MAY 2016

1. Outline one problem of maintaining legacy systems.

Ans) Maintaining previous/outdated computer system, which uses old technology and old
application programs ; That are hard to understand/expensive to change/evolve because
programs might be disorganized/ documentation might be missing/incomplete/unreliable;
Compatibility issues (typically refer to old programming languages/old database technology);
Maintaining but not updating the old system can lead to compatibility / security issues; It may
be difficult to recruit staff/programmers familiar with old languages/operating systems;
Database contains inconsistencies/redundancies (eg information systems and no DBMS); Usually
pre-internet, needs interfaces; Typically large and complex systems/mainframes;

2) Explain what is meant by user acceptance testing

Ans) A system or a partially functional prototype; Given to users to test for functionality or to gain
feedback on functions or the user interface;

3) Discuss one advantage and one disadvantage of printed material, when compared to online support,
as a method to provide user documentation

Ans) Examples of advantages:

• Portability; Printed material is more easily transportable and can be moved around (eg for a
scanner/printer); • Extent of material; Books/technical instructions for installation may have more
details, and be more useful to provide deeper explanations; • Availability; It is always available (no
power cut problems);

Examples of disadvantages:

• Readability; Font size online can be (easily) magnified; • Trouble-shooting/cross-reference/usability;

Online is faster and usually has links to other pages whereas paper is a thick manual; • Aging; Online is
more frequently updated than paper manuals; • Environmental; Waste of paper versus energy
consumption;

4) Outline the use of a failover system.

Ans) A failover system is a standby/redundant system; Which is used to eliminate/reduce the impact on
users/owners; By automatically taking over if the primary system suddenly becomes unavailable

5) Describe the function of the control unit (CU) in the central processing unit (CPU).

Ans) Obtains the data/instructions from the memory; Interprets/decodes them into
commands/steps/signals; Controls transfer of data and instructions among other units of a CPU (for
example, command to ALU for execution); Manages/coordinates all the units of the computer; etc.

6) Describe how the cache memory can speed up the functioning of a processor.

Ans) Cache memory is closer to CPU/faster to access than main memory/incorporated on the chip; By
holding recently/frequently used data and instructions in cache; Execution of program/fetching
instructions and data is faster
7) Outline one feature of the operating system that needs to be considered when running a game
application

Ans) Memory management; Game applications use a lot of memory and require constant refreshing;
Processor loading of OS functions (efficiency); Graphics handling of OS (as distinct from graphics card),
GUI; O/S needs to handle input from appropriate devices;

8) Construct the truth table for the following expression.

A xor (B or C)

Ans)

9) In an 8-bit register, state the binary representation of the hexadecimal number 3B.

Ans) 00111011;
Ans)

SECTION-B

11) An examination office of a university must securely store students’ examination papers and their
grades. The office keeps the documentation of past students for two years. After two years the office
only stores the student grades. All documentation of current students is frequently accessed for other
operations and the volume of the data increases quickly.

To better support its operations, the office is creating a new system to provide this storage.

(a) Identify two aspects of the data that need to be taken into account during the planning of the new
system.

(b) Describe how direct observations on the current system may provide information to help propose a
suitable new system.

A prototype of the new system is created to present to the examination office.

(c) Describe the purpose of this prototype.

The examination office needs to upgrade the computing resources for their operations, and this will
require data migration.

(d) Discuss two possible problems that may occur during data migration.

(e) Outline one economic aspect that the examination office needs to take into account to support
parallel running.

Ans) a) The type of access needed; For example read only/read write/online or offline;

Access rights;

For example, data available only for administrators / different permissions for students;

Frequency of access;

Some data (of non-current students) are not frequently accessed and can be archived; Other data (of
current students) are frequently used, subject to a variety of operations;

Quantity/size of the data;

For example should not exceed storage capacity of the new system;
Type/nature/format;

For example incompatibility issues;

b) Quick/first hand/realistic information on data/software/hardware/users/procedures in the current

system; Help better understand positive and negative features of the current system (for example
problems in accessing or validating data/user errors/security issues, etc.); Which can be used when
specifying requirements of the new system (keep/improve positive and change negative features

c) Prototype is used to ensure all essential functions/operations of the system are present/meets the
needs of the users; Prototype is used to speed up development process; Positive user’s feedback helps
in refining the acceptable prototype in order to develop the complete system/product; Or else a further
prototype should be created in order to develop the satisfactory system/product; etc.

d) Data loss/data corruption; When moving data, from one storage device to another (via network/
cables or transferred by people), data could be corrupted/lost and not useful anymore; Incompatibility
of data formats; Necessary to translate from one format to another, to be able to use the data in the
new system which causes delays/performance issues in business/office operation;

e) Two systems are running simultaneously so that operations are not disrupted; This is a costly
operation; Because both systems and all their resources should be maintained / More staff should be
hired;

Safe way of validating the new system; Running two systems could be cheaper; Than losing all data in
case of failure;

12) A college has a high-speed network. The network is accessible to all students and staff through their
personal accounts.

The network may be accessed by using desktop computers available in the college. When in the college,
users can also use personal laptops to connect wirelessly or dock with an Ethernet cable. When not in
the college, users can connect via a virtual private network (VPN) over the internet.

(a) In the given context, distinguish between Ethernet and wireless in terms of reliability of transmission.
(b) Describe two features of a VPN that make it secure.

(c) State one technology that is necessary for a VPN.

The college is devising a policy for the use of its IT resources and services. They are considering
prohibiting the use of external services such as cloud storage and blogs.

(d) In relation to the specific activities that may be carried out by students, discuss two advantages and
two disadvantages of the use of external services.

Ans) a) WIRELESS

The reliability of wireless depends on the strength of the wireless signal/distance from router; on the
topology/shape of the surroundings; on interference/number of simultaneous connections on an access
point;
ETHERNET

Ethernet is more reliable as the strength of the signal is independent from the distance from the router
(within the college); There is no issue with the topology/shape of the surrounding, as long as the user
has a connection; connection depends on condition of cables – no loose or broken cable connections;

b) Authentication; Nobody outside the VPN should be able to affect the security property of the VPN (it
must be impossible for the attacker to weaken/change encryption);

Encryption; Data intercepted will not be readable;

Tunneling software; Security properties of each tunnel should be agreed by the administrators of the
two endpoints of the tunnel;

Multiple exit nodes; Makes it hard to distinguish where the data was generated thus more secure (less
prone to phishing);

c) SSL 3.0 (Secure socket layer 3); TLS (with encryption) (Transport Layer Security); IPsec with encryption;

d) Advantages:

May offer more recent technology than the college itself; The college cannot replicate the social aspects
of diffused discussion/social networking; Registration/creation/access of account is usually
easy/cheap/free; Allows interaction with others/collaborative studies/exchange of materials/opinions; It
means students can access and coordinate data and assignments on any device and from any location;

Disadvantages: One might post things they would regret later on; The content is potentially available
across the world; The content is available for a long time; The content submitted to external services
might not be fully in line with the internal policy, even if posting it is allowed (offensive content);
Photos/documents may be hacked by third parties;

For example: Posting offensive comments; Ownership / confidentiality / security of data; Takedown
policy from external providers (if the posted content is offensive, the service provider may take a while
to take it down);

13) A local charity organizes a half-marathon to raise money. The rules to participate in the half-
marathon are as follows:

-The organizers limit the total number of participants to 450

- Participants belong to a team and each team must have at least three and at most five participants

- Each participant registers for the event independently from the other members of their team, and they
all declare their team name when registering

-For scoring, the team’s final time is the sum of the times of its three fastest participants. Participants
that do not cross the finishing line within 2 hours after the start, are assigned a default time of 1000
minutes. The winning team is the team with the smallest sum total.
During registration, an array, PARTICIPANTS, with 450 positions is used to hold the abbreviated team
names that are declared by each participant. Simultaneously, a collection TNAMES is generated: any
new team name that is declared is added to the collection.

(a) State the minimum size of TNAMES to ensure the names of all potential teams can be stored.

Part of the array PARTICIPANTS is shown below, where, for example, the first participant declared
that they are part of team TK. The initial part of the collection TNAMES is also shown, with arrows
indicating the direction of growth.
(c) In order to complete this code, and return the correct TEAM array,

(i) construct pseudocode to find MINP, the first index in PARTICIPANTS of the CURRENT team, and use it
to start the construction of TEAM

(ii) construct pseudocode to find the other participants belonging to the CURRENT team, implementing
the idea of the closed paths in the TEAM array.

As part of the program to determine the winning team, an array, TIMING, is maintained in parallel to
PARTICIPANTS. For example, TIMING[5] and PARTICIPANTS[5] relate to the same participant.

TIMING is initialized to zero before the race starts, and updated with the finishing times for each
participant. The algorithm sum3best is able to output the sum of the three fastest times from any group
of times that are passed to the algorithm.

(d) Describe the steps of an algorithm that will find the winning team, as defined by the marathon rules
on page 6. Clearly mention the use of existing or of new data structures.

Ans) a) 150 (= 450/3);

b) 73
c) i) loop while PARTICIPANTS[P] ≠ CURRENT AND P<450

p=p+1

endloop

minp=p

t=minp

ii) T = MINP // can be here or in c(i) loop while P<450

if PARTICIPANTS[P] = CURRENT then

TEAM[T] = P

T=P

end if

P = P+1

end loop

TEAM[T] = MINP

d) Create array TTIMES max 5 to hold times in one team

Create FASTEST to hold time of winning team

Create BEST to hold name of winning team

Set FASTEST = 5000 (default time for 5 team members or something)

For each team in TNAMES

use PARTICIPANTS and TEAM to find index for each member in TIMINGS

store in TTIMES array of max 5

Pass array TTIMES to sum3best and store in SUM

If SUM < FASTEST set FASTEST to SUM and set BEST to TNAME

End loop

sxwinning team = BEST