INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS QUESTION BANK FYBMM 2013

Chapter 1: HARDWARE
1. Define
I. Data – A Data can be defined as unprocessed information.
II. Information – An Information can be defined as a processed data.

Data processed Information processed Knowledge

2. Mention several i/p devices.

I. Keyboard – most common input device used to input text, numbers & instructions into the computer.
Most of the use QWERTY layout.
II. Numeric Keypad – Telephones and ATMs [Automatic Teller Machines] use numeric keypad to enter
data allowing entry of numbers only.
III. Mouse – is actually an example of pointing device usually having two buttons where left button is
used to select something by double clicking it & the right button brings up drop-down menus.
IV. Touchpad – used in many laptop computers as a pointing device usually controlled by the user
moving their finger or gently tapping it to simulate the left/right button of the mouse.
V. Tracker ball – similar to a mouse except that the ball is on the top of the device & the user controls
the pointer on the screen by rotating the ball with the hand.
VI. Remote control – used to control the operation of other devices remotely by using infra red signals.
Most home entertainment devices such as television, satellite systems, DVD player, hifi systems have
remote controls.
VII. Joystick – has similar functions to mice and tracker balls. By gripping this stick, a pointer on the
screen can be controlled & buttons are used for selections. Often they have another button on the
top of the stick that is used for gaming purposes.
VIII. Touch screen – With the system of touch screen, the user can choose an option by simply touching
the button/icon on the screen. E.g.: PDAs [Personal Digital Assistants], mobile phones, etc..
IX. Smart Card Reader – used to read information stored on a chip (Smart Card). E.g.: ID cards, Loyalty
cards, etc.
X. Scanner – used to enter information on hard copy into a computer. The most common scanner is
the flat-bed which is made up of a glass panel and lid.
XI. Barcode reader – used to read information in the form of a bar code. It is used as a safety function
in many companies to ensure that electrical equipment is checked on a regular basis.
XII. OMR [Optical Mark Recognition] – is a system which can read marks written in pen or pencil. It is
used to read questionnaires, multiple choice examination papers & other forms where responses are
registered in the form of lines or shaded areas.
XIII. OCR [Optical Character Recognition] – is the name given to software that takes scanned text and
converts it into a computer readable form. It is used while scanning documents so that they can be
modified using a word processor or desktop publisher package.
XIV. MICR [Magnetic Ink Character Recognition] – is a system which can read characters printed in a
special ink [containing iron particles]. Only characters written in a standard font can be read. It is
primarily used to process cheques in banking operations.
XV. Digital Camera – is rapidly replacing traditional, film-based cameras. Once photographs are stored
in memory, they are easily transferred to a computer using a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection.

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XVI. Webcam – is similar to digital video camera, however it is connected directly to the computer and
do not have a memory. Many computers have webcams built into the top of their monitors as
standard equipment used to enable video-conferencing.
XVII. Microphone – can be connected directly to a computer. Sounds can be inputted and manipulated. It
is used in voice recognition software which can have a number of purposes such as conversion of
speech into text that can be used in word processor & for recognition commands.
XVIII. Sensor – is a device which inputs data to a computer where the data is a measurement of some
physical quantity which is continuously changing, such as temperature, light, moisture, etc..
XIX. Graphic tablet – used with a stylus to produce freehand drawings as in Computer Aided Design
(CAD) work.
XX. Light pen – contain sensors that sends signals to a computer whenever light changes are detected.
They are also used for drawing onscreen.

3. Mention several o/p devices.

I. CRT [Cathode Ray Tube] Monitor – least expensive type of monitors, although they are
becoming increasingly rare as TFT monitors are now taking over. It uses an electron gun to
fire against a phosphor screen, which creates a picture that is made up of tiny dots.
II. TFT [Thin-Film Transistor] Monitor – The screen us made up of thousands of tiny pixels,
which are made up of transistors controlled by a microprocessor.
III. Laser Printer – produces very high-quality hard copy output. The print rate per page is very
high if a number of pages are being printed.
IV. Inkjet Printer – produces good quality hard copies. Although the quality is not as quite as
good as that from the laser printer, it is far better than that from dot matrix printers.
V. Dot-matrix Printer – is a type of impact printer, where a print-head (made up of matrix of
pins) presses against an inked ribbon. It tends to be slow, noisy and the output is not of a
good quality.
VI. Plotter – produces hard copies, but operates in a different way to printers. It is not limited to
normal printer paper size but is capable of producing highly accurate, very large drawing and
posters.
VII. Speaker – can be connected directly to a computer or is built into the monitor or casing
Digital data from the computer is converted into analogue, using a Digital to Analogue
Converter (DAC).
VIII. Multimedia Projector – receive signals that can either be analogue or digital, although the
most modern projectors only work with digital inputs. The signal source is usually from a
computer, television or DVD player.
IX. Terminal - is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or
a computing system.

4. Mention several Storage devices.

I. Magnetic
i. Fixed hard disk – has read/write heads that allows data to be written to or read from the
disk surface.

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ii. Portable hard disk – usually connected to the computer via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port
and can be disconnected and used on different computers.
iii. Floppy disk drive – used on some computers consisting thin disk of plastic which is housed
in a plastic case with a window where the disk can be assessed.
iv. Magnetic tape – is a very thin strip of plastic coated in a magnetic layer read and written by
a read/write head.

II. Optical
i. CD-ROM & DVD-ROM – are Read Only Memory (ROM) which means they cannot be written
over and can only be read.
ii. CD-R & DVD-R – are the disk which are recordable only once and then it becomes a CR-
ROM or DVD-ROM. The letter ‘R’ here means the disk is recordable only once.
iii. CD-RW & DVD-RW – The ‘RW’ means these disks are re-writable media and can be written
over several times. Unlike CD-R/DVD-R they do not become ROMs.
iv. DVD-RAM – is a recent addition to the optical media group. Unlike the CD and DVD formats,
DVD-RAMs have several discrete concentric tracks giving them the advantage that writing
and reading can occur at the same time.
v. Blu-ray disk – has the largest capacity of all the optical media available and go up to 100 GB
at present.

III. Solid State

i. Memory sticks / Pen drives – it can store several GBs of data and use the solid state technology
usually connected through the USB port and power to operate it is drawn from the host
computer.
ii. Flash memory card – is a form of Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
[EEPROM]. It is used to store photos in digital cameras. Mobile phones use them as memory
cards.

5. Describe in brief the Generation of Computers.

First Generation (1940-1956) : Vacuum Tubes

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often
enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great
deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions. First generation
computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers,
to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched
cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.

The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC
was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.
Second Generation (1956-1963) : Transistors

Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. The transistor
was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late 1950s. The transistor
was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more

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energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors. Though the transistor still
generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over
the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts
for output.

Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly,
languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level programming
languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN.
These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from
a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.
The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.

Third Generation (1964-1971) : Integrated Circuits

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers.
Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically
increased the speed and efficiency of computers.

Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through
keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run
many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory.
Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and
cheaper than their predecessors.

Fourth Generation (1971-Present) : Microprocessors

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers. Unlike the first generation computers
which filled an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in
1971, located all the components of the computer—from the central processing unit and memory to
input/output controls—on a single chip.

In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the
Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas
of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.

As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks,
which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the
development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond) : Artificial Intelligence

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though
there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use of parallel
processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum
computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years
to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language
input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

6. Describe in brief several types of computers.

I. Desktop - most common type of personal computer that is designed to sit on or under a desk or
table commonly used in schools, offices and home.

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II. Workstation – a specialized, single-user computer that typically has more power and features than
a standard desktop PC popular among scientists, engineers and animators who need a system with
greater than average speed and the power to perform sophisticated tasks.
III. Laptops – Notebook computers as their name implies, approximate the shape of an 8.5 by 11 inch
notebook and easily fit inside a briefcase. Several notebook systems are designed to be plugged
into a docking station, which may include a large monitor, a full size keyboard and mouse or other
devices.
IV. Tablet PCs – newest development in portable, full featured computers offering all the functionality
of a notebook PC & are lighter and can accept input from a special pen called a stylus or digital
pen that is used to tap or write directly on the screen.
V. PDA [Personal Digital Assistant] – handheld personal computers small enough to fit in your hand.
Many PDAs let the user access the Internet through a wireless connection.
VI. Smart phones – Some cellular phones double as miniature PCs because they offer advanced
features not typically found in cellular phone. So they are called as Smart Phones. The advanced
features include Web and e-mail access, special software such as personal organizers or special
hardware such as digital cameras or music players. Some models even break in half to reveal a
miniature keyboard.
VII. Network Server – In most organizations, individual users have their own desktop computers which
are connected to one or more centralized computers called network servers. A network server is
usually a powerful computer with special software and equipment that enable it to function as
the primary computer in the network.
VIII. Mainframe – used in large organizations such as insurance companies and banks where many
people frequently need to use the same data. In a traditional mainframe environment, each user
accesses the mainframe’s resources through a device called a terminal.
IX. Minicomputers – are small sized computers as compared to other computers of the day. The
capabilities of a minicomputer are often called as midrange computers.
X. Supercomputer – is the most powerful computer made and physically they are some of the largest.
They can process huge amounts of data and the fastest supercomputers can perform more than
ONE TRILLION calculations per second.

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Chapter 2: Networking Basics

7. What is a Network? What are its types?
A Network is defined as group of computers connected together to share the resources (hardware
and software) with two principle benefits: the ability to communicate and the ability to share.

LAN Local Area Network

Basic
WAN Wide Area Network
Types of Networks

MAN Metropolitan Area Network

CAN Campus Area Network

PAN Personal Area Network

Advanced
SAN Storage Area Network

HAN Home Area Network

WLAN Wireless LAN

LAN [Local Area Network]: supplies networking capability to a group of computers in close proximity
to each other such as in an office building, a school or a room. It is useful for sharing resources like
files, printers, games or other applications.
WAN [Wide Area Network]: spans a large geographical area such as a state, province o country. The
world’s most popular WAN is the Internet.
MAN [Metropolitan Area Network]: spans a physical area larger than a LAN but smaller than a WAN,
such as a city.
CAN [Campus Area Network]: spans multiple LANs but smaller than a MAN, such as on a university
or college campus.
PAN [Personal Area Network]: set up for personal/non-commercial usage.
SAN [Storage Area Network]: connects servers to data storage devices.
HAN [Home Area Network]: set up at home to connect multiple devices.
WLAN [Wireless LAN]: a LAN based on Wi-Fi or wireless network technology.

8. What is meant by network topology? What are its types?

Network Topology refers to the arrangement or physical layout of computers, cables and other
components on the network.
Network Topologies

Bus Ring Star Mesh Hybrid

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Refer your handwritten notes for details of every topology. Mention details in your answer.

9. State the advantages and disadvantages of computer networks.

Advantages:
a. File Sharing
b. Resource Sharing
c. Increased Storage Capacity
d. Increased Cost Efficiency

Disadvantages:
a. Security Issues
b. Rapid Spread of Computer Viruses
c. Expensive Setup
d. Dependency on Main File Server
Refer your handwritten notes for details of every advantage & disadvantage. Mention details in your
answer.

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Chapter 3: Introduction to Internet

10. Define
a. Internet: is defined as network of networks.
b. WWW: also known as ‘world wide web’ or ‘w3c’ or simply ‘the web’ refers to all of the publicly
accessible websites in the world, in addition to other information sources that web browsers can
access.
c. Website: is a collection of webpages maintained by a single person or organization that are linked
with each other to form a single body of information.
d. Webpage: is a single file of a website containing text, graphic, audio or video.
e. Web server: is a computer on internet containing one or more websites.

11. What is e-commerce? What are its types?

Electronic commerce or e-commerce is a type of industry where the buying and selling of
products or services is conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer
networks.
TYPES OF E-COMMERCE

B2B B2C B2G C2C C2B

Business to Business to Business to Consumer Consumer M-COMMERCE
Business Consumer Govt. to to Business
Consumer

1. B2B [Business to Business]: defined as e-commerce between companies dealing with relationships
between and among businesses. E.g. online tender notification and bidding.
2. B2C [Business to Consumer]: involves customers gathering information; purchasing physical goods
or information goods or goods of electronic material or digitized content such as software or e-
books and receiving products over an electronic network. E.g. Flipkart.com
3. B2G [Business to Government]: defined as commerce between the companies and public sector.
It refers to the use of internet for licensing procedures and other government-related operations.
E.g. online passport authorization.
4. C2C [Consumer to Consumer]: is commerce between private individuals or consumers. E.g.
olx.com
5. C2B [Consumer to Business]: involves reverse auctions, which empower the consumer to drive
transactions. E.g. drawing money from ATM.
6. M-Commerce: or mobile commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services through wireless
technology i.e. handheld devices such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

12. Discuss three types of media. (Refer your handwritten notes)

13. Explain internet mass-media tools in detail. (Refer your handwritten notes)
14. Describe
a. Virus b. Worm c. Firewall d. Trojan Horse Virus
(Refer your handwritten notes)

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15. Write a note on Outside Broadcasting Vans.

Outside broadcasting (OB) is the electronic field production (EFP) of television or radio programmes
(typically to cover television news and sports television events) from a mobile remote broadcast television
studio. The van is known as a "production truck", "scanner" (a BBC term), "mobile unit", "remote truck", "live
truck", "OB van" or "live eye".

A typical OB van is usually divided into 5 parts:

a. The first and largest part is the video production area. The television director, technical director,
assistant director, character generator (CG) operator and television producers usually sit in front of a
wall of video monitors.

b. The second part of a van is where the audio engineer has an audio mixer (being fed with all the
various audio feeds: reporters, commentary, on-field microphones, etc.). The audio engineer can control
which channels are added to the output and follows instructions from the director.

c. The third part of the truck is the VTR (Video Tape Recorder) area. The tape area has a collection of
machines including video servers and may also house additional power supplies or computer
equipment. Operators can also play back in slow motion or pause to show a key part of the action.

d. The fourth part is the video control area where the professional video cameras are controlled
using camera control units (CCU) by one or two operators, to make sure that the iris is at the correct
exposure and that all the cameras look the same.

e. The fifth part is transmission where the signal is monitored by and engineered for quality control
purposes and is transmitted or sent to other trucks. The transmission is monitored by the truck
engineers to ensure the people at home have a good picture and a high quality signal output.

Source: Wikipedia.

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Chapter 5: Introduction to Designing

16. What is Digital Designing?

Digital Design is a term used to describe various computer related skills such as web designing,
digital imaging and 3D modelling. The most common use of this term refers to web design which
itself is a broad field including imaging, coding, animation, interface design, etc.
Digital imaging ranges from creation of simple navigation graphics such as arrows, all the way
to complex photo doctoring and the creation of artistic imagery from scratch. Digital designers also
create 3D models for movies, architectural planning and the design of product prototypes.

17. Explain basic terms of Designing Industry.

a. Live Area – is the area within an ad space where all important text, pictures and information must
be contained.
b. Trim/Page Size – is the dimension at which the printer will cut the page. No text should be within
0.375’’ of this page size.
c. Margins – are the space from the trim size to the live area. Usually, margins are 0.375 – 0.5
inches all the way around a page.
d. Bleed – is a part of the page that will be trimmed in the printing process. If an ad is a full-page
bleed, the graphics and art must extend 0.125 inches from the trim size on all sides.
e. Gutter – is the space created by the binding of a book or magazine.
f. CMYK/RGB – are the 2 basic color spaces. CMYK [Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black] is the standard
for most traditional printing processes resulting in a tangible piece. RGB [Red, Green, Blue] is the
color display mode of computer and TV.
g. Kerning – is a typography process by which the space between the characters of text are squeezed
or stretched.
h. Leading – is similar to kerning but its effects are seen between lines of text.
i. Slug – is an optional space that a designer can add to a document that can be displayed but is
not intended to be printed.
j. Alignment – is the positioning/arrangement of lines of text or an image.
k. Resample – is a function in image editing programs which allows the user to change the resolution
of the image while keeping its pixel count intact ensuring the image is not print pixelated.
l. Offset Printing – also called lithography, is the most common printing process involving the
transfer of ink from a plate to a blanket to paper instead of directly from plate to a paper.
m. Digital Printing – is a cheaper alternative to offset printing and is essentially printing directly from
a digital file to the page by skipping the plate making step.

18. Explain designing basics.

a. Typography – is the art and technique of designing, setting and arranging type. It is used to some
degree in all written communication. It can be complicated but understanding some simple
concepts and rules can result in solid typography and help make good graphic design great.
b. Measure – refers to the horizontal length of a column of type. The length of a line affects
readability because readers’ eyes become fatigued if it has to repeatedly read long lines of type.
This is why newspapers and magazines are often split up into columns of text.

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c. Serif or Sans Serif? Serifs are the small lines or hooks at the end of characters in fonts such as
Times, Garamond or Georgia. Sans serif fonts such as Arial, Helvetica or Futura do not have serifs.
Generally, serif fonts are used for large bodies of text. It is thought that the serifs help make the
letters more distinctive, recognizable and readable than sans serif.
d. Size – font size is the height of typeface that measures from the top of the tallest ascender to the
bottom of the longest descender (for example top of ‘b’ and bottom of ‘p’). A decent font size is
9 – 12 points, depending on the audience. It should be noted that two different fonts at the same
font size don’t necessarily appear the same size.
e. Tracking – is the adjustment of the horizontal space between a group of letters in a block type.
Tracking may need to be adjusted depending on the length of the lines of type. Loose tracking is
preferred for wide columns whereas tight tracking is better fir narrow columns.
f. Kerning – is the adjustment of the horizontal space between a pair of characters. It puts the same
amount of space between a group of characters but certain letter combination’s may appear too
close to too far apart.
g. Leading – is the amount of vertical space between lines of type. Tight leading makes it difficult
for the reader to find the start of the following line of type which is particularly noticeable in long
lines of type.
h. Alignment – refers to how multiple lines of text are aligned. The four four basic typographic
alignments are flush left, flush right, full justification and center alignment.
i. Hyphenation – breaks up words that cannot fully fit at the end of a line of type. Hyphens should
only be placed between consonants to avoid awkward word fragments. It should be kept to
minimum, never used on names or two consecutive lines.
j. Paragraphs – are a sentence or a group of sentence about a common topic. Indents and/or line
breaks are the most common methods of separating them.
k. Orphans – is a single word or a short line at the left end of the paragraph, resulting in excessive
white space between paragraphs.
l. Widow – is a single word or short line at the beginning or at the end of a column, separating it
from the rest of the paragraph.
m. Emphasis – refers to changing the style of certain words in order to emphasize them from the
rest of the text. Examples are bold, caps, small caps, size, color and italics.
n. Color – It can attract attention, emphasize, organise content, create a mood and help readability.
o. Hierarchy – refers to the level of importance given to information by using different fonts, size,
tracking, color, weight or style. It is used to separate different levels of headings and sub headings.

19. Discuss Few Image File Formats

a. GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) – The most common image format on the Web, and possibly
on the Internet. Stores 1-bit to 8-bit images. Invented by CompuServe Inc.
b. TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) – The standard image file format found in most paint, imaging
and desktop publishing programs. Very flexible; supports 1-bit to 24-bit images and several
different compression schemes.
c. PICT – Macintosh’s native image file format; produced by many programs that run on Macs.
Stores up to 24-bit color.

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d. BMP (Microsoft Windows Bitmap) – Main file supported by Microsoft Windows. Stores 1-bit, 4-
bit, 8-bit, 24-bit images.
e. XBMP (X Bitmap) – A format for monochrome (1-bit) images common in the Windows X system.
f. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) – Most commonly used image format with extension
.jpg/ .jpeg

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