Course Content – CAIE Syllabus (9618)
Unit 1 – Information Representation
- Binary Number System
- Binary Coded Decimal
- Hexadecimal
- Bits, Bytes and Binary
- Representing Images
- Metadata
- Analogue and Digital Sound
- Data Compression
Unit 2 – Communication and Internet Technologies
- Data Transmission
- Wireless Networking, CSMA and SSID
- Structure of the Internet
- Packet Switching and Routers
- IP Addresses
- Network Topology
- Client-Server and Peer-to-Peer
- Client Server Model
Unit 3 – Hardware
- Computers and their components
- Logic gates
- Creating logic circuits
- Interpreting the results of a truth table
Unit 4 – Processor Fundamentals
- Central Processing Unit
- The Fetch-Decode-Execute Cycle
- The Processor
- Assembly Language
- Machine Code
- Bit Manipulation
Unit 5 – System Software
- Operating systems (OS)
- Processor scheduling
- Programming language classification
- Language translators
- Machine code
Unit 6 – Security, Privacy and Data Integrity
- Data security
- Cyber security
- MALWARE – malicious software
- Spyware
- Ransomware
- Data integrity
Unit 7 – Ethics and Ownership
- Ethics and ownership
- The rise of artificial intelligence
- The Computer Misuse Act 1990
- Data Protection Act (1998)
- Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1998)
- Introduction to software licences
Unit 8 – Databases
- Flat file databases
- Relational database model
- Database normalisation
- Database Management Systems (DBMS)
- Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML)
- Common data types
- Linking tables
Unit 9 – Fundamental Problem Solving – Algorithm Design and Problem Solving
- Abstraction and decomposition
- Solving logic problems
- Software development
- Algorithms
- Pseudocode
Unit 10 – Fundamental Problem Solving – Data Types and Structures
- Data Types and Records
- Arrays
- Searching and sorting algorithms
- Files and Exception Handling
- Abstract Data Types (ADT)
Unit 11 – Fundamental Problem Solving – Programming
- Selection
- Complex Boolean Expressions
- The CASE Statement
- Iteration
- Subroutines
Unit 12 – Fundamental Problem Solving – Software Development
- Program Development Life Cycle
- The Waterfall Model
- Iterative and Rapid Application Development
- Program Design
- Program Testing and Maintenance
- Error Types
Unit 13 – Advanced Theory – Data Representation
- User Defined Data Types
- File Organisation and Access
- Floating-Point Numbers, Representation and Manipulation
- Precision and Normalisation
Unit 14 – Advanced Theory – Communication and Internet Technologies
- Protocols
- the TCP/IP Model
- Circuit Switching
- Packet Switching
Unit 15 – Advanced Theory – Hardware and Virtual Machines
- Processors, Parallel Processing and Virtual Machines
- Comparing RISC and CISC
- Virtual Machines
- Boolean Algebra and Logic Gates
- De Morgan’s Laws
- Karnaugh Maps
Unit 16 – Advanced Theory – System Software
- Purposes of an Operating System
- Processor Scheduling
- IO Device Management
- Translation Software
- Backus-Naur Form
- Syntax Diagram
Unit 17 – Advanced Theory – Security
- Encryption Protocols and Digital Certificates
- Types of Encryption
- Encryption Protocol
- The Electronic Communications Act (2000)
- Digital Certificates
- Digital Signatures
Unit 18 – Advanced Theory – Artificial Intelligence
- Machine Learning
- Deep Learning
- Reinforcement Learning
- Dijkstra’s Algorithm
- A* Algorithm
Unit 19 – Computational Thinking and Problem Solving
- Algorithms
- Abstract Data Types
- Stacks
- Queues
- Linked Lists
- Binary Tree
- Big O Notation
- Recursion
Unit 20 – Further Programming
- Programming Paradigms
- Imperative (High Level) Programming
- Files Processing and Exception Handling
- Inputs and Outputs
- Exception Handling
