A1.1 Computer hardware and operation questions for IB Computer Science
95 questions on Computer hardware and operation, written by Augment in the style of IB exam papers. Six of them are below in full, to answer on paper.
- IB Computer Science
- Part of A1 Computer fundamentals
- SL and HL
Questions by paper and level
SL and HL questions are for students at either level. HL only questions cover what only HL students study.
| Paper | SL and HL | HL only | All |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | 74 | 21 | 95 |
Counted on
Questions to try
Written by Augment in the style of IB exams, not past papers. Answer them on paper, then check each one against its markscheme with a free account.
A games studio uses deep learning to generate realistic textures for its game worlds. Training each model involves billions of multiplications on large grids of numbers. The studio's lead engineer insists that the training machines are fitted with GPUs.
- (a)
State what the abbreviation GPU stands for.
1 mark
- (b)
Explain why GPUs are better suited than CPUs to training these deep learning models.
3 marks
- (c)
Outline one reason why the studio's computers still need a CPU.
2 marks
A warehouse security camera records colour video. Each frame is an uncompressed bitmap of 1280 × 720 pixels with a colour depth of 24 bits. In this question, 1 MB = 1 000 000 bytes.
- (a)
Calculate the size, in MB, of one frame.
3 marks
- (b)
The camera records 25 frames per second. Calculate the storage needed for 10 seconds of this uncompressed video.
2 marks
- (c)
The manager suggests reducing the colour depth to 8 bits. Explain the effect of this change on the storage needed and on the recorded images.
3 marks
- (d)
Outline how a video file represents moving images in binary.
2 marks
- (e)
The company decides to compress the footage. Identify whether lossy or lossless compression is more suitable, and justify your choice.
2 marks
A film streaming service stores its films in Full HD: 1920 × 1080 pixels per frame, 24-bit colour, at 30 frames per second.
- (a)
State what is meant by the frame rate of a video.
1 mark
- (b)
Calculate the size, in bytes, of one uncompressed frame.
2 marks
- (c)
Calculate the data rate, in bits per second, of the uncompressed video (ignore sound).
2 marks
- (d)
Explain why the service must compress its films before streaming them to customers.
3 marks
- (e)
Outline how the soundtrack of a film is stored alongside the frames.
2 marks
A software company sells a video-conversion tool as a compiled executable for laptops with x86 processors. Many customers have moved to laptops with ARM processors and report that the executable will not run.
- (a)
Explain why the executable built for x86 laptops cannot run directly on the ARM laptops.
3 marks
- (b)
Suggest how the company could supply the tool to both groups of customers, and one cost of your suggestion.
2 marks
A small games studio is building a racing game for PCs, games consoles and mobile phones. The team has eight programmers and a strict release date.
- (a)
State one type of error that a compiler can detect before the game is run.
1 mark
- (b)
Outline why a compiler cannot guarantee that the game is free of errors.
2 marks
- (c)
The studio considers compiling the game separately for each platform.
Compare compiling the game for each platform with distributing bytecode that runs on a virtual machine on each platform.
4 marks
- (d)
Explain how a just-in-time compiler in the virtual machine could narrow the speed gap with natively compiled code during a long race.
3 marks
- (e)
Mobile phone app stores for one platform do not allow apps to generate and run new machine code at run time.
Discuss the implications of this rule for the studio's choice of translation method.
4 marks
A bike-share kiosk has a touchscreen computer that customers use to unlock bikes. Its CPU contains several registers.
- (a)
State the purpose of the program counter (PC).
1 mark
- (b)
State the purpose of the memory address register (MAR).
1 mark
- (c)
Distinguish between the memory address register (MAR) and the memory data register (MDR).
2 marks
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More questions in Computer fundamentals
- A1.1Computer hardware and operationThis page
- A1.2Data representation and computer logic
- A1.3Operating systems and control systems
- A1.4TranslationHL only
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