2.1

Question 1

Hardware

Answer 1

Describes all the physical, electronic and mechanical components forming part of a computer system.

Question 2

Control Unit (CU)

Answer 2

Manages the FDE cycle

Question 3

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

Answer 3

The processing and manipulation of data which consists of arithmetic operations or logical comparisons, allowing a program to take decisions.

Question 4

Registers

Answer 4

A small/fast access/temporary storage typically addressed by mechanisms other than main memory or MAR/MDR

Question 5

Address Bus

Answer 5

• Used to transmit the address in RAM of the next line of code to be fetched.
• Used to transmit the address of a RAM location or input/output port where data is to be stored or loaded.

Question 6

Data Bus

Answer 6

• Used to transfer program code between RAM memory and the processor.
• Used to transfer data between the processor and RAM memory or input/output ports.

Question 7

Control Bus

Answer 7

• Used to send control signals from the processor to the RAM memory or input/output ports to initiate data transfer.
• Carries interrupt signals to the processor to indicate that hardware/software requires attention.

Question 8

Cache Memory

Answer 8

• Small extremely fast memory
• Near or on processor
• Stores data and instructions that are used regularly
• When full least used data is discarded
• Attempts to solve Von Neumann Bottleneck
• Algorithms try to avoid cache miss

Question 9

Von Neumann Bottleneck

Answer 9

When the processor runs faster than memory by acting as a middle man between main memory and the registers

Question 10

Cache Miss

Answer 10

When data has been fetched from main memory instead of cache

Question 11

Random Access Memory (RAM)

Answer 11

• Volitile (temp)
• Stores programs and data currently in use
• Larger RAM reduces the need for frequent access to hard disk/virtual memory

Question 12

Read Only Memory (ROM)

Answer 12

• Non-volitile (perm)
• Contents are permenantly etched onto the chip at manufacturing stage
• Holds the bootstrap loader

Question 13

Disc Cache

Answer 13

• Temporary Storage
• Between CPU and hard disc
• Data recently read or about to be written is stored before being transferred
• Allows other faster devices to continue to other tasks