UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2017/2018
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BBIT 102/BAC 1101/BIT1109: COMPUTER ORGANISATION &
ARCHITECTURE, COMPUTER ORGANISATION & APPLICATIONS
FULLTIME/PART TIME/DISTANCE LEARNING
DATE: DECEMBER, 2017 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE [30 MARKS]
a) Differentiate between RISC and CISC (6 Marks)
b) What, in general terms, is the distinction between computer organization and computer
Architecture? (4 Marks)
c) What are the four main functions of a computer? (4 Marks)
d) Monitors can either be of CRT (Cathode Ray Tube: like the television type) type or LCD
(Liquid Crystal Display:flat screen like laptop)type. What advantages and disadvantages
does each of these provide?
(6 Marks)
e) Describe briefly following
i) WORM
ii) Trojan Horse Virus (4 Marks)
f) Distinguish between Impact and Non-impact printers, giving examples of each.
(4 Marks)
g) What is an interrupt? (2 Marks)
QUESTION TWO
a) Define pipelining in microprocessor architecture. (2 Marks)
b) What do the following acronyms mean in disk controllers (6 Marks)
i) SCSI
ii) IDE
iii) SATA
c) Discuss the four Computer Programming Languages. (12 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
a) Perform the following operations(showing your workings)
i) Hexadecimal :B47F+A29C (4 Marks)
ii) Octal: 456+333 (2 Marks)
b) Define word length (2 Marks)
c) What are the steps required for a superscalar processor to process the instruction?
(4 Marks)
d) Distinguish between a parallel port and USB port (4 Marks)
e) In computer performance explain what you understand by these terms, giving a definition
and an example for each.
(i) Latency (2 Marks)
(ii) Throughput. (2 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
a) Distinguish between a compiler and an interpreter giving an example of each
(4 Marks)
b) Describe SIX functions of the operating system (6 Marks)
c) List FOUR topologies in networks (4 Marks)
d) Explain cache memory. (2 Marks)
e) What are virtual and logical addresses? (4 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
a) What risks do organization face under virus attack (4 Marks)
b) How would you mitigate the risks in 5(a) (4 Marks)
c) Differentiate between synchronous buses and asynchronous buses. (2 Marks)
d) Describe FOUR access methods on storage devices (4 Marks)
e) What are the three key concepts on which the Von Neumann Architecture is based on?
(6 Marks)
