Cambridge International Examinations

Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level

* 6 1 8 6 1 5 1 0 2 7 *

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9618

Paper 1 Theory Fundamentals November 2020
1 hour 10 minutes
Candidates answer on the Question Paper.
No Additional Materials are required.
No calculators allowed.

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

Write your Centre number, candidate number and name in the spaces at the top of this page.
Write in dark blue or black pen.
You may use an HB pencil for any diagrams, graphs or rough working.
Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid.
DO NOT WRITE IN ANY BARCODES.

Answer all questions.

No marks will be awarded for using brand names of software packages or hardware.

At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.

The maximum number of marks is 70.

DC (NH/SW) 144489/2
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1 A Local Area Network (LAN) consists of three computers, one server and a router connected to
the Internet. The LAN uses a bus topology.

(a) Complete the following diagram to show how the computers, the server and the router could
be connected.

Router

Server Computer
A

Internet

Computer Computer
B C
[2]

(b) There are four statements in the following table. For each statement, place a tick (3) in the
appropriate column to indicate whether it is true or false.

Statement True False

The server can send packets to Computer B and the router at the
same time.
Computer C uses the IP address of a web server to send a request for
a web page on the web server.
Computer B can read a packet sent from Computer A to Computer C.
The server can read all incoming packets from the Internet.
[4]

(c) The user on Computer A and the user on Computer B are both using the Internet at the
same time. On a few occasions, Computer A and Computer B start transmitting packets
to the router at exactly the same time. This causes a problem called a collision.

Explain what is meant by a collision in this context.

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2 Computer A needs to access a web page.

(a) State how Computer A could access the web page without using a Domain Name Service
(DNS).

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(b) (i) The following table shows four IPv6 addresses.

State if each address is valid or invalid.

IP address Valid or invalid

21E5:69AA:FFFF:1:E100:B691:1285:F56E

::255.255.255.255

59FB::1005:CC57:6571

56FE::2159:5BBC::6594

[4]

(ii) The following table shows four statements about either public or private IP addresses.

Tick (3) one box in each row to indicate whether each statement refers to a public or a
private IP address.

Statement Public Private

192.168.2.1 is an example of this type of address

Assigned by the Internet Service Provider (ISP)

IP address cannot be duplicated in different

networks
Network Address Translation (NAT) is necessary
to access the Internet directly
[4]

(c) One type of transmission media is copper cable.

Give two additional types of transmission media.

1 ................................................................................................................................................

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

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3 Four communication media and five features are shown.

Draw one or more lines from each communication media to the appropriate feature(s).

Communication media Feature

Can be twisted pair or co-axial

Fibre-optic cable

Transmits light pulses

Radio waves

Large range of wavelengths

Copper cable

Least likely to have interference

Satellite

Wireless transmission

[6]

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4 (a) The Accumulator is a register. The current contents of the Accumulator are:

1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1

The current contents of the Accumulator represent an unsigned binary integer.

(i) Convert the value in the Accumulator into denary.

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(ii) Convert the value in the Accumulator into hexadecimal.

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(iii) The current contents of the Accumulator represent a two’s complement binary integer.

Convert the value in the Accumulator into denary.

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(b) The binary integer represents a character from the computer’s character set.

(i) Define the term character set.

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(ii) Explain the differences between the ASCII and Unicode character sets.

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(iii) The ASCII code for ‘A’ is 41 in hexadecimal.

Calculate the ASCII code in hexadecimal for ‘Z’. Show your working.

Working .............................................................................................................................

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ASCII code in hexadecimal for ‘Z’ .....................................................................................

[2]

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5 A student has recorded a sound track for a short film.

(a) Explain how an analogue sound wave is sampled to convert it into digital format.

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(b) Explain the effects of increasing the sampling resolution on the sound file.

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(c) The original sound was sampled at 44.1 kHz. The sample rate is changed to 22.05 kHz.

Explain the effects of this change on the sound file.

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6 (a) A student needs to design a logic circuit to model the requirements for membership of a
snooker club. Membership (X) depends on four criteria, as shown in the table:

Description of Binary
Parameter Condition
parameter value
1 True
A Over 18
0 False
1 True
B Recommended
0 False
1 True
C Full-time
0 False
1 True
D Retired
0 False

Membership is approved (X = 1) if the person:

• is over the age of 18 and has been recommended by a pre-existing member and
• either is working full-time or is retired, but not both.

Draw a logic circuit to represent the membership requirements.

[3]

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(b) Complete the truth table for the logic expression: X = (A XOR B) AND NOT C

A B C Working space X

0 0 0

0 0 1

0 1 0

0 1 1

1 0 0

1 0 1

1 1 0

1 1 1
[4]

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7 A zoo has a computer system for the visitors to access multimedia content about the zoo and its
animals.

(a) The users interact with the computer system through touchscreens.

Describe the internal operation of a touchscreen.

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(b) (i) Give one output device, other than a touchscreen, that may be part of this computer
system.

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(ii) Give two input devices, other than a touchscreen, that may be part of this computer
system. State how each device will be used by the visitors.

Device 1 .............................................................................................................................

Use ....................................................................................................................................

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Device 2 .............................................................................................................................

Use ....................................................................................................................................

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[4]

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(c) Give the most appropriate secondary storage device for this computer system.

Describe two reasons for your choice.

Device .......................................................................................................................................

Reason 1 ...................................................................................................................................

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Reason 2 ...................................................................................................................................

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[5]

(d) This computer system has Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM).

State what will be stored in RAM and ROM for this computer system.

RAM ..........................................................................................................................................

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ROM ..........................................................................................................................................

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[2]

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8 Ava needs to view a website and she knows the Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

(a) Complete the series of steps that take place.

Write the letter of the appropriate statement in each space.

A DNS finds corresponding IP

B DNS looks up URL in table

C Ava types the URL into a web browser

1 ..................................................

2 Web browser sends URL to Domain Name Service (DNS)

3 ..................................................

4 ..................................................

5 DNS returns IP address to web browser

[2]

(b) (i) An IPv4 address has been entered as 12.258.3

Give two reasons why this IP address is invalid.

1 .........................................................................................................................................

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2 .........................................................................................................................................

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[2]

(ii) An IPv6 address has been entered as 15EF:5L63::2014:BB::60AA

Give two reasons why this IP address is invalid.

1 .........................................................................................................................................

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2 .........................................................................................................................................

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[2]

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