Unit 3: Computer Hardware - Practice Quiz

1 What does CPU stand for?

2 What is the main function of a CPU?

3 Which CPU component performs arithmetic and logical operations?

4 What does GPU stand for?

5 Which task is a GPU especially designed to perform?

6 Which measurement is commonly used for a processor's clock speed?

7 What is a CPU core?

8 Which device is mainly used to enter text into a computer?

9 Which device displays visual information from a computer?

10 Which device converts a paper document into digital data?

11 Which device produces a physical copy of a digital document?

12 Which device is used to capture sound as computer input?

13 Which device is commonly used to control the pointer on a desktop computer?

14 Which device provides audio output from a computer?

15 Which type of memory temporarily stores data that programs are currently using?

16 What usually happens to data in RAM when the computer is turned off?

17 Which memory commonly stores permanent startup instructions?

18 Which storage device uses flash memory and has no moving parts?

19 Which unit is commonly used to measure computer storage capacity?

20 Which device is a small, portable storage device that connects to a USB port?

21 A research application must perform the same mathematical operation on millions of independent data values. Which processor is generally best suited to this workload?

22 Processor A runs at GHz with an average CPI of . Processor B runs at GHz with an average CPI of . For the same instruction count, which conclusion is correct?

23 A program repeatedly accesses a small set of data, but the CPU must often retrieve that data from RAM. Which hardware change would most directly reduce the access delay?

24 Two CPUs use the same architecture. CPU X has 4 cores at GHz, while CPU Y has 8 cores at GHz. Which is likely to complete a highly parallel video-encoding job faster?

25 A laptop uses an integrated GPU and becomes slower when a graphics-intensive program is opened. Which explanation is most likely?

26 A computer initially performs well during gaming, but its frame rate drops after several minutes while its temperature rises. What is the most likely cause?

27 During a game, GPU utilization remains near 100%, CPU utilization stays near 45%, and lowering graphics quality greatly improves the frame rate. Which upgrade would most likely help?

28 Why is a touchscreen classified as both an input and an output device?

29 An office needs to convert printed contracts into searchable and editable text. Which combination is most appropriate?

30 A microphone produces an analog signal, but a computer stores digital audio. Which component performs the required conversion?

31 A supermarket wants to reduce errors when employees enter product identification numbers at checkout. Which input device is most suitable?

32 A printer produces dots per inch in both directions. Approximately how many dots are used to print a solid -inch by -inch square?

33 A projector has a native resolution of . Which laptop output setting will usually provide the clearest image without additional scaling?

34 A digital artist needs to create drawings with lines that become thicker when more pressure is applied. Which input device is most suitable?

35 A student is editing a document when the computer suddenly loses power. The saved version remains, but recent unsaved changes disappear. Where were the unsaved changes primarily stored?

36 A computer has GB of RAM, but running applications require about GB. The operating system remains functional but becomes much slower. What is most likely happening?

37 A user wants faster startup times and a storage device that is less vulnerable to damage from laptop movement. Which upgrade is most appropriate?

38 A GB memory device reserves 20% of its capacity for other data. How many complete GB video files can be stored in the remaining space?

39 A computer must retain its startup firmware even when disconnected from power. Which type of memory is appropriate for storing it?

40 A camera has an SDXC slot and records high-bitrate 4K video. Which memory device is the most appropriate choice?

41 Processor A runs at with an average CPI of . Processor B runs at with an average CPI of for the same instruction set and program. Ignoring other bottlenecks, which conclusion is correct?

42 A CPU has a base CPI of . Branches form of instructions, of branches are mispredicted, and each misprediction adds 12 cycles. What is the resulting average CPI?

43 A computation takes on a CPU. A discrete GPU performs the computation in , but it must receive and return a buffer over a link. Assuming no overlap and decimal units, which execution is faster?

44 Which workload is most likely to achieve high utilization on a GPU rather than merely having many operations?

45 A GPU executes 32 threads as a group. For one conditional instruction, 16 threads take the if path and 16 take the else path. If both paths contain substantial work, what is the primary performance consequence?

46 A four-core CPU accelerates the parallel portion of a program perfectly, but of the original execution time is strictly serial. According to Amdahl's law, what is the maximum speedup on four cores?

47 A CPU uses a write-back cache. After modifying a cached block, the CPU writes the same address again without eviction. Compared with a write-through cache, what memory traffic is normally avoided?

48 An audio input device samples a pure signal at without an anti-aliasing filter. At what frequency will the aliased component appear in the sampled data?

49 A mechanical button is connected to a digital input and produces several rapid transitions during one physical press. Which design most reliably records exactly one press without making the input permanently unresponsive?

50 A display has a resolution of , uses 32 bits per pixel, and refreshes at . Ignoring blanking and compression, approximately what minimum framebuffer read bandwidth is required?

51 A scanner must distinguish alternating black and white lines whose full black-white cycle is . Under ideal sampling, what minimum resolution satisfies the Nyquist criterion?

52 A printer receives pages faster than it can physically print them. Which component primarily allows the application to continue while preserving page order?

53 A capacitive touchscreen reports two simultaneous contact points, but an application receives only one pointer position because of an older software interface. Where is information most directly being lost?

54 A byte-addressable system has a 36-bit physical address bus. What is the maximum directly addressable physical memory space, regardless of how much RAM is installed?

55 A direct-mapped cache has a capacity of and a block size of 64 bytes. For a byte address, how many bits are used for the cache index and block offset?

56 An L1 cache takes and has a hit rate. On an L1 miss, an L2 lookup takes and hits of the time; main memory adds after an L2 miss. What is the average memory access time?

57 A system's normal memory access time is . A page fault takes , and the probability of a page fault on an access is . Approximately what is the effective memory access time?

58 An SSD receives of host writes while its controller writes to flash because of garbage collection and data movement. What is the write amplification factor?

59 Why can repeatedly overwriting small random regions be especially expensive on NAND flash compared with magnetic RAM-like storage?

60 A memory module uses SECDED error-correcting code. Which error pattern is it designed to handle during one protected memory word?