Computer science

Question 1

What is the CPU?

Answer 1

It stands for Central processing unit and it is the hardware that controls the manipulation of data

Question 2

What is the ALU?

Answer 2

The Arithmetic logic unit is the circuit that performs the operations on the data.

Question 3

What is the control unit?

Answer 3

Coordinates the activities of the CPU

Question 4

What are registers?

Answer 4

Quick, small stores of data within the CPU

Question 5

In the von Newman architecture, how are instructions executed?

Answer 5

Instructions are executed sequencially, one instruction at a time is fetched from memory and passed to the CPU

Question 6

How are CPUs designed?

Answer 6

They are designed to operate at a specific frequency - and the system clock is raised to this rate by the processor, giving the clock speed(Hz)

Question 7

How does the fetch decode execute cycle work?

Answer 7

The instruction is retrieved by the CPU from the main memory, the instruction is broken down into its individual components to determine what the instruction is, and what data is being used. The control unit activates the necessary circuity/data transfers. The output of this stage is stored in a register, and data may be read or written from or to the main memory during the stage.

Question 8

What is the main memory

Answer 8

Any memory device that is directly accessible by the CPU. Examples of these are RAM ROM and Cach.

Question 9

What is a volatile memory

Answer 9

Memory that loses its data when power is lost.

Question 10

What is non-volatile memory

Answer 10

Memory that retains its data when power is lost

Question 11

What else is the main memory refrred to as?

Answer 11

Primary storage

Question 12

What is RAM?

Answer 12

It has quick read/write times, and its function is to load open programs and operating system data currently in use from the slower secondary storage, so it can be accessed direcly by the CPU.

Question 13

What does RAM stand for?

Answer 13

Random access memory

Question 14

Is RAM volatile or non-volatile?

Answer 14

Volatile

Question 15

What does ROM stand for?

Answer 15

Read only memory

Question 16

What is ROM?

Answer 16

It can only be read not changed once programmed. It is used in small amounts in computers to store essential programs, like those needed to be run in order to boot the computer.

Question 17

Is ROM volatile or non-volatile?

Answer 17

Non-volatile

Question 18

Is flash storage Volatile or non-volatile?

Answer 18

Non-volatile

Question 19

What is Cache?

Answer 19

A type of memory that stores copies if frequently used data

Question 20

Which is faster Cache or RAM?

Answer 20

Cache is much faster but has a much lower capacity

Question 21

Is Cache volatile or non-volatile?

Answer 21

Cache is volatile

Question 22

What is the clock speed measure in?

Answer 22

measured in Hz meaning cycles per second

Question 23

What is the clock speed?

Answer 23

The clock speed measures the number of cycles your CPU executes per second.

Question 24

How many instructions would be executed in a second if your computer had a clock speed of 3.2 GHz

Answer 24

3.2 billion cycles per second.

Question 25

The faster the cycles, the …………

Answer 25

more instructions that can be executed per second.

Question 26

What do multiple cores(processors) allow you to do?

Answer 26

Multiple cores allow multiple intructions to be executed simultaneously which increases the clock speed.

Question 27

What is an embedded system?

Answer 27

A special-purpose computer that has a specific function inside another system. Some examples are digital watches and dishwashers.