Lesson 4.7.2.1

4.7.2.1 The stored program concept Quiz: AQA Computer Science, Unit 7

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.7.2.1, The stored program concept: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Computer Science (7517), Unit 7: Fundamentals of computer organisation and architecture, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which component holds the address of the next instruction to be fetched from memory?

    • Accumulator
    • Memory Data Register
    • Current Instruction Register
    • Program Counter

  2. How are instructions processed in a serial execution model?

    • One after another
    • All simultaneously
    • Two at once
    • In random order

  3. Which two main types of operations does the processor perform?

    • Graphical and spatial
    • Network and serial
    • Physical and thermal
    • Arithmetic and logical

  4. What term describes the complete sequence of fetching, decoding, and executing an instruction?

    • Machine cycle
    • Bus cycle
    • Processor cycle
    • Clock cycle

  5. Which register temporarily stores the actual data fetched from or written to main memory?

    • Index Register
    • Program Counter
    • Memory Data Register
    • Status Register

  6. A program is loaded so that its first instruction is at address 200, and it has 10 instructions in consecutive locations with no branches. What is the address of the last instruction?

    • 210
    • 209
    • 200
    • 208

  7. A loop body of 5 instructions runs 100 times, with no branch overhead counted. How many instructions are executed in total?

    • 500
    • 100
    • 505
    • 105

  8. Where is the instruction decoded into control signals after being retrieved from memory?

    • Cache memory
    • Arithmetic Logic Unit
    • Control Unit
    • Accumulator

  9. Which architecture allows general-purpose computers to run different software without changing hardware?

    • Von Neumann
    • Harvard
    • RISC-only
    • Harvard-extended

  10. Which bus carries the memory address generated by the processor to main memory?

    • Address bus
    • System bus
    • Data bus
    • Control bus

  11. Which register holds the result of the most recent operation performed by the ALU?

    • Memory Address Register
    • Accumulator
    • Instruction Register
    • Program Counter

  12. Where are programs stored long-term when a computer system is powered off?

    • Main memory
    • Secondary storage
    • Processor registers
    • Cache memory

  13. What type of memory stores both program instructions and data in the stored program concept?

    • Virtual memory
    • Main memory
    • Cache memory
    • Secondary storage

  14. Why is data cleared from main memory when a computer is powered off?

    • RAM is read-only
    • RAM is volatile
    • RAM is non-volatile
    • RAM is serial

  15. What happens when running machine code instructions are modified directly in main memory?

    • Changed instructions execute
    • Memory protects itself
    • Cache overrides changes
    • Execution halts immediately

  16. Which format of instructions is stored in main memory for direct CPU execution?

    • Source code
    • Assembly code
    • High-level code
    • Machine code

  17. A stored program has 250 instructions, of which 40 are branches. How many instructions are not branches?

    • 40
    • 210
    • 250
    • 290

  18. A stored program is loaded at address 4096 and occupies 300 locations. What is the address of the last location it uses?

    • 4396
    • 4095
    • 4395
    • 4294

  19. Which cycle repeatedly fetches, decodes, and executes instructions stored in main memory?

    • Fetch-Execute cycle
    • Bus arbitration cycle
    • Clock cycle
    • Interrupt cycle

  20. Which processor technique overlaps the stages of the fetch-execute cycle to improve throughput?

    • Branching
    • Paging
    • Pipelining
    • Polling

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