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Comp Sci 1 > 1.1 Characteristics of contemporary processors > Flashcards

1.1 Characteristics of contemporary processors Flashcards

1
Q

What is stored in RAM

A

Operating system, running programs, data currently being used

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2
Q

What is an input device?

A

Transfers data from an outside source to the computer

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3
Q

List some input devices

A

Keyboards and Keypads
Pointing devices
Microphones
Touch screens
Interactive whiteboards
Scanners
Cameras
Bar code readers
QR readers

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4
Q

What is a sensor

A

A hardware device that can take measurement of physical properties, such as temperature or pressure, from real world surroundings. These measurements are usually a representation of the actual property being measured

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5
Q

What is analogue data

A

Data that has no discrete value and can take any value to any measure of precision

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6
Q

List some types of sensors

A

Gas
Infra-red
Light
Temperature
Pressure
pH
Magnetic field
Moisture
Acoustic

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7
Q

List some applications of temperature sensors

A

Control the central heating system in a house,
Control or monitor the heat output in a chemical process,
Control or monitor the environmental temperature in a greenhouse

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8
Q

List some applications of moisture sensors

A

Control or monitor the dampness of soil in a greenhouse,
Control or monitor the dampness of the air in a greenhouse,
Monitor the dampness levels in a factory making microchips

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9
Q

List some applications of light sensors

A

Switch street lighting on at dusk and switch street lighting off at dawn,
Automatically switch a car’s headlights on when it gets dark,
To close or open the window blinds in a greenhouse to maintain light levels

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10
Q

List some applications of Infra-red sensors

A

Turn on a car’s windscreen wipers automatically when it starts to rain,
Detection of intruders in a burglar alarm system,
Count the number of people entering or leaving a supermarket

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11
Q

List some applications of Pressure sensors

A

Detection of intruders in a burglar alarm system,
Checking the weight of a vehicle on a weigh bridge,
Measurement of air pressure to forecast weather

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12
Q

List some applications of Acoustic sensors

A

Pick up noise levels (e.g. footsteps) in a burglar alarm system,
Detect the noise of liquids dripping from a pipe in an oil refinery,
Monitor the sound levels in a car factory

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13
Q

List some applications of Gas sensors

A

Monitor CO2/O2 levels in a river,
Monitor CO2/O2 levels in the air in a greenhouse,
Check for the carbon monoxide levels in a car exhaust system

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14
Q

List some applications of pH sensors

A

Monitor or control the acidity levels in a chemical process,
Measurement of pollution levels in a river,
Check acidity levels in the soil in a greenhouse

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15
Q

List some applications of Magnetic field sensors

A

Used in smart phones so they know which direction it is pointing,
Used in the motors of CD players,
Used in vehicle anti-lock braking systems

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16
Q

What is an output devices

A

Take data produced by a computer and turn it into a form recognisable by humans

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17
Q

List some output devices

A

Monitor
Printer
Speakers
Actuators
Headphones
Projector

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18
Q

What are the different types of monitors

A

LED
OLED

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19
Q

Benefits of LCD over OLED

A

Cheaper

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20
Q

Benefits of OLED over LCD

A

Plastic - Flexible
Brighter
Less heat produced
No need for back lighting
Much less power is consumed

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21
Q

What are the different types of printer

A

Inkjet
Laser
Dot matrix
3D

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22
Q

What are the advantages of Inkjet printers

A

Inexpensive

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23
Q

What are the advantages of laser prints

A

Toner cheaper than ink and lasts longer
Print quality is better
Fast and reliable

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24
Q

What are the advantages and disadvantages dot matrix printers

A

As: useful when multi-part stationery is required, can work effectively in damp or dirty atmospheres
Ds: Noisy, poor print quality, expensive to buy

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25
What is RFID
Radio Frequency Identification - system of inputs and outputs used to wireless-ly communicate for payments or other things
26
What does RAM stand for
Random Access Memory
27
What does ROM stand for
Read Only Memory
28
What is stored in ROM
Basic instructions for booting the computer and loading the operating system
29
What kind of memory is RAM
Volatile
30
What kind of memory is ROM
Non-volatile
31
What is virtual memory?
A portion of the hard disk designated to function as additional RAM. When RAM fills up less important data and instructions are moved to virtual memory
32
What kind of storage is secondary storage
Non Volatile
33
What factors should be considered when picking secondary storage
Durability ReadWrite Speed Capacity Portability Cost Lifespan
34
How do hard disk drives work
Magnetic disk with a read write head that changes the polarity of spots on the magnetic disk with positive = 1 and negative = 0
35
What are the advantages and disadvantages of hard disk drives
Durability: Bad ReadWrite Speed: Good (better than SSDs) Capacity: Good Portability: Bad Cost: Good Lifespan: Infinite
36
How does cloud storage work
Involves uploading data to a remote server or computer via the internet.
37
What are the advantages and disadvantages of cloud storage
Durability: Infinite Readwrite Speed: Bad Capacity: Infinite Portability: Very good Cost: Free - then expensive Lifespan: Infinite
38
How do solid state drives work?
Contains multiple memory chips, which are controlled by software to make them act like a disk drive
39
What are the advantages and disadvantages of solid state drives
Durability: Good Readwrite Speed: Good (worse than HDDs) Capacity: Average Portability: Good Cost: Bad Lifespan: Finite
40
How does optical storage work?
Stores data by using lasers to read and write data on to an optical disk by creating pits and lands that represent 0s and 1
41
What are the advantages and disadvantages of optical storage
Durability: Bad Readwrite Speed: Bad Capacity: Average Portability: Good Cost: average Lifespan: Infinite
42
What is the CPU
Central processing unit, processes all instructions and controls all activity within the computer
43
Describe the purpose of the control unit
Sycronises instructions using clock, sends control signals down the control bus to coordinate activities
44
Define a bus
A wire or set of wires that connect internal components that signals are transferred along
45
What does the data bus do
Carries data and instructions between CPU and RAM
46
What doess the address bus do
Carries information on the data location
47
What does the control bus do
Carries control signals to coordinate and control activity
48
What are some control signals
Memory read, Memory write, Bus request, Bus grant, Clock
49
What does the memory read signal do
Places data from addressed location in RAM to be placed on data bus
50
What does the memory write signal do
Writes data on data bus to addressed location in RAM
51
What does the bus request signal do
Indicates that a device is requesting use of the data bus
52
What does the bus grant signal do
Indicates the CPU has granted access to the data bus
53
What does the clock signal do
Synchronises operations
54
What does the ALU do
Preforms all arithmetic and logical operations for the processor
55
What does an ALU take inputs as
An instruction consisting of an operator and an operand
56
What is an operator
What is to be done
57
What is an opperand
The data or address to be operated upon
58
What is an opcode
The symbol or representation for the operator
59
What are registers
Very small areas of superfast memory on the CPU used to temporarily store data
60
What is the PC and what does it do
Program counter - holdes the memory address of the next instruction to be executed
61
What is the CIR and what does it do
Current instruction register - Holds the current instruction
62
What is the MAR
Memory address register - holds the address of the the next daya instruction
63
What is the MDR
Memory data register - temporarily holds data moving between processor and main memory
64
What is the ACC
Accumulator - holds intermediate results of instruction such as the result from the ALU
65
What is the PC
Program counter - holds address of nect instruction
66
What are steps of Fetch in the Fetch execute cycle (4)
Address of next instuction copued from PC to MAR, instruction at that address copied to MDR, contents of PC incremented, contents of MDR copid to CIR
67
What are the step of decode (3)
Instruction in CIR decoded, split into operand and opcode to determine what type of instruction it is and additional data is fetched, data is passed to ACC
68
What are the characteristics of von Neumann architecture(2)
Single control unit that sequentially works through instructions, instructions and data are stored in a commom maim memory transferred using a single shared bus
69
What are the steps of execute (1)
Instruction is executed by ALU and stored in memory
70
What is the problem of von Neumann Architecture
Bottlenecking: the data required by an instruction cannot be transferred at the same time as instuction, so loys of processor time is spent idle
71
What are the advantages of von Neumann architecture
Simplifies the design of the control unit, and data and memory accessed the same way lowering cost and programming complexity
72
What are the characteristics of Harvard architecture (3)
Instructions and data stored in different locations, data and instructions transferred over different buses, data and instructions have different word lengths
73
What are the advantages of harvard architecture
Avoids bottlenecking, thus is faster
74
What are the disadvantges of harvard
More expensive - as complexity is much higher
75
Where is harvard architecture used
Embedded systems and DSPs
76
What is a DSP
Digital signal processor - takes a digital signal and makes it clearer, improving accuracy and reliability
77
What kind of signals does DSPs act on
video, voice, auido, temperature or position signals that have been digitised
78
How does a DSP clean signals
Rapidly preforms mathematical functions on them
79
What are the characteristics of modern architecture
RAM uses von Neumann while cache uses harvard
80
What is CISC
Complex instruction set computers, have a large instruction set used to accomplish tasks in as few lines of assembly as possible
81
What is RISC
Reduced instruction set computers, have the minimum number of instructions, each taking one clock cycle in multiple general purpose registers
82
Compare cisc to risc
complex instruction - simple, large range of instructions - fewer, many addressing modes - fewer, many instructions can access memory -only Load and Store, processor comples - simple
83
Advantages of CISC(3)
Quicker to code, compiler has to do less work, less RAM used to store instructions
84
Advantages of RISC(3)
Hardware is simpler to build, pipelining is possible, RAM is cheap and RISC allows better preformance at less cost
85
What are parallel systems
Multicore processors, able to distibute workload accross multiple processor cores, thus acheiving higher performance by preforming several tasks in paralell
86
What is a co-processor
An extra processor used to supplement the functions of the CPU, can only carry out a limited range of functions
87
What is a GPU
A specialised processor designed to be very efficent at manipulating computer graphics
88
How is the GPU designed
Has thousands of small efficient cores designed for paralell processing
89
What else can a GPU do(3)
Model physical systems, audio processing, breaking passwords
90

Comp Sci 1 (6 decks)

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