ITPEC IP October 2025 Question 15
When the processing speed of the system overall is constrained because of slow processing speed in one of the components, which of the following is the term for the component that is causing the problem?
Explanation
Bottleneck — the one slow component that limits the processing speed of the whole system.
Like the narrow neck of a bottle, the slowest part sets the pace: the system cannot run faster than it, however fast the other components are. Speeding up any other part changes little, so a performance problem is solved by finding and improving the bottleneck.
Answer (d)
Why not others:
- •(a) Throughput — the amount of work a system completes per unit of time; the bottleneck limits it, but it is a measure, not a component
- •(b) Defragmentation — rearranging a file's scattered pieces on a disk into contiguous areas to speed up access
- •(c) Flowchart — a diagram of a processing procedure
Key rule: The overall performance of a system is set by its slowest part, so improve the bottleneck first; once it is fixed, another component becomes the new bottleneck.
System Component · AI-written, may contain errors
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