CPU and Hardware
MEMORY & STORAGE
DATA REPRESENTATION & FILES
COMPUTER LOGIC & CIRCUITS
Surprise
100
What is the main function of the CPU?
To execute instructions and process data.
100
Which type of memory is volatile and temporarily stores active data?
Random Access Memory (RAM).
100
What is a bit?
The smallest unit of data, representing a 0 or 1.
100
What is the purpose of a NOT gate?
To invert the input — outputs 1 if input is 0, and vice versa.
100
What does “clock speed” measure?
The number of instruction cycles executed per second.
200
What is the role of the Program Counter (PC)?
It holds the memory address of the next instruction to execute.
200
What does ROM store inside a computer?
Permanent data such as firmware or the BIOS.
200
What is the biggest number we can represent with 6 bits?
63
200
XNOR Gate
200
Which bus is unidirectional in the computer system?
Address Bus
300
What is the role of a GPU?
To handle complex graphics and parallel processing tasks.
300
Describe the main purpose of secondary storage.
To store data and programs permanently for long-term use.
300
Explain how Unicode improves upon ASCII.
Unicode supports many languages and symbols, not just English, by using more bits per character.
300
Which logic gate outputs 1 only when inputs are different?
XOR
300
In a modern computing device, how many bytes are used to represent a single pixel?
3
400
Why does the CPU use multiple registers instead of accessing RAM directly for every operation?
Registers are faster than RAM, so they speed up processing by storing temporary data close to the CPU.
400
Compare SSD and HDD in terms of speed and durability.
SSDs are faster and have no moving parts; HDDs are slower and more prone to mechanical failure.
400
In digital audio, what does the sample rate determine?
The number of sound samples recorded per second (Hz).
400
If there are 5 inputs in the circuit, how many rows should the truth table have?
32
400
Why might a GPU be used in scientific or AI computations, not just graphics?
Because it can process many parallel mathematical operations efficiently.
500
Explain one reason why adding more cores doesn’t always increase performance.
Some programs aren’t designed to run on multiple cores.
500
Lossless Compression Algorithm?
RLE, Huffman, Zip
500
Why do computers use binary representation?
Because electronic circuits can easily represent two states: on (1) and off (0).
500
What does a Karnaugh map (K-map) help computer scientists do?
Simplify Boolean expressions to reduce circuit complexity.
500
What is this?
eMMC