CPU

Question 1

What are the 3 components of the Von Neumann Architecture?

Answer 1

Arithmetic and Logic Unit
Control Unit
Registers

Question 2

What does the Arithmetic and Logic Unit do?

Answer 2

It performs all of the mathematical and logical operations of the CPU.

Question 3

What does the Control Unit do?

Answer 3

The Control Unit transmits control signals to other parts of the CPU and is responsible for the fetch-execute cycle.

Question 4

What are registers (when referring to the V.N Architecture)?

Answer 4

They are tiny amounts of very quick memory in the CPU.
They hold information required by the CPU.
Each register hold a specific bit of information.

Question 5

Name 3 registers and what they do?

Answer 5

Program Counter - Hold the memory address of the next instruction.
Accumulator - Holds the result of calculations from ALU.
Memory Address Register (MAR) - Holds memory address of where data is to be retrieved.
Memory Data Register (MDR) - Holds data that has been retrieved.

Question 6

What are the 3 stages of the CPU cycle?

Answer 6

Fetch - Fetching data from memory.
Decode - Decoding the data for instruction.
Execute - Executing the instruction.

Question 7

What 3 main factors affect CPU Performance?

Answer 7

Clock speed
Number of Cores
Amount of cache memory

Question 8

What is cache memory?

Answer 8

Cache memory is very quickly accessible memory.
It holds frequently used data.
It is a far quicker at retrieving data than RAM.

Question 9

What is clock speed?

Answer 9

The clock speed is the number of instructions carried out per second.
For example 3GHz is 3 billion instructions or second.

Question 10

What is the purpose of cores?

Answer 10

Each core in the CPU is capable of completing a different set of instructions.