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    This document contains instructions for a 1.5 hour exam on Introduction to Computer Systems. It includes 3 questions - one compulsory question with short answers worth 1 mark each, and two longer questions worth 5 marks each that require more detailed explanations. The compulsory question has 20 parts asking about computer terminology like computer words, stored program computers, HTML vs XHTML, converting decimal to octal, what WAN stands for, disk seek time, RS232, motherboard ports and sockets, process managers, what the ENIAC was designed for, what a URL defines, estimates of known computer languages, differences between operational and declarative languages, differences between syntax and semantics, what a memory manager is, what power of 2 is 1

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    BSc CompSci - Uni of Manchester

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    Introduction to Computer Systems - Jan 2003 (PAST PAPER)

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    This document contains instructions for a 1.5 hour exam on Introduction to Computer Systems. It includes 3 questions - one compulsory question with short answers worth 1 mark each, and two longer questions worth 5 marks each that require more detailed explanations. The compulsory question has 20 parts asking about computer terminology like computer words, stored program computers, HTML vs XHTML, converting decimal to octal, what WAN stands for, disk seek time, RS232, motherboard ports and sockets, process managers, what the ENIAC was designed for, what a URL defines, estimates of known computer languages, differences between operational and declarative languages, differences between syntax and semantics, what a memory manager is, what power of 2 is 1

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    6 views5 pages

    Introduction To Computer Systems - Jan 2003 (PAST PAPER)

    Uploaded by

    BIG M
    This document contains instructions for a 1.5 hour exam on Introduction to Computer Systems. It includes 3 questions - one compulsory question with short answers worth 1 mark each, and two longer questions worth 5 marks each that require more detailed explanations. The compulsory question has 20 parts asking about computer terminology like computer words, stored program computers, HTML vs XHTML, converting decimal to octal, what WAN stands for, disk seek time, RS232, motherboard ports and sockets, process managers, what the ENIAC was designed for, what a URL defines, estimates of known computer languages, differences between operational and declarative languages, differences between syntax and semantics, what a memory manager is, what power of 2 is 1

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    of 5

    CS1011

    One and a Half Hours

    UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

    Introduction to Computer Systems

    January 2003

    Answer QUESTION ONE and ONE other question

    Use a SEPARATE answer book for each question

    The use of electronic calculators is not permitted.

    [PTO]
    2 CS1011

    1. This question is compulsory

    Give short, one or two sentence answers to EACH of the following questions. Each is
    worth one mark. (20 marks)

    a) What is a computer word?


    b) What is meant by "stored program", when talking about stored program
    computers?
    c) What is the relationship between HTML and XHTML?
    d) Explain how to convert the decimal number 101 into octal without
    the use of a calculator.
    e) What does the acronym WAN stand for?
    f) What is seek time, for a disk?
    g) What is RS232?
    h) What are ports and sockets on a motherboard?
    i) What is a process manager?
    j) The ENIAC was designed and built in the USA by Eckert and Mauchly. For what
    purpose was the ENIAC designed? Was it a general purpose electronic
    computer?
    k) A URL is used in establishing links on web pages. Explain exactly what the URL
    defines and illustrate your answer with an example.
    l) Give an estimate of the total number of currently known computer languages.
    m) What is the difference between an Operational computer language and a
    Declarative computer language?
    n) What is the difference between Syntax and Semantics?
    o) What is a memory manager?
    p) What power of 2 is usually denoted by 1M?
    q) What was the Atlas one-level store?
    r) What are Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions? Why are they useful?
    s) What is the Network File System (NFS)?
    t) What is computer architecture?
    3 CS1011

    2. Answer four of the following parts in as much detail as you can in the time available.
    Each part is worth 5 marks.

    a) Describe in detail what happens when the following MU0 program is run. Clearly state
    the movement of information between the components of the MU0 computer that are
    visible to the user, and how the values in the components change, at each step.
    Assume that the program starts at memory location 0. (5 marks)

    again: LDA one


    SUB two
    STO one
    JNE again
    STP
    one: 2
    two: 1

    b) Explain what is meant by a peripheral interrupt, and how a computer normally deals
    with one.

    Explain how Direct Memory Access (DMA) differs from simple interrupts, and why it
    would be used for a hard disk. (5marks)

    c) Explain what Remote Method Invocation (RMI) or Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is and
    how it is implemented. (5 marks)

    d) Explain what is meant by a textual user interface to a program, giving an example.

    Explain what is meant by a graphical user interface to a program, giving an example.

    Briefly outline the relative merits of textual and graphical user interfaces for different
    kinds of programs and for different kinds of users.

    Briefly explain the difference between the client and the server in X Windows, and how
    they can be used to display on one computer the results of running a program on a
    different computer. (5 marks)

    e) Explain the differences between an assembler for a low-level language, such as MU0
    assembly language, and a compiler for a high-level language, such as Java or C. Your
    answer should explain how they differ in each of their component phases: lexical
    analysis, syntactic analysis, semantic analysis, code generation, and code optimisation.
    (5 marks)

    [PTO]
    4 CS1011

    3. This question has three parts. Answer all three parts.

    a) Answer all of the short questions that are listed below.

    Example 1
    Line XHTML
    1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
    2 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
    3 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
    4 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
    5 <head>
    6 <title>What is this doing?</title>
    7 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="simple.css" />
    8 </head>
    9 <body>
    10 <h1>Current Nationwide Leaders </h1>
    11 <p> The teams currently leading in Division 1 are: </p>
    12 <ul>
    13 <li>Portsmouth</li>
    14 <li>Leicester</li>
    15 <li>Norwich</li>
    16 </ul>
    17 <h2> Comments from the managers </h2>
    18 <p> Leicester have come back well after their Worthington Cup defeat
    by Manchester United</p>
    19 <p> Portsmouth had little difficulty handling a weakened Stoke attack
    </p>
    20 <h2 class="question"> Will Portsmouth maintain their 7 point
    lead?</h2>
    21 <p> Harry Redknapp is confident that Pompey’s push for promotion is
    on track </p>
    22 </body>
    23 </html>

    Consider the XHTML information in Example 1 and then answer the following questions:

    i) Line 1 Why is this line included? (1 mark)


    ii) Lines 2 and 3 What is the purpose of this command (1 mark)
    iii) Line 7 Explain the meaning of href="simple.css" (1 mark)
    iv) Lines 12 and What is the meaning of the tags <ul>…</ul>? (1 mark)
    16
    v) Lines 13, 14, What should the result of these lines be on screen when (2 marks)
    15 displayed by a browser?
    vi) Lines 17 and Explain what the tags on these two lines are describing (2 marks)
    20
    vii) Line 18 In XHTML, is it permissible to omit the </p> tag? Give a (2 marks]
    reason for your answer.
    5 CS1011

    b) Consider the CSS information in Example 2 in conjunction with the XHTML in Example
    1, and then answer all the questions below.

    Example 2
    Line CSS specification in a file called simple.css
    a body {color:teal; background: white}
    b h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,p,ul { font-family: sans-serif; }
    c h1{text-align:center ; font-family: fantasy;
    d font-size:32pt;color:green}
    e h2 {text-align:center;color:red;font-size:28pt}
    f h2.question{text-align:left; color:blue; font-size: 22pt}

    i) Line a in What should a browser do as a result of the use of (1 mark)


    Example 2 color:teal in the body directive?
    ii) Line c in How will this directive affect the display of the (2 marks)
    Example 2 XHTML shown in Example 1?
    iii) Line e in How will this directive affect the display of the (1 mark)
    Example 2 XHTML shown in Example 1?
    iv) Line f in How will this directive affect the display of the (2 marks)
    Example 2 XHTML shown in Example 1?

    c) Explain briefly why XHTML is regarded as more appropriate than HTML for the
    development of web pages. (2 marks)

    Explain briefly why the use of style sheets is regarded as preferable to the use of in-line
    styles. (2 marks)

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