Reference no: EM132380144

ITC544 - IT Fundamentals

Charles Sturt University

Subject Overview

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:
• be able to investigate and describe the essential elements of a computer and their functionalities;
• be able to apply an understanding of data representations and calculations to practical situations;
• be able to develop an elementary computer program;
• be able to discuss the features of various software development methodologies;
• be able to discuss and analyse fundamental networking concepts, protocols and standards;
• be able to discuss the principle lifecycle phases of an information system, from requirements and acquisition through to operation and maintenance;
• be able to compare and contrast the role of IT service management frameworks, policies and compliance issues.

Assessment item 1

Task

For this assessment item, you need to register in the PeerWise system. We will be using
PeerWise as a place for you to create, share, answer, and evaluate multiple-choice questions with your classmates.

If you have not used PeerWise before, just click the "Registration" link and follow the prompts. All you need to do is choose a user name (students are advised to use their CSU usernames, if possible) and a password for your PeerWise account.

If you have used PeerWise before, simply log in and then select "Join course" from the Home menu.
To access the Assessment Item 1, "ITC544 201960", you will need to enter two pieces of information:
1) Course ID = To be provided in the Interact2 site - Announcement
2)Identifier = Please enter your CSU Student ID for this course

Using PeerWise, please engage yourself in the peer learning and teaching activities with your fellow classmates by posting maximum 10 multiple-choice questions on (i) Textbook Chapter 1: Introduction (sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 and 1.8) and (ii) Textbook Chapter 2: Data representation (sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6).

Furthermore, you need to answer questions and post comments on questions/answers posted by the other students. You discuss the topics with other students using the comments. You can also rate other questions and answers posted by other students or the lecturer. This will assist you and your lecturer assess your readiness for study in this subject. The lecturer may contact you if you do not engage with this assessment item.

Your questions:

This section allows a student to review all of the questions they have contributed to the system. The questions are displayed in a table with columns listing the date the question was developed, the number of responses, and the rating. The table can be sorted on any of these keys. A specific item can be selected from the table, to display details such as how often each alternative was selected and any feedback provided by students who have answered it. There is also a column in the table which displays the perceived difficulty of the question, as rated by students who have answered it. Another column displays whether or not the question is "suitable", which occurs when it has a rating greater than 2, and the most popular alternative selected is the correct alternative. If either of these conditions is not met, it may indicate that the question is overly tricky, or contains errors.

When creating a new question, the contributor needs to provide a question stem, at least two and up to five alternatives, an indication of which alternative is correct, and an explanation of why that is the correct alternative. The explanation is shown to all students who answer the question and serves to assist students who select an incorrect alternative to identify their misunderstanding. Each new question can be tagged with the name of any relevant course topics, which allows students using the system for revision to easily find questions of interest. As soon as a question is contributed, it will appear in the "Unanswered questions" section for other students in the course.

Assessment item 2

Assignment 1: Computers, data and programming

Question 1.
a) A Computer uses IEEE-754 single precision format to represent floating points. What value (in decimal) the computer represents if the floating point is represented using the following

binary digits. Show all the steps used in finding the answer.

0 01111110 10100000000000000000000

b) Convert the following numbers. (Please show all steps; no marks will be awarded if no steps are shown)

i) 0xAD9 into 3-base representation
ii) 4518 into 2-base (binary) representation
iii) 123.35 into octal representation (up to 3 octal points)
iv) 14.358 into decimal representation

Question 2.

Write a MARIE program that accepts an integer from the user, and if it is a prime number the program will output 1, otherwise, the program will output 0.

Examples:
If the user input is 17, the output would be 1 If the user input is 2, the output would be 1 If the user input is 15, the output would be 0 If the user input is -2, the output would be 0

You should write and run the program using MARIE simulator. Add enough comments to understand your code.
You do not have to include the .mas file in the submission. Instead, the code should be presented as a word-processed section in the assignment, not as an image.
Insert images to show you have tested the code with several possibilities.

Question 3.

a) Explain with an example of what is meant by high-order interleaving and low-order interleaving in memory organisation.

b) Suppose we have a memory consisting of 32 4Kx8-bit chips.
Show the address structure and module organisation when
i. high-order interleaving is used
ii. low-order interleaving is used.

Rationale
This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:

- be able to investigate and describe the essential elements of a computer and their functionalities.
- be able to apply an understanding of data representations and calculations to practical situations.
- be able to develop an elementary computer program.

Assessment item 3

Task

Undertake and complete the online quiz covering questions related to plagiarism and referencing.

Students may attempt the Plagiarism Quiz multiple times in order to achieve the passing score of 18 from 20. The quiz will remain open until the end of week 6. We strongly encourage all students to complete and pass this quiz prior to submitting other assessments.

Rationale
This assessment task does not directly assess a specific learning outcome but is a requirement for passing the subject.
To ensure students are aware of plagiarism and referencing standards.

Assessment item 4

Assignment : Network Protocols and SDLC

Answer the following questions:

1. Explain why we need a 3-way handshake in TCP? Why not just 2-way?

2. What is RAD? List an advantage and a disadvantage of using RAD.

3. Discuss two advantages and two disadvantages of agile methods.

4. What is scope creep in software development? Explain three ways to deal with scope creep.

5. AAA Medical Devices is a manufacturer of portable and wearable medical monitoring devices. They have developed a glucose monitor embedded in a wristband. The device is powered by body heat and senses glucose levels from minute quantities of perspiration. AAA wants to develop a Real-Time Glucose Monitoring (RTGM) system which will be using this device. AAA is planning to see the software to other health systems worldwide.

The software should be accessible on smartphones with Bluetooth capability.
The project has commenced, and you are appointed as a Systems Analyst to understand the requirements of the new system.

Think about the potential users of the system and discuss three fact-finding techniques that you would use to collect the requirements of the new system.

Rationale

This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:
• be able to discuss the features of various software development methodologies.
• be able to discuss and analyse fundamental networking concepts, protocols and standards.
• be able to discuss the principle lifecycle phases of an information system, from requirements and acquisition through to operation and maintenance.
• be able to compare and contrast the role of IT service management frameworks, policies and compliance issues.