1.1.2 Types of Processor

Question 1

What does RISC mean?

Answer 1

Reduces Instruction Set Computer.

Question 2

What does CISC mean?

Answer 2

Complex Instruction Set Computer.

Question 3

What are the properties or RISC?

Answer 3

• Small instruction set
• Each instruction is one line of machine code
• Used in everyday devices

Question 4

What are the properties of CISC?

Answer 4

• A large instruction set
• Instructions are built into hardware
• Used in embedded systems and microprocessors

Question 5

What are the benefits of RISC processors?

Answer 5

Pipelining is possible since each instruction takes one clock cycle.

Question 6

What are the benefits of CISC processors?

Answer 6

• Compilers have to do less work

- They require less RAM since instructions are smaller

Question 7

What is a graphics processing unit?

Answer 7

A co-processor made up of lots of independent parallel processors.

Question 8

What are GPUs used for now?

Answer 8

GPUs are used for image processing and machine learning.

Question 9

What are multi-core systems?

Answer 9

Systems where there are multiple cores that carry out separate fetch-decode-execute cycles.

Question 10

What are parallel systems?

Answer 10

Systems where multiple instructions can be completed at any given time, doesn’t require multiple cores, it can use threading and pipelining instead.