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Cork Institute of Technology
Higher Certificate in Science in Computing in Information Technology
Support – Stage 1
(NFQ – Level 6)
Computer Systems
Spring 2007
(Time: 3 Hours)
Answer any FOUR questions.. All questions carry equal marks. Examiners: Mr. Seamus Lankford Mr. A. O’Brien Mr. J. Greenslade Mr. J. Walsh
Q1. a) Outline the sequence of steps involved in the fetch and execute cycle of the 68000 microprocessor. [5 marks]
b) What is meant by the term System bus? What are its components? [5 marks]
c) Write a 68000 assembly language program to evaluate the following expression. The value of x is stored in D0 and the answer is stored in D2.
X 18 + 4x + 9 Test your program with x = 4. [5 marks]
d) Draw the truth tables and circuits for the following: i) A Half Adder [3 marks] ii) Full Adder [3 marks] You may use a black box implementation for the full adder circuit.
e) Using a “Sum of Products” implementation, design a simple circuit to implement the following truth table output:
[4 marks] Q2. a) Assume the following 32-bit floating-point representation:
Using this format, convert the following number to floating point format: 14. 25 [8 marks] b) i) Convert the following from Binary to Hex 10101010011011102 [2 marks] ii) Convert the following from Hexadecimal to Binary BDEFA 16 [2 marks]
c) Perform the following arithmetic, using 8 bits and using two’s complement representation: 32 - 17 [5 marks]
e) Draw the circuit and truth table for the following Boolean expression: x z + xy z [4 marks]
f) Draw the truth table and circuit for a 2-to-4 line Binary Decoder [4 marks]
A B C Output 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1
Sign bit of mantissa
8 bit exponent in two’s complement
23 bit mantissa
Q5.
a) Briefly describe the operation of a typical CD-ROM drive outlining how the various components of the drive operate. Illustrate the internal structure of such a CD ROM drive. [8 marks]
b) Briefly describe the similarities and differences between DVDs and CDROMs. [7 marks]
c) In the context of Hard Disks, briefly explain what is meant by the following terms:
i. Head Crash ii. Seek time iii. Rotational Delay [6 marks]
d) The capacity of a standard floppy disk is 1.44 MB. Show how this capacity is calculated using the logical layout (i.e. the sector and track layout) of a typical floppy disk. [4 marks]
Q6. a) Describe the sequence of steps that takes place during the system boot sequence. [6 marks]
b) Briefly explain what is meant by the term motherboard form factor and what are the most common motherboard form factors today? [6 marks]
c) Briefly, describe what is meant by the chipset of a motherboard and outline the functions of the Southbridge and Northbridge? Using a simple block diagram, illustrate the chipset components on the motherboard. In your diagram, label all the important components. [8 marks] d) Describe what is meant by the following terms: i. SECC ii. ZIF iii. Slot 1 iv. Socket 478 v. PGA [5 marks]
Frequently used Branch instructions:
- Appendix
- BEQ EQUAL Z= Branch Condition Flag Setting
- BNE NOT EQUAL Z=
- BGT GREATER Z+(N XOR V) =
- BLT LESS N XOR V =
- BGE GREATER OR EQUAL N XOR V =
- BLE LESS OR EQUAL Z +(N XORV) =
