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29. Define microprocessors.
Ans. Microprocessor is the other name of CPU. It is a large-scale integrated circuit which contains thousands
of transistors. Microprocessors allow computers to think faster.
30. Why are language processors used? List their types.
Ans. Programs written in a high-level language are required to be converted into a machine language. This task
is accomplished by the language processor. The types of language processors are as follows:
(a) Assembler (b) Interpreter
(c) Compiler
31. Explain briefly the functions of operating system.
Ans. The main functions of OS are:
(a) Memory management (b) Processor management
(c) Device management (d) Information management
32. What types of operations are provided by an operating system?
Ans. The operations provided by an operating system are:
• Provide an interface to allow the user to communicate with the computer.
• Control the various system hardware and software resources, e.g., Keyboard, Visual Display Unit
(VDU), Printer, etc., using special programs called Device Drivers.
• Manage the user’s files, keeping track of their positions on the disk, updating them after user makes
changes to them, etc.
• Provide system facilities, e.g., compilers to translate from high-level programming languages used
by the user to the internal machine language the computer uses.
33. What is an operating system (OS)?
Ans. An operating system (OS) is a group of computer programs that coordinates all the activities among
computer hardware devices. It is the first program loaded into the computer by a boot program and
remains in the memory at all times. OS is the interface between the user and the hardware of the
computer. It makes the computer functional and is responsible for running all the other software.
34. What is the difference between data and information?
Ans. The difference between data and information is as follows:
Supplement – Informatics Practices with Python–XI
Data is defined as raw facts and figures such as “Tejas”, “MBA”, “2013”, “ABC”. This data does not have
any meaning when presented as such. However, this data can be organized or processed to transform
it into useful information.
Information is defined as a collection of data which is organized in a particular manner to generate some
meaning. For example, “Tejas passed MBA in 2013 from ABC” is the information that we have obtained
after processing the data given above.

UNSOLVED QUESTIONS
54. What is an operating system?
55. Explain the types of operating systems with examples.
56. “Hardware is of no use without software and software cannot be used without hardware.” Explain.
57. What is an operating system? Write names of any two popular operating systems.
58. Convert the following into bytes:
(a) 2 MB (b) 3.7 GB (c) 1.2 TB
59. What are the security threats involved when we throw away electronic gadgets that are non-functional?
60. Write down the type of memory needed to do the following:
• To store data permanently,
• To execute a program,
• To store instructions which cannot be overwritten.

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