Edexcel GCSE Computer Science (1CP2) Exam Questions

• B RAM is faster to access than secondary storage (1)
• The only correct answer is B. The correct answer is RAM is faster to access than secondary storage.
• A is not correct because RAM is volatile
• C is not correct because RAM has a smaller capacity than secondary storage
• D is not correct because RAM is more expensive than secondary storage

Award up to two marks for a linked description such as:

• During fetch, the program counter holds the address of the next instruction (1) which is used to fetch that instruction from main memory/RAM (1)
• During fetch, the instruction is held in a register/current instruction register (1) so the control unit can decode it (1)
• During decode, the control unit decodes the instruction held in a register/current instruction register (1) to identify the operation/operand to be carried out (1)
• During execute, a register/accumulator holds the data being operated on (1) and stores the result from the ALU (1)
• During execute, a register holds the result of an ALU operation (1) before it is written back to main memory/RAM (1)

Accept other correctly named registers (program counter/PC, current instruction register/CIR, memory address register/MAR, memory data register/MDR, accumulator) where their role is linked to a stage of the fetch-decode-execute cycle.

Do not accept 'registers store data' or 'registers hold data' on its own, without a link to fetch, decode or execute (or to the CPU currently processing it).

Do not accept responses that state registers are in main memory or that registers store data/instructions permanently.

Do not accept 'registers are a type of memory' or 'registers store the program' as they do not describe a role in the fetch-decode-execute cycle.