AQA GCSE (9-1)

Computer
Science

S Robson and
PM Heathcote
AQA GCSE (9-1) Computer Science
S. Robson
P.M. Heathcote

Published by
PG Online Limited
The Old Coach House
35 Main Road
Tolpuddle
Dorset
DT2 7EW
United Kingdom
[email protected]
www.pgonline.co.uk
2016
 Acknowledgements
The answers in the Teacher’s Supplement are the sole responsibility of the authors and have neither
been provided nor approved by the examination boards.
We would also like to thank the following for permission to reproduce copyright photographs:
Server Room © Google/Connie Zhou
How Secure is My Password screenshot © RoboForm, Siber Systems, Inc
PayPal screenshot © PayPal Inc
Other photographic images © Shutterstock

Cover picture © ‘Dawn Vista’ 2015

Screenprint, 93cm x 91cm
Reproduced with the kind permission of Hetty Haxworth
www.hetty-haxworth.co.uk

Cover artwork, graphics and typesetting by PG Online Ltd

First edition 2016

A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-910523-09-4
Copyright © S. Robson and P.M.Heathcote 2016
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Lightning Source Inc., Milton Keynes

ii
Preface
This is a brand new book from two popular and experienced authors. Aimed at GCSE students,
it provides detailed coverage of all the topics covered in the new AQA 8520 Computer Science
specification, written and presented in a way that is accessible to teenagers. It can be used as a course
text and as a revision guide for students nearing the end of their course.

It is divided into eight sections covering every element of the specification. Sections 1, 2A and 2B of the
textbook cover algorithms and programming concepts with a theoretical approach to provide students
with experience of writing, tracing and debugging pseudocode solutions without the aid of a computer.
These sections would complement practical programming experience.

Each section contains in-text questions and practice exercises. Answers to all these are available to
teachers only in a free Teachers’ Pack which can be ordered from our website www.pgonline.co.uk.

Approval message from AQA

This textbook has been approved by AQA for use with our qualification. This means that we have
checked that it broadly covers the specification and we are satisfied with the overall quality. Full details of
our approval process can be found on our website.

We approve textbooks because we know how important it is for teachers and students to have the right
resources to support their teaching and learning. However, the publisher is ultimately responsible for the
editorial control and quality of this book.

Please note that when teaching the GCSE Computer Science course, you must refer to AQA’s
specification as your definitive source of information. While this book has been written to match the
specification, it cannot provide complete coverage of every aspect of the course.

A wide range of other useful resources can be found on the relevant subject pages of our
website: www.aqa.org.uk.

iii
 Contents
Section 1
Fundamentals of algorithms 1

Section 1.1 Algorithms, decomposition and abstraction 2

1.2 Developing algorithms using flowcharts  6
1.3 Developing algorithms using pseudocode  9
1.4 Searching algorithms 13
1.5 Sorting algorithms  15

Section 2A
Programming basics 24

Section 2A.1 Data types and operations 25

2A.2 Sequence and selection 30
2A.3 Iteration 33
2A.4 Arrays 36
2A.5 Records and files  39

Section 2B
Programming techniques 46

Section 2B.1 Procedures and functions 47

2B.2 Validation and authentication  52
2B.3 Determining the purpose of algorithms  54
2B.4 Errors and testing  57
2B.5 Classification of programming languages  62

Section 3
Data representation 67

Section 3.1 Storage units and binary numbers 68

3.2 Binary arithmetic and hexadecimal  71
3.3 ASCII and Unicode 75
3.4 Images 76
3.5 Sound 79
3.6 Compression 80

iv
Section 4
Computer systems 85

Section 4.1 Boolean logic  86

4.2 Application and system software  91
4.3 Systems architecture  97
4.4 The CPU and Fetch-Execute cycle  98
4.5 Memory  100
4.6 Secondary storage  101

Section 5
Fundamentals of computer networks  110

Section 5.1 Wired and wireless networks 111

5.2 Network topologies and transmission 114
5.3 Network security 118
5.4 Protocols and layers 120

Section 6
Fundamentals of cyber security  125

Section 6.1 Cyber security threats 126

6.2 Social engineering 128
6.3 Malicious code 130
6.4 Detecting and preventing cyber security threats 131

Section 7
Impacts of digital technology 135

Section 7.1 Ethical issues 136

7.2 Digital technology in society 139
7.3 Legislation and privacy 143

v
Section 1 – Fundamentals of algorithms
1.1 Algorithms, decomposition and abstraction 2

1.2 Developing algorithms using flowcharts  6

1.3 Developing algorithms using pseudocode  9

1.4 Searching algorithms 13

1.5 Sorting algorithms  15

Objectives
• Understand and explain the term algorithm
1
• Understand and explain the term decomposition
• Understand and explain the term abstraction
• Use a systematic approach to problem solving and algorithm creation using pseudocode
and flowcharts
• Use meaningful identifier names and know why it is important to use them
• Determine the purpose of simple algorithms
• Understand that more than one algorithm can be used to solve the same problem
• Compare the efficiency of algorithms, explaining how some algorithms can be more efficient
than others in solving the same problem
• Understand and explain how the linear search algorithm works
• Understand and explain how the binary search algorithm works
• Compare and contrast the linear and binary search algorithms
• Understand and explain how the merge sort algorithm works
• Understand and explain how the bubble sort algorithm works
• Compare and contrast merge sort and bubble sort algorithms

Section 1 Fundamentals of algorithms 1

1.4 Searching algorithms

1.4 SEARCHING ALGORITHMS

Before starting to write algorithms for our own problems, we will look at some well-known
algorithms for searching and sorting, which are both very common operations in the real world.
Thousands of software applications, including databases or commercial search engines such as
Google, depend on the ability to quickly search through huge amounts of data to find a
particular item.

Name some other organisations that store huge amounts of data which often need to
Q13 be searched quickly find a particular item.

We are going to consider two search algorithms in this section. Two of the most common search
routines are:
• Linear search
• Binary search

A linear search
When the data is unsorted, the only sensible option when searching for a particular item is to
start at the beginning and look at every item until you find the one you want. You could be lucky
and find the item quite quickly if it’s near the beginning of the list, or you could be unlucky and
find it right at the end of the list.

If you have a list of 10,000 unsorted names, on average how many items will
Q14 need to be examined until you find the one you are looking for?
1
Here is an algorithm for a linear search:
1. found  False
2. Start at the first name
3. REPEAT
4. Examine the current name in the list
5. IF it’s the one you are looking for THEN
6. found  True
7. ENDIF
9. UNTIL found = True OR reach end of list
9. IF found = True THEN
10.  OUTPUT name
11.ELSE
12. OUTPUT "Not found"
13.ENDIF
The algorithm as written is a long way from something you can turn into program code, but it
describes how you might go about solving the problem.

Example 3
Look at the following list of integers:

14 2 3 11 1 9 5 8 10 6

The items you would examine to find the number 5 would be: 14, 2, 3, 11, 1, 9, 5

1.4 Searching algorithms 13

 SECTION 1 FUNDAMENTALS OF ALGORITHMS
Q15 Write down the items you would examine to locate data item 7 in the above data list.

A binary search
If the list is sorted, (i.e. in numerical or alphabetical order), you can use a much more efficient
algorithm called a binary search. It works by repeatedly dividing in half the portion of the data list
that could contain the required data item. This is continued until there is only one item in the list
you are examining.
This is the algorithm:
1. found  False
2. REPEAT
3. Examine the middle data item in the list
4. IF this is the required item THEN
5. found  True
5. ELSE
6. IF required item > middle item THEN
7.  discard the first half of the list including middle item
8. ELSE
9. discard the second half of the list including middle item
10. ENDIF
11. ENDIF
12.UNTIL found = True OR there are no more items in the list
Example 3
1 Consider the following ordered list of 15 items. We want to find out whether the number 50
is in the list of 10 items.

15 21 29 32 37 40 42 43 48 50 60 64 77 81 90

Stage 1: The middle term is 43; we can therefore discard all data items less than or equal to 43.

48 50 60 64 77 81 90

Stage 2: The middle term is 64, so we can discard all data items greater than or equal to 64.

48 50 60

Stage 3: middle term is 50 – so we have found the data item.

Note that if there are an even number of items in the list, for example 8 items, the fourth, not the
fifth, item is taken to be the middle item.

Suppose we have the following sorted list of 10 items:

Q16
3 5 6 8 11 12 14 15 17 18

Which one of the following is the correct sequence of comparisons when used to
locate the data item 8?
(i) 12, 6, 8 (ii) 11, 5, 6, 8 (iii) 3, 5, 6, 8 (iv) 11, 6, 5, 8

14 Section 1 Fundamentals of algorithms

 1.5 SORTING ALGORITHMS
Ask a friend to think of a number between 1 and 1000. Then use a binary search
Q17 algorithm to guess the number. How many different guesses will you need, at most?

Look at the following data list. Which items will you examine in (a) a linear search and
Q18 (b) a binary search to find the following data items: 27, 11, 60?

9 11 19 22 27 30 32 33 40 42 50 54 57 61 70 78 85

Comparing linear and binary search algorithms

The linear search algorithm is fine for just a few items, but for a very large number of items, it is
very inefficient. The average time taken to search 1000 items will be 100 times longer than the
time taken to search 10 items. If you had to search a database of 10 million car registrations to
find who owns a certain car, it would take a very long time.
In contrast, the binary search algorithm is extremely efficient. Each time an item is examined, if
it is not the right one, half the list is discarded. In a list of 10 million items, only 24 items would
need to be examined. That’s because 10,000,000 is less than 224. In general, if there are fewer
than 2n items (but at least 2n-1), the maximum number of items that needs to be examined is n.
A key benefit of the linear search is that it can be done on an unsorted list - the items do not
have to be in sequence. If items are frequently added or deleted from the list, this saves the extra
work needed to keep the list in sequence in order to do a binary search.

In the list of 17 items above, what is the maximum number of elements you would need
Q19 to look at to find out if the element is in the list? Try searching for the number 9.
1
1.5 Sorting algorithms
In the last sub-section we looked at methods of searching for data. The binary search method
required the data to be sorted before the search could take place. There are many algorithms for
sorting data and we will look at two of them:
• Bubble sort
• Merge sort

Bubble sort
A bubble sort works by repeatedly going through the list to be sorted comparing each pair of
adjacent elements. If the elements are in the wrong order they are swapped. A short algorithm
to do the swapping is:
temp  a
a  b
b  temp
If a = 9 and b = 6, the trace table below shows that the values of a and b have been swapped

temp a b
9 6
9 6 9

1.5 Sorting algorithms 15

 SECTION 1 FUNDAMENTALS OF ALGORITHMS
Why could we not just write the two statements below to swap the values?
Q20 ab
ba

Example 4: Working through the Bubble sort algorithm

The figure below shows how the items change order in the first pass, as the largest item
‘bubbles’ to the end of the list. Each time an item is larger than the next one, they change places.

Pass 1 9 5 4 15 3 8 11 2

5 9 4 15 3 8 11 2

5 4 9 15 3 8 11 2

5 4 9 15 3 8 11 2

5 4 9 3 15 8 11 2

5 4 9 3 8 15 11 2

5 4 9 3 8 11 15 2

5 4 9 3 8 11 2 15

1 After the first pass as shown above, the largest item is in the correct place at the end of the list.
On the second pass, only the first seven numbers are checked.

End of pass 2 4 5 3 8 9 2 11 15

11 and 15 are in the correct place; so only the first 6 numbers are checked.

End of pass 3 4 3 5 8 2 9 11 15

9, 11 and 15 are now in the correct place; so only the first 5 numbers are checked.

End of pass 4 3 4 5 2 8 9 11 15

8, 9, 11 and 15 are now in the correct place; so only the first 4 numbers are checked.

End of pass 5 3 4 2 5 8 9 11 15

5, 8, 9, 11 and 15 are now in the correct place; so only the first 3 numbers are checked.

End of pass 6 3 2 4 5 8 9 11 15

Finally, the first two numbers are checked and swapped

End of pass 7 2 3 4 5 8 9 11 15

The numbers are now in the correct order, and no further pass is required.

16 Section 1 Fundamentals of algorithms

Exercises

SECTION 2A EXERCISES
1. Which of the flowcharts below represents a WHILE…ENDWHILE loop and which a
REPEAT…UNTIL loop?  [1]

START START

Do Task

True
Condition? Do Task

False
Condition?
False

True

END END

2. An integer 65 can be converted to a character using the statement:

letter = CODE_TO_CHAR(65)
The ASCII value corresponding to the letter “A” is the integer 65, so this statement would
assign “A” to letter.
(a) Write an algorithm which accepts three integers as input and outputs the
corresponding letters as one word.  [4] 2A
(b) What word will be output if the user enters 66, 69 and 68?  [1]

3. An algorithm has been written to simulate a race. Each time the space bar is pressed, the
position of the player moves up by 1. When the position reaches 100, the player has won.
Here is the algorithm.
constant PlayerKey = " "
Position  0
REPEAT
KeyPressed  USERINPUT
IF KeyPressed = PlayerKey THEN
Position  Position + 1
ENDIF
UNTIL Position = 100
(a) State what is meant by selection and iteration using examples from the algorithm.  [4]

(b) To make the game more interesting, the rules are changed. Each time the spacebar
is pressed, the position of the player will now move up by a random number
between 1 and 4.
State two changes that need to be made to include this new rule. Justify each change. [4]

Section 2A Exercises 43
Section 3 – Data representation
3.1 Storage units and binary numbers 68

3.2 Binary arithmetic and hexadecimal  71

3.3 ASCII and Unicode 75

3.4 Images 76

3.5 Sound 79

3.6 Compression 80

Objectives
• Understand the following number bases: decimal, binary, hexadecimal
3
• Convert between number bases
• Know that a bit is a fundamental unit of information, and a byte is a group of 8 bits
• Know the names and values of kB, MB, GB, TB
• Be able to perform binary arithmetic and binary shifts
• Describe the ASCII and Unicode character encoding systems and their purposes
• Describe how a bitmap represents an image using pixels and colour depth
• Calculate bitmap image file sizes based on the number of pixels and colour depth
• Convert binary data into a black and white image and vice versa
• Understand that sound must be converted to a digital form for storage in a computer
• Describe the digital representation of sound in terms of sampling rate and sample resolution
• Calculate sound file sizes
• Explain what data compression is
• Understand why data may be compressed and that there are different methods to
compress data
• Explain how data can be compressed using Huffman coding
• Be able to interpret Huffman trees
• Be able to calculate the number of bits required to store compressed and uncompressed data
• Explain how data can be compressed using Run Length Encoding (RLE)

Section 3 Data representation 67

 SECTION 3 DATA REPRESENTATION
Binary shifts
If a binary number is shifted to the left this is equivalent to multiplying the number by 2 for each
shift to the left.
For example: If we shift:

0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1

TWO places to the left we get the binary number:

0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0

(NOTE: we fill empty binary positions with 0s as we shift to the left)

The original binary number has a value of 15 (i.e. 8+4+2+1 = 15); the number after shifting two
places to the left has the value 60 (i.e. 32+16+8+4 = 60). It is multiplied by 4, or 22.
Shifting binary numbers to the right has the opposite effect i.e. each shift to the right has the
effect of dividing by 2. Thus if we shift:

0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0

THREE places to the right we get the binary number:

3 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0

The original binary value was 112 (i.e. 64 + 32 + 16 = 112) and the value after shifting three
places to the right is 14 (i.e. 8 + 4 + 2 = 14). The number was divided by 8, and becomes 23.
(NOTE: we fill empty binary positions with 0s as we shift to the right)

Multiplication/division by powers of 2
This gives an easy way to multiply and divide binary numbers by powers of 2, but can come
at the expense of accuracy. For example 00000110 shifted right twice to divide by 4 would be
00000001. This is the equivalent of decimal 1, but 6 / 4 = 1.5.
• Shifting right one place divides the number by 2
• Shifting left one place multiplies the number by 2
This is equivalent to shifting a decimal number right or left – for example shifting 12300 right
gives 1230, i.e. it divides the number by 10. Shifting left multiplies a decimal number by 10.

Write down the results after the following shift operations and write down the decimal
Q7 values before and after the shifts:
(a) The number 11001100 is shifted TWO places to the right
(b) The number 00011001 is shifted TWO places to the left
(c) The number 11001000 is shifted THREE places to the right
(d) The number 00000111 is shifted FOUR places to the left
(e) The number 10000000 is shifted FIVE places to the right

72 Section 3 Data representation

Lossless compression

3.6 COMPRESSION
This is a data encoding method where files are compressed but no data is lost – an essential
factor for text and data files. For example, bank records must keep all of the data; you cannot
transmit a bank statement and miss out a few zeros because they don’t matter too much!
It could be used to compress data files, for example by “zipping” them using a utility program
such as WinZip, before attaching them to an email.
The following table shows different file types and file extensions used for different file formats.

Compression
Type File suffix Explanation
Type

Bitmap .bmp - Uncompressed still image file

Good for photographs.

JPEG .jpg Lossy Colour depth = 24 bits, RGB,
16.7 million different colours
Graphic Colour depth = 8 bits (only 256 colours)
Interchange .gif Lossless Good for images with large areas of solid colour
Format Ideal for web graphics
Audio files: Designed for downloading music
MP3 .mp3 Lossy from the Internet. In MP3 format you could fit
120 songs on a CD.

Run length encoding 3

Run length encoding (RLE) is a simple form of lossless data compression in which runs of
data (sequences of data all having the same value) are stored using frequency/data pairs.
For example, the black and white image below in uncompressed form would occupy
64 bits, with 1 representing white and 0 representing black.
It could be represented as:
11111111 10111111 00000011 00000011 00000000 00000000 00000000 10011001.
Using RLE, the first row of pixels could be represented as 8 1, meaning that there are 8 pixels
each having a value of 1. The second row can be represented as 1 1 1 0 6 1 representing
1 white pixel, 1 black pixel and then 6 white pixels.

RLE is not so useful with files that don’t have many runs, and can in fact increase the file size. It
is most useful on simple images such as icons that contain many pixels that are the same colour.

3.6 Compression 81
 SECTION 3 DATA REPRESENTATION
Using RLE, show how the image below would be coded, if black is encoded as 0 and
Q17 white as 1.

Huffman coding
Huffman coding is a compression technique used to reduce the number of bits used to represent
each letter. The more frequently a letter appears in the text, the fewer bits are used to represent it
in a text file.

Example 3
Consider the sentence PIPPA ATE A PEPPER. A table showing the frequency of each character,
including spaces is created as the first step in building the Huffman tree. For example, there is
one “I”, one “R”, and six “P”s in the sentence.

Character I R T A E SPACE P
Frequency 1 1 1 3 3 3 6
You will only be required to interpret the tree, not build it. A Huffman tree for this sentence is
shown below. It is a binary tree in which characters that occur most frequently are nearer the top
and therefore require fewer characters to encode them, as described below.

3 0 1

0 1 0 1

Space P
0 1 0 1

T A E
0 1

I R
Using this Huffman tree, the coding for each character is derived from the path taken from the
root node to the character. Branching left at a node is coded as 0, branching right is coded as 1.
Thus the character ‘A’ would be represented by the bit pattern 110 because from the top of the
tree, you go right, right, left to reach ‘A’. The encoding for ‘T’ would be 010 and for ‘E’, 111.
The total number of bits needed to represent the word “ATE” would be 3 + 3 + 3 = 9. In 7-bit
ASCII, the number of bits required would be 3 x 7 = 21, representing a saving of 12 bits in the
compressed format, with a 57% reduction in size.

(a) What would be the coding for the letters P, I, T?

Q18
(b) How many bits would these three letters take using the Huffman code?
(c) T
 he sentence PIPPA ATE A PEPPER is represented in a total of 47 bits.
How many bits would be required to represent the sentence in ASCII?
(d) How many bits are saved by compressing PIT using Huffman coding?

82 Section 3 Data representation

 AQA GCSE (9-1) COMPUTER SCIENCE INDEX
Index
A blagging, 128 D
abstraction, 4 Blu-Ray, 105 Data Protection Act 1998, 143
actuator, 93 Boolean data types, 25
ADC, 79 data type, 30, 86 decimal to binary conversion,
adware, 130 expression, 31, 86 69
algorithm, 2, 37 variable, 86 decomposition, 3
AlphaGo program, 136 bootstrap loader, 101 Deep Blue, 136
ALU, 97 boundary data, 60 defensive design, 52
analogue signal, 79 bubble sort, 15 designer baby, 137
Analogue-to-Digital Converter, bus, 97 device driver, 93
79 topology, 116 disk defragmentation, 95
AND gate, 87 byte, 68 DIV, 27
anti-malware software, 132 bytecode, 64 driverless cars, 137
API, 93 dual-core, 100
Applications Program Interface, C DVD, 105
93 cache memory, 99
Arithmetic Logic Unit, 97 Caesar shift cipher, 119 E
arithmetic operations, 97 CAPTCHA, 133 email confirmation, 134
array, 36 CD, 105 embedded systems, 94
1-dimensional, 37 CD-R, 105 encryption, 119
2-dimensional, 38 CD-ROM, 105 software, 95
I artificial intelligence, 136
ASCII, 75
CD-RW, 105
ciphertext, 119
environmental impact, 141
errors
assembler, 63 clock, 97 logic, 58
assembly language, 62 speed, 99 syntax, 57
authentication, 118 cloud storage, 107 Ethernet, 116
routines, 53 colour depth, 77, 78 transmission, 117
automatic software updates, compiler, 64
132 compression, 80 F
automatic updating, 96 lossless, 81 fetch-execute cycle, 98
lossy, 80 file
B software, 96 reading from, 42
bandwidth stealing, 114 computational thinking, 4 writing to, 41
binary Computer Misuse Act 1990, file size, 78, 80
division, 72 144 File Transfer Protocol (FTP), 122
logic, 86 computer-based implants, 141 firewall, 120
multiplication, 72 concatenation, 29 flash memory, 103
shifts, 72 constant, 26 float, 26
to decimal, 68, 70 Control Unit, 97 flowchart symbols, 6
to hexadecimal, 73 cookies, 146 FOR…ENDFOR, 11, 33
binary numbers Copyright Designs and format check, 52
adding, 71 Patents Act 1988, 144 frames, 117
binary search, 14 cores, 100 FTP, 122
biometric methods, 133 CPU performance, 99 function, 48
bit, 68 cyber security, 126
bitmap image, 76

148 AQA GCSE (9-1) Computer Science Index

 AQA GCSE (9-1) COMPUTER SCIENCE INDEX
G legal issues, 143 Network Interface Card, 113
GB, 68 length check, 52 nibble, 68
gigabyte, 68 linear search, 13 NIC, 113
Go, 136 local area network, 114 non-volatile, 101
logic circuits, 88 NOT gate, 87
H logic diagram, 86
hacking, 146 logic errors, 58 O
hardware, 91 logic gates, 87, 88 object code, 64
hertz, 79 logical operations, 97 operating system, 91
hexadecimal, 73 lossless compression, 81 operation
to binary, 74 lossy compression, 80 arithmetic, 27
to decimal, 74 low-level languages, 62, 63 comparison, 27
high-level languages, 62 advantages, 63 string handling, 28
advantages, 63 optical
HTTP, 122 M devices, 105
HTTPS, 122 MAC address, 113 media, 105
Huffman coding, 82 filtering, 120 OR gate, 88
machine code, 62 outdated software, 127
I magnetic output statement, 27
I/O device management, 93 disk, 102
identifier, 7, 25 media, 102 P
IF…THEN…ELSE, 10
images, 76
main memory, 99, 100
maintainability, 53
packet, 112
PAN, 116
I
input statement, 27 maintenance utilities, 95 parameter, 48
Internet, 111 malicious code, 130 password protection, 118
Internet protocol (IP), 121 malware, 130 passwords
interpreter, 64 MB, 68 default, 126
IP address, 112 Media Access Control, 113 weak, 126
iteration, 11 megabyte, 68 PB, 68
nested, 36 memory pen drives, 103
cards, 103 penetration testing, 131
J management, 92 black box, 132
JavaScript, 64 sticks, 103 white box, 132
metadata, 145 personal area network, 116
K misconfigured access rights, petabyte, 68
kB, 68 127 pharming, 129
key, 119 mnemonics, 62 phishing, 128
kilobyte, 68 MOD, 27 pixel, 76
plaintext, 119
L N presence check, 52
LAN, 114 network privacy issues, 145
layer, 120, 123 forensics, 131 procedure, 47
application, 123 hardware, 113 programming constructs, 9
link, 123 security, 118
network/Internet, 123 topologies, 115
transport, 123

AQA GCSE (9-1) Computer Science Index 149

 AQA GCSE (9-1) COMPUTER SCIENCE INDEX Index continued

protocol social networking, 137 V

Ethernet, 121 software, 91 validation, 52
HTTP, 122 application, 91 variable
HTTPS, 122 system, 91 declaration, 25
IMAP, 122 Solid State Drives, 103 global, 49
SMTP, 122 sorting algorithms, 15 local, 49
TCP/IP, 121 sound, 79 variables, 25
UDP, 122 source code, 64 verification, 52
protocols, 116, 120 spyware, 130 virus, 130
SSD, 103 volatility, 101
Q star topology, 115 Von Neumann architecture, 97
pseudocode, 9 storage, 101 vulnerabilities, 131
quad-core, 100 string handling operations, 28
structured programming, 51
R subroutine, 47 W
RAM, 99, 100 advantages of, 51 WAN, 111
random access memory, 100 switch, 113 WAP, 121
random number generation, 38 syntax errors, 57 wearable technologies, 141
range check, 52 system bus, 98 web browser, 111
rating culture, 138 WHILE…ENDWHILE, 11, 34
read only memory, 101 T wide area network, 111
I Read-Only access, 119
Read-Write access, 119
TB, 68
terabyte, 68
Wi-Fi, 113, 121
WinZip, 96
record, 39 test plan, 59 wireless networking, 113, 142
removable media, 126 testing, 57, 59
REPEAT…UNTIL, 11, 35 text file, 41
RLE, 81 topology
robust code, 31 bus, 116
ROM, 101 network, 115
router, 113 star, 115
run length encoding, 81 trace table, 54, 61
transmission media, 117
S Trojan, 131
sample truth table, 87
rate, 79 type check, 52
resolution, 79
secondary storage, 100, 101 U
security management, 94 Uber, 138
sequence, 9 UDP, 122
shift operations, 97 unicode, 76
shouldering, 129 unpatched software, 127
signal amplitude, 79 user access levels, 119
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol utility software, 95
(SMTP), 122
smart meters, 95
social engineering, 128

150 AQA GCSE (9-1) Computer Science Index

AQA GCSE (9-1)
Computer
Science
The aim of this book is to About the authors Cover picture:
provide an accessible text for Susan Robson worked for
students, covering each of the International Computers ‘Dawn Vista’
elements in the AQA 8520 Ltd after graduating from Screenprint, 93x91cm
Computer Science GCSE (9-1) Manchester University with a © Hetty Haxworth
specification. It can be used degree in Computer Science. www.hetty-haxworth.co.uk
both as a course text and as She spent the following 12
a revision guide for students years in technical pre-sales for
nearing the end of their ECI Telecom, before moving
course. It is divided into eight into teaching. As a Head of
sections, each broken down Computer Science, she gained
into manageable chapters of years of experience teaching
roughly one lesson. GCSE and A Level Computing This book has been
and has written successful approved by AQA.
Sections 1, 2A and 2B of the textbooks and teaching
textbook cover algorithms and materials. She is currently an
programming concepts with a Assistant Head at Our Lady’s
theoretical approach to provide Abingdon.
students with experience of
writing, tracing and debugging Pat Heathcote is a well-known
pseudocode solutions without and successful author
the aid of a computer. These of Computing textbooks. She
sections would complement has spent many years as a
practical programming teacher of A Level Computing
experience. courses and has significant
examining experience. She has
Each section contains in-text also worked as a programmer
questions and practice and systems analyst, and was
exercises, which can be set as Managing Director of Payne-
homework. Answers to all Gallway Publishers until 2005.
these are available to teachers
only, in a free Teachers’
Supplement, which can be
ordered from our website
www.pgonline.co.uk