Exam B  ECO361N—Spring 05

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Page 1; Each question is worth 2.5 points

1. What three factors determine the quality of a computer monitor?

 

 

 

 

2. Briefly discuss: Our eyes are digital and our ears are analog.

 

 

 

 

 

3. What is the important property of a transistor lacking in a diode.

 

 

 

 

4.  What is a byte?  How many colors can you represent with a byte?

 

 

 

 

5. What is an artificial neural network?

 

 

 

 

6. How far from the center of the earth and in what orbit do you place a satellite such that it appears stationary with respect to the earth? Is such a satellite good for long distance communication.

 

 

 

 

7. What is ShannonŐs measure of information and how does that relate to the meaning of the message.  Briefly discuss: You must communication all the information in a message to communicate its meaning?

 

 

 

 

 

8  What is CAE, give and example,  and briefly explain its economic advantage.

 

 

 

9 What is a consortia and what are the economic incentives to form one.

 

 

 

10.  What is XML and why is it slowly replacing HTML?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 2 [Stress the economics pages 2 and 3] {Each question is worth 6.25 points}

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11. Why are good strategies for innovation generally more difficult to implement than strategies for invention?  Give an example to illustrate your point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12.  What is the economics behind Moore's law

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. Man is a visual animal: How has the evolution of hardware and software reflected this fact and how is this evolution related to Moore's law?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14. What is the Memory Pyramid and why does it exist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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15. Can data and voice be combined in the same communication network and is it economic to do so.  Who might win in the long run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16. Give two examples that clearly show that the profitability of manufacturing is as much a function of better organization as better technology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17.  Discuss the pros and cons of airline reservation software.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18. What is a artificial neural network, give an example and discuss the economics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Write in ink or lose 5 points

19.  How far have we come to a cashless society? Give examples in physical space. Discuss payment mechanisms in cyberspace. Do we have an efficient way to make a $0.10 payment in cyberspace, yet? Discuss with future possibilities.