Definitions: Single Sentence Flashcards
Translation
The execution of a program by first replacing each instruction in it by an equivalent instruction in L0 and then running this new program.
Interpretation
The method of executing an L1 program by feeding it into a L0 program written to convert the L1 instructions of the input program line by line into equivalent L0 instructions and execute those instructions directly.
Underflow error for FPU
An underflow error with regards to floating point numbers occur when a small negative number is smaller than 0.1 * 10^-99 or a small positive number is smaller than 0.1 * 10^-99 and is due to the finite nature of the representation for numbers
Virtual Machine
A hypothetical computer whose machine language is higher than that of the physical machine on which the virtual machine inevitably runs.
Baud Rate
The number of time intervals also known as the number of potential signal changes per second.
SIMD processor
Consists of a large number of identical processors that perform the same sequence of instructions on different data
Processor bandwidth
Amount of MIPS a CPU has
Hamming Distance
The number of bit positions in which two codewords differ.
Multiprogramming
Having several programs in memory at once which is useful because while one program may be waiting for input/output to complete another could compute.
Data path of von Nuemann machine
Consists of registers, the ALU and the busses connecting the aforementioned pieces.
Direct Memory Access (DMA)
A controller that reads or writes to or from memory without CPU intervention
Rotational Latency
The delay of time after the read/write head is positioned radially till the desired sector rotates underneath the head.
Latency (of a processor)
How long it takes the processor to execute an instruction
Vector processor
A processor where all of the instructions occur in a single heavily pipelined unit
Notable vector processor: Cray-1 1974
Control Store
A fast read-only memory
Was used to hold interpreter
Track (HDD)
The circular sequence of bits written as the disk makes a complete rotation
Sector (HDD)
Fixed length division of a track
Cylinder (HDD)
The set of tracks at a given radial position.
Moore’s Law
Emperical observation that the amount of transistors double every 18 months.
Bus
A collection of parrallel wires used to connect the components of a computer
Locality principle (Cache Memory)
The observation that the memory references made in any short time interval tend to use only a small fraction of the total memory.
Parity
The fact of being even or odd
Superscalar Architecture
Describes a processor achitecture where multiple instructions are issued by the processor in a single clock cycle
Multiprocessor
Data parallel processors where all the CPU’s are not independent since they have a single control unit and shared memory.
