CPU Flashcards
What registers are involved in Von Neumann architecture?
Memory Address Register
Memory Data Register
Program Counter
Accumulator
Current Instruction Register
What does the Program Counter do?
Stores the location of the next instruction to execute
What does the Memory Address Register do?
Stores the address of a location in memory that is currently being read from or written to
What does the Memory Data Register do?
Holds the data that has just been retrieved from memory or the data that is about to be written to memory
What does the Accumulator do?
Stores to results of calculations from the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
What does the Current Instruction Register do?
Stores the current instruction being executed in the CPU
What other components are part of the Von Neumann architecture?
Decode Unit,
Control Unit,
Arithmetic Logic Unit,
Busses,
Cache
What are the 3 Busses in Von Neumann architecture?
Address Bus,
Data Bus,
Control Bus
What does the Decode Unit do?
Decodes the current instruction to be executed
What does the Control Unit do?
Controls the flow of data in the CPU by telling each component what to do and when to do it e.g. telling memory to read at this exact moment
What does the Arithmetic Logic Unit do?
Performs arithmetic operations and logical operations on data, allowing the CPU to perform many calculations
What does the Cache do?
Stores frequently used instructions and data close to the CPU for much faster access compared to RAM, because it is so much closer to the proccessing unit
What are the 3 factors that determin CPU performace?
Cache Size,
Clock Speed,
Number of Cores
How does Cache Size affect CPU performace?
Larger cache size increases CPU performance by allowing for more frequently used instructions and data to be held much closer to the CPU for much faster access
How does Clock Speed affect CPU performance?
A higher clock speed increases the number of fetches the CPU can make per second increasing performance as more instructions can be completed faster as more a fetched
How does Number of Cores affect CPU performance?
A larger number of cores can increase performance by allowing the CPU to proccess multiple threads at the same time, but is not just a simple increase as the more cores there are the more time they have to spend communicating and coordinating with each other