O-LevelComputer ScienceHardware2210/11 · May/June 2024 · Q511 Marks

A computer uses both random access memory (RAM) and secondary storage.

(a)State the purpose of secondary storage.[1]
(b)One type of secondary storage is optical. Circle three examples of optical storage. read only memory (ROM) secure digital (SD) card compact disk (CD) hard disk drive (HDD) digital versatile disk (DVD) Blu-ray disk universal serial bus (USB) drive solid-state drive (SSD)[3]
(c)Explain why a computer needs RAM.[3]
(d)The computer processes instructions using the fetch-decode-execute (FDE) cycle. Draw and annotate a diagram to show the process of the fetch stage of the FDE cycle.[4]

This question uses a diagram from the original paper, which isn't shown here. Open the full paper from the past papers archive to see it.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2024). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

[1] 5(a) To store data/files/software permanently
[3] 5(b) Compact disk (CD), Digital versatile disk (DVD), Blu-ray disk
[3] 5(c) Any three from: To store data temporarily; To store data currently in use; To store software currently in use; Data can be accessed faster (than secondary storage); To speed up the fetch stage (of the fetch-execute cycle)
[4] 5(d) Any four from: The registers MAR, MDR and PC; Address sent from PC to MAR; ...using address bus (award anywhere for correct use of address bus); ...PC is incremented; Address sent from MAR to RAM; Data/instruction sent from RAM to MDR; ...using data bus (award anywhere for correct use of data bus); Data/instruction sent from MDR to CIR/CU; Control unit sending control signal for any part of the process; ...using control bus (award anywhere for correct use of control bus)

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