UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT1109 COMPUTER ORGANISATION & ARCHITECTURE
DISTANCE LEARNING
DATE: APRIL, 2019 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE [30 MARKS]
a) Describe briefly following
i) VIRUS
ii) Trap door (4 Marks)
b) Mention the four generic access methods usually present in a computer system.
(4 Marks)
c) What is an interrupt? (2 Marks)
d) Differentiate between RISC and CISC (6 Marks)
e) What, in general terms, is the distinction between computer organization and computer
Architecture? (4 Marks)
f) What are the four main functions of a computer? (4 Marks)
g) 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)
QUESTION TWO
a) What do the following acronyms mean in disk controllers (6 Marks)
i) SCSI
ii) IDE
iii) SATA
b) Define pipelining. (2 Marks)
c) What are the six advantages and six disadvantages of fourth generation languages.
(12 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
a) Perform the following operations(showing your workings)
i) Hexadecimal :B47F+A29C (4 Marks)
ii) Octal: 4556+3633 (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 serial 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 virtual memory. (2 Marks)
e) What are virtual and logical addresses? (4 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
a) i) What risks do organization face under trojan attack (4 Marks)
iii) How would you mitigate the risks (4 Marks)
b) Differentiate between synchronous buses and asynchronous buses. (2Mark)
c) Describe FOUR access methods on storage devices (4 Marks)
d) What are the factors that need to be considered in determining the size of a hard disk?
(6 Marks)
