Characteristics of Contemporary processors - 1.1

Question 1

What does the arithmetic logic unit do?

Answer 1

The ALU completes all the arithmetical and logical operations

Question 2

What is the Control unit?

Answer 2

A part of the processor which directs operations inside the CPU

Question 3

What are registers?

Answer 3

Small memory cells that operate at high speeds

Question 4

What does the program counter do?

Answer 4

Holds the address of the next insruction

Question 5

What does the Memory Address Register do?

Answer 5

The MAR holds the address of a location that is to be read from or written to

Question 6

What does the Memory Data Register do?

Answer 6

The MDR Temporarily stores data that has been read or data that needs to be written.

Question 7

What does the Current Instruction Register do?

Answer 7

The CIR holds the current instruction which is divided into opcode and operand

Question 8

What is a Bus?

Answer 8

Buses are a set of parallel wires which connect two or more components inside the CPU.

Question 9

What is the data bus?

Answer 9

A bi-directional bus used to transport data and instructions between components

Question 10

What is the control bus?

Answer 10

A bi-directional bus used to transmit control signals to and from every component in the CPU

Question 11

What is the address bus?

Answer 11

A uni-directional bus that carries memory addresses that identify where data is being read to, or written from

Question 12

What is Assembly Language?

Answer 12

Assembly language is a programming language where mnemonics are used to represent instructions

Question 13

What is Opcode?

Answer 13

Opcode is a part of the instruction that tells the processor what should be done.

Question 14

What is the Operand?

Answer 14

Operand is the address where the operation is performed

Question 15

What happens during the fetch phase?

Answer 15

1. The address from the PC is copied to the MAR
2. Instruction held at that address is copied to the MDR by the data bus
3. PC is incremented by 1
4. The value of the MDR is copied to the CIR

Question 16

What happens during the decode phase?

Answer 16

The contents of the CIR are split into operand and opcode

Question 17

What happens during the execute phase?

Answer 17

The opcode is executed on the data

Question 18

What is clock speed?

Answer 18

The number of clock cycles completed per second
- clock speed is measured in hz

Question 19

What is Cache?

Answer 19

The cache is a hardware or software component that temporarily stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster

Question 20

What is pipelining?

Answer 20

Pipelining is the process of completing the fetch, decode, and execute cycles of ​three separate instructions​ ​simultaneously.

while one instruction is being executed another can be fetched and the other can be decoded

Question 21

Explain the Von Neumann Architecture

Answer 21

1. Shared memory space for instruction and data
2. Can only perform one instruction at a time
3. Registers are used for fast access to instructions and data

Question 22

Explain the Harvard Architecture

Answer 22

1. Instruction and data stored in separate memory units
2. Each has its own bus
3. Reading and writing data can be done at the same time as fetching an instruction
4. used by RISC processors

Question 23

What is contemporary processing?

Answer 23

Von Neumann architecture is used when working with data and instructions in main memory. Harvard architecture is used to divide the cache into instruction cache and data cache.

Question 24

What does RISC mean?

Answer 24

Reduced instruction set computer

Question 25

What does CISC mean?

Answer 25

Complex instuction set computer

Question 26

What are the properties of RISC?

Answer 26

• Small instuction set
• Each instruction is one line of machine code
• used in everyday devices such as phones

Question 27

What are the properties of CISC?

Answer 27

-Large instruction set

Question 28

What are the benifits of RISC processors?

Answer 28

Pipelining is possible since each instruction takes one clock cycle

Question 29

What are the benefits of CISC processors?

Answer 29

1. Compilers have to do less work
2. They require less RAM since instructions are smaller

Question 30

What is the Graphic Processing unit?

Answer 30

A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a device which has ​lots of independent processors​ which work in parallel making it very efficient at completing ​repetitive tasks

Question 31

What are GPUs used for now?

Answer 31

GPUs are used for image processing and machine learning

Question 32

What are multi-core systems?

Answer 32

They are a single chip which contains two or more independent processing units or cores

Question 33

What are parallel systems?

Question 34

Give two types of magnetic storage

Answer 34

1. Hard disk drive
2. Magnetic tape
3. floppy disk

Question 35

Give an example of a device which is used for input and output

Answer 35

Touchscreen

Question 36

Give two disadvantages of SSDs

Answer 36

1. High cost per GB
2. Limited lifespan

Question 37

What does ROM stand for

Answer 37

Read only memory

Question 38

What is it meant by non volatile

Answer 38

A non volatile storage does not lose its information when power is lost

Question 39

Give two advantages of SSDs

Answer 39

1. High Transfer speeds
2. Lightweight
3. No moving parts

Question 40

Is ROM volatile or non volatile

Answer 40

Non volatile

Question 41

Give two disadvantages of CDs

Answer 41

1. Easily damaged by scratches
2. Slow transfer speeds
3. Low capacities