1.

RAS is used to distinguish the mainframe computers for their reliability, availability and
serviceability. The Mainframe computer software is very reliable since it is tested and
updates are made quickly to overcome any errors. The average MTBF (Mean Time
Between Failure) of a mainframe is relatively great such that it last for months or even
years of system availability between system failures. Its serviceability is good because
they detect the errors and failures and conclude why that happened. If it is hardware
error, user can upgrade it. If it is a software error, it will either update or run the
backups from other mainframes

2. A complied program can only run-on computers that has the same operating system as
the computer that the program was initially compiled on. A compiler processes data
written in a high-level programming language and converts them into low-level language
and they translate the whole program rather than translating one line by line.

3.
a) A sector is a portion of a track on a disk which has 512 bytes
b) A block is the section of a disk which the operating system handle and has many
sectors.
c) A track is located on the circular part of the disk surface which has several tracks.
d) Cylinder basically a stack of platter.

4. Custom written software is software which are designed for the specific purposes and
computers. Most business and company pay programmer to write custom software. Its
sole purpose is to solve problem of the current software. Since company pay to design,
they own the copyright of the software.

5. Command line interface make use of a bunch of commands which the user has to
manually type in to interact with the computer. Since user has to memorize all the
commands and not a lot of color and icons are included in the interface typical user
won’t use it but programmers prefer this user interface since they have direct
interaction with the system because they can go through files without having to click
through folders and user is has no distraction from pop up and dialouges.