CS 209-01 Summer 1 2005 - Homework Assignment #1
Date: Tuesday May 24, 2005
Due: e-mail by 11:59 PM Thursday, May 26 2005
Assignment:
- Read Chapters 1,2, and 3 of the book
- Search the internet and find a documentation that includes technical
specifications for
- the motherboard ( you may need do download a reference manual for your computer)
- the video card and the monitor,
- the hard disk, and
- CPU
that you found in the computer you dissected in the graduate lab during the first lab.
For each of these (motherboard, video card + monitor, hard disk, CPU)
describe where and how did you find the documentation. Also describe
- What kind of memory does the motherboard support, how many memory sockets it has,
what is the minimum and maximum amount of memory it can have?
- What and how many expansion slots it has? What can they be used for?
- What are the resolutions and frequencies that both your video card and monitor support.?
- What is the formatted capacity of your hard disk ?
How many heads, cylinders it has and what is its rotational speed and average latency?
What are its data transfer rates?
- What are some of the key features of your CPU? What are its core and system bus frequencies?
- Search the internet and find the newest LINUX driver for you network card
Where and how did you find it. Who is the author? What is the version of the driver. What glitches are solved in this newest release comparing to the previous versions.
- Linux kernel
What are the latest versions of the linux kernel? What is the purpose
of the Beta kernel? How and when does it change to stable kernel?
Where did you find the related information?
- Do these exercises from the book:
- E1.4:
What is the current status of Linux development?
who are some of the key players?
How is the project managed?
- E1.5:
Research several Linux distributions (see page 4 in the book or the links below for a starter list)
and recommend a distribution for each of the following applications. Explain your choices.
- a) A single user working in a home office
- b) A university computer science lab
- c) A corporate web server
- Attach all related documentation (together with the related URL address) to the e-mail.
- Estimate how much time did you spend on this assignment. Describe what was hard,
easy, interesting, boring or confusing.
Points:
10 pts for each of 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 3, 4, 6, E1.4, E1.5
5 pts for 6 and 7
Total : 100 pts
Links: (form the page 4 of the textbook) :
- Vectra VL600 Technical Manual in [ PDF ]