Problems for Assignment #2

Learning Outcomes: 1) Learning more about the Computer System at the single box level; 2) learning more abut the C programming language; 3) learning the difference between a compiler and an assembler; 4) learning some of the names of the internal processor parts; 5) practicing some prelimiary conversions

Answers to the following questions can be found in the information on the course weekly pages for weeks one and two, or you can look them up on the Internet. If you do look up the answers, please include a link to the site from which you obtained each answer.

However, try to answer in your own words from your head knowledge because that will help you to really remember the answers rather than just regurgitating them for a grade.

  1. What is a computer system?
  2. What are some of the parts of a computer system?
  3. What is the difference between a compiled language and an intepreted language?
  4. Is C a compiled language?
  5. Who invented the C language?
  6. How long has C been in use?
  7. Is a compiler a translator?
  8. Is an assembler a translator?
  9. What is the command to list out the contents of a directory on a mac terminal window?
  10. What does the C function atof() do?
  11. What are the bottom two layers of a computer system? Give a brief desciption of each.
  12. What are the three steps of the Von Neumann Architecture?
  13. What is the purpose of an ALU?
  14. What is a register?
  15. What is one difference between Application software and System software?
  16. Is the phrase cmp rdi, rsi machine language?
  17. How many buses are included in the system bus?
  18. What is the decimal value of 100101112?
  19. What is the decimal value of 111111112?
  20. What is the largest unsigned integer value that will fit into 16 bits?