Inside a Computer: Operating Systems and the Big Picture

Engineering

Knowledge check connecting all the pieces — how hardware, OS, and software work together

10 XP
Reward
10
Questions
5–10 min
Time
Q1 Question 1 of 10

You open two programs — a photo editor and a music player. Who decides how much RAM and CPU time each gets?

Q2 Question 2 of 10

What is the motherboard's role in a computer?

Q3 Question 3 of 10

When your OS says a program 'is not responding', what has most likely happened?

Q4 Question 4 of 10

Why can't you run a Windows program on a Mac without special software?

Q5 Question 5 of 10

What is a 'device driver'?

Q6 Question 6 of 10

A computer's 'clock speed' determines how fast the CPU runs. Why can't engineers just keep increasing clock speed to make computers faster?

Q7 Question 7 of 10

When you install an app on a smartphone, where does the app primarily reside, and where does it run?

Q8 Question 8 of 10

What is the 'file system' that an OS uses?

Q9 Question 9 of 10

Computers from the 1980s processed 8 or 16 bits at a time. Modern computers are '64-bit.' What does this mean practically?

Q10 Question 10 of 10

When you 'restart' a computer instead of just 'shutting down and turning on,' why might that fix a problem that a simple power-off didn't fix?