WGU C952 - COMPUTER
ARCHITECTURE. EXAM 2025/2026
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 100% PASS
Server - ANS A computer used for running larger programs for multiple users, often
simultaneously, and typically accessed via a network.
Supercomputer - ANS A class of computers with the highest performance and cost; they are
configured as servers and typically cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. Also a form of
server.
Embedded computer - ANS A computer inside another device used for running one
predetermined application or collection of software.
Personal mobile devices (PMDs) - ANS are small wireless devices to connect to the internet;
they rely on batteries for power, and software is installed by downloading apps. Conventional
examples are smart phones and tablets.
Cloud computing - ANS refers to large collections of servers that provide services over the
internet; some providers rent dynamically varying numbers of servers as a utility.
Software as a Service (SaaS) - ANS delivers software and data as a service over the internet,
usually via a thin program such as a browser that runs on local client devices, instead of binary
1 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED
,code that must be installed, and runs wholly on that device. Examples include web search and
social networking.
Multicore microprocessor - ANS A microprocessor containing multiple processors ("cores") in
a single integrated circuit.
Terabyte (TB) - ANS Originally 2^40 bytes, although communications and secondary storage
systems developers started using the term to mean 10^12 bytes. To reduce confusion, we now
use the term tebibyte (TiB) for 2^40 bytes, defining terabyte (TB) to mean 10^12 bytes.
Moore's Law - ANS states that integrated circuit resources double every 18-24 months.
Abstractions - ANS to characterize the design at different levels of representation; lower-
level details are hidden to offer a simpler model at higher levels.
Common case - ANS fast will tend to enhance performance better than optimizing the rare
case.
Parallel - ANS Computer architects have offered designs that get more performance by
computing operations in parallel.
Pipelining - ANS which moves multiple operations through hardware unites that each do a
piece of an operation, akin to water flowing through a pipeline.
Prediction - ANS In some cases it can be faster on average to guess and start working rather
than wait until you know for sure, assuming that the mechanism to recover from a
misprediction is not too expensive and your prediction is relatively accurate.
Hierarchy of memories - ANS Architects have found that they can address conflicting
demands of fast, large, and cheap memory with a hierarchy of memories, with the fastest,
2 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED
,smaller, and most expensive memory per bit at the top of the hierarchy and the slowest,
largest, and cheapest per bit at the bottom.
Dependable - ANS Since any physical device can fail, we make systems dependable by
including redundant components that can take over when a failure occurs and to help detect
failures.
Systems software - ANS Software that provides services that are commonly useful, including
operating systems, compilers, loaders, and assemblers.
Operating system - ANS Supervising program that manages the resources of a computer for
the benefit of the programs that run on that computer.
Compiler - ANS A program that translates high-level language statements into assembly
language statements.
Binary digit - ANS Also called a bit. One of the two numbers in base 2 (0 or 1) that are the
components of information.
Instruction - ANS A command that computer hardware understands and obeys.
Assembler - ANS A program that translate a symbolic version of instructions into the binary
version.
Assembly language - ANS A symbolic representation of machine instructions.
Machine language - ANS A binary representation of machine instructions.
3 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED
, High-level programming language - ANS A portable language such as C, C++, Java, or Visual
Basic that is composed of words and algebraic notation that can be translated by a compiler
into assembly language.
Input device - ANS A mechanism through which the computer is fed information, such as a
keyboard.
Output device - ANS A mechanism that conveys the result of a computation to a user, such
as a display, or to another computer.
The Big Picture - ANS The five classic components of a computer are input, output, memory,
datapath, and control, with the last two sometimes combined and called the processor. This
organization is independent of hardware technology: you can place every piece of every
computer, past and present, into one of these five categories.
Liquid crystal display - ANS A display technology using a thin layer of liquid polymers that can
be used to transmit or block light according to whether a charge is applied.
Active matrix display - ANS A liquid crystal display using a transistor to control the
transmission of light at each individual pixel.
Bit map - ANS The image is composed of a matrix of picture elements, or pixels, which can be
represented as a matrix of bits, called a bit map.
Pixel - ANS The smallest individual picture element. Screens are composed of hundreds of
thousands to millions of pixels, organized in a matrix.
Integrated circuit - ANS Also called a chip. A device combining dozens to millions of
transistors.
4 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED
ARCHITECTURE. EXAM 2025/2026
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 100% PASS
Server - ANS A computer used for running larger programs for multiple users, often
simultaneously, and typically accessed via a network.
Supercomputer - ANS A class of computers with the highest performance and cost; they are
configured as servers and typically cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. Also a form of
server.
Embedded computer - ANS A computer inside another device used for running one
predetermined application or collection of software.
Personal mobile devices (PMDs) - ANS are small wireless devices to connect to the internet;
they rely on batteries for power, and software is installed by downloading apps. Conventional
examples are smart phones and tablets.
Cloud computing - ANS refers to large collections of servers that provide services over the
internet; some providers rent dynamically varying numbers of servers as a utility.
Software as a Service (SaaS) - ANS delivers software and data as a service over the internet,
usually via a thin program such as a browser that runs on local client devices, instead of binary
1 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED
,code that must be installed, and runs wholly on that device. Examples include web search and
social networking.
Multicore microprocessor - ANS A microprocessor containing multiple processors ("cores") in
a single integrated circuit.
Terabyte (TB) - ANS Originally 2^40 bytes, although communications and secondary storage
systems developers started using the term to mean 10^12 bytes. To reduce confusion, we now
use the term tebibyte (TiB) for 2^40 bytes, defining terabyte (TB) to mean 10^12 bytes.
Moore's Law - ANS states that integrated circuit resources double every 18-24 months.
Abstractions - ANS to characterize the design at different levels of representation; lower-
level details are hidden to offer a simpler model at higher levels.
Common case - ANS fast will tend to enhance performance better than optimizing the rare
case.
Parallel - ANS Computer architects have offered designs that get more performance by
computing operations in parallel.
Pipelining - ANS which moves multiple operations through hardware unites that each do a
piece of an operation, akin to water flowing through a pipeline.
Prediction - ANS In some cases it can be faster on average to guess and start working rather
than wait until you know for sure, assuming that the mechanism to recover from a
misprediction is not too expensive and your prediction is relatively accurate.
Hierarchy of memories - ANS Architects have found that they can address conflicting
demands of fast, large, and cheap memory with a hierarchy of memories, with the fastest,
2 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED
,smaller, and most expensive memory per bit at the top of the hierarchy and the slowest,
largest, and cheapest per bit at the bottom.
Dependable - ANS Since any physical device can fail, we make systems dependable by
including redundant components that can take over when a failure occurs and to help detect
failures.
Systems software - ANS Software that provides services that are commonly useful, including
operating systems, compilers, loaders, and assemblers.
Operating system - ANS Supervising program that manages the resources of a computer for
the benefit of the programs that run on that computer.
Compiler - ANS A program that translates high-level language statements into assembly
language statements.
Binary digit - ANS Also called a bit. One of the two numbers in base 2 (0 or 1) that are the
components of information.
Instruction - ANS A command that computer hardware understands and obeys.
Assembler - ANS A program that translate a symbolic version of instructions into the binary
version.
Assembly language - ANS A symbolic representation of machine instructions.
Machine language - ANS A binary representation of machine instructions.
3 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED
, High-level programming language - ANS A portable language such as C, C++, Java, or Visual
Basic that is composed of words and algebraic notation that can be translated by a compiler
into assembly language.
Input device - ANS A mechanism through which the computer is fed information, such as a
keyboard.
Output device - ANS A mechanism that conveys the result of a computation to a user, such
as a display, or to another computer.
The Big Picture - ANS The five classic components of a computer are input, output, memory,
datapath, and control, with the last two sometimes combined and called the processor. This
organization is independent of hardware technology: you can place every piece of every
computer, past and present, into one of these five categories.
Liquid crystal display - ANS A display technology using a thin layer of liquid polymers that can
be used to transmit or block light according to whether a charge is applied.
Active matrix display - ANS A liquid crystal display using a transistor to control the
transmission of light at each individual pixel.
Bit map - ANS The image is composed of a matrix of picture elements, or pixels, which can be
represented as a matrix of bits, called a bit map.
Pixel - ANS The smallest individual picture element. Screens are composed of hundreds of
thousands to millions of pixels, organized in a matrix.
Integrated circuit - ANS Also called a chip. A device combining dozens to millions of
transistors.
4 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED
