WJEC Eduqas A Level Computer Science (A500QS)Specification point 2.1

Eduqas A500QS 2.1: Hardware and communication

The free BugBot lessons that teach this point, a robot to try it on, and the past-paper questions that test it.

Lessons that teach it

  1. A9.1 Hardware, software and the stored program Computer architecture
    Internal components, the three buses and their widths, I/O controllers, the stored program concept, and von Neumann against Harvard.
  2. A9.2 The processor and its registers Computer architecture
    The ALU, control unit and clock, general-purpose and dedicated registers, and the status flags an 8-bit ALU sets.
  3. A9.3 The fetch-decode-execute cycle in detail Computer architecture
    Register transfer notation, the buses at each step, a full register trace, and a stored program that plays notes.
  4. A9.4 Instruction sets and addressing modes Computer architecture
    Opcodes, operands and instruction formats; immediate, direct, indirect and indexed addressing.
  5. A9.8 Performance, pipelining and parallel processors Computer architecture
    Cores, cache, clock speed, word length and bus widths; pipelining; CISC and RISC; multicore systems and GPUs.
  6. A9.9 Input, output and storage Computer architecture
    How barcode readers, cameras, laser printers and RFID work; magnetic, optical and flash storage; RAM, ROM and virtual storage.
  7. A9.10 Project: a processor of your own Computer architecture
    Build a von Neumann machine with register transfers, addressing modes, flags and memory-mapped I/O that plays a scale on the robot.
  8. A12.2 Topologies and wireless networks Networks and the web
    Physical and logical bus and star; Wi-Fi, SSIDs, WPA2 and CSMA/CA with RTS/CTS.

Try it on a robot

The task from A9.1 Hardware, software and the stored program, running here. Change the program and press Run.

The specification is Eduqas's own document; this page says which of our lessons teach point 2.1 and is not endorsed by the board.