1.1.2 Types of processor - Harvey

Question 1

Characteristics of RISC

Answer 1

Small instruction set
Less complex instructions
Quicker to execute
Each instruction is one line of machine code and takes one clock cycle

Question 2

Characteristics of CISC

Answer 2

Large instruction set
Complex instructions
Used in embedded and microcontroller systems

Question 3

What is a GPU?

Answer 3

A GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a specialized processor designed to accelerate rendering of images, videos, and animations by performing parallel processing tasks

Question 4

What is a GPU used for?

Answer 4

machine learning
oil exploration
weather forecasting
image processing

Question 5

Benefits of CISC

Answer 5

CISC requires less RAM since code is shorter
Many specialised instructions made even though only a few of them are used.

Question 6

Benefits of RISC

Answer 6

Pipelining is possible since each instruction takes one clock cycle
In RISC processors compilers have to do more work to translate high level code into machine code

Question 7

What are multi-core CPUs?

Answer 7

Have multiple independent cores that can complete instructions separately this improves performance.

Question 8

What are parallel systems?

Answer 8

Complete similar tasks to multi-core but use a single core by using threading

Question 9

Comparison between multi-core and parallel systems

Answer 9

Usually multi-core systems perform better in larger projects than parallel systems

Question 10

What is a co-processor?

Answer 10

A co-processor is a secondary processor designed to supplement the activities of a primary processor