1.1.3 Factors Affecting CPU Performance

Question 1

Clock Speed

Answer 1

The CPU’s clock sends a pulse at fixed intervals to trigger the next stage of the FDE cycle.

The higher the clock speed, the more pulses are sent per second, so more instructions can be executed in the same amount of time.

Question 2

Cache Memeory

Answer 2

A small amount of very fast memory inside the CPU.

In comparison to the cache, accessing the RAM is a very slow operation.

By storing frequently accessed data and instructions in cache memory we can avoid the process of accessing the RAM.

Question 3

Cores

Answer 3

Each core of a CPU is capable of processing instructions independently.

Each core has its own CU, and ALU, but the cores share access to cache and main memory.

Multiple cores allows a CPU to process multiple instructions at the same time

Question 4

Factors affecting CPU performance

Answer 4

Clock Speed
Cache Memory
Cores