Deck 7: Device Management

Question 1

A fixed-head disk is lower in cost than a movable head disk.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

On a magnetic tape, the inter-record gap (IRG) is about two inches long regardless of the sizes of the records it separates.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

DASDs are good for files with low activity (the percent of records accessed) or for users who access records in a random fashion.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

N-Step SCAN holds all new requests until the arm starts on its way back.

Question 5

Among the many differences between an optical disc and a magnetic disk is the design of the disc track and sectors.

Question 6

A find strategy determines the order in which the processes get the I/O handler device, and the goal is to keep seek time to a minimum.

Question 7

A magneto-optical (MO) disk drive combines the technology of magnetic disks with that of optical discs.

Question 8

Buffers are used extensively to better synchronize the movement of data between the relatively slow I/O devices and the very fast CPU.

Question 9

Two of the most important measures of optical disc drive performance are sustained data-transfer rate and longest access time.

Question 10

Each unit in the I/O subsystem can finish its operation independently from the others.

Question 11

The SCAN algorithm moves the arm methodically from the inner to the outer track, servicing every request in its path.

Question 12

The job of the I/O control unit is to keep up with the I/O requests from the CPU and pass them down the line to the appropriate control unit.

Question 13

Direct access storage devices (DASDs) are devices that can directly read or write to a specific place on a disk.

Question 14

The universal serial bus (USB) controller acts as an interface between the operating system, device drivers, and applications and the devices that are attached via the USB host.

Question 15

The traffic controller maintains a spreadsheet file containing the status and connections for each unit in the I/O subsystem, grouped into Channel Control Blocks, Control Unit Control Blocks, and Device Control Blocks.

Question 16

First-come, first-served (FCFS) is the simplest device-scheduling algorithm.

Question 17

Most RAID configurations require fewer disk drives, which decreases hardware costs.

Question 18

RAID is a set of logical disk drives that is viewed as a single physical unit by the operating system.

Question 19

When using DMA, the CPU is involved in transferring data to and from memory for the entire transfer.

Question 20

An MO disk is covered with a silicone-based glass alloy that needs something more powerful than the magnetic field generated by the read/write head to change states.

Question 21

Movable-head magnetic disks, such as the computer hard drive, have ____ read/write head(s).

A) zero
B) one
C) two
D) four

Question 22

The advantage of RAID Level 3 is that if any one drive fails, data can be restored using the bits in the parity disk.

Question 23

The data-transfer rate for an optical disc is measured in ____ and refers to the speed at which massive amounts of data can be read from the disc.

A) kilobytes
B) megabytes
C) gigabytes
D) terabytes

Question 24

The software used to create a CD-R uses a standard format, such as ____, which automatically checks for errors and creates a table of contents, used to keep track of each file's location.

A) CD 1000
B) ISA 9102
C) AMC 22
D) ISO 9096

Question 25

RAID-0 is ideal for data-critical real-time systems.

Question 26

____ devices are assigned to only one job at a time.

A) Dedicated
B) Shared
C) Virtual
D) Static

Question 27

The USB controller assigns bandwidth to each device depending on its priority, and the ____ priority is assigned to real-time exchanges where no interruption in the data flow is allowed, such as video or sound data.

A) highest
B) medium
C) lowest
D) standard

Question 28

Data recorded on DASDs may or may not be blocked at the discretion of the ____.

A) end user
B) application programmer
C) operator
D) database programmer

Question 29

In a fixed-head magnetic disk, each circle is called a ____.

A) sector
B) block
C) track
D) platter

Question 30

A dual-layer, single-sided DVD can hold the equivalent of ____ CDs.

A) 3
B) 8
C) 13
D) 19

Question 31

The advent of optical discs was made possible by developments in ____ technology.

A) magnetic
B) laser
C) storage
D) silicone

Question 32

RAID Level 0 is the only one that does not provide error correction, or redundancy, and so it is not considered a true form of RAID because it cannot recover from hardware failure.

Question 33

It takes 2.5 minutes to reach the last record on a tape, ____ is the average access time.

A) .5 minutes
B) 1 minute
C) 1.25 minutes
D) 2 minutes

Question 34

To write data to flash memory, an electric charge is sent through one transistor, called the ____, then through a metal oxide layer, and into a second transistor called the control gate where the charge is stored in a cell until it's erased.

A) parallel port
B) floating gate
C) pit
D) crystalline port

Question 35

The number of characters that can be recorded per inch on a magnetic tape is determined by the ____ of the tape.

A) width
B) length
C) density
D) parity

Question 36

When making CDs for sale, such as music or software CDs, data is recorded on a master disc by means of a high-intensity laser beam, which burns indentations, called pits, and flat areas, called ____.

A) lands
B) valleys
C) hills
D) lakes

Question 37

If the transport speed for a magnetic tape is 200 inches per second and the density is 1600 bpi, a total of ____ bytes can be transferred in one second.

A) 3,200
B) 32,000
C) 320,000
D) 3,200,000

Question 38

Additional complex configurations of RAID can be created by combining multiple levels.

Question 39

RAID Level 6 was introduced by the Berkeley research team in a paper that followed its original outline of RAID levels.

Question 40

On an optical disc, all sectors are ____.

A) of varying sizes depending upon where you are on the disc
B) larger as you move to the edge
C) smaller as you move to the edge
D) of the same size throughout the disc

Question 41

____ control the transfer of information between the disk drives and the rest of the computer system.

A) System controllers
B) Disk drive controllers
C) System interfaces
D) Disk drive interfaces

Question 42

Without DMA, the ____ is responsible for the physical movement of data between main memory and the device.

A) CPU
B) bus
C) memory controller
D) disk

Question 43

The RAID level ____ uses word parity for error correction.

A) 1
B) 3
C) 5
D) 6

Question 44

A RAID Level ____ system consists of a Level 1 system mirrored to a second Level 1 system, both controlled by a single Level 0 system.

A) 01
B) 03
C) 10
D) 30

Question 45

The I/O ____ allocates the devices, control units, and channels.

A) scheduler
B) traffic controller
C) device handler
D) director

Question 46

____ is a way to optimize search times by ordering the requests once the read/write heads have been positioned.

A) Rotational ordering
B) SSTF
C) C-SCAN
D) LOOK and SCAN

Question 47

____ uses the same underlying philosophy as shortest job next, where the shortest jobs are processed first and longer jobs are made to wait.

A) LOOK
B) FCFS
C) SSTF
D) SCAN

Question 48

____ bits make up the Channel Status Word (CSW) flag.

A) Two
B) Three
C) Four
D) Five

Question 49

Of the three components of access time in a movable-head DASDs, ____ is the longest.

A) seek time
B) search time
C) transfer time
D) delay time

Question 50

The RAID level ____ requires two different parity calculations.

A) 2
B) 3
C) 5
D) 6