Computer Systems (Computer Structure)

Question 1

What is the ALU?

Answer 1

Part of the processor/CPU that handles all arithmetic, logic and calculations. Stands for Arithmetic and Logic Unit. 
Floating point (mantissa and exponent) calculations and decisions involving AND, OR, NOT are made on the ALU.

Question 2

What are Registers?

Answer 2

Temporary Storage Location on the processor. Data, instructions and addresses can be held in registers.
Have the fastest access time as they are on the processor unlike RAM or backing storage.

Question 3

What is the Control Unit?

Answer 3

Part of the processor/cpu. Different lines have different roles. The main line is the clock line, which dictates the speed of fetching data from RAM. Clock, Read, Write, Reset and Interrupt are the different lines.

Question 4

What is the data bus?

Answer 4

A bi-directional bus (two way) that can carry data to and from RAM and the processor/CPU.
Goes to the address that is on the address bus and takes the data back to the processor OR takes the data from the processor to the address on the address bus.

Question 5

What is the address bus?

Answer 5

A uni-directional (one way) bus. Holds the address in RAM that the processor wants to access.

Question 6

How does RAM know which memory location to access?

Answer 6

Each location in RAM has its own binary address.
The address bus holds the address of the location
being read from or written to.

Question 7

Explain how an interpreter works

Answer 7

Used to translate high level language code (programming code) into binary. Will translate a line, then execute it. Stops if it finds an error and lets programmer know where error is located.
Must be present in RAM during every translation/every time you run the program using an interpreter.

Question 8

Explain how a compiler works

Answer 8

Used to translate high level language code
(programming code) into binary. Will translate each line in order and thencreate a new binary file called object code.
Only in RAM once, and not needed again as the object code runs on its own. Does not identify errors and should be used when a program is totally error free and
complete.

Question 9

What is machine code?

Answer 9

Machine Code is another name for binary, and is what programming code (high level languages) is turned into once it is translated using interpreters or compilers.