A computer system uses both primary storage and... | Computer Science 0478 | Paper 1 Mock 01 | Computer Systems

Question 1 Report

A computer system uses both primary storage and secondary storage.

(a) State two examples of primary storage. [2]

(b) Explain the difference between RAM and ROM. [4]

(c) State two reasons why secondary storage is needed in a computer system. [2]

Answer

(a) Two examples of primary storage [2]

(b) Differences between RAM and ROM [4]

Feature	RAM	ROM
Volatility	Volatile: contents are lost when the power is turned off. [1]	Non-volatile: contents are retained permanently, even without power.
Purpose	Stores the operating system, applications, and data that are currently in use by the processor. [1]	Stores the boot-up instructions (BIOS/firmware) needed to start the computer and perform initial hardware checks.
Read/Write	Contents can be read from and written to by the processor during normal operation. [1]	Contents can normally only be read, not written to during normal use.
Typical capacity	Much larger capacity than ROM in a modern computer (e.g. 8-32 GB). [1]	Relatively small capacity (e.g. a few MB), sufficient only for the startup firmware.

(c) Two reasons why secondary storage is needed [2]

Secondary storage is non-volatile, so it retains data when the computer is turned off. Without it, all files and programs would be lost every time the computer shuts down, since RAM is volatile. [1]
Secondary storage provides much larger capacity than primary storage (hundreds of GB to several TB), allowing users to save large volumes of files, applications, and data permanently. [1]

Answer Details

(a) Two examples of primary storage [2]

(b) Differences between RAM and ROM [4]

Feature	RAM	ROM
Volatility	Volatile: contents are lost when the power is turned off. [1]	Non-volatile: contents are retained permanently, even without power.
Purpose	Stores the operating system, applications, and data that are currently in use by the processor. [1]	Stores the boot-up instructions (BIOS/firmware) needed to start the computer and perform initial hardware checks.
Read/Write	Contents can be read from and written to by the processor during normal operation. [1]	Contents can normally only be read, not written to during normal use.
Typical capacity	Much larger capacity than ROM in a modern computer (e.g. 8-32 GB). [1]	Relatively small capacity (e.g. a few MB), sufficient only for the startup firmware.

(c) Two reasons why secondary storage is needed [2]

Secondary storage is non-volatile, so it retains data when the computer is turned off. Without it, all files and programs would be lost every time the computer shuts down, since RAM is volatile. [1]
Secondary storage provides much larger capacity than primary storage (hundreds of GB to several TB), allowing users to save large volumes of files, applications, and data permanently. [1]