Edexcel GCSE Computer Science (1CP2) Exam Questions

Award one mark for:

• Volatile (1)

Allow volatile memory / it is volatile.

Do not accept non-volatile, ROM, RAM or temporary/short term memory on their own, as these are not the term asked for.

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

• A read/write head moves over the surface of the disk (1) to read/write data by detecting or changing the magnetic alignment of areas of the surface (1)
• The head magnetises areas of the disk surface in different directions (1) so each area represents a binary 1 or 0 (1)
• Data is stored on concentric circles called tracks (1) which are divided into sectors (1)

Allow one mark for tracks/concentric circles on their own.

For the second mark in the first two bullets, the response must refer to the magnetic alignment/charge being detected or changed, not just that the head reads/writes data.

Do not award a mark for 'it is magnetic' or 'it stores data in binary' with no description of how the data is stored.

Do not accept descriptions of optical storage (e.g. a laser, pits and lands) or solid state storage (e.g. electric charges in chips).

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.