Module 1 - Data Representation

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Who are believed to be the first people to include the concept of "zero" in their numbering system.
1. The Hindu
2. The Romans
3. The Maya
4. The Babylonians
If it takes N digits to represent the integer value V in a positional number system using base B, which of the following relations will be true?
1. V = B^N
2. (B^N < V) AND (V <= B^(N+1))
3. (B^(N-1) <= V) AND (V < B^N)
4. V^N = B
What is the representation for the decimal value 1407 in base 7?
1. 21
2. 4050
3. 201
4. 5050
What is the defining relationship for the concept of a negative number?
1. A positive number with a minus sign in front.
2. A number and its negative will sum to zero.
3. A number and its negative have the same absolute value.
4. The negative of a number is less than zero with the same absolute value as the number itself.
What is the generic name used for the notation we generally refer to as a "decimal point"?
1. Decimal point.
2. Unary point.
3. Binary point.
4. Radix point.
Which of the following is true about a fixed-point representation?
1. The weighting of the digit to the left of the radix point is always the same - usually one.
2. There are a fixed number of digits to the right of the radiz point.
3. The decimal point always appears to the far right of the number.
4. There is always exactly one non-zero digit to the left of the decimal point.
In the base-5 number 323.041, what is the weighting of the digit '4'?
1. 1/20
2. 0.04
3. 5e-1
4. 5e-3
What is the mantissa of the number 5.34e4?
1. 4
2. 534
3. 5.34
4. 5340
What is required for a (nonzero) number to be in a normalized exponential format?
1. The exponent is the smallest possible value it can be.
2. The mantissa is an integer.
3. The mantissa has exactly one non-zero digit to the left of the radix point.
4. The exponent is the largest possible value it can be.
What is the traditional way of indicating the base in which a number is represented?
1. Placing the number base as a subscript to the left of the number.
2. Placing the number base as a subscript to the right of the number.
3. Placing the number base as a superscript to the left of the number.
4. Placing the number base as a superscript to the right of the number.
What are the two common text-based ways of indicating that a number is written in base-16?
1. Prefixing the number with "0x" or placing an "H" as a suffix.
2. Suffixing the number with "x" or placing an "H" as a prefix.
3. Placing "/16" after the number or placing "(16x)" before the number.
4. Placing "base-16" to the left of the number or, alternately, to the right of the number.
What is the haxadecimal digit used to represent the decimal value 13?
1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
Repeated division by the number base is primarily useful for what purpose?
1. Converting a number from base-10 to another base.
2. Converting a number from another base to base-10.
3. Converting a number between two non-decimal number bases.
4. Determining how many decimal digits a number has.
Repeated multiplication by the number base is primarily useful for what purpose?
1. Converting a number from base-10 to another base.
2. Converting a number from another base to base-10.
3. Converting a number between two non-decimal number bases.
4. Determining how many decimal digits a number has.
What is the word "bit" short for?
1. binary information token
2. binary digit
3. bit o' data
4. baud identification tree
How many bits are in a "nibble"?
1. 1
2. 4
3. 8
4. 16
How many bits are in a "byte"?
1. 6
2. 7
3. 8
4. Varies depending on the processor.
What is a "word"?
1. Two bytes.
2. Four nibbles.
3. Sixteen bits.
4. Varies from processor to processor.
What is a "dword"?
1. Four bytes.
2. Eight nibbles.
3. Thirty-two bits.
4. Varies from processor to processor.
Why are octal and hexadecimal so prevalent in computer science?
1. Because binary bit strings can be converted to and from octal and hexadecimal very quickly.
2. Because the first programmers set the standard and we are stuck with it.
3. Because arithmetic is easier in either of these two bases than it is in decimal.
4. Because learning hexadecimal serves as a "right of passage" for would be programmers.
What is the most likely reason that a "nibble" is the size that it is?
1. Because that is exactly half a byte.
2. Because the first processor has a data bus that was this size.
3. Because anything larger would require the use of a number base that is too difficult for humans to work with.
4. Because that is the smallest number of bits that can be used to represent all of the decimal digits.
Which of the following are not common pairs of names used for the two states that a single bit can represent?
1. Zero and One
2. True and False
3. Up and Down
4. High and Low
Which of the following is not one of the common ways of representing a negative integer?
1. Two's complement
2. One's complement.
3. Signed binary.
4. Offset binary.
What property does two's compliment exploit?
1. The inverting all of the bits in a value produces a one's compliment value.
2. That subtraction is equivalent to adding the negative of a number.
3. That addition and subtraction use the same hardware in a computer.
4. The fact that, in a fixed-width binary value consisting of N bits, that 2eN is indistinguishable from zero.
What is meant by the "static range" of a numbering system?
1. The ratio of the largest value that can be represented to the smallest.
2. The most positive value that be represented minus the most negative value.
3. The ratio of a number and the smallest change that can be represented in that number.
4. The largest value that can be represented minus the smallest.
What is meant by the "dynamic range" of a numbering system?
1. The ratio of the largest value that can be represented to the smallest.
2. The most positive value that be represented minus the most negative value.
3. The ratio of a number and the smallest change that can be represented in that number.
4. The largest value that can be represented minus the smallest.
In the IEEE format, what is the interpretation of the left-most bit?
1. The leading bit of the mantissa.
2. The sign bit for the mantissa.
3. The leading bit of the exponent.
4. The sign bit for the exponent.
In the IEEE floating point standard, how is the exponent represented?
1. As a two's complement value.
2. As a signed binary value.
3. As an offset binary value.
4. As an absolute value.
In the IEEE floating point standard, how is the mantissa represented?
1. As a two's complement value.
2. As a signed binary value.
3. As an offset binary value.
4. As an absolute value.
What is the order of the information, left to right, in an IEEEstandard floating point representation.
1. mantissa, exponent
2. exponent, sign, mantissa magnitude
3. sign, mantissa magnitude, exponent
4. sign, exponent, mantissa magnitude
How is zero represented in a IEE standard floating point representation?
1. As a pattern of all zeroes.
2. Zero cannot be exactly represented because of the implied leading one in the mantissa.
3. As a pattern with a one as the second bit from the left.
4. As a pattern of all zeroes except for a leading one.
Why does an exponent consisting of all zeroes and an exponent consisting of all zeroes except for a trailing one represent the same exponent value?
1. To increase the static range of the representation.
2. So that zero may be exactly represented.
3. To avoid a gap as the representation moves from a normalized to a non-normalized interpretation.
4. It doesn't.
Given a bit pattern representing a floating point value in the standard IEEE format, how can the negative of that value be represented?
1. By taking the two's complement of the mantissa.
2. By inverting the sign bit and all bits of the mantissa.
3. By treating the entire pattern as though it were an integer and taking the two's complement of it.
4. By inverting the sign bit.
How is the end of a string of characters indicated in many programming languages, including C?
1. By interpreting the first byte in the string as an integer that indicates how many characters are in the string.
2. By following the string with an additional byte that is set to all zeroes - the NUL character.
3. By passing the length of the string as a separate argument to any function needing that information.
4. By repeating the last character in the string eight times.
Given a four byte integer at address 0x3CF0 that uses the Little Endian convention, at what address is the most significant byte stored?
1. 0x3CF0
2. 0x3CF3
3. 0x3CF4
4. 0x3CED

Module 1 - Data Representation

Short-answer quiz