
3 marks for any 3 correct letters in the correct positions
4 marks for 5 correct letters in the correct positions

C An electric current is sent to the speaker.

E The electric current passes through the coil.

The current in the coil creates an electromagnetic field.

A Changes in the audio signal cause the direction of the electrical current to
change. This determines the polarity of the electromagnet.

D The electromagnet is repelled by, or attracted to the permanent magnet.

The movement of the coil causes the diaphragm to vibrate.

B The vibration creates sound waves.

6(b)(i) To store files / software long term 1

6(b)(ii) 1 mark per bullet point to max 3 3

• No moving parts
• Solid state memory is non-volatile

• Makes use of blocks / arrays of

• « Semiconductors // NAND gates // NOR gates // transistors // integrated
circuits
• SSD Controller manages the components
• Uses a grid of columns and rows that has two transistors at each intersection
• One transistor is called a floating gate
• The second transistor is called the control gate
• Memory cells store voltages which can represent either a 0 or a 1
• Essentially the movement of electrons is controlled to read/write
• Not possible to overwrite existing data // it is necessary to first erase the old
data then write the new data in the same location

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Question Answer Marks

6(c) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 2

• RAM stores currently running parts of files / programs / processes / OS

• ROM stores boot up instructions / OS kernel // data permanently // store the

firmware for the tablet

6(d)(i) 1 mark per bullet point to max 4 4

Max 3 for image
Max 3 for sound

Images
• The images are stored as bitmaps
• Each image is made up of pixels
• « each pixel is of a single colour
• Each colour has a unique binary number
• Store the sequence of binary numbers for each image / frame // store the
binary value of each pixel

Sound
• Measure the height/amplitude of the sound wave
• A set number of times per second // at regular time intervals
• Each amplitude has a unique binary number
• Store the sequence of binary numbers for each sample

6(d)(ii) 1 mark per bullet point max 2 for each coding term. 4

Interlaced encoding
• The data from a single frame are encoded as two separate fields
• One containing the data for the even numbered rows / lines and the other
has the data for the odd numbered rows / lines
• The image is rendered by alternating between the even field and the odd
field of each successive frame
• The viewer sees data from two frames simultaneously
• The rate of picture display (the field rate) is twice the rate of image frame
display (the frame rate)
• Produces what appears to the eye to be a high refresh rate
• Halves the transmission bandwidth requirements

Progressive encoding
• Stores the data for an entire frame
• Displays all the frame data at the same time
• The rate of picture display is the same as the frame rate
• High bandwidth requirements

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Question Answer Marks

2(b)(i) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 2

• The amplitude of the wave is measured

• « at set, regular time intervals
• The value is stored as a binary number

2(b)(ii) 1 mark per bullet point 2

• Sampling resolution of 44100 Hz takes more samples per second, so

the file size will be larger // Sampling resolution of 21000 Hz takes fewer
samples per second, so the file size will be smaller

• At a resolution of 44100 Hz, the sound recording is a closer / more

accurate representation of Leonardo's voice // At a resolution of 21000
Hz, the sound recording is a less accurate representation of Leonardo's
voice

2(b)(iii) 1 mark for naming a feature, 1 mark for description, max 2 marks for each 4
feature

e.g.
• Amplify
• ... Increase the volume of a section of sound

• Change pitch
• ... Increase/decrease frequency of section(s)

• Change sampling resolution

• « to change the accuracy of the sound / file size

Question Answer Marks

3(a)(i) 1 mark per table 3

• CUSTOMER table has at least customer ID, customer name, address

and contact details
• ROOM has at least room number, room type,
• BOOKING has at least booking ID, room number, customer ID, start
date, number of nights

CUSTOMER (CustomerID, Name, Address, ContactDetails)

ROOM (RoomNumber, RoomType)

BOOKING (BookingID, RoomNumber, CustomerID, StartDate,

NumberNights)

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Question Answer Marks

3(a)(ii) 1 mark for 1 or 2 correct Primary Keys, 2 marks for 3 correct Primary Keys 2

CUSTOMER: CustomerID

ROOM: RoomNumber

BOOKING: BookingID

3(a)(iii) 1 mark for both table name and Foreign Key 1

Table: BOOKING
Foreign Key: CustomerID / RoomNumber

3(b) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 plus 1 mark for suitable example for each 5
DBMS tool

Developer Interface
• To create user friendly features e.g. forms to enter new bookings
• To create outputs e.g. report of bookings on a given date
• To create interactive features e.g. buttons and menus

Query processor
• To create SQL/QBE queries
• To search for data that meets set criteria, e.g. all bookings for next
week
• To perform calculations on extracted data, e.g. number of empty rooms
tomorrow

3c 1 mark for at least two correct rows, 2 marks for all four correct rows 2

Script DDL DML

CREATE TABLE FILMS 9

SELECT FilmID FROM FILMS 9

ALTER TABLE FILMS ADD PRIMARY KEY (FilmID) 9

CREATE DATABASE MYDATA 9

Question Answer Marks

4(a) 1532 1

4(b) 1111 0001 0001 1

4(c) 101 1

4(d) 65 1

4(e) DE 1

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Question Answer Marks

5(b)(ii) 1 mark per bullet point to max 3 3

• If a pixel in frame 2 has the same colour value as the pixel in the same
position in frame 1 then
• …it is not necessary to send the pixel again
• For example, the first row is / rows 1, 3, 5 and 6 on both frames are the
same // only rows 2 and 4 change
• … so does not need to be replicated // only rows 2 and 4 need to be
resent

5(b)(iii) Spatial redundancy 1

5(b)(iv) Multimedia container format 1

Question Answer Marks

6(a) 1111 0000 1011 1

6(b) 240 1

6(c) 175 1

6(d) 853 1

Question Answer Marks

7 1 mark per bullet point to max 4 4

• 98 kHz has a larger file size

• …because it is recording more samples per second
• …meaning more binary values being stored per second
• ...will take more time to download
• 98 kHz – Sound will be closer to the original
• …because the samples will be closer together
• …because of smaller quantization errors

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Question Answer Marks

1(a)(i) 0001 0000 0101 1

1(a)(ii) – 65 1

1(a)(iii) 171 1

1(b)(i) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 2

• Each character has a unique character code

• The binary value for each character in the string is stored in sequence
• ASCII codes may be 7 or 8 bits long

1(b)(ii) 66 101 100 1

1(b)(iii) 72 1

Question Answer Marks

2(a) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 for description 3

• Instead of storing each repeated sequence of characters individually

• … the character is stored and the number of consecutive occurrences

1 mark for using relevant example

e.g.
• instead of storing aaaa , store a4

2(b) 1 mark per bullet point to max 2 2

• Repeated sequences of characters rarely occur in text files // Most

characters are used only once in any sequence
• The character code and the fact that it is stored once will both be stored,
which will use as much if not more space

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Question Answer Marks

3(a) 1 mark for each correct term 6

Stored
Memory
Fetches
Decodes
Executes
Registers

The Von Neumann model uses the stored program concept.

The program is a series of instructions that are saved in memory.

The processor fetches each instruction, decodes it and then executes it.

The processor uses several registers to store the data and instructions from
the program because they can be accessed faster than main memory.

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Question Answer Marks

6(a) 1 mark for each valid point or appropriate expansion to max 2 2

e.g.
• Reduce his workload // Review his work demands
• Redistribute his work
• Arrange a meeting with him
• ... to discuss the reasons why he is struggling

6(b) 1 mark for each valid point or appropriate expansion to max 2 2

e.g.
• Not acting in best interest of the client
• ... The error could cause significant problems for the client if encountered
• The product does not meet the highest possible standard
• Not acting in the best interest of the development company
• … if the error occurs, it could lead to repercussions for the development
company

6(c)(i) 1 mark from 1

• Protects the intellectual property

• Allows legal action against anyone else who claims it as their own
• Formally / Legally identify the client as the owner of the software

6(c)(ii) 1 mark for each correct licence 2

• Commercial
• Shareware

6(c)(iii) 1 mark for correctly identifying a licence, 1 mark for justification 2

• Open Source // Free Software

• Anyone can modify/copy the source code and re-distribute which is not
what the client wants

Question Answer Marks

7(a) 1 mark per bullet point to max 4 4

• Each item is a drawing object

• Properties of each drawing object are stored
• … an example of a property e.g. the position/coordinates of each drawing
object
• … a second example of a property e.g. the line colour
• Exact dimensions are not stored // a calculation for proportional size is
stored
• Objects are created using mathematical calculations

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Question Answer Marks

7(b)(i) 1 mark for working 2

1 mark for correct answer

Working:
1024 × 2048 = 2 097 152 pixels
= 2 097 152 bytes (8 bits per pixel)
= 2 097 152 / 1024 = 2048 KB
= 2048 / 1024 MB

Answer: 2 MB

7(b)(ii) 1 mark for identification of method, max 2 for description for one method 3

e.g.
• Reduce the colour depth
• … reduce the number of bits per colour
• … each pixel has fewer bits

• Reducing the resolution

• … fewer pixels per unit measurement
• … fewer pixels / binary numbers are stored

8(a) 1 mark for each pair of correct answers (shaded) 4

A B C Working space X

0 0 0 1

0 0 1 0

0 1 0 1

0 1 1 1

1 0 0 0

1 0 1 0

1 1 0 1

1 1 1 0

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