Computer Awareness Quiz: Computer Abbreviations and Terminology

The correct answer is A, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. ENIAC was built to compute artillery firing tables and is remembered as the first general-purpose electronic digital computer; it used thousands of vacuum tubes and belongs to the first generation of computers. Option B is wrong because no part of the name contains the word calculator, which belongs instead to EDSAC, the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator. Option C is wrong because the letter C in ENIAC stands for Computer and not Compiler, and no early machine of this family carried the word network in its name. Option D is wrong because the first letter stands for Electronic and not Extended; the word Extended appears in EBCDIC, the Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code. Candidates should also keep EDVAC, the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, and UNIVAC, the Universal Automatic Computer, separate from ENIAC.

The correct answer is B, 4. A bit is a single binary digit, zero or one; four bits together form a nibble, and two nibbles, that is eight bits, form a byte. The nibble is a convenient unit because one hexadecimal digit is written in exactly four bits, which is why Binary Coded Decimal also stores each decimal digit in four bits. Option A is wrong because two bits have no standard name in this ladder. Option C is wrong because eight bits make a byte, the unit in which file sizes are measured, and this is the commonest trap in the question. Option D is wrong because sixteen bits are usually described as a word on a sixteen-bit machine, not as a nibble. The ladder above the byte is the one to memorise: 1,024 bytes make a kilobyte, 1,024 kilobytes a megabyte and 1,024 megabytes a gigabyte.

The correct answer is A, American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII assigns a number to every letter, digit and punctuation mark so that text can be stored and sent as binary; in its original form it is a seven-bit code and therefore represents 128 characters. Option B is wrong because the second word is Standard, not Series, and the code is for interchange between systems rather than anything internal. Option C is wrong because the first word is American, naming the standards body that issued it, and not Automatic. Option D is wrong because Advanced and Serial form no part of the name, although serial transmission is one way ASCII text travels. The code to contrast it with is EBCDIC, the Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code, an eight-bit code used on mainframe computers, while Unicode extends coverage to the scripts of the world, Devanagari among them.

The correct answer is C, Basic Input Output System. The BIOS is held in a read only memory chip on the motherboard; when the machine is switched on it tests the hardware through the power-on self test and then loads the operating system from the disc into main memory, a process called booting. Option A is wrong because the final word is System and not Software, and the BIOS handles both input and output rather than output alone. Option B is wrong because the first letter stands for Basic, not Binary, even though the chip of course stores binary code. Option D is wrong because the BIOS is not itself an operating system; it only starts the machine and hands control to the operating system, whose core is called the kernel. Because the BIOS sits permanently in a chip it is the standard textbook example of firmware, which is the term examiners pair with it.

The correct answer is B, SMTP, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, which carries a message from the sender's programme to the mail server and onward between servers. Option A is wrong because POP3, the Post Office Protocol version 3, works in the other direction: it downloads mail from the server to the user's computer, usually removing it from the server. Option C is wrong because FTP, the File Transfer Protocol, moves files between a client and a server and has nothing to do with mail delivery. Option D is wrong because SNMP, the Simple Network Management Protocol, is used to monitor and manage network devices such as routers and switches; its similarity to SMTP by one letter is exactly why it is offered here. The third mail protocol worth knowing is IMAP, the Internet Message Access Protocol, which reads mail while leaving it on the server.

The correct answer is A, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. The family runs in a clear order: ROM is fixed when made, PROM is written once by the user, EPROM can be erased by exposing the chip to ultraviolet light, and EEPROM can be erased and rewritten by an electrical signal without removing it from the circuit. Option B is wrong on two counts, because the first word is Electrically rather than Easily and because the memory is Read Only, not Random Only. Option C is wrong because Encoded and Permanent form no part of the name, and permanence is precisely what an EEPROM gives up in exchange for being rewritable. Option D is wrong because the first E stands for Electrically; Extended belongs to EBCDIC. Flash memory, used in pen drives and solid state drives, is a development of EEPROM technology, which is why it is non-volatile.

The correct answer is B, Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. BASIC was designed as a teaching language with simple English-like statements, which is the reason the word Beginner appears in its name. Option A is wrong because the first word is Beginner's and not Binary, though ALGOL does stand for Algorithmic Language and is the likely source of the confusion. Option C is wrong because the last word is Code, not Compiler; a compiler is the translator that turns source code into machine code in one pass, as against an interpreter, which works line by line. Option D is wrong because business-oriented work belongs to COBOL, the Common Business Oriented Language, while scientific calculation belongs to FORTRAN, from Formula Translation. Keeping these four expansions apart, with ALGOL for Algorithmic Language, covers most of the language questions asked in general awareness papers.

The correct answer is A, Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. The row of numerals printed at the foot of a cheque is set in magnetic ink, and a MICR reader senses the magnetic pattern rather than the shape of the figures, so the code is read correctly even when the cheque is stamped or soiled. Option B is wrong because the middle words are Ink and Character; nothing in the name refers to an image. Option C is wrong because the first word is Magnetic, not Micro, although the characters are indeed small. Option D is wrong because Induction forms no part of the name. Two related readers are set against it in papers: OCR, Optical Character Recognition, which reads printed or handwritten text optically, and OMR, the Optical Mark Reader, which senses pencil marks on an answer sheet and is therefore used to evaluate objective examinations.

The correct answer is B, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing. C-DAC is a research and development organisation under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and developed the PARAM series of supercomputers, India's own high performance computing line. Option A is wrong because the first word is Centre and not Council, and the second is Development rather than Digital. Option C is wrong because C-DAC is an autonomous society and not a central government department, and nothing in its name reads Applied. Option D is wrong because cryptography forms no part of the expansion, although C-DAC does work on information security. Three sister abbreviations are asked alongside it: NIC, the National Informatics Centre, which runs government networks and websites; NIELIT, the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, which conducts the CCC course; and CERT-In, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team.

The correct answer is B, Very Large Scale Integration. VLSI is the technique of placing a very large number of transistors on a single silicon chip, and it made the microprocessor possible; the microprocessor in turn defines the fourth generation of computers, just as the integrated circuit defines the third, the transistor the second and the vacuum tube the first. Option A is wrong because the first word is Very, and nothing in the expansion reads Variable. Option C is wrong because Vertical and Layered form no part of the name even though chips are indeed built up in layers of silicon. Option D is wrong because VLSI is a fabrication technology and not a storage interface; interfaces of that kind are named by abbreviations such as USB, the Universal Serial Bus. The scale above it, used for present-day processors, is ULSI, Ultra Large Scale Integration.

The correct answer is C, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team. CERT-In works under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and is the national nodal agency for collecting, analysing and issuing alerts on cyber security incidents such as intrusions, phishing campaigns and malware outbreaks; it was given statutory backing by Section 70B of the Information Technology Act. Option A is wrong because the body issues advisories and coordinates response rather than acting as an enforcement or regulatory authority. Option B is wrong because the words Central Electronic Research name no existing agency of this kind and the R in CERT stands for Response. Option D is wrong because encryption policy is a matter for the ministry, and CERT-In is not a trust. The expansion to remember in full is the ordinary one used worldwide, a Computer Emergency Response Team, with In added for India.