Download CSCI 200 Final Exam

CSCI 200 Final Exam
Here is a (noncomprehensive) list of topics to use when studying for the final
exam.
Review:
1. Number systems
a. Base 2, base 10, base 16
b. Conversions from 2 to 10, 10 to 2
c. Conversions from 2 to 16, from 16 to 2
2. Power Supplies
a. Voltage output
b. Purpose
c. Ohms law
d. Computing power given voltage and current
e. Fan
3. Motherboards
a. AT vs ATX (differences, reasons for change)
b. Types of connectors built in
c. Identifying different built in interfaces
d. North bridge/South bridge construction
e. FSB speeds
f. Types of slots: ISA, PCI, AGP, PCI-Express
g. CMOS RAM/BIOS
h. System clock
4. Processors
a. Evolution of the processor (8088, 8086, 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium,
Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, Xeon, Itanium)
b. Evolution of the data and address busses
c. Competing processors (AMD Athlon XP, AMD Athlon 64, Cyrix)
d. Cache…levels, purpose, and sizes
e. Instruction sets (MMX, SSE, floating point)
f. Clock speed
g. Basic instruction types
5. Memory
a. # pins…30, 72, 168, 184, 200, 240
b. FPM, EDO, SDRAM, DDR, RDRAM, DDR2, DDR3
c. Amount held per memory stick
d. Latency and wait states
e. Speed, cycle time and access time
f. Number of bits per access
6. Video cards
a. ISA, VESA, PCI, AGP 1x/2x/4x/8x
b. Resolutions
c. Bits per pixel for different color schemes
d. Amounts of memory needed for frame buffer
e. Raster scan mechanism
f. Interlaced vs noninterlaced
7. I/O devices and ports
a. USB
i. Transfer speeds
ii. Uses
b. Parallel
i. 8 bits at a time
ii. SPP, EPP, ECP
iii. Transfer speeds
c. Serial
i. 1 bit at a time
ii. Start and stop bits
iii. Transfer speeds
d. Keyboard
i. Basic mechanism to read keys
ii. Serial data transfer
e. Mouse
i. Optical
ii. Mechanical
iii. How each works, advantages, disadvantages
f. IEEE 1394 (Firewire)
i. Transfer speeds
ii. Uses
8. Printers
a. Mechanisms, and pros and con’s of each
i. Ink jet
ii. Laser
iii. Dye sublimation
iv. Impact (dot matrix and letter)
b. Transfer rate
c. Throughput rate (pages per minute)
9. Hard disks & floppies
a. Organization
b. Data storage mechanism
c. Sizes
d. Possible problems
e. Fragmentation
f. Transfer rates
g. Interface types
h. RAID
i. Backups
10. Removable storage (CD-ROM, DVD, zip, etc)
a. Data storage mechanism
b. Sizes
c. Possible problems
d. RW vs R, finalized vs not
e. Data lifetime
11. Networking
a. TCP/IP
b. Ethernet, token ring, etc
c. Static addressing vs DHCP
d. MAC address
e. DNS
f. IP address and netmasks
g. ping/traceroute
h. Domains and workgroups
i. ftp
j. routers/switches/hubs
k. CAT 3/CAT 5/CAT 5A/CAT 6
l. Network speeds
m. 10base2, 10baseT, 100baseT
n. Thin, thick ethernet
12. BIOS/startup
a. BIOS and hardware control
b. Jumpers vs switches vs firmware
c. Bootup sequence
d. POST
e. MBR
f. Boot loader
g. Boot sector
h. Initial files loaded
13. Operating systems
a. DOS
b. Windows 9x
c. Windows NT, 2000
d. Windows XP
e. Linux
Here are some sample questions:
1. Name and describe two different techniques to generate printed output from a
computer. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
2. We initially set the network up in the lab using hard coded addresses, but later
switched to DHCP. What are the benefits and weaknesses of each method of
setting up a network?
3. A graphics card does double buffering at a resolution of 1280x1024 using 32 bit
color. What is the total amount of memory used for the frame buffer?
4. A company is planning to use a 200 watt power supply in a computer whose mother
board and disk drives need 35A at +5V, and 10A at +12V in total. Will this work?
Why or why not?
5. Name and describe three ways of storing settings on the motherboard. What are the
advantages and disadvantages of each?
6. What is the value of the parity bit when storing the word 0x847E2139 in memory
using even parity?
7. When I formatted my new 200GB hard drive and then looked in My Computer, it said
it only had 181GB free?!? What happened to the rest of the space?
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a RAID 1 configuration?
9. Describe the sequence of steps needed to create a new user account in Windows
XP.
10. Without removing the case, how can you tell if a system is an AT or ATX one?
11. Why do processors use one voltage when talking to the outside world, but a different,
lower one internally?
12. What are the basic operations that a processor can do?
13. What is the purpose of cache memory? Describe the sequence of steps when a
cache miss occurs.
14. What is the purpose of the ping command? What does pinging 127.0.0.1 do?
15. Convert 3812 from base 10 to base 16.