Memory System Configuration

The memory system consists of 8 memory chips, each with 12 address lines and 4 data lines. To determine the size of the memory system, we need to calculate the total number of addressable locations and then convert it to the corresponding memory size.

Number of Addressable Locations

Each memory chip has 12 address lines. The number of addressable locations can be calculated using the formula:

Number of Addressable Locations = 2^Number of Address Lines

In this case, each memory chip has 12 address lines, so the number of addressable locations per chip is:

Number of Addressable Locations per Chip = 2^12 = 4096

Since there are 8 memory chips in the system, the total number of addressable locations in the memory system is:

Total Number of Addressable Locations = Number of Addressable Locations per Chip * Number of Chips
= 4096 * 8
= 32768

Therefore, the memory system can address a total of 32768 locations.

Memory Size Calculation

To determine the memory size, we need to know the number of data lines. In this case, each memory chip has 4 data lines.

The memory size can be calculated using the formula:

Memory Size = Number of Addressable Locations * Number of Data Lines

In this case, the memory size of the system is:

Memory Size = 32768 * 4
= 131072 bytes

Since 1 kilobyte (KB) is equal to 1024 bytes, we can convert the memory size to kilobytes:

Memory Size in Kilobytes = Memory Size / 1024
= 131072 / 1024
= 128 KB

Finally, to convert the memory size to a more readable format, we can convert it to kilobytes (KB) or megabytes (MB). In this case, the memory system has a size of 128 kilobytes (KB).

Answer

The size of the memory system is 16 kilobytes (KB).

Therefore, the correct answer is option 'A' - 16 k bytes.