1.1.2 Types of Processor

Question 1

What does RISC stand for?

Answer 1

Reduced Instruction Set Computer

Question 2

What does CISC stand for?

Answer 2

Complex Instruction Set Computer

Question 3

Name 3 properties of RISC?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Name 3 properties of CISC?

Answer 4

A large instruction set
Instructions are built into hardware
Many addressing modes are available
Used in embedded systems and microprocessors

Question 5

Name 3 advantages of RISC processors?

Answer 5

Pipelining is possible since each instruction takes one clock cycle
The cost of a RISC processor is less then a CISC processor
Lower energy requirements

Question 6

Name 3 disadvantages of RISC processors?

Answer 6

Fewer addressing modes available
Large code sizes, lower cycles per second
Heavy use of ram

Question 7

Name 3 benefits of CISC processors?

Answer 7

Many addressing modes are available
As emphasis is on the hardware, the compiler (software has to do less work)
Makes more efficient use of RAM then RISC

Question 8

Name 3 disadvantages of CISC processors?

Answer 8

Pipelining is impossible
The cost of a CISC processor is more then a RISC processor
Greater energy requirements

Question 9

What is a Co-processor?

Answer 9

Any additional processor used of the specialised task.

Question 10

What is a GPU used for?

Answer 10

A GPU is used for rendering graphics and processing many parallel streams of data at the same time.

Question 11

Which Processing Unit is known perform well at SIMD (Simple instruction Multiple Data)?

Answer 11

GPU

Question 12

Which Processing Unit is known perform well at MIMD (Multiple instruction Multiple Data)?

Answer 12

CPU

Question 13

Name 3 reasons why GPU’s are more suitable for rendering graphics than CPU’s?

Answer 13

GPUs are designed specifically for graphics
GPUs are likely to have built in circuitry for common graphics
GPUs are able to perform an instruction on multiple pieces of data at one time
often we want to do this when processing graphics (e.g. transforming points in polygon or shading pixels)

Question 14

What is a multicore processor?

Answer 14

A single chip containing two or more independent units.

Question 15

What is parallel processing?

Answer 15

The processing of program instructions by dividing them between multiple processor or processor cores