Name:

Topic 1.2 Memory and

Storage Class:

Date:

Time: 60 minutes

Marks: 68 marks

Comments:

Topic 1.2 Memory and Target: Date:

Storage

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Topic 1.2 Memory and Storage
1. A CPU has a clock speed of 3.8 GHz. etc.
Describe what is meant by a clock speed of 3.8 GHz.

The clock speed measures the number of FDE cycles the CPU executes per second.
In this case it is 3.8 Billion instructions per second.

[2]

2(a). Vicky has been on holiday and has taken lots of photos. The memory in her camera is
now full and she needs to transfer her photos to an external secondary storage device.

Define what is meant by ‘secondary storage’.

Long-term/non volatile storage and is an external store of data

[1]

(b). Identify the three common storage technologies Vicky can choose from.

Magnetic, solid state and optical

[3]

(c). State four characteristics of secondary storage devices that Vicky should consider
when choosing a device.

Cost, size, portability and speed

[4]
3. Gareth has a satellite navigation system (Sat Nav) in his car that uses RAM and ROM.

Fig. 2 lists some characteristics of computer memory. Tick (✓) one box in each row to show
whether each of the statements is true for the RAM or ROM in Gareth's Sat Nav.

[3]

4(a). A restaurant has a computer-based ordering system which is running slowly. A

technician has said that the hard disc drive is fragmented. The technician has suggested
using utility software to defragment the drive.

Explain how the restaurant's hard disc could have become fragmented.

The orders files are split up once the orders have been made new files are created which
may be bigger than the spaces left by the deleted files. And orders have been saved onto the
system as they order food and deleted once processed

[4]

(b). Explain how defragmentation software could overcome the issue of the slow computer
system.

Files on the HDD are moved, empty spaces collected together and files are moved to be
stored together

[3]
5(a). A law firm currently use a Local Area Network (LAN) linked to a Wide Area Network
(WAN). They want to upgrade their system to utilise cloud storage.

Explain two advantages to the law firm of storing their data in the cloud.

Would give additional storage so the firm can take on more cases. And it’s very efficient to
back up data which saves time/money.

[4]

(b). Explain two disadvantages to the law firm of storing their data in the cloud.

You need to have a constant internet connection which lawyers might not be there and
breaks the data protection acts which is illegal and could get you into trouble.

[4]

6(a). Most computer systems use at least one storage device.

Explain one reason why a secondary storage device is needed in most computer systems.

Its non-volatile long term data and without secondary storage all data would be lost when the
PC turns off.

[2]
(b). * Some secondary storage devices are magnetic and others are solid state.

Describe the characteristics of magnetic and solid state secondary storage.

The quality of written communication will be assessed in your answer to this question.

The characteristics of a magnetic drive is first of all they are magnetic. They tend to be large
with lots of file space and relatively cheap. They are usually used as main storage. And they
have a moving arm in there. SSDs are very expensive but way faster especially M.2 drives.
They are very small which is great for portability and they have no moving parts.

[6]

7. State one difference between ROM and RAM, other than the size and the purpose.

RAM is volatile (data is loss when power is loss) while ROM is non volatile (data is kept when
power is loss)

[1]

8(a). A computer has 1024 megabytes of RAM.

How many gigabytes of RAM does the computer have?

1GB

[1]

(b). The computer sometimes uses virtual memory.

Describe what is meant by virtual memory and state why it is needed.

Virtual memory enabled data that is in the RAM and not being used to be transferred into
your HDD/SSD this frees up room in RAM for other programs. This is needed so the RAM
can take on the other data to be stored for other programs and clear up the data that is not
being used.
 [3]

9(a). Convert the decimal number 191 into 8-bit binary.

10111111

[1]

(b). Perform the following binary addition

00000000

[2]

10(a). Order the following units from smallest to largest:

GB bit PB byte nibble MB

Bit nibble byte MB GB PB

[1]

(b). Convert the decimal number 191 into an 8 bit binary number.

10111111

[1]

(c).

i. Add together the following two 8 bit binary numbers. Express your response in an 8 bit
binary form.
 01101010

10010110

10000000

[2]

ii. Identify the problem this addition has created.

iii.
iv. Could overflow

[1]

11. Identify four events that take place during the fetch-execute cycle.

Fetches the data, Decodes the data, Executes it and then repeats

[4]

12. The character é is part of a computer's character set.

Describe what is meant by a character set.

All of the characters a computer can use

[1]
13. Alicia says:
“My computer has a quad-core processor, so it will run twice as fast as a computer with a
dual-core processor”.

Explain why this statement is not always true.

The quad core could have a slower clock speed and the dual core could have a faster/larger
cache. The RAM size also affects the performance of the CPU So the Quad core pc could
have a slower/smaller RAM than the PC with the dual core

[3]

14. Ann wants to purchase a new computer and is looking at two models. The specification of
the CPU in each computer is shown in Fig. 1.

Identify two internal components that are not in Fig. 1, which could improve the performance
of the computers.

RAM and SSD/HDD

[2]

15. Kerry wants to buy two computers. Both computers have RAM and ROM.

i. The table has five statements describing RAM and/or ROM.

Tick (✓) one or more boxes in each row to identify if that statement describes RAM
and/or ROM.
 RAM ROM

Stores data

The memory is volatile

Data will not be lost when the

computer is turned off
Data is read-only, cannot be
changed
Stores currently running data
and instructions

[5]

ii. Give one difference between RAM and flash memory.

Flash memory is non volatile while RAM is volatile

[1]
16. Xander’s tablet computer comes with system software, including an operating system and
utility system software.

Xander also has a smart watch.

i. Tick (✓) one box to show whether the smart watch or the laptop is an example of an
embedded system.

Is an example of an embedded
system
Smart watch e
Laptop

[1]

ii. Justify your choice to part (i).

The smart watch is an embedded system because the smart watch is used for
one specific task while laptop is used for many tasks so the smart watch has the
embedded system.

[2]

END OF QUESTION PAPER