Computer Fundamentals, Internet and MS-Office, Semester 5, First Internal Exam, September 2023

 

Section A

Answer any 5questions.Each question carries 2 marks.

1.    List four advantages of a computer.

1)    High Speed. One of the reasons for the improvement in the quality of life is the personal computer's speed. ...

2)    Accuracy. Humans make errors. ...

3)    Automation. ...

4)    Storage. ...

5)    Ease of Access. ...

One advantage- 1/2 mark each

2.  What is an analytical engine?

   Definition-2 marks

The Analytical Engine was to be a general-purpose, fully program-controlled, automatic mechanical digital computer. It would be able to perform any calculation set before it. There is no evidence that anyone before Babbage had ever conceived of such a device, let alone attempted to build one.

3.List the various generations of computer with examples.

Generations of computers	Generations timeline	Evolving hardware
Second generation	1950s-1960s	Transistor based
Third generation	1960s-1970s	Integrated circuit based
Fourth generation	1970s-present	Microprocessor based
Fifth generation	The present and the future	Artificial intelligence based

Each generation- 1 mark each

4.Define protocol.

Ans: A protocol is a set of agreed-upon rules and procedures, such as what format to use, what data mean specifically, when should data be send, what are the numbers in the data mean exactly, their order, what commands exist/allowed, what error code are there and their meaning, etc.

5.What is a URL?

Ans: With Hypertext and HTTP, URL is one of the key concepts of the Web. It is the mechanism used by browsers to retrieve any published resource on the web.

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is nothing more than the address of a given unique resource on the Web. In theory, each valid URL points to a unique resource. Such resources can be an HTML page, a CSS document, an image, etc.

6.State the significance of Electronic Mail.

Ans: Short for electronic mail, e-mail or email is information stored on a computer that is exchanged between two users over telecommunications. Email is a message that may contain text, files, images or other attachments sent through a network to a specified individual or group of individuals.

Section B

Answer any 3 questions. Each question carries 5 marks.

7.What are the basic functions of an operating system?

An operating system is a piece of software that manages files, manages memory, manages processes, handles input and output, and controls peripheral devices like disk drives and printers, among other things.

·         It controls all the computer resources.

·         It provides valuable services to user programs.

·         It coordinates the execution of user programs.

·         It provides resources for user programs.

·         It provides an interface (virtual machine) to the user.

·         It hides the complexity of software.

·         It supports multiple execution modes.

·         It monitors the execution of user programs to prevent errors.

One function- 1 mark each

8. Compare LAN, WAN and MAN.

LAN stands for local area network. It is a group of network devices that allow communication between various connected devices. Private ownership has control over the local area network rather than the public. LAN has a short propagation delay than MAN as well as WAN. It covers smaller areas such as colleges, schools, hospitals, and so on. 

MAN stands for metropolitan area network. It covers a larger area than LAN such as small towns, cities, etc. MAN connects two or more computers that reside within the same or completely different cities. MAN is expensive and should or might not be owned by one organization. 

WAN stands for wide area network. It covers a large area than LAN as well as a MAN such as country/continent etc. WAN is expensive and should or might not be owned by one organization. PSTN or satellite medium is used for wide area networks. 

Minimum 4 comparisons- 4 marks

Example- 1 mark

9.Explain about client server computing.

Ans: The client-server model is a distributed communication framework of network processes among service requestors, clients and service providers. The client-server connection is established through a network or the internet.

 The client-server model is a core network computing concept also building functionality for email exchange and Web/database access. Web technologies and protocols built around the client-server model are:

·         Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP)

·         Domain Name System(DNS)

·         Simple Mail Transfer Protocol(SMTP)

·         Telnet  

1010.  Compare Internet and Intranet.

Ans:

Intranet	Internet
Localized Network	Worldwide network
Doesn’t have access to Intranet	Have access to Internet
More Expensive	Less Expensive
More Safe	Less Safe
More Reliability	Less Reliability

                                                             Section C

Answer any 1 question. The question carries 15 marks

11.(a)Write an essay on the classification of computers.

    4 classifications with explanations- 8 marks

 Micro computers

A micro computer contains Micro processor, a CPU on a single silicon chip i.e., 8088, 8086 etc. It has limited internal memory and is relatively slow. Its rate of acceptance and transfer of data is a maximum of 5 lake bytes/second. It is small, portable, inexpensive occupies less space and consumes very less power. Personal Computers (PC) are the best example of this kind.

2. Mini computersA mini computer is bigger than a micro-computer and smaller than a mainframe. It has a medium speed processor; more internal memory capacity compared to micros and can support all high level languages. It can perform most tasks that a mainframe can do.

 

1.    Mainframe

These are huge machines with high speed configured with host processor and subordinate processors. They have large internal storage capacity i.e., about 10 mega words and support greater than 200 remote terminals. They are able to accept any high level language. But their main drawbacks are, very high cost, requirement of large space, very high electricity consumption, and high cost of maintenance. Their main uses are at government offices and research institutions.

4. Super computers

Supercomputers are more powerful than mainframes and can process several hundreds or even thousands million instructions per second. They are designed for high precision based application and have vast processing power applied in a narrow range. They are mostly used in research centers, complicated military and scientific jobs such as weather forecasting, cracking of enemy codes, predicting how a nuclear bomb will explode and designing missiles and jet fighters.

(b)Differentiate between mainframe and supercomputer.

    Comparison- 7 marks

S.NO	Supercomputer	Mainframe Computer
1.	Supercomputers are used for large and complex mathematical computations.	While Mainframe computers are used as a storage for large databases and serve as a maximum number of users simultaneously.
2.	Supercomputer’s speed is more than Mainframe computer. It can execute billions of instructions within a second.	Mainframe computer’s speed is comparatively less than Supercomputers. In these millions of instructions are executed simultaneously.
3.	Supercomputers are the largest computers.	Mainframe computers are smaller than supercomputers in size.
4.	Supercomputers are the costliest in the world.	Mainframe computers are less costly than supercomputers.
5.	In the present, the supercomputers have Linux and their variant operating systems.	While Mainframe computers can have multiple operating systems simultaneously.
6.	Super computers are mostly purpose-built for one or a few specific institutional tasks.	Mainframe computers are built to handle a large variety of tasks.
7.	Seymour Cray invents the Supercomputer.	The first successful mainframe computer is invented by IBM.
8.	Supercomputers can have a processing speed in the range of 100 to 900 MIPS.	Whereas Mainframe computers can have a processing speed in the range of 3-4 MIPS to as high as 100 MIPS.
9.	Supercomputers find their application in fields like nuclear weapon simulation, etc.	Mainframe computers find their application in fields such as finance, health, etc.

    

    12.Briefly explain about IP Addresses. Compare IPv4 and IPv6 addressing.

Ans: IP addresses:

IP addressing is based on the concept of hosts and networks. A host is essentially anything on the network that is capable of receiving and transmitting IP packets on the network, such as a workstation or a router. The hosts are connected together by one or more networks. The IP address of any host consists of its network address plus its own host address on the network. IP addressing unlike say IPX addressing, uses one address containing both network and host address. How much of the address is used for the network portion and how much for the host portion varies from network to network.

An IP address is 32 bits wide, and it is composed of two parts: the network number, and the host number[1,2,3]. By convention, it is expressed as four decimal numbers separated by periods, such as “200.1.2.3” representing the decimal value of each of the four bytes. Valid addresses thus range from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255, a total of about 4.3 billion addresses. The first few bits of the address indicate the Class that the address belongs to:

Class	Prefix	Network Number	Host Number
A	0	Bits 0-7	Bits 8-31
B	10	Bits 1-15	Bits 16-31
C	110	Bits 2-24	Bits 25-31
D	1110	N/A
E	1111	N/A

 

The bits are labelled in network order, so that the first bit is bit 0 and the last bit is bit 31, reading from left to right. Class D addresses are multicast, and Class E are reserved. The range of network numbers and host numbers may then be derived.

Class	Range of Net Numbers	Range of Host Numbers
A	0 to 126	0.0.1 to 255.255.254
B	128.0 to 191.255	0.1 to 255.254
C	192.0.0 to 254.255.255	1 to 254

 

Any address starting with 127 is a loop back address and should never be used for addressing outside the host. For example: 200.1.2.255 would indicate a broadcast over the 200.1.2 network. If the host number is 0, it indicates “this host”. If the network number is 0, it indicates “this network”

IPv4 has 32 bits wide whileIPv6 has 128 bits of address space.