EE380 Assignment 0 Solution

  1. 100% Which one of the following four statements about storage devices is false?
    SRAM is a type of volatile memory
    Core is a type of main memory using magnetic storage
    Standard hard disk drives record digital data using changes in magnetic orientation
    Floppy disks make physical contact with the read/write head and other surfaces while spinning
    None of the above statements is false
  2. 100% Here's one to look-up in the reference materials: in the late 1970s, what was the most common type of mass storage device for personal computers? Hint: it wasn't a disk; it was used with the Radio Shack TRS-80 and the Apple II, and was even built-into the Commodore PET.
  3. 100%

    Here's another one to look-up in the reference materials: the 4004 (shown above) was Intel's first microprocessor. It was used in which one of the following?
    ENIAC
    Apple II
    ERA 1101
    Busicom calculator
    the original IBM PC
  4. 100% Which of the following five terms refers to computer hardware at the highest abstraction level?
    Die
    Gate
    Transistor
    Silicon Ingot
    Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
  5. 100% Which one of the following four statements about how computer technology has been changing over the last few decades is false?
    Processors have been getting faster.
    Main memory has been getting faster.
    Power consumption per transistor has been decreasing.
    The complexity of circuitry that fits on a single chip has been increasing.
    All of the above statements are true.
  6. 100% Here's yet another bit of history to look up: who is generally credited with finding the first computer bug?
    Bill Gates
    Gordon Moore
    J. Presper Eckert
    John von Neumann
    Grace Murray Hopper
  7. 100% Which one of the following four choices is specified as part of an Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)?
    The machine code bit patterns
    The types of gates used to construct the processor
    The number of clock cycles taken to execute each instruction
    The maximum power that can be consumed by the processor
    None of the above are part of the ISA
  8. 100% Power consumption is becoming a serious issue. How many watts does a typical desktop PC processor draw?
    Less than 2 watts
    2-20 watts
    20-200 watts
    200-2000 watts
    More than 2000 watts

EE380 Computer Organization and Design.