Due a week on Tuesday (28th). Make sure you have read over your notes.
These revision notes might help.
Category Archives: 6. External Sites
New hard drive technology
A big thanks to Christy for bringing this to my attention.
A new technological enhancement to the hard drive could make this technology last a few more years. The big disadvantage with hard drive technology over solid state is speed. This advance could increase the speed of hard drives by hundreds of times.
Here is the original article and here are some break downs, 1 & 2.
NLC Revision presentations and check lists
You can get these resources from the NLC site. However, I thought I would place a copy here for ease of access.
How to use this resource.
- Print out the check sheets
- Tick the parts you understand
- Watch the presentations for the other parts
- Repeat as required.
Making a CPU
We know that a CPU is made up of The ALU, CU, Buses & Registers. But why is it called a Silicon chip?
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/aCOyq4YzBtY" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
Have a look at this article for a further break down.
Prelim Breakdown
Have a look at the questions you got wrong and prioritize your study.
| Question | Unit | Topic |
| 1 | Computer Systems | Peripherals |
| 2 | Computer Systems | Data Representation |
| 3 | Computer Systems | Data Representation |
| 4 | Computer Systems | Networks |
| 5 | Computer Systems | Data Representation |
| 6 | Software Development | Design |
| 7 | Software Development | Constructs |
| 8 | Software Development | Constructs |
| 9 | Software Development | Languages and Environments |
| 10 | Computer Systems | Structure |
| 11 | Software Development | SD Process |
| 12 | Software Development | Languages and Environments |
| 13 | Computer Systems | Peripherals |
| 14a | Software Development | SD Process |
| 14b | Software Development | SD Process |
| 14c | Software Development | Standard Algorithms |
| 14d | Computer Systems | Networks |
| 15a | Computer Systems | Data Representation |
| 15b | Computer Systems | Data Representation |
| 15c | Computer Systems | Peripherals |
| 15d | Computer Systems | Peripherals |
| 16a | Software Development | Constructs |
| 16b | Software Development | Constructs |
| 16c | Software Development | SD Process |
| 16d | Software Development | Languages and Environments |
| 19a | Computer Systems | Software |
| 19b | Computer Systems | Structure |
| 20a | Software Development | SD Process |
| 20b | Software Development | SD Process |
A day made of glass 2
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/X-GXO_urMow" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
Now remember that this is an advert for a glass manufacturer. However the technology on display is pretty cool.
Think about the technology that would need to be embedded in the glass as well as the networking technology that is used.
As a counter point though I would like to offer another series of choices. What about projector technology?
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/TUo3yFRxYSw" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
Or Augmented Reality Contact Lenses?
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/XrLLddIppCU" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
All this technology is quite a way from everyday use, but 20 years ago (1992) students didn’t have mobile phones, no one had the Internet in their pocket and the World Wide Web was one year old.
Computer Systems Calculations – Examples
I have been asked for some examples for you to work at.
Here are two different examples.
Madras College – Review Questions on file size & addressability
Excel exercises- Computer Systems Calculations.
Calculations in computer systems
I was sure I had this here already but I can’t find it.
Here are the main formula we used in the computer systems unit
- Largest number with n bits = 2n-1
- No of memory locations/different colours = 2n
- Coloumn heading in a binary number at n bit =2n-1
- Size of bitmap = no. of Horizontal pixels X no. of Vertical pixels X Colour Depth
- No. of pixels = DPI X size in inches
- Total storage capacity = no. of memory locations X location size.
You should also be able to convert from bits, Bytes, Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes & Terabytes.
- Bit= 1/0 (Binary digIT)
- 1 Byte = 8 Bits
- 1 Kilobytes= 1024 Bytes (210)
- 1 Megabytes= 1024 KB (220)
- 1 Gigabytes = 1024 MB (230)
- 1 Terabytes = 1024 GB (240)
For colour depth
- 8 bits = 256 colours (28)
- 16 bits = High Colour 65,536 colours (216)
- 24 bits = True Colour 16,777,216 colours (224)
Control Unit
O was asked this question today and I can’t help but feel that the pupil wasn’t happy with the answer. So here I go again.
The Control Unit is a sub part of the processor (along with ALU & Registers). It is responsible for the sequencing, decoding and it also synchronizes the execution of the program instructions.
I am not sure that you will be happy with this description so I went to find some support notes and an animation ( I even found it in scratch) to help you to visualise it.
I did find this video though that covers a range of topics.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/HEjPop-aK_w" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
So to sum up, the Control Unit, controls all operations of the CPU, It also controls the flow of data along the buses.
Prelim
Good luck in the prelim. Remember you can ask questions here and I will respond with answers. If you don’t want your name to appear then just say so in the comment and i will copy and past into a new comment.
