Study Guide for Quiz 1

There will be a quiz on Friday (12 September 2008). The quiz will have multiple choice and true/false questions. Here are some topics and questions that you should be prepared for. Some of the topics have been expressed as questions. The questions on the quiz will be similar in concept (though not stated in exactly this form).

• Express numbers or read numbers in the Roman Numeral System.
• What is the decimal positional number system?
• What is the importance of the work of de Morgan and Boole?
• What forms a complete set of Boolean relations?
• What is the binary number system?
• How are numbers, logical propositions, text, graphics, sound represented in binary?
• What is a transistor? What is it made of?
• What is the functionality of a transistor?
• What are the different components of a computer and their functionalities?
• What are the logical components of the CPU
• What is the role of the BIOS?
• What is memory address?
• Problems similar to - If you had 2 KB of memory what is the highest memory address?
• What is a program?
• What is an algorithm?
• What are the characteristics of an algorithm?
• What are the steps in running a program that is already loaded in main memory?
• What do these terms mean - KiloByte, MegaByte, GigaByte, TeraByte, PetaByte?
• What are some basic instructions (from the instruction set) that the CPU understands?
• What is the difference between machine language and assembly language?
• What is an assembler?
• What is the difference between compiled languages and interpreted languages?
• What are advantages and disadvantages of compiled and interpreted languages?
• What is the file extension of a program written in Python?
• How do you run a script written in Python?
• Convert numbers in decimal to binary and vice versa.
• Convert numbers in binary to octal and hexadecimal and vice versa.
• Express negative numbers in binary.
• Given a negative number in binary be able compute what it is in decimal.