(a)(i) What is Universal Serial Bus (USB)?
(ii) State two benefits of using USB connection between a computer and another device.
(b) In Table 1, three storage devices are described, Use it to answer questions 3(b)(i) and 3(b)(ii).
(i) In column 2, name the storage device being described in column 1.
(ii) Show the category of storage device being described in column 1 by ticking in any of the column 3, 4 or 5
| SN | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Description of Storage Device | Name of Storage Device | Category of Storage Device | |||
| Primary | Secondary | Offline | |||
| 1 | Magnetic storage medium which is composed of a thin flexible disk sealed in a square plastic carrier. | ||||
| 2 | Optical media – which uses one spiral track.Red lasers are used to read and write data on the media surface and it makes use of dual-layering technology to increase the storage capacity to over 1 GB. | ||||
| 3 | Non-volatile memory chip which contents cannot be altered. It is often used to store the start-up routines in a computer (e.g the BIOS). | ||||
Explanation
(a) Universal Serial Bus (USB); (i) Universal Serial Bus is the most popular connection used to connect a computer to devices such as digital camera, printers, scanners, external hard drives among others. OR USB is a cross platform technology that is supported by most of the major operating system. OR Universal Serial Bus is a plug and play interface that allows a computer to communicate with peripherals or/and other devices. OR A hardware interface that supports connection of varieties of peripherals to computers. USB is used to attach keyboards, mice, printers, external storage and mobile devices to the computer. It is also used for charging portable devices. USB provides both data transmission and low voltage (5V) power over a single cable. OR Universal Serial Bus is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for communication, connection and power supply between computers, peripherals and other computers.
(ii) Benefits of USB; Used to charge gadgets - It supports transfer of data - It provides low voltage (5V) power over a single -External power is not needed and it has low power consumption -USB has a protocol that notifies transmitter to retransmit the data incase of errors - The USB driver makes sure that error free communication takes place -It uses plug and play technology -The driver of the connected devices is automatically loaded to configure the plugged in device. -Devices are automatically detected and configured when initially attached -It supports multiple data transmission speeds -It is supported by many operating systems -It is faster in transmission when compared to wireless connection -It supports multiple connection.
(b)
| SN | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Description of Storage Device | Name of Storage Device | Category of Storage Device | |||
| Primary | Secondary | Offline | |||
| 1 | Magnetic storage medium which is composed of a thin flexible disk sealed in a square plastic carrier. | Hard disk | Correct | ||
| 2 | Optical media - which uses one spiral track.Red lasers are used to read and write data on the media surface and it makes use of dual-layering technology to increase the storage capacity to over 1 GB. | DVD | Correct | ||
| 3 | Non-volatile memory chip which contents cannot be altered. It is often used to store the start-up routines in a computer (e.g the BIOS). | ROM | Correct | ||