Which ASCII control character, also known as 'control C', is interpreted by many operating systems as a command to abort a running program?

Correct answer: ETX

Explanation

The ASCII standard includes a set of non-printing 'control characters' originally used to control teletype devices. Some of these have acquired new meanings in modern operating systems, such as ETX (Ctrl-C) for program termination.

Other questions

Question 1

What is the key difference in how a synchronous bus and an asynchronous bus handle wait states by default?

Question 2

What is the maximum data transfer rate of the original IBM PC bus?

Question 3

How did the PC/AT bus improve upon the original PC bus in terms of data path and IRQ lines?

Question 4

What is a key feature of the Micro Channel bus first used in IBM's PS/2 series computers?

Question 5

How did the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus achieve its features while maintaining compatibility with AT plug-in cards?

Question 6

What type of connector does the Multibus II use, which is noted for improving reliability over card-edge connectors?

Question 7

Which characteristic distinguishes the VME bus from NuBus and Multibus II?

Question 8

What is the primary difference between interpreted languages like BASIC and compiled languages like C or FORTRAN in terms of execution?

Question 9

What is the function of a 'linker' in the process of creating a runnable program?

Question 10

What is the primary role of a software 'driver'?

Question 11

What is the purpose of the 8th bit that is often sent with 7-bit ASCII characters in serial communication?

Question 12

In asynchronous bit-serial transmission, what is the purpose of the START bit?

Question 13

What are the specified voltage levels for a driver in the RS-232 standard?

Question 14

In the context of RS-232, what is the fundamental difference between a DTE (data terminal equipment) and a DCE (data communication equipment) regarding the transmit and receive pins?

Question 15

What is the maximum specified cable length for the RS-423A serial data standard?

Question 16

What is the key difference in signaling between the RS-422A and RS-423A standards?

Question 17

In modem communication, what does FSK, used in the 300 baud Bell 103 standard, stand for?

Question 18

When transferring data files using a modem, why is it advisable to use a block-checking protocol like Kermit or XMODEM?

Question 19

In the Centronics parallel printer interface, what is the function of the BUSY signal?

Question 20

What is the primary advantage of the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)?

Question 21

What were the typical asynchronous and synchronous data transfer rates supported by the SCSI standard described in the text?

Question 22

The IEEE-488 bus, also known as GPIB, was originated by which company and for what primary purpose?

Question 23

What is the maximum number of instruments permitted on a single IEEE-488 (GPIB) bus cable?

Question 24

In a CSMA/CD network like Ethernet, what does a sending node do if it detects a collision while transmitting a packet?

Question 25

What is the key difference between Ethernet's CSMA/CD protocol and LocalTalk's CSMA/CA protocol?

Question 26

What is the typical representation for signed integers in computers?

Question 27

In the IEEE 32-bit single-precision floating-point format, what is the 'hidden bit' trick?

Question 28

How does the IBM floating-point format described differ from the IEEE format in its use of an exponent?

Question 29

What is the primary purpose of a 'ramdisk'?

Question 30

What is the address width, in bits, of the CAMAC bus according to the provided table?

Question 31

Based on the provided computer bus specifications, which bus has the highest raw bandwidth?

Question 32

What is the data width of the STD bus?

Question 33

What does the term WYSIWYG, used in the context of editor/formatters, stand for?

Question 34

What is a potential problem with using a general-purpose editor/formatter to create source code for a compiler?

Question 35

According to the text, what is the role of an operating system?

Question 36

What is 'virtual memory'?

Question 37

What is the key functional difference between a 'ramdisk' and a 'disk cache'?

Question 38

Which of these is NOT listed as a standardized 'cable interface' for peripherals?

Question 40

What is the maximum data rate specified for the RS-485 serial data standard?

Question 41

What technique is used by 1200 baud (Bell 212A) and 2400 baud modems to encode data?

Question 42

In a token-ring network, how is access to the network controlled?

Question 43

What is the specified address width for the MicroChannel bus, according to the table of computer buses?

Question 44

Which of these computer buses is described in the table as being synchronous?

Question 45

What type of connector is indicated for the NuBus in the computer bus specifications table?

Question 46

When is it necessary to add wait states on a bus?

Question 47

What is the maximum number of drivers and receivers supported on a single line by the RS-485 standard?

Question 48

What does SCSI, a popular parallel interface standard, stand for?

Question 49

The SCSI interface is a descendant of which earlier interface developed by Shugart Associates?

Question 50

What is the maximum data path width supported by the EISA bus?