Cambridge International AS & A Level

* 4 9 7 1 7 0 3 6 1 7 *

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9618/32

1 hour 30 minutes

You must answer on the question paper.

No additional materials are needed.

INSTRUCTIONS
● Answer all questions.
● Use a black or dark blue pen.
● Write your name, centre number and candidate number in the boxes at the top of the page.
● Write your answer to each question in the space provided.
● Do not use an erasable pen or correction fluid.
● Do not write on any bar codes.
● You may use an HB pencil for any diagrams, graphs or rough working.
● Calculators must not be used in this paper.

INFORMATION
● The total mark for this paper is 75.
● The number of marks for each question or part question is shown in brackets [ ].
● No marks will be awarded for using brand names of software packages or hardware.

12 pages.
This document has 16

DC (DE) 352034/4
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1 Real numbers are stored in a computer system using floating-point representation with:

• 10 bits for the mantissa

(a) Calculate the normalised floating-point representation of –7.25 in this system. Show your
working.

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(b) Calculate the denary value of the given binary floating-point number. Show your working.

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2 Numbers are stored in two different computer systems by using floating-point

System 1 uses:

• 10 bits for the mantissa

System 2 uses:

• 8 bits for the mantissa

(a) Calculate the normalised floating-point representation of 113.75 and show how it would be
represented in each of these two systems.
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(b) Explain the problem that occurred in part (a) when representing the number in system 2.

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3 (a) Outline why protocols are essential for communication between computers.

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(b) State the names of two different protocols associated with the sending and receiving of
emails between computers.

Sending ....................................................................................................................................

Receiving .................................................................................................................................. [2]

(c) Explain the meaning of the phrase: BitTorrent protocol provides peer-to-peer file sharing.

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4 (a) State two examples of where it would be appropriate to use packet switching.

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(b) Give four differences between circuit switching and packet switching.

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5 Outline the characteristics of massively parallel computers.

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6 Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC) and Complex Instruction Set Computers (CISC)
are two types of processor.

(a) State two features of RISC processors.

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(b) Outline the process of interrupt handling as it could be applied to RISC or CISC processors.

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(c) Explain how pipelining affects interrupt handling for RISC processors.
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67 Mahmoud is developing a new application, MyApp, that needs to work with three different
operating systems (OS1, OS2 and OS3).

He has decided to use virtual machine software to test MyApp with these three different operating
systems.

The diagram shows MyApp running on three virtual machines.

MyApp MyApp MyApp

OS1 OS2 OS3

Virtual machine software

OS4

Hardware

(a) Describe the roles of the four operating systems (OS1, OS2, OS3 and OS4) shown in the
diagram.

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(b) Describe the role of the virtual machine software in the testing of MyApp.

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(c) Explain one benefit and one drawback of this approach to testing MyApp.

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8 A declarative programming language is used to represent some facts about people and their
hobbies.

01 hobby(music).
02 hobby(caving).
03 hobby(climbing).
04 hobby(camping).
05 hobby(baking).
06 hobby(travelling).
07 person(toby).
08 person(natasha).
09 person(fatima).
10 person(joseph).
11 person(elijah).
12 person(nina).
13 enjoys(natasha, travelling).
14 enjoys(toby, climbing).
15 enjoys(nina, climbing).
16 enjoys(elijah, camping).
17 enjoys(fatima, baking).
18 enjoys(joseph, camping).
19 dislikes(toby, caving).

These clauses have the meanings:

(a) Carlos is a person who enjoys the hobby of cycling but does not like music. Write additional
clauses to represent this information.

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(b) Using the variable P, the goal:

enjoys(P, camping)

returns

P = elijah, joseph

Write the result returned by the goal: enjoys(P, climbing) P =

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(c) N is a person who might enjoy H if H is a hobby and N does not dislike H.

Write this as a rule.

might_enjoy(N, H) IF

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(a) State three essential features of recursion.

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10 (a) Define these Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) terms:

Instance ....................................................................................................................................

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(b) In OOP, a class contains attributes and methods.

Complete the pseudocode for the class Car to enable objects to be created. The class needs to
include:

• string attributes to store the make, model, body type and fuel type
• an integer attribute to store the number of cars of that type built.

The attributes must be available only through the methods of the class.

CLASS .....................................

PRIVATE Make : STRING

PRIVATE ................................................................

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PUBLIC PROCEDURE New(CarMake : STRING, ................................................... ,

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Make ← ......................................

Model ← ......................................

BodyType ← CarBodyType

Fuel ← ""

NumberBuilt ← 0

ENDPROCEDURE

GetFuel()

GetNumberBuilt()

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11 A program is to be written using Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) for a shop that sells
knitting yarn. There are three types of yarn: acrylic, wool or mix.

The following data are stored for each type.

• Name
• Colour
• Batch code
• Weight
• Number of balls of yarn in stock (can be edited)
• Type of yarn

The following statements apply to yarn.

Acrylic can be soft or not soft.

• Wool can be lamb, merino or alpaca.

Each type of yarn has a method that will display all the information about the yarn.

(a) Complete this class inheritance diagram to show the properties, methods and inheritance.
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