CIS 303a - Computer Architecture

Review for First Test

The following questions are provided to help you study for the first test. Do not expect to see these exact questions on the test.

1. What is the basic difference between data and information?
   
   
2. Why must protocols be agreed upon and understood to be of any use?
   
   
3. What makes an electromagnetic wave a carrier wave?
   
   
4. What are the three class methods of wave modulation?
   
   
5. Why does a change in a wave's frequency require a change in its wavelength as well?
   
   
6. What are the four phases of a sine wave? How are they different from the phases of a cosine wave?
   
   
7. What is noise, with regard to a communications signal? How is it similar to interference and different from it?
   
   
8. What is the formal word for a signal fading over distance?
   
   
9. Why do we modulate carrier waves?
   
   
10. The book says a communication channel has three parts. A sender and a receiver are two of them. What is the third?
    
    
11. Sometimes we transmit signals that require more bandwidth than simple text requires. What is the approximate signal bandwidth of a telephone voice channel?
    
    
12. What two numbers do we need to calculate the signal to noise ratio at a specific point on a medium?
    
    
13. What is the most common type of copper based network cable? Name at least three varieties of it.
    
    
14. What kind of coaxial cable is a current standard for cable systems that provide Internet access service?
    
    
15. What is the basic difference between ST and SC fiber optic connectors?
    
    
16. What characteristic of 802.11a technology makes it less desirable than 802.11b or 802.11g?
    
    
17. What feature made 802.11g an improvement over 802.11b?
    
    
18. What do the acronyms FDM, TDM, and WDM stand for? Which two are actually similar?
    
    
19. Which of the physical topologies discussed in class requires the most cable to implement?
    
    
20. Which physical topology is probably the most common one for new wired networks?
    
    
21. How is a switch more efficient than a hub?
    
    
22. What are the names of the layers of the OSI network model, and what are the numbers of each of the layers?
    
    
23. Which OSI layer do NICs belong on? Why?
    
    
24. What is the MAC broadcast address?
    
    
25. What are the two variations you might find in contention based networks? Which is more likely to be used in a wired network?
    
    
26. What kind of addresses are used on the Internet? Which OSI layer do they belong on?
    
    
27. Which protocol is used most often to provide an address to a device when it boots up on a network?
    
    
28. Which OSI layer corresponds to applications and programs that need network services?
    
    
29. Which OSI layer negotiates connections between devices?
    
    
30. Which OSI layer contains the protocol most known for reliable delivery of packets?
    
    
31. Name a connectionless protocol and a connection-oriented protocol.
    
    
32. How many layers are in the TCP/IP network model? What are their names, and how do they correspond to the OSI network model?
    
    
33. How many networks should a router be on to be of value? If it was on fewer networks than that, what device might it be replaced with?
    
    
34. When might a message only need MAC addressing to be sent to the correct destination?
    
    
35. How many bits are in a MAC address? How many in a version 4 IP address? How many in a version 6 IP address?
    
    
36. Explain the difference between an operating system and an application.
    
    
37. Which person on a development team is more likely to determine what a new system must do? Which person is more likely to determine how the system will do things in a specific programming language?
    
    
38. The text asks us to study a system development process called the Unified Process.
    How many steps does it have?
    What is done in the first step?
    What step does the Design step follow?
    What step does Testing follow?
    What is the final step in the Unified Process?
    
    
39. When we design a new system, what should we compare the design to, so that we know whether we have made a good design?
    
    
40. What is machine language? What generational programming language class does it belong to?
    
    
41. Which generational language class was the first one to use mnemonics and labels?
    
    
42. What is instruction explosion? Which generational class first included it?
    
    
43. What are header and library files? Why would you make use of them in a program you write in a language like C?
    
    
44. What is the difference between static linking and dynamic linking? Which one is more modular in terms of updates?
    
    
45. What is the difference between a compiled program and an interpreted program?
    
    
46. What is the purpose of a link editor, with regard a compiled program language?
    
    
47. What is source code? What is object code?