Oxford Cambridge and RSA

AS Level Computer Science

H046/01 Computing Principles

Monday 4 June 2018 – Morning

Time allowed: 1 hour 15 minutes
* 6 3 6 7 2 1 9 9 7 0 *

Do not use:
• a calculator

* H 0 4 6 0 1 *

First name

Last name

Centre Candidate
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INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Complete the boxes above with your name, centre number and candidate number.
• Answer all the questions.
• Write your answer to each question in the space provided.
• Additional paper may be used if required but you must clearly show your candidate
number, centre number and question number(s).
• Do not write in the barcodes.

INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 70.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended responses will be assessed in questions marked with an
asterisk (*).
• This document consists of 16 pages.

No calculator can
be used for this
paper

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Answer all the questions.

1 A company produces digital photo frames (i.e. photo frames that display digital photographs).

(a) Identify the type of operating system that the photo frame is most likely to use.

Operating system Tick one

Distributed

Embedded

Multi-user

[1]

(b) Give two reasons why this operating system may be stored in ROM.

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(c) The photo frame has a RISC processor.

Describe one advantage to the company of using a RISC processor, rather than a CISC
processor.

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(d) Several of these photo frames can be placed around a house and connected in a peer to
peer network.

Describe what is meant by the term ‘peer to peer network’.

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(e) The photo frames can also play video clips. Due to the limited storage on the device the
videos are stored on the company’s servers (i.e. ‘in the cloud’) and streamed when needed.

Give one disadvantage to the user of using cloud storage for their photos.

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(f) The company allows users to connect a local storage device to the photo frame to increase
storage capacity.

State the name of one device that might be connected to the photo frame to increase storage
capacity.

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2 An electricity company is looking at ways of getting meter readings from its customers. It releases
an application for smartphones which allows users to submit their meter reading (a 6 digit number).

(a) Describe one method in which a user could enter the meter reading into the smartphone
application.

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(b) JavaScript is used to check that a reasonable value is being entered before a meter
reading is sent to a server. When the user enters a meter reading number, the function
validateReading is called. If the number entered is a valid number between 1 and 999999
inclusive, it returns true otherwise it returns false.

You will need to use the JavaScript function isNaN() standing for “is not a number”. This
returns true if the value it is given is not a number and false if it is.

isNaN(computer4) returns true

isNaN(203) returns false

Complete the function

function validateReading(reading)
{

[4]

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(c) The electricity company decides to trial smart meters. These can be connected to a computer
so the user can download and analyse records of their electricity usage.

(i) In order to be able to access all the functionality of the meter, the computer needs a
device driver. Describe what is meant by the term ‘device driver’.

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(ii) In order to transfer data, the meter and computer need an established set of rules for
how they will communicate.

State the term used for a set of rules for communication between two devices.

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(iii) Once downloaded, the user can analyse the data.

State the type of application that the user might use to analyse the data once downloaded.

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3 The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is responsible for monitoring
communications in order to keep the UK secure. A large part of its job involves trying to break into
encrypted messages.

(a) The code breakers at GCHQ have access to supercomputers (computers with many
processors).

Describe why a supercomputer will be useful to GCHQ.

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(b) GCHQ has to operate within the law. Describe how the law allows GCHQ to monitor
communications.

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4 Desktop operating systems are an essential part of modern personal computer systems
(i.e. desktops and laptops).

(a) Describe how a desktop operating system is loaded when a personal computer is first
switched on.

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(b) Operating systems often come with utilities.

State a utility that might be supplied with a desktop operating system to help with system
maintenance.

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(c)* One of the key functions of an operating system in a personal computer is to manage system
resources such as memory and CPU time. Discuss the different approaches a desktop
operating system can take to managing these system resources and the relative advantages
of each approach. [9]

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5 (a) Convert the denary number 72 to an unsigned 8-bit integer.

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(b) Convert the unsigned binary number 10000101 to denary.

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(c) Convert the denary number 104 to hexadecimal.

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(d) The following floating point binary number is represented using 6 bits for the mantissa and
4 bits for the exponent, both using two’s complement.

Mantissa Exponent
0100101 0100

Convert the number to denary, showing your working.

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(e) Given that computers store everything in binary, explain how they are able to represent text.

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6 A Boolean expression is entered into a Karnaugh Map.

(a) Give a simplified version of the expression using the Karnaugh Map. You must show your
working.

AB

00 01 11 10

00 1 1 1 1
CD
01 1 1 1 1

11 0 1 1 0

10 0 1 1 0

Simplified Expression: .............................................. [3]

(b) Draw a logic gate diagram to represent the expression below. [4]

(¬A / B) 0 (¬C / D)

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7 A meteorologist sets up a weather station to monitor temperatures throughout the year.

She classifies temperatures in one of four bands:

Band Temperature Range (degrees Celsius)

Band A 10 or below
Band B 11–20
Band C 21–30
Band D 31 or above

The weather station records the temperature every day as an integer. At the end of the year the
temperatures are stored in an array called temperatures.

Write a program in pseudocode that reads through this array and produces an output which shows
the total number of days within each band. An example of such an output is shown below.

Band A: 93
Band B: 143
Band C: 98
Band D: 31

Ensure your code is efficient.

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8* A programmer is writing a game to run on a variety of games consoles. Discuss the different ways
in which they might use virtual machines in this process and any advantages and disadvantages
of doing so.

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9 The Von Neumann architecture uses a Control Unit and an Arithmetic Logic Unit.

(a) State the register in which the Arithmetic Logic Unit stores its results.

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(b) Tick the stage of the fetch decode execute cycle in which the register in part (a) would receive
a value from the Arithmetic Logic Unit.

Stage Tick one

Fetch
Decode
Execute
[1]

(c) Write an assembly program (using the Little Man Computer instruction set) which repeatedly
asks for a number until 3 is entered. When 3 is entered, the program should stop.

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END OF QUESTION PAPER

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