Computer Architectures and Assembly Language Programming

Question 1

A basic computer system consists of?

Answer 1

CPU
System Clock
Primary Memory (RAM)
Secondary Memory (HHD, SSD)
Peripheral I/O Devices
Bus

Question 2

The CPU does what?

Answer 2

Executes instructions

Controls the transfer of data across the bus

Question 3

The CPU consists of?

Answer 3

Control Unit (CU)
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
Registers

Question 4

The Control Unit does what?

Answer 4

The CU directs the execution of instructions

Question 5

The Arithmetic Logic Unit does what?

Answer 5

The ALU performs arithmetic and logical operations on data stored in registers

Question 6

Registers are?

Answer 6

Registers are binary storage units within the CPU

Question 7

The System Clock does what?

Answer 7

Generates a clock signal to synchronize the CPU and other clocked devices

Question 8

Primary Memory is?

Answer 8

Often called Random Access Memory (RAM)
Can be written to and read from
Is volatile
Is used to store program instructions and program data (variables)
Consists of a sequence of addressable memory locations

Question 9

The Bus is?

Answer 9

A set of parallel data/signal lines
Is used to transfer information between computer components
Often subdivided into address, data, and control busses

Question 10

Secondary Memory is?

Answer 10

Is used to hold a computer’s file system
Is non-volatile read/write memory
Usually embodied on a hard disk drive (HDD)

Question 11

Peripheral I/O Devices do what?

Answer 11

Allow communication between the computer and the external environment

Question 12

Accumulator Machines are a type of CPU Architecture where?

Answer 12

Operands for an instruction come from the accumulator register (ACC) and from a single location in RAM
ALU results are always put into the ACC
The ACC can be loaded from or stored to RAM

Question 13

Load/Store Machines are a type of CPU Architecture where?

Answer 13

Only load and store instructions can access RAM
Other instructions operate on specified registers in the
register file, not on RAM
Registers are more quickly accessed than RAM, so this is fast

Question 14

RISC type Architecture:

Answer 14

Uses only simple instructions that can be executed in one machine cycle
Machine instructions are always the same size

Question 15

CISC type Architecture:

Answer 15

May have instructions that take many cycles to
execute
Machines instructions vary in length, and may be followed by “immediate” data

Question 16

The Instruction Cycle is?

Answer 16

Also called the fetch-execute or fetch-decode-
execute cycle
The CPU executes each instruction in a series of
small steps:
1) Fetch the next instruction from memory into the
instruction register (IR)
•The Program Counter register (PC) contains its address
2) Increment PC to point to the next instruction
3) Decode the instruction
4) If the instruction uses an operand in RAM, calculate its address
5) Fetch the operand
6) Execute the instruction
7) If the instruction produces a result that is stored in RAM, calculate its address
8) Store the result

Question 17

Assembly Language Programs consist of?

Answer 17

A series of statements, each corresponding to a machine instruction

Question 18

Each statement in an Assembly Language Programs consists of?

Answer 18

An opcode, and a variable number of operands

Question 19

Instructions are stored?

Answer 19

Sequentially in memory

Question 20

What can optionally prefix any statement?

Answer 20

A label

Question 21

Pseudo-op give?

Answer 21

The assembler extra information but do not generate machine instructions

Question 22

Assemblers do what?

Answer 22

They translate assembly source code into machine code

Question 23

Von Neumann architecture RAM contains?

Answer 23

Both data and programs (instructions)

Question 24

In Harvard architecture data and programs are?

Answer 24

stored in separate memories