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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
Q

What is RFID

A

Radio Frequency Identification - system of inputs and outputs used to wireless-ly communicate for payments or other things

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26
Q

What does RAM stand for

A

Random Access Memory

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27
Q

What does ROM stand for

A

Read Only Memory

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28
Q

What is stored in ROM

A

Basic instructions for booting the computer and loading the operating system

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29
Q

What kind of memory is RAM

A

Volatile

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30
Q

What kind of memory is ROM

A

Non-volatile

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31
Q

What is virtual memory?

A

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

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32
Q

What kind of storage is secondary storage

A

Non Volatile

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33
Q

What factors should be considered when picking secondary storage

A

Durability
ReadWrite Speed
Capacity
Portability
Cost
Lifespan

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34
Q

How do hard disk drives work

A

Magnetic disk with a read write head that changes the polarity of spots on the magnetic disk with positive = 1 and negative = 0

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35
Q

What are the advantages and disadvantages of hard disk drives

A

Durability: Bad
ReadWrite Speed: Good (better than SSDs)
Capacity: Good
Portability: Bad
Cost: Good
Lifespan: Infinite

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36
Q

How does cloud storage work

A

Involves uploading data to a remote server or computer via the internet.

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37
Q

What are the advantages and disadvantages of cloud storage

A

Durability: Infinite
Readwrite Speed: Bad
Capacity: Infinite
Portability: Very good
Cost: Free - then expensive
Lifespan: Infinite

38
Q

How do solid state drives work?

A

Contains multiple memory chips, which are controlled by software to make them act like a disk drive

39
Q

What are the advantages and disadvantages of solid state drives

A

Durability: Good
Readwrite Speed: Good (worse than HDDs)
Capacity: Average
Portability: Good
Cost: Bad
Lifespan: Finite

40
Q

How does optical storage work?

A

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
Q

What are the advantages and disadvantages of optical storage

A

Durability: Bad
Readwrite Speed: Bad
Capacity: Average
Portability: Good
Cost: average
Lifespan: Infinite

42
Q

What is the CPU

A

Central processing unit, processes all instructions and controls all activity within the computer

43
Q

Describe the purpose of the control unit

A

Sycronises instructions using clock, sends control signals down the control bus to coordinate activities

44
Q

Define a bus

A

A wire or set of wires that connect internal components that signals are transferred along

45
Q

What does the data bus do

A

Carries data and instructions between CPU and RAM

46
Q

What doess the address bus do

A

Carries information on the data location

47
Q

What does the control bus do

A

Carries control signals to coordinate and control activity

48
Q

What are some control signals

A

Memory read, Memory write, Bus request, Bus grant, Clock

49
Q

What does the memory read signal do

A

Places data from addressed location in RAM to be placed on data bus

50
Q

What does the memory write signal do

A

Writes data on data bus to addressed location in RAM

51
Q

What does the bus request signal do

A

Indicates that a device is requesting use of the data bus

52
Q

What does the bus grant signal do

A

Indicates the CPU has granted access to the data bus

53
Q

What does the clock signal do

A

Synchronises operations

54
Q

What does the ALU do

A

Preforms all arithmetic and logical operations for the processor

55
Q

What does an ALU take inputs as

A

An instruction consisting of an operator and an operand

56
Q

What is an operator

A

What is to be done

57
Q

What is an opperand

A

The data or address to be operated upon

58
Q

What is an opcode

A

The symbol or representation for the operator

59
Q

What are registers

A

Very small areas of superfast memory on the CPU used to temporarily store data

60
Q

What is the PC and what does it do

A

Program counter - holdes the memory address of the next instruction to be executed

61
Q

What is the CIR and what does it do

A

Current instruction register - Holds the current instruction

62
Q

What is the MAR

A

Memory address register - holds the address of the the next daya instruction

63
Q

What is the MDR

A

Memory data register - temporarily holds data moving between processor and main memory

64
Q

What is the ACC

A

Accumulator - holds intermediate results of instruction such as the result from the ALU

65
Q

What is the PC

A

Program counter - holds address of nect instruction

66
Q

What are steps of Fetch in the Fetch execute cycle (4)

A

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
Q

What are the step of decode (3)

A

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
Q

What are the characteristics of von Neumann architecture(2)

A

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
Q

What are the steps of execute (1)

A

Instruction is executed by ALU and stored in memory

70
Q

What is the problem of von Neumann Architecture

A

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
Q

What are the advantages of von Neumann architecture

A

Simplifies the design of the control unit, and data and memory accessed the same way lowering cost and programming complexity

72
Q

What are the characteristics of Harvard architecture (3)

A

Instructions and data stored in different locations, data and instructions transferred over different buses, data and instructions have different word lengths

73
Q

What are the advantages of harvard architecture

A

Avoids bottlenecking, thus is faster

74
Q

What are the disadvantges of harvard

A

More expensive - as complexity is much higher

75
Q

Where is harvard architecture used

A

Embedded systems and DSPs

76
Q

What is a DSP

A

Digital signal processor - takes a digital signal and makes it clearer, improving accuracy and reliability

77
Q

What kind of signals does DSPs act on

A

video, voice, auido, temperature or position signals that have been digitised

78
Q

How does a DSP clean signals

A

Rapidly preforms mathematical functions on them

79
Q

What are the characteristics of modern architecture

A

RAM uses von Neumann while cache uses harvard

80
Q

What is CISC

A

Complex instruction set computers, have a large instruction set used to accomplish tasks in as few lines of assembly as possible

81
Q

What is RISC

A

Reduced instruction set computers, have the minimum number of instructions, each taking one clock cycle in multiple general purpose registers

82
Q

Compare cisc to risc

A

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
Q

Advantages of CISC(3)

A

Quicker to code, compiler has to do less work, less RAM used to store instructions

84
Q

Advantages of RISC(3)

A

Hardware is simpler to build, pipelining is possible, RAM is cheap and RISC allows better preformance at less cost

85
Q

What are parallel systems

A

Multicore processors, able to distibute workload accross multiple processor cores, thus acheiving higher performance by preforming several tasks in paralell

86
Q

What is a co-processor

A

An extra processor used to supplement the functions of the CPU, can only carry out a limited range of functions

87
Q

What is a GPU

A

A specialised processor designed to be very efficent at manipulating computer graphics

88
Q

How is the GPU designed

A

Has thousands of small efficient cores designed for paralell processing

89
Q

What else can a GPU do(3)

A

Model physical systems, audio processing, breaking passwords

90
Q
A

Comp Sci 1 (6 decks)

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