Computer Science (A Level)

H046/01, Computing Principles, June 2016

Learning Computer Science
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original. Duration: 75 mins

Candidates answer on the Question Paper.

A calculator may be used in this paper.

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• Pencil
• Ruler (cm/mm)

Candidate Candidate
forename surname

Centre number Candidate number

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
• Write your name, centre number and candidate number in the boxes above. Please write clearly and in capital letters.
• Use black ink. HB pencil may be used for graphs and diagrams only.
• Answer all the questions.
• Read each question carefully. Make sure you know what you have to do before starting your answer.
• Where space is provided below the question, please write your answer there.
• You may use additional paper, or a specific Answer sheet if one is provided, but you must clearly show your candidate number, centre number
and question number(s).

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

• The quality of written communication is assessed in questions marked with a pencil or an asterisk.
• The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.
• The total number of marks for this paper is 70.

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 Answer all the questions.

1(a). See And Believe is a company that specialises in computer-generated imagery (CGI) for films.

Producing CGI requires lots of processing power and so the company has a large number of
high-performance computers.

Explain why See And Believe would use a distributed operating system.

[3]

(b). The processors in the company's powerful computers have fast clock speeds and large
amounts of cache memory. Describe how each of these improves a the processor's
performance:

i. fast clock speed

[2]

ii. large cache memory

[2]

(c). * The company is working on scenes from the latest Stellar Scuffles film. There is strict security
around the film, and there are worries about unauthorised people gaining access to the
company's network and putting clips from the film on the Internet.

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 Discuss to what extent each of the following laws is intended to address the issue of someone
accessing and distributing clips of the film online:

• the Computer Misuse Act

• the Copyright Design and Patents Act
• the Data Protection Act.

[9]

2(a). Elegant Bags is a company that makes designer handbags. It has decided it wants to sell its
products online.

Elegant Bags puts its website on its servers which are given a public IP address. It also
purchases the domain name elegantbagsonline.co.uk.

Explain the automated process that takes place that allows customers to access the site when
they enter the domain name into their browser.

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 [3]

(b). The company's handbags come in a variety of materials. It would like visitors to its website to
be able to select different materials in their browser and for the image shown to then instantly
change to one of a handbag made of the selected material.

Explain how the website developer would implement this. You are not expected to write any
code.

[4]

(c). Elegant Bags prides itself on its ethical reputation.

i. State one ethical issue the company may have considered when designing its website.

[1]

ii. State one action the company could take to address the ethical issue identified in part
(i).

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 [1]

3(a). A burglar alarm runs on a processor with the Little Man Computer (LMC) instruction set.

One of the instructions in the set is Branch if Positive (BRP ).

Describe what the instruction BRP does.

[2]

(b). A numeric PIN code entered into the burglar alarm is compared with the code stored at the
memory location passcode.

If the codes match, the program jumps to the part of the program labelled deactivate.

If the codes do not match, the program jumps to the part of the program labelled alarm.

Write the LMC code to meet the requirements above. (You don't have to write the code for
labels deactivate and alarm, as you can assume this has already been written elsewhere.)

[4]

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4(a). A programmer spends her spare time contributing to an open source application that converts
video files from a range of formats to one which uses lossy compression.

Describe what is meant by the term ‘open source software’.

[2]

(b). Describe what is meant by the term ‘lossy compression’.

[2]

(c). When a video is selected, the program gives an estimate of the file size of the converted video.
The estimate in kilobytes is calculated by multiplying:

• the number of pixels in the video's resolution by…

• the number of frames per second by…
• the length of the video in minutes by…
• the value 0.0013.

Write a function in pseudocode that estimates the size of a converted video. It should:take in 3
parameters: pixels, framesPerSec, lengthMins

• calculate the estimated file size

• return a string with the file size, including units
• use megabytes for sizes under 1000 megabytes, otherwise the estimate should be given
in gigabytes.

Examples:

• 480000 pixels at 24 frames per second for 60 minutes will return a size of 898.56 MB
• 480000 pixels at 24 frames per second for 120 minutes will return a size of 1.797 GB.

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 [4]

(d). The coding team are looking at writing a new closed source version of the application that
converts audio and image files in addition to video. They intend to sell copies of the program
when it is complete. They investigate three programming languages they could use, including:

• C++, which is compiled to machine code

• Java, which compiles to an intermediate code that then runs off a virtual machine
• JavaScript, which runs from an interpreter in a web browser.

* Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the three options above and justify which option you
would recommend.

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 [9]

5(a). Give the number 55 in binary as an 8-bit unsigned integer.

[2]

(b). Represent the number 55 in normalised floating point binary notation, using 8 bits for the
mantissa followed by 8 bits for the exponent, both in two's complement binary.

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 [2]

(c). Represent the number 55 in normalised floating point binary notation, with the mantissa and
exponent both in two's complement binary, using as few bits as possible.

[2]

(d). State why a programmer might choose to declare a variable as a floating point number.

[1]

6(a). An insurance company's offices have a large number of black and white printers.

The company's technicians keep accurate records of the printers in the building, and the
quantity of toner cartridges in stock, in a flat file database. An extract of the database is shown
in Fig. 1.

Printer Cartridge Quantity

Location Notes Re-order URL
Model Code in stock
LasPrint www.megacheapprint.com /
office 3 LP-7XB 12
LP753 toner / LP-7XB
LasPrint drum www.megacheapprint.com /
office 6 LP-7XB 12
LP710 replaced toner / LP-7XB
Zodiac www.zodiaclaserprinting.com /
reception Zod17 4
ZN217 shop / Z17
Zodiac conference had to add www.megacheapprint.com /
Zod17 4
ZN217 Room 2 RAM toner / LP-7XB
LasPrint www.megacheapprint.com /
office 8 LP-7XB 12
LP753 toner / LP-7XB

Fig. 1

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 Describe two issues, referring to Fig. 1, that might arise from using a flat file database
structure.

[4]

(b). A relational database is created with three tables:

• PrinterModel: this stores all the data about each model of printer
• PrinterInstance: this stores the data about each individual printer in the building
• Cartridge: this stores information about the toner cartridges.

Draw an entity-relationship diagram to show the relationships between the three tables.

[4]

(c). Most of the pPrinters have their own on-board RAM.

State what the printers' RAM is used for.

[1]
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7. A DIY store has an offer: ‘Spend £20 or more on decorating products and get 10% off all
gardening products.’

When items are scanned in at the checkout they are stored in a 2-dimensional array called
purchases, which stores the item name, category and price.

A receipt with the appropriate discounts deducted is then produced.

Examples of the array and corresponding receipt are shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

Write an algorithm in pseudocode, using the array purchases, to:

• determine which items are given a discount

• calculate the total price to pay
• present this information on a receipt in the format shown in Fig. 3.

[6]

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 END OF QUESTION PAPER

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