CPUs Flashcards
What is the External Data Bus?
Mechanism responsible for transmitting information between the CPU, memory, and other devices.
What is an important factor that allows the EDB to communicate?
That there is an agreed upon definition for what the various information it is sending/receiving is.
What is a Register?
They store internal commands and data within the CPU. They are like workstations within the CPU.
What are the four most common general-purpose registers?
AX, BX, CX, and DX.
What is Machine Language?
The agreed upon meaning of what a given string of binary means. They are also referred to as lines of code and make up the CPU’s instruction set.
What is the purpose of the Clock in a CPU?
It controls the tempo (speed) at which the CPU processes.
What is the Clock Wire?
A wire that receives a charge and tells the CPU that another piece of information is waiting to be processed.
What is the Clock Wire referred to on diagrams?
CLK
What is a Clock Cycle?
A single charge to the Clock Wire.
What is Clock Speed?
The maximum number of lock cycles that a CPU can handle in a given period of time.
What is the System Crystal?
Usually a quartz oscillator that determines the speed at which a CPU and the rest of the PC operate. It is usually soldered onto the motherboard.
What is Memory?
A device that stores binary 1s and 0s.
What must Memory be able to do?
- Store programs and data
- Allow for the CPU to read and write on it
- Enable the CPU to jump to any line of stored code easily
- Be able to do all the above at, or near, clock speed
When talking about Memory, we are most often talking about?
RAM (Random Access Memory)
RAM transfers and stores data to and from the CPU in what?
Byte sized chunks, where 8 bits are equal to 1 byte.
What is another name for 4 bits?
A nibble.
What is another name for 8 bits?
A Byte.
What is another name for 16 bits?
A word.
What is another name for 32 bits?
A double word.
What is another name for 64 bits?
A paragraph or quad word.
What is DRAM?
Dynamic RAM. It is used for main system memory, needs both a constant electrical charge and a periodic refresh of the circuits.
What is the MCC?
The Memory Controller Chip allows for the CPU to request a certain set of data from the RAM at any given time.
What is the Address Bus?
The set of wires that live between the CPU and the MCC.
How are the wires of the Address Bus leveraged to send commands to the MCC?
The various wires are turned off and on in different combinations.
