THE BRITISH COMPUTER SOCIETY

THE BCS PROFESSIONAL EXAMINATIONS

BCS Level 4 Certificate in IT

COMPUTER & NETWORK TECHNOLOGY

21st April 2008, 10.00 a.m.-12.00 p.m.

Time: TWO hours

Section A and Section B each carry 50 % of the marks. You are advised to spend about 1
hour on Section A (30 minutes per question) and 1 hour on Section B (12 minutes per
question).

The marks given in brackets are indicative of the weight given to each part of the question.

Calculators are NOT allowed in this examination.

SECTION A
Answer TWO questions out of FOUR. Each question carries 30 marks.

1. a) There are three ways of moving information into or out of a computer:

polled input/output, interrupt-driven input/output and DMA.

Describe, with the aid of diagrams, how a computer may implement

interrupt-driven input/output. Your answer should describe the
advantages and disadvantages of this method with respect to the two
other input/output methods. Your answer should also include
descriptions of vectored interrupts and prioritized interrupts.
(20 marks)

b) A computer transmits data to a peripheral at 400 Mbits/s. Information

is transmitted in the form of 1024-byte blocks of user data followed by
a 128-byte block of control data.

It is necessary to transfer the entire contents of a full 8-Gbyte flash

card (e.g., CompactFlash) to a computer using this data transfer
mechanism. If we assume that the access time of the flash card is
negligible, how long does it take to transfer the contents of a full 8-
byte card to the computer?

Is the assumption of negligible access time for the flash card

reasonable?
(10 marks)

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2. a) A computer’s architecture is composed of its register set, instruction
set, and addressing modes (that is, the architecture represents the
assembly language programmer’s view of the computer).

Define the terms register set, instruction set and addressing

modes and give examples of each of these terms (you may use a real
processor or you may use a ‘hypothetical’ computer with which to
illustrate your answer). You should also make clear the difference
between register storage and memory storage and explain why it is
necessary for a computer to have both internal registers and main
memory (RAM).
(20 marks)

b) Year after year computers (CPUs or microprocessors) have steadily

become faster in accordance with the empirical law known as Moore’s
law. This law has held for approximately four decades.

State, with reasons, whether you expect this law to hold true for the
next two decades or whether computers are reaching limitations to
their performance.
(10 marks)

3. A circuit has four inputs, P, Q, R, S, representing the natural binary

numbers 00002 = 010, to 10112 = 1110. P is the most-significant bit.

The input code represents a month of the year with 0000 = January,
0001 = February, …, and 1011 = December. The circuit has one
output, X, that is true if the number represented by the input is a
month with 31 days. Note that months with 31 days are January,
March, May, July, August, October, and December.

a) Construct a truth table for this circuit.

(7 marks)

b) Hence (or otherwise) obtain a Boolean expression for X in terms of

inputs P, Q, R, and S.
(8 marks)

c) Give the circuit diagram of an arrangement of AND, OR and NOT

gates to implement this circuit.
(7 marks)

d) Modify the Boolean expression of part (b) so that the output is true if
the month has 31 days or is February (which can be 28 or 29 days).
(8 marks)
4. a) A modern operating system running on a PC or workstation provides
two types of function. One function is the control of the physical
hardware (processor, memory, discs, I/O, communications). The other
function is the user interface; for example, Windows™.

Describe, in some detail (with diagrams where necessary) these two

elements of the operating system. In particular, you should explain the
range of both hardware control and user interface functions that are
typically available today.
(20 marks)

b) Progress in computer hardware over the last few years has been
immense (processor speed, memory capacity and speed, the
increasing use of non-volatile flash memory, USB and FireWire serial
interfaces, WiFi, and so on).

Using your knowledge of the progress that has been made in the past
few years, describe (with reasons) what type of advances and
progress you might reasonable see in operating systems design over
the next decade.
(10 marks)

SECTION B
Answer FIVE questions out of EIGHT. Each question carries 12 marks.

5. Network technology has developed rapidly over the past few years.
Organisations are using state of the art equipment to conduct their business
activities. Using suitable examples, describe the following network
technologies:

a) Virtual Private Network (VPN)

(6 marks)

b) Intranet
(6 marks)

6. The computer’s memory is crucial to its operation. There are different types of
memory which enable various tasks to be executed.

a) Describe and explain the need for Virtual Memory in a computer.

(6 marks)

b) Paging or Swapping is a technique used for Virtual Memory. Explain

what Paging is. When does an Invalid Page Fault occur?
(6 marks)

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7. BCS Students can access the BCS website and make use of various
resources.

a) ‘To access the BCS website, students need to know BCS’s URL’.
Explain this statement using BCS website as an example.
(6 marks)

b) BCS Examiners’ reports are available on the website as PDF files.

Describe the characteristics of a PDF file.
(6 marks)

8. Various techniques are available for network security. Briefly describe each of
the following terms:

a) Data Encryption
b) Digital Certificate
c) SSL
d) S-HTTP
(3 marks each)

9. The OSI model and TCP/IP protocol suite are crucial in enabling
interoperability of hardware and software components from different
manufacturers.

a) Describe what TCP/IP protocol suite is.

(3 marks)

b) Compare and contrast the TCP/IP layers to those of the OSI model
(9 marks)

10. With reference to wireless computing, explain each of the terms below:

a) Wi-Fi
b) Bluetooth technology
c) GPS
(4 marks each)

11. With wider access to the internet, computer users face increasing security
threats. Describe each of the security threats and suggest possible ways of
dealing with these.

a) Trojan Horse
b) Hacking
c) SPAM
d) Phishing
(3 marks each)
12. Input-Output devices have become very sophisticated over the past few
years. Compare and contrast the following devices.

a) Plasma display and LCD monitors.

(6 marks)
b) Laser-jet and Ink-jet printers.
(6 marks)

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