Computer systems sample exam questions

Front

Convert the following 16-bit two’s complement number into denary: 1111 0 1110 1011

Back

-37

Front

A website is subject to a DOS attack. What are two symptoms users experience when this happens?

Back

Slow website response time and inability to access the website

Front

Convert 0·001011 to floating-point representation. There are 16 bits for the mantissa and 8 bits for the exponent.

Back

0 01111101 0010110000000000

Front

Two computer systems have the same number of processor cores, the same width of data bus and the same clock speed. State one other factor that could account for one computer system performing better than the other, when tested for processing speed. Explain why increasing the width of the data bus will improve the system performance.

Back

(a) Amount of RAM; (b) It allows more data to be transferred at once, increasing throughput.

Front

The role of public and private keys when transferring secure data is to:

Back

Encrypt data for secure transmission and decrypt it upon receipt.

Front

State two different offences the participant has committed under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Back

Unauthorized access to computer material and unauthorized modification of computer material

Front

The web page uses bit-mapped graphic files for the book covers. State one advantage of using bit-mapped graphic files rather than vector graphic files on this web page.

Back

Bit-mapped graphics provide more detailed images.

Front

One of the book descriptions contains Unicode characters. State one advantage of using Unicode characters rather than ASCII characters in web pages.

Back

Unicode supports a wider range of characters and symbols.