Chapter 3 & 4 Flashcards
central processing unit (CPU)
Part of the computer that consists:
- arithmetic/logic unit
- control unit
- register areas
arithmetic/logic unit (ALU)
The part of the CPU that performs mathematical calculations and makes logical comparisons
control unit
The part of the CPU that sequentially accesses program instructions, decodes them, and coordinates the flow of data in and out of the ALU, the registers, the primary/secondary storage and various output devices.
Register
A high-speed storage area in the CPU used to temporarily hold small units of program instructions and data immediately before, during, and after execution by the CPU
Primary storage (main memory; memory)
The part of the computer that holds program instructions and data
Instruction time (I-time)
The time it takes to perform the fetch instruction and decode instruction steps of the instruction phase
Execution time (E-time)
The time it takes to execute an instruction and store the results
Machine cycle
The instruction phase followed by the execution phase
Pipelining
A form of CPU operation in which multiple execution phases are performed in a single machine cycle
MIPS
Millions of instructions per second, a measure of machine cycle time
Clock speed
A series of electronic pulses produced at a predetermined rate that affects machine cycle time
Megahertz (MHz)
Millions of cycles per second, a measure of clock speed
Gigahertz (GHz)
Billions of cycles per second, a measure of clock speed
Moore’s law
A hypothesis stating that transistor densities on a single chip will double every two years
Byte (B)
Eight bits that together represent a single character of data
Random access memory (RAM)
A form of memory in which instructions or data can be temporarily stored
Read-only memory (ROM)
A nonvolatile form of memory
Cache memory
A type of memory speed that a processor can access more rapidly than main memory
Multiprocessing
The simultaneous execution of two or more instructions at the same time
Coprocessor
The part of the computer that speeds processing by executing specific types of instructions while the CPU works on another processing activity
Multicore microprocessor
A microprocessor that combines two or more independent processors into a single computer so that they share the workload and improve processing capacity
Parallel computing
The simultaneous execution of the same task on multiple processors to obtain the results faster
Massively parallel processing systems
A form of multiprocessing that speeds processing by linking hundreds or thousands of processors to operate at the same time or in parallel with each processor having its own bus, memory, disks, copy of the operating system, and applications
grid computing
The use of a collection of computers often owned by multiple individuals or organizations to work in a coordinated manner to solve a common problem