CPU

Question 1

CPU

Answer 1

Processes data and instructions. The instructions consist of:

• Simple arithmetic
• Logical operations

Question 2

Controller

Answer 2

Sends and receives signals from all parts of the computer. It ensures that all processes take place at the right time and in the correct order

Question 3

ALU

Answer 3

The part of the CPU that processes and manipulates data. It performs simple calculations and comparison on the data that is temporarily stored in the registers.

Question 4

Registers

Answer 4

A storage location found on the CPU where data or control information is temporarily stored. Registers are usually much faster to access than internal memory.

Question 5

Internal memory

Answer 5

Fast access temporary storage on the CPU. Data is moved from the registers to the internal memory when it is not actively being used.

Question 6

Buses

Answer 6

Allow data to be transferred to different parts of the computer. There are three main Buses used by the GPU:

• Address bus
• Data bus
• Control bus

Question 7

Address bus

Answer 7

When data is saved or loaded from memory, the address at which it is to be stored or loaded from must be sent. The storage address of the data always travels along the address bus.

Question 8

Data bus

Answer 8

Data will then need to be moved between several parts of the computer. The path along which data travels is called the data bus.

Question 9

Control bus

Answer 9

The controller uses the control bus to send control signals to different parts of the computer

Question 10

Von Neumann

Answer 10

The program and the data is stored in the same memory space. Easier to re-program. This means an instruction fetch and a data operation cannot occur at the same time as they share a common bus (Von Neumann bottleneck)

Question 11

Program counter

Answer 11

Stores the memory location of the next instruction that will be needed by the processor.

Question 12

Current instruction register

Answer 12

Stores the instruction that is currently being executed by the processor

Question 13

Accumulator

Answer 13

Stores the results of calculations made by the ALU

Question 14

Memory address register

Answer 14

Stores the memory locations where data is currently being written to or read from

Question 15

Memory data register

Answer 15

Stores the data that is being transferred from memory to the CPU (or vice versa)

Question 16

Input Device

Answer 16

Allows data, such as text, images, video or sound, to be entered into a computer system.

Question 17

Output Device

Answer 17

Allows data, such as text, images, video or sound, to be come out of a computer system.

Question 18

Fetch

Answer 18

Takes the address required from memory, stores it in the instruction register, and moves the program counter on one so that it points at the next instruction

Question 19

Decode

Answer 19

The control unit checks the instruction in the instruction register. The instruction is decoded to determine the action that needs to be carried out.

Question 20

Execute

Answer 20

The actual actions that happen during the execution cycle depend on the instruction itself

Question 21

Amount of cache memory

Answer 21

Cache memory improves the performance of the CPU as it is able to provide instructions and data to the CPU at a much faster rate than other system memory such as RAM. The more your system has, the better its performance.

Question 22

Clock Speed

Answer 22

The faster the clock speed, the faster the computer is able to run the fetch-decode-execute cycle and therefore process more instructions

Question 23

Number of Cores

Answer 23

Multi-core processors have many processing components within the same CPU. In a single-core CPU each instruction is processed one after the other, whereas in a dual core CPU, two instructions may be processes at the same time. In theory, a dual-core CPU should be able to process instructions twice as fast as a single-core CPU.