1. Information representation
When dealing with binary numbers, many IT professionals prefer to use hexadecimal rather than decimal notations. They claim that it is easier to convert from binary to hexadecimal than to decimal. Do you agree with this claim? If so, explain why. If not, explain why not. Be specific. Explain and justify your answer.
2. Computer architecture
Write a Little Man Computer program that accepts two numbers as input and prints the smaller of the two numbers. Please comment each line of your code so that it becomes clear what it does. The comment itself is worth 5 points (without comments 5 points will be deducted.) See example in Figure 6.2 on page 186 of the Englander textbook on how to comment your code, which is called instruction description.
3. Operating system
What is context switching in operating system terminology? Be verbose. Explain and justify your answer. When one saves the PCB from the previous thread of execution and loads the new PCB into memory from the new thread of execution
4. Input/ output and operating system
In many systems, some interrupts are maskable. Why is it necessary to mask an interrupt? Explain and justify your answer.
5. Input/output
A published page contains 50 lines. Each line contains 100 characters. Each character is represented by an 8 bit ASCII. How many published pages can fit into 100 MB flash memory?
Source:
The Architecture of Computer Hardware and System Software: An Information Technology Approach, 4th Edition