Review Questions on
"WIntel" Computer
Hardware

© 1999 Charles Abzug

 

 

  1. What is the difference between the earlier Interrupt Address Table and the (current) Interrupt Descriptor Table?

    2.  

  2. Calculate the bandwidth of each of the following buses:

    3. Bus Name

    Cycle Rate

    (MHz)

    Width

    (bits)

    Bandwidth

    (MB/sec)

    Original PC

    4.77

    8

     

    PC/AT (ISA)

    8.33

    8 or 16

     

    Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)

    20 or 40

    16 or 32

     

    EISA

    8.33

    32

     

    VESA Local (VL)

    33.33

    32

     

    PCI (early version)

    33.33

    32

     

    PCI (later version)

    66.66

    64

     

    Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)

    133.33

    64

     

     

  3. What operations are performed on a floppy disk by the formatting program?

    4.  

  4. What additional operations are carried out if the floppy disk is formatted as Bootable?

    5.  

  5. What are the principal performance areas that can lead to floppy drive malfunction?

    6.  

  6. Calculate the capacity of each of the following hard disk drives:

    7.  

    Number

    of Tracks

    Number

    of Heads

    Sectors/

    Track

    Bytes

    Mbytes

    Gbytes

    855

    7

    17

     

     

     

    1,024

    5

    26

     

     

     

    900

    15

    17

     

     

     

    1,023

    15

    17

     

     

     

    4,096

    18

    72

     

     

     

     

  7. What is zone bit recording?

    8.  

  8. What are the three modes in which BIOS can support a hard drive?

    9.  

  9. What are the three principal commands of the DEBUG utility, and what does each of them do?

    10.  

  10. For each disk drive, calculate the number of clusters and the size of the FAT.

 

Number

of Tracks

Number

of Heads

Sectors/

Track

Bytes

Cluster Size

# of

Clusters

Sectors

in FAT

855

7

17

52,093,440

2,048

 

 

1,024

5

26

68,157,440

2,048

 

 

900

15

34

235,007,968

4,096

 

 

2,048

15

34

1,069,567,520

16,384

 

 

4,096

15

64

2,013,265,920

32,768

 

 

 

 

 

Answers to Selected Questions:

 

  1. What is the difference between the earlier Interrupt Address Table and the (current) Interrupt Descriptor Table?

    2. Answer: See Andrews page 122.

     

  2. Calculate the bandwidth of each of the following buses:

    3. Answer:

    Bus Name

    Cycle Rate

    (MHz)

    Width

    (bits)

    Bandwidth

    (MB/sec)

    Original PC

    4.77

    8

    2.39

    PC/AT (ISA)

    8.33

    8 or 16

    8.33 or 16.66

    Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)

    20 or 40

    16 or 32

     

    EISA

    8.33

    32

    33.33

    VESA Local (VL)

    33.33

    32

    133.33

    PCI (early version)

    33.33

    32

    133.33

    PCI (later version)

    66.66

    64

    533.33

    Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)

    133.33

    64

    1,066.66

     

  3. What operations are performed on a floppy disk by the formatting program?

    4. Answer:

    Delimits and marks Tracks and Sectors (all written with F6h).

    Creates the master boot record.

    Creates the File Allocation Table (FAT) ? two copies.

    Creates the root directory.

     

  4. What additional operations are carried out if the floppy disk is formatted as Bootable?

    5. Answer:

    For DOS/Windows3.1/3.11/95/98, three files are also copied to the disk:

    MSDOS.SYS

    IO.SYS

    COMMAND.COM

     

  5. What are the principal performance areas that can lead to floppy drive malfunction?

    6. Answer:

    Azimuth skew

    Hub Centering

    Hysteresis

    Radial Alignment

    Rotational Speed

    Sensitivity

     

  6. Calculate the capacity of each of the following hard disk drives:

    7. Answer:

    Number

    of Tracks

    Number

    of Heads

    Sectors/

    Track

    Bytes

    Mbytes

    Gbytes

    855

    7

    17

    52,093,440

    49.68

     

    1,024

    5

    26

    68,157,440

    65

     

    900

    15

    17

    117,503,984

    112.06

     

    1,023

    15

    17

    133,562,868

    127.4

     

    4,096

    18

    72

    2,717,908,992

    2,592

    2.53

     

  7. What is zone bit recording?

    8. Answer: See Andrews, page 198.

     

  8. What are the three modes in which BIOS can support a hard drive?

    9. Answer: CHS or Normal Mode, Large Mode, and LBA (Logical Block Address) Mode

     

  9. What are the three principal commands of the DEBUG utility, and what does each of them do?

    10. Answer: Load, Dump, Enter, and Write. For explanation of their usage, see Andrews’ Table 5-1 on page 203.

     

  10. For each disk drive, calculate the number of clusters and the size of the FAT.

Answer:

Number

of Tracks

Number

of Heads

Sectors/

Track

Bytes

Cluster Size

# of

Clusters

Sectors

in FAT

855

7

17

52,093,440

2,048

25,437*

100

1,024

5

26

68,157,440

2,048

33,280

130

900

15

34

235,007,968

4,096

57,375

225

2,048

15

34

1,069,567,520

16,384

32,640

128

4,096

15

64

2,013,265,920

32,768

61,440

240

 

 

 

Last revised 03 Jan 2000