Chip Off the Old Block
Timing is Everything
Future Shock
Name That Component
Fill in the Blank Space
200

A(n) ____ is an electrical switch with three electrical connections.

     a.     transistor

     b.     resistor

     c.     insulator

     d.     conductor

21

200

The ____ is a digital circuit that generates timing pulses, or signals, and transmits the pulses to other devices in the computer.

     a.     data clock

     b.     memory clock

     c.     variance clock

     d.     system clock

13

200

Quantum computing uses quantum states to simultaneously encode two values per bit, called a ____.

     a.     bi-bit

     b.     neobit

     c.     qubit

     d.     sim-bit

12

200

When the control unit fetches an instruction from memory, it stores it in the ____.

     a.     load register

     b.     instruction register

     c.     first general-purpose register

     d.     control register

26

200

A(n) ____________________ is one concentric circle of a platter, or the surface area that passes under a read/write head when its position is fixed.

51

400

Several transistors and their interconnections on a single chip form a(n) ____.

     a.     optimized circuit

     b.     combination circuit

     c.     integrated circuit

     d.     reduced circuit

14

400

A ____ is a CPU cycle spent waiting for access to an instruction or data.

     a.     wait state

     b.     hold state

     c.     purge state

     d.     clock state

37

400

____ is based on the observation that the rate of increase in transistor density on microchips had increased steadily, roughly doubling every 18 to 24 months.

     a.     Lamb’s Law

     b.     Newton’s Law

     c.     Rock’s Law

     d.     Moore’s Law

33

400

A(n) ____________________ provides the interface between the storage device and system bus.

59

400

Each refresh operation in DRAM is called a(n) ____________________.

56

600

____ is implemented entirely with transistors.

     a.     Dynamic RAM

     b.     Static RAM

     c.     Dynamic ROM

     d.     Static ROM

35

600

Access times for secondary storage devices are typically expressed in ____ or microseconds.

     a.     milliseconds

     b.     exoseconds

     c.     nanoseconds

     d.     picoseconds

30

600

____ states that the cost of fabrication facilities for the latest chip generation doubles every four years.

     a.     Rock’s Law

     b.     Moore’s Law

     c.     Nelson’s Law

     d.     Lamb’s Law

44

600

A ____ is a storage device that mimics the behavior of a magnetic disk drive but uses flash RAM or other NVM devices as the storage medium and read/write mechanism.

     a.     traditional hard drive

     b.     hybrid hard drive

     c.     solid-state drive

     d.     memory drive

22

600

A storage device consists of a read/write mechanism and a(n) ____________________.

57

800

Conductive molecules are typically arranged in straight lines, generically called wires or ____________________.

52

800

____ is the most important characteristic differentiating primary and secondary storage.

     a.     Capacity

     b.     Density

     c.     Transfer rate

     d.     Speed

29

800

____ describes any CPU architecture in which duplicate CPUs or processor stages can execute in parallel.

     a.     Uniprocessing

     b.     Scaled processing

     c.     Hyperprocessing

     d.     Multiprocessing

36

800

A(n) ____ is the lowest-level command that software can direct a processor to perform.

     a.     cycle

     b.     process

     c.     operand

     d.     instruction

43

800

____________________ is the time required to perform one complete read or write operation.

62

1000

A(n) ____________________ is an object specifically designed to absorb heat and rapidly dissipate it via air or water movement.

54

1000

A disk drive’s data ____________________ rate is a summary performance number combining the physical aspects of data access with the electronic aspects of data transfer to the disk controller or system.

55

1000

____________________ stores bit values by using two magnetic elements, one with fixed polarity and the other with polarity that changes when a bit is written.

50

1000

A(n) ____ directs the CPU to route electrical signals representing data inputs through predefined processing circuits that implement the appropriate function.

     a.     operation

     b.     process

     c.     instruction

     d.     cycle

31

1000

A(n) ____________________ device can access multiple storage locations simultaneously.

64