Engineering Questions with Answers - Multiple Choice Questions
MCQs on Memory Systems
1 - Question
MCQs on Memory Technology of Embedded Systems
Which is the most basic non-volatile memory?
a) Flash memory
b) PROM
c) EPROM
d) ROM
View Answer
Explanation: The basic non-volatile memory is ROM or mask ROM, and the content of ROM is fixed in the chip which is useful in firmware programs for booting up the system.
2 - Question
Who has invented flash memory?
a) Dr.Fujio Masuoka
b) John Ellis
c) Josh Fisher
d) John Ruttenberg
View Answer
Explanation: Flash memory is invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba in the 1980s which are non-volatile memory.
3 - Question
Which of the following is serial access memory?
a) RAM
b) Flash memory
c) Shifters
d) ROM
View Answer
Explanation: The memory arrays are basically divided into three which are random access memory, serial access memory, and content address memory. Serial access memory is divided into two, theses are shifters and queues. advertisement
4 - Question
Which is the early form of non-volatile memory?
a) magnetic core memory
b) ferrimagnetic memory
c) anti-magnetic memory
d) anti-ferromagnetic
View Answer
Explanation: The early form of non-volatile memory is known as magnetic core memory in which the ferromagnetic ring was magnetised to store data.
5 - Question
Which of the following memories has more speed in accessing data?
a) SRAM
b) DRAM
c) EPROM
d) EEPROM
View Answer
Explanation: SRAM have more speed than DRAM because it has 4 to 6 transistors arranged as flip-flop logic gates, that is it can be flipped from one binary state to another but DRAM has a small capacitor as its storage element.
6 - Question
In which memory, the signals are multiplexed?
a) DRAM
b) SRAM
c) EPROM
d) EEPROM
View Answer
Explanation: The signals in address bus are multiplexed with DRAM non-multiplexed with SRAM.
7 - Question
How many main signals are used with memory chips?
a) 2
b) 4
c) 6
d) 8
View Answer
Explanation: The main signals associated with memory chips are four. These are the signals associated with address bus, data bus, chip select signals, and control signals for read and write operations.
8 - Question
What is the purpose of the address bus?
a) to provide data to and from the chip
b) to select a specified chip
c) to select a location within the memory chip
d) to select a read/write cycle
View Answer
Explanation: Address bus is used to choose a particular location in the memory chip. Data bus is used to provide data to and from the chip. Chip select signals are used to select a particular chip within the memory.
9 - Question
Which are the two main types of processor connection to the motherboard?
a) sockets and slots
b) sockets and pins
c) slots and pins
d) pins and ports
View Answer
Explanation: The type of processor which connects to a socket on the bottom surface of the chip that connects to the motherboard by Zero Insertion Force Socket. Intel 486 is an example of this type of connection. The processor slot is one which is soldered into a card, which connects to a motherboard by a slot. Example for slot connection is Pentium 3.
10 - Question
Which of the following has programmable hardware?
a) microcontroller
b) microprocessor
c) coprocessor
d) FPGA
View Answer
Explanation: Field programmable gate arrays are a type of multi-core architecture whose hardware function can be programmed by using hardware design tools.
11 - Question
Who invented TriMedia processor?
a) Intel
b) IBM
c) Apple
d) NXP Semiconductor
View Answer
Explanation: TriMedia is a VLIW processor from NXP Semiconductor in the Netherlands. It possesses a Harvard architecture CPU for video and audio applications.
12 - Question
MCQs on SRAM
Why is SRAM more preferably in non-volatile memory?
a) low-cost
b) high-cost
c) low power consumption
d) transistor as a storage element
View Answer
Explanation: SRAM will retain data as long it is powered up and it does not need to be refreshed as DRAM. It is designed for low power consumption and used in preference. DRAM is cheaper than SRAM but it is based on refresh circuitry as it loses charge since the capacitor is the storage element.
13 - Question
Which of the following ahs refreshes control mechanism?
a) DRAM
b) SRAM
c) Battery backed-up SRAM
d) Pseudo-static RAM
View Answer
Explanation: Pseudo RAM uses DRAM cells because of its higher memory density and it have refresh control which is an additional function of DRAM and is suitable for low power consumption. It has both the advantages of SRAM and DRAM.
14 - Question
Which storage element is used by MAC and IBM PC?
a) CMOS
b) Transistor
c) Capacitor
d) Inductor
View Answer
Explanation: CMOS is complementary metal oxide semiconductor which is used by MAC and IBM PC as storage element because it contains configuration data of SRAM and is battery back-up to ensure that it is powered up when the computer is switched off.
15 - Question
Which type of storage element of SRAM is very fast in accessing data but consumes lots of power?
a) TTL
b) CMOS
c) NAND
d) NOR
View Answer
Explanation: TTL or transistor-transistor logic which is a type of bipolar junction transistor access data very fastly but consumes lots of power whereas CMOS is used in low power consumption. advertisement
16 - Question
What is approximate data access time of SRAM?
a) 4ns
b) 10ns
c) 2ns
d) 60ns
View Answer
Explanation: SRAM access data in approximately 4ns because of its flip-flop arrangement of transistors whereas the data access time in DRAM is approximately 60ns since it has a single capacitor for one-bit storage.
17 - Question
Who proposed the miniature card format?
a) Intel
b) IBM
c) MIPS
d) Apple
View Answer
Explanation: Miniature Card is an SRAM memory card proposed by Intel in the 1980s but it was no longer manufactured.
18 - Question
How many MOSFETs are required for SRAM?
a) 2
b) 4
c) 6
d) 8
View Answer
Explanation: Six MOSFETs are required for a typical SRAM. Each bit of SRAM is stored in four transistors which form two cross-coupled inverters.
19 - Question
Which of the following is an SRAM?
a) 1T-RAM
b) PROM
c) EEPROM
d) EPROM
View Answer
Explanation: 1T-RAM is a pseudo-static RAM which is developed by MoSyS, Inc. PROM, EPROM, and EEPROM are non-volatile memories.
20 - Question
Which of the following can access data even when the power supply is lost?
a) Non-volatile SRAM
b) DRAM
c) SRAM
d) RAM
View Answer
Explanation: Random Access Memory is the primary storage which can access data only when it is powered up. But non-volatile SRAM can access data even when the power supply is lost. It is used in many applications like networking, aerospace etc.
21 - Question
Which of the following can easily convert to a non-volatile memory?
a) SRAM
b) DRAM
c) DDR SRAM
d) Asynchronous DRAM
View Answer
Explanation: The low power consumption makes SRAM easily convertible to non-volatile memory, by adding a small battery it can retain its data even when the main power is lost.
22 - Question
MCQs on DRAM
Which memory storage is widely used in PCs and Embedded Systems?
a) SRAM
b) DRAM
c) Flash memory
d) EEPROM
View Answer
Explanation: DRAM is used in PCs and Embedded systems because of its low cost. SRAM, flash memory and EEPROM are more costly than DRAM.
23 - Question
Which of the following memory technology is highly denser?
a) DRAM
b) SRAM
c) EPROM
d) Flash memory
View Answer
Explanation: DRAM is highly denser and cheaper because it only uses a single capacitor for storing one bit.
24 - Question
Which is the storage element in DRAM?
a) inductor
b) capacitor
c) resistor
d) mosfet
View Answer
Explanation: DRAM uses a small capacitor whose voltage represents a binary zero which is used as a storage element in DRAM in which a single transistor cell is used to store each bit of data. advertisement
25 - Question
Which one of the following is a storage element in SRAM?
a) capacitor
b) inductor
c) transistor
d) resistor
View Answer
Explanation: Four to six transistors are used to store a single bit of data and form a flip-flop logic gate and thus SRAM is faster in accessing data.
26 - Question
Which of the following is more volatile?
a) SRAM
b) DRAM
c) ROM
d) RAM
View Answer
Explanation: DRAM is said to be more volatile because it has a capacitor as its storage element in which the data disappears when the capacitor loses its charge so even when the device is powered the data can be lost.
27 - Question
What is the size of a trench capacitor in DRAM?
a) 1 Mb
b) 4-256 Mb
c) 8-128 Mb
d) 64-128 Mb
View Answer
Explanation: Trench capacitor can store from 4-256 Mb but planar capacitor can store up to 1 Mb.
28 - Question
Which of the following capacitor can store more data in DRAM?
a) planar capacitor
b) trench capacitor
c) stacked-cell
d) non-polar capacitor
View Answer
Explanation: Stacked-cell can store greater than 1 Gb. Planar capacitor can store up to 1 Mb and trench capacitor can store 4-256 Mb.
29 - Question
In which of the memories, does the data disappear?
a) SRAM
b) DRAM
c) Flash memory
d) EPROM
View Answer
Explanation: Both SRAM and DRAM are volatile memories and flash memory and EPROM are non-volatile memories. DRAM has a storage element as a capacitor whose charge loses gradually thereby losing data.
30 - Question
Which of the following is the main factor which determines the memory capacity?
a) number of transistors
b) number of capacitors
c) size of the transistor
d) size of the capacitor
View Answer
Explanation: The chip capacity is dependent on the number of transistors which can be fabricated on the silicon, and DRAM offers more storage capacity than SRAM.
31 - Question
What does VRAM stand for?
a) video RAM
b) verilog RAM
c) virtual RAM
d) volatile RAM
View Answer
Explanation: Video RAM is a derivative of DRAM. It functions as a DRAM and has additional functions to access data for video hardware for creating the display.
32 - Question
What does TCR stand for?
a) temperature-compensated refresh
b) temperature-compensated recovery
c) texas CAS-RAS
d) temperature CAS-RAS
View Answer
Explanation: The temperature-compensated refresh is one of the refreshing techniques used for extending the battery life by reducing the refresh rate.
33 - Question
MCQs on Memory Organisation of Embedded Systems
How many data lines does 256*4 have?
a) 256
b) 8
c) 4
d) 32
View Answer
Explanation: There are four data lines in the memory and these different organisations of memory and these different organisations of memory are apparent when upgrading memory and it also determines how many chips are needed.
34 - Question
How is the number of chips required is determined?
a) number of data lines
b) the minimum number of data
c) width of the data path from the processor
d) number of data lines and the width of the data path from the processor
View Answer
Explanation: The minimum number of chips is determined by the number of data lines and the width of the data path from the processor. For example, MC6800 family have a 16-bit wide datapath, 16*1 devices, 4*4 or 2*8 devices are needed.
35 - Question
Where is memory address stored in a C program?
a) stack
b) pointer
c) register
d) accumulator
View Answer
Explanation: Memory model is defined by a range of memory address which is accessible to the program. For example, in the C program, the memory address is stored in the pointer. advertisement
36 - Question
Which is the term that is used to refer the order of bytes?
a) endianness
b) memory organisation
c) bit
d) register
View Answer
Explanation: Endianness defines the order of bytes, that is, whether it is big endian or little endian. The former represents the higher order bits and the latter represents the lower order bits.
37 - Question
Which of the following processors uses big endian representation?
a) 8086
b) ARM
c) PowerPC
d) Zilog Z80
View Answer
Explanation: The IBM’s PowerPC uses big endian representation whereas 8086, ARM and Zilog Z80 use little representation.
38 - Question
Which statement is true for a cache memory?
a) memory unit which communicates directly with the CPU
b) provides backup storage
c) a very high-speed memory to increase the speed of the processor
d) secondary storage
View Answer
Explanation: The RAM is the primary storage which directly communicates with the CPU. ROM is the secondary storage. Disk drives are capable of providing backup storage and the cache memory is a small high-speed memory which increases the speed of the processor.
39 - Question
Which of the following memory organisation have the entire memory available to the processor at all times?
a) segmented addressing
b) paging
c) virtual address
d) linear address
View Answer
Explanation: There are two types of memory organisation, linear addressing in which the entire memory is available to the processor of all times as in Motorola 6800 and the other is segmented addressing where the memory space is divided into several segments and the processor is limited to access the program instructions and data which are located in particular segments.
40 - Question
How many memory locations can be accessed by 8086?
a) 1 M
b) 2 M
c) 3 M
d) 4 M
View Answer
Explanation: The 8086 processor has a 20-bit address bus, hence it can access a memory of 220-1 M locations.
41 - Question
Which of them is a memory that is allocated to the program in LIFO pattern?
a) stack
b) index
c) accumulator
d) base
View Answer
Explanation: A stack is a memory which is allocated to the program in last-in, first out pattern. Stack pointer contains the memory address of the stack.
42 - Question
What does SIMM stand for?
a) single in-line memory module
b) single interrupt memory module
c) single information memory module
d) same-in-line memory module
View Answer
Explanation: SIMM is single in-line memory module is a kind of memory module, which contains random access memory used in computers of the early 1980s and 1990s.
43 - Question
Which of the memory organisation is widely used in parity bit?
a) by 1 organisation
b) by 4 organisation
c) by 8 organisation
d) by 9 organisation
View Answer
Explanation: The use of By 1 organisation is declined because of the wider data path devices. But it is still used in parity bit and were used in SIMM memory.
44 - Question
Which configuration of memory organisation replaces By 1 organisation?
a) by 4 organisation
b) by 8 organisation
c) by 9 organisation
d) by 16 organisation
View Answer
Explanation: By 1 organisation is replaced with By 4 organisation because of its reduced address bus and complexity.
45 - Question
Which shifting helps in finding the physical address in 8086?
a) shifting the segment by 8
b) shifting the segment by 6
c) shifting the segment by 4
d) shifting the segment by 2
View Answer
Explanation: The address bus of the 8086 is 20-bit and the data bus is 16-bit in size. So the physical address can be calculated by shifting the segment register by 4 to left and by adding the address bus to it.
46 - Question
Which memory organisation is supported in wider memories?
a) by 8 organisation
b) by 16 organisation
c) by 9 organisation
d) by 4 organisation
View Answer
Explanation: The wider memories support 16-bits because it can integrate more number of the interface logic so that the time consumed by the latches and buffers removes the memory access thus allowing the slower parts to be used in wait state free designs.
47 - Question
Which of the following is a plastic package used primarily for DRAM?
a) SIMM
b) DIMM
c) Zig-zag
d) Dual-in-line
View Answer
Explanation: Zig-zag package of memory is a plastic package used for DRAM. The leads of this package are arranged in a zigzag manner.
48 - Question
MCQs on Memory Management
Which of the following have a 16 Mbytes addressed range?
a) PowerPC
b) M68000
c) DSP56000
d) TMS 320
View Answer
Explanation: The M68000 family has a 16 Mbyte addressing range. The PowerPC family has a larger 4 Gbyte range and the DSP56000 has a 128-kilo word address space.
49 - Question
Which of the following can destroy the accuracy in the algorithms?
a) delays
b) error signal
c) interrupt
d) mmu
View Answer
Explanation: The delays occurring in the memory management unit can destroy the accuracy in the algorithms and in order to avoid this, the linear addressing range should be increased.
50 - Question
How many numbers of ways are possible for allocating the memory to the modular blocks?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
View Answer
Explanation: Most of the systems have a multitasking operating system in which the software consists of modular blocks of codes which run under the control of the operating system. There are three ways for allocating memory to these blocks. The first way distributes the block in a predefined way. The second way for allocating memory includes relocation or position independency in the software and the other way of allocating memory to the block is the address translation in which the logical address is translated to the physical address. advertisement
51 - Question
Which of the following is replaced with the absolute addressing mode?
a) relative addressing mode
b) protective addressing mode
c) virtual addressing mode
d) temporary addressing mode
View Answer
Explanation: The memory allocation of the modular blocks can be done by the writing the software program in relocatable or position independent manner which can execute anywhere in the memory map, but relocatable code must have the same address between its data and code segments. This is used to avoid the use of absolute addressing modes which is replaced by the relative addressing modes.
52 - Question
What is the main purpose of the memory management unit?
a) address translation
b) large storage
c) reduce the size
d) provides address space
View Answer
Explanation: The memory management unit handles with physical addresses. Therefore, the virtual or the logical address is first translated to the physical address.
53 - Question
Which of the following provides stability to the multitasking system?
a) memory
b) DRAM
c) SRAM
d) Memory partitioning
View Answer
Explanation: The memory partitioning provides stability to the multitasking system so that the errors within one task will not corrupt the other tasks.
54 - Question
Which of the following is used by the M68000 family?
a) M68000
b) 80386
c) 8086
d) 80286
View Answer
Explanation: The M68000 uses memory partitioning by the use of function code or by the combination of superscalar signals and the Harvard architecture.
55 - Question
What can be done for the fine grain protection of the processor?
a) add extra description bit
b) add error signal
c) add wait stage
d) remains unchanged
View Answer
Explanation: The finer grain protection of memory management is achieved by the addition of extra description bit to an address to declare its status. The memory management unit can detect an error if the task attempts to access memory that has not been allocated to it or a certain kind of mismatch occurs.
56 - Question
Which of the following technique is used by the UNIX operating system?
a) logical address memory
b) physical address memory
c) virtual memory technique
d) translational address
View Answer
Explanation: In the workstation and in the UNIX operating system virtual memory technique is frequently used in which the main memory is divided into different segments and pages. These pages will have a virtual address which can increase the address spacing.
57 - Question
Which of the following consist two lines of legs on both sides of a plastic or ceramic body?
a) SIMM
b) DIMM
c) Zig-zag
d) Dual in-line
View Answer
Explanation: The dual-in-line package consists of two lines of legs on both sides of the plastic or ceramic. Most commonly used are BIOS EPROMs, DRAM and SRAM.
58 - Question
Which package has high memory speed and change in the supply?
a) DIP
b) SIMM
c) DIMM
d) zig-zag
View Answer
Explanation: DIMM is a special version of SIMM which is 168-bits wider bus and looks similar to a larger SIMM. The wider bus increases the memory speed and change in supply voltage.
59 - Question
Which is a subassembly package?
a) dual-in-line
b) zig-zag
c) simm
d) ceramic shell
View Answer
Explanation: The SIMM is basically a subassembly, not a package. It is a small board which possesses finger connection on the bottom and sufficient memory on the board in order to make up the required configuration.
60 - Question
What is the required voltage of DIMM?
a) 2V
b) 2.2V
c) 5V
d) 3.3V
View Answer
Explanation: For increasing the speed and reducing the power consumption, it is necessary to reduce the power supply. Today’s CPUs and memories have 3.3V supply or even lower instead of the signal level from 0 to 5V. DIMMS are described by its voltage, speed, and memory type respectively as 3.3V 133MHz SDRAM DIMM.
61 - Question
Which memory package has a single row of pins?
a) SIMM
b) DIP
c) SIP
d) zig-zag
View Answer
Explanation: The Single-in-line package is the same as that of SIMM, in which the finger connections are replaced by a single row of pins. SIP took the popularity of SIMM but nowadays it is rarely seen.
62 - Question
What is the access time of MCM51000AP10?
a) 100ns
b) 80ns
c) 60ns
d) 40ns
View Answer
Explanation: The access time of memory is defined as the maximum time taken by the chip to read/write data and it is very important to match the access time to the design. For example, MCM51000AP10 have 100ns access time for the memory.