Cambridge International AS & A Level

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

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9618/12

Paper 1 Theory Fundamentals October/November 2023

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.

This document has 16 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (DE/FC) 318301/3
© UCLES 2023 [Turn over
 2

1 A factory makes chocolate bars.

The factory uses a conveyor belt that moves the products from one stage of production to the next
stage.

(a) An automated system counts the number of chocolate bars made at the end of production.

The system includes a sensor positioned above the conveyor belt.

Identify one appropriate type of sensor that can be used.

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(b) A second automated system removes chocolate bars with an incorrect weight from the
production line.

Describe the role of an actuator in this second system.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

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

(c) The factory has many different machines with embedded systems.

(i) Identify two features of embedded systems.

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

...........................................................................................................................................

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

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

(ii) Identify one drawback of embedded systems.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23

 3

BLANK PAGE

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23 [Turn over

 4

2 (a) State what is meant by the following terms in a relational database model.

Entity .........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Primary key ...............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Referential integrity ...................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[3]

(b) Authentication is one method a Database Management System (DBMS) can use to improve
the security of a database.

Describe other methods that a DBMS can use to improve the security of a database.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [4]

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23

 5

(c) The following database table is not normalised.

StudentName DateOfBirth TutorGroup Subject SubjectCode

English, Maths,
Yuwei Chen 01/09/2004 SMH EN, MA, CS
Computer Science
Claudia Raj 23/02/2005 JMB Maths, Physics, Art MA, PY, AR
Art, Design, English
Aamil Akram 24/01/2005 KMB AR, DE, EN
language
English language,
Areeba Faraz 21/12/2004 SMH EN, CH, DE
Chemistry, Design

Explain how to modify the table to put it into First Normal Form (1NF).

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [4]

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23 [Turn over

 6

3 (a) State one difference between a kibibyte and a megabyte.

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(b) (i) Convert the denary value into a 12-bit two’s complement binary integer.

−196

Answer ........................................................................................................................ [1]

(ii) Convert the Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) into denary.

100001100101

Answer ........................................................................................................................ [1]

(iii) Convert the unsigned binary integer into denary.

000111010110

Answer ........................................................................................................................ [1]

(c) Identify one practical application of BCD and justify why BCD is used in this application.

Application ................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Justification ...............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

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

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23

 7

4 (a) Write the Boolean expression that corresponds to the following logic circuit.

A
B
X

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [3]

(b) Complete the truth table for the logic expression:

X = A XOR (B AND (A NAND 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
[2]

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23 [Turn over

 8

5 (a) State the meaning of privacy of data.

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(b) State the meaning of integrity of data.

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(c) Describe the following threats to a computer system.

Phishing email ..........................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Spyware ....................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[4]

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23

 9

6 (a) A real-time video of a music concert needs to be streamed to subscribers.

Tick (✓) one box to identify the most appropriate type of compression and justify your answer.

Lossy Lossless

Justification ...............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [3]

(b) Explain the impact of changing the sampling resolution on the accuracy of a sound recording.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [3]

(c) A bitmap image has a resolution of 2048 pixels wide and 1024 pixels high.

The image has a bit depth of 10 bits per pixel.

Estimate the file size of the bitmap image in mebibytes. Show your working.

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

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Estimated file size in mebibytes ...............................................................................................

[2]

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23 [Turn over

 10

7 A Local Area Network (LAN) contains four devices:

• a router
• two laptop computers
• a server.

(a) The server has the IP address 192.168.3.2

Explain why this is not an IPv6 address.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

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

(b) (i) The LAN is set up as a star topology.

Draw a diagram of the topology of the LAN.

[2]

(ii) Explain how data is transmitted between the two laptops in the LAN.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

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

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23

 11

(iii) Subnetting can be used to separate a network into logical segments.

Describe two other reasons why subnetting is used in a network.

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

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

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

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[4]

(c) State three tasks performed by devices to deal with collisions when using the Carrier Sense
Multiple Access / Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol in a network.

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

...................................................................................................................................................

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

...................................................................................................................................................

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

...................................................................................................................................................
[3]

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23 [Turn over

 12

(d) The following incomplete table contains types of IP addresses and their descriptions.

Complete the table by writing the missing types of IP addresses and the missing descriptions.

Type of IP address Description

................................................................ an IP address that is assigned to a device

to allow direct access on the internet
................................................................

................................................................

................................................................
static IP address
................................................................

................................................................

................................................................ an IP address used for internal LAN

communication only
................................................................

................................................................

................................................................
dynamic IP address
................................................................

................................................................
[4]

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23

 13

8 A computer has an Operating System (OS).

(a) State one purpose of the Operating System.

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [1]

(b) The Operating System has utility software.

The purpose of some utility software is to improve security.

Identify one example of utility software that is not intended to improve security.

Explain why this software is needed.

Utility software ..........................................................................................................................

Explanation ...............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[3]

(c) An optical disc reader/writer is connected to the computer.

(i) Give the name of one port that can provide a connection for the optical disc reader/writer.

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Describe the roles of the address bus, the data bus and buffers in the process of writing
data to the optical disc reader/writer.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [3]

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23 [Turn over

 14

9 The following table shows part of the instruction set for a processor. The processor has two
registers, the Accumulator (ACC) and the Index Register (IX).

Instruction
Explanation
Opcode Operand
Direct addressing. Load the contents of the location at the given
LDD <address>
address to ACC
Indexed addressing. Form the address from <address> +
LDX <address> the contents of the index register. Copy the contents of this
calculated address to ACC
LDR #n Immediate addressing. Load the number n to IX
STO <address> Store the contents of ACC at the given address
ADD #n Add the denary number n to the ACC
JMP <address> Jump to the given address
INC <register> Add 1 to the contents of the register (ACC or IX)
CMP <address> Compare the contents of ACC with the contents of <address>
Indirect addressing. The address to be used is at the given
CMI <address> address. Compare the contents of ACC with the contents of this
second address
Following a compare instruction, jump to <address> if the
JPE <address>
compare was True
IN Key in a character and store its ASCII value in ACC
Output to the screen the character whose ASCII value is stored
OUT
in ACC
END Return control to the operating system
<address> can be an absolute or a symbolic address
# denotes a denary number, e.g. #123

(a) The instructions in the processor’s instruction set can be grouped according to their function.

Identify the instruction group for each of the following opcodes.

IN ..............................................................................................................................................

ADD ............................................................................................................................................

JPE ............................................................................................................................................

CMI ............................................................................................................................................
[4]

(b) The current contents of main memory and selected values from the ASCII character set are
given on page 15.

Trace the program currently in memory using the trace table when the input is ‘1’.

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23

 15

Address Instruction Instruction Memory address Output

ACC IX
10 LDR #0 address 100 101 110 111
11 IN 0 0 51 65
12 STO 101
13 LDX 110
14 CMP 100
15 JPE 21
16 LDD 101
17 ADD #16
18 INC IX
19 STO 100
20 JMP 13
21 OUT
22 END

...

100 0
101 0

...

110 51
111 65

ASCII
Character
value
49 1
50 2
51 3
[4]
52 4

...

65 A
66 B
67 C
68 D

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23

 16

BLANK PAGE

Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2023 9618/12/O/N/23