Computer Fundamentals and System Concepts

A UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) keeps a computer running for 15 minutes after the power is lost, it is usually sufficient time to save all necessary documents and properly shut down the computer.

Router is a hardware device that routes data from a local area network to another network connection.

Create, Revoke, Grant and Drop commands are parts of data definition language in Oracle.

Adaptive maintenance means changing the software to some new environment such as different hardware platform or for use with a different operating system.

CISC processors have larger instruction sets that often include some particular complex instructions.

This includes I/O instructions in an instruction set.

Control unit is responsible for moving data to memory or I/O module in a computer system.

This is the characteristic of instruction, which tells the CPU where to fetch the next instruction after the execution of the current instruction.

This unit of CPU controls the system operations by routing the selected data items to the selected processing hardware at the right time.

This unit of a computer constitutes some mechanism that provides for communication among CPU, memory and I/O.

MANIAC (Mathematical Analyzer, Numerical Integrator, and Computer) was the nickname given to the computer used at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1952 for H-bomb calculations. ENIAC was earlier (1940s), while UNIVAC was a commercial computer.

In the early 1980s, when this question was written, 256K of RAM was considered substantial for business applications. 4K and 16K were too small for serious business work, while 64K was minimal. The question reflects historical computing context.

The ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) is the CPU component responsible for arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction) and logical comparisons (greater than, equal to). The control unit directs operations, while the disk unit stores data.

Multi-user systems save costs by connecting multiple dumb terminals (which only have keyboard and display) to a single processing unit. Dumb terminals are inexpensive because they lack independent processing power. Workstations and PCs have their own processors, while mainframes are the central processing units themselves.