Exploring IT Theory Grade 12 Hardware and Performance Review

Flashcards covering computer performance, buses, ports, storage technologies, graphics processing, CPU acceleration techniques, and mobile technology constraints from Grade 12 IT Theory.

What determines the total amount of memory a computer system can address?

The size of the address bus determines the addressable memory. For example, a 32-bit address bus can address $2^{32}$ ($4,294,967,296$) memory locations, which equals $4\,\text{GB}$ of addressable memory space if each location holds one byte.

What are the data transfer rates for the USB 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 standards?

USB 1.0 Low-Speed runs at $1.5\,\text{Mbps}$, USB 1.1 Full-Speed at $12\,\text{Mbps}$, USB 2.0 Full-Speed at $480\,\text{Mbps}$, USB 3.0 SuperSpeed at $5\,\text{Gbps}$, and USB 3.1 SuperSpeed at $10\,\text{Gbps}$.

What is the fundamental difference between USB standards and USB ports?

USB standards (such as USB 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1) indicate speed and function, whereas USB ports (such as USB Type-A, Type-B, or Type-C) indicate the physical shape of the port.

What maximum power delivery capability does USB Type-C support when combined with USB Power Delivery (USB PD)?

It can support up to $100\,\text{W}$ at $20\,\text{V}$ and $5\,\text{A}$, which is sufficient to charge laptops and notebooks.

What functionality does USB On-The-Go (OTG) enable for mobile devices?

USB OTG allows mobile devices to act as USB hosts, enabling them to directly read data from devices like external hard drives without needing a laptop or PC.

What feature of DisplayPort allows multiple monitors to be connected to a single source port?

Daisy chaining allows a user to connect one DisplayPort cable to a primary monitor and then link subsequent monitors to each other in a series from that single source cable.

How do Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C compare in terms of bandwidth speed and external display support?

Thunderbolt 3 supports speeds up to $40\,\text{Gb/s}$ and can power two 4K displays or one 5K display, whereas standard USB-C supports speeds up to $10\,\text{Gb/s}$ and one 4K display.

How many total bits are used to represent each pixel on a display monitor, and how are they split across primary colors?

Each pixel is represented in $24$ bits, divided equally into $8$ bits for red, $8$ bits for green, and $8$ bits for blue ($\text{RGB}$).

What are the four main components of a dedicated graphics card?

A motherboard connection for data and power, a graphics processing unit (GPU) to render pixels, video memory (VRAM) to store pixel details and completed pictures, and a monitor connection.

How does GDDR5X VRAM compare in speed to standard GDDR5 VRAM?

GDDR5X is used in high-end graphics cards and is almost twice as fast as GDDR5.

What are the key advantages of integrated graphics compared to a discrete graphics card?

Integrated graphics offer lower overall computer cost, produce less heat, and consume less power, which extends battery life in mobile devices.

What is the primary role of a maths co-processor?

A maths co-processor assists the CPU's Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) by processing complex floating-point calculations extremely quickly in parallel.

What two key performance metrics determine overall RAM speed?

Frequency (which affects maximum bandwidth) and Latency (which affects how quickly RAM responds to a request).

What is the recommended rule of thumb for configuring virtual memory sizing on a computer?

The minimum virtual memory should be set to $1.5$ times the physical RAM, and the maximum should be set to $3$ times the physical RAM.

What are the primary operational performance advantages of Solid State Drives (SSDs) over Hard Disk Drives (HDDs)?

SSDs have no moving parts, open files up to $30\%$ faster, take around three times less boot-up time, consume about three times less power, and are immune to magnetic interference.

What do the numbers mean in standard M.2 SSD length specifications such as 2242, 2260, and 2280?

All M.2 SSDs are $22\,\text{mm}$ wide; the subsequent two digits represent the physical length in millimeters (e.g., $42\,\text{mm}$, $60\,\text{mm}$, or $80\,\text{mm}$).

How do read and write speeds of NVMe SSDs compare to standard SATA III SSDs?

NVMe SSDs achieve approximately $3,500\,\text{MB/s}$ read and $3,000\,\text{MB/s}$ write speeds, compared to SATA III SSDs which offer approximately $530\,\text{MB/s}$ read and $500\,\text{MB/s}$ write speeds.

How does Hyperthreading improve CPU execution speed?

Hyperthreading duplicates the internal registers on the CPU chip, allowing a second instruction to be preloaded while the first set of registers is processed, reducing instruction switching latency.

What is the primary physical difference between Hyperthreading and Multiprocessing?

Hyperthreading duplicates only the CPU registers on a chip, whereas Multiprocessing duplicates entire CPU cores on a single chip.

What are the two primary methods used to perform overclocking on a computer?

By increasing the individual CPU's clock multiplication factor so it runs faster than the system clock, or by increasing the system clock frequency itself to affect all connected components.

What distinguishes Augmented Reality (AR) from Virtual Reality (VR)?

Augmented Reality overlays digital details onto the real world while keeping the real environment central, whereas Virtual Reality creates a fully enclosed, entirely synthetic digital environment.

What are five core physical and performance constraints inherent to mobile device technology?

Smaller screen size, single-window application focus, touchscreen keypad limitations, restricted computing power due to thermal and voltage constraints, and battery capacity/drain limits.