August
1999 QUESTION 4 Total Marks: 20 Marks |
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| (a) | One of the most common reasons for poor system
performance is slow disk access. Poor performance can be improved by caching, and reducing the amount of disk arm movement. |
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| (i) Define caching, and describe how it can
improve system performance. (ii) Define disk arm movement, and describe how it can improve system performance.
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| (b) | File system reliability can be improved by
using backups. Explain each of the following terms: (i) Dumping (ii) Incremental dumping
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| (c) | Give two reasons why two copies of the File
Allocation Table are maintained.
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| (d) | Alba Trading Company Pte Ltd operates in a
standard manner in a consumer sale industry. There has been a large expansion of its
businesses volume over the past few years. This has meant that the management has found it
increasingly difficult to obtain timely and reliable statistics on consumer sales by
product line and sales by customer category. The company has a small Data Processing
department, which consists of a Systems Analyst and a Programmer cum Computer Operator.
The management has decided to purchase and install and 'Order Billing With Sales Analysis'
software package, which has to be operational within months. (i) List four major factors which should be considered when any software package is being selected. (ii) Describe the problems which might have arisen if each of these factors were to be overlooked.
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