Digital Systems And Computer Engineering Flashcards
What is a microcontroller?
A computer on a single integrated circuit (IC)
What is a graphic processing unit ( GPU )?
A processor optimised for 2D/3D graphics and for visual processing.
Its highly parallel, highly multithreaded multiprocessor.
What can quantum computing do?
Can perform certain computational problems faster than traditional technologies.
What is computer paradigm based on?
Based on qbit.
What is a program written for Adrino IDE called?
Sketch
How is the architecture of a computer important to its hardware?
It represents the interconnectivity of a computer’s hardware components.
How does the hardware of a computer improve its performance?
1- Allows the use of fasters electronics.
2- Increases clock frequency which is why modern microprocessors can operate over the 5GHz range and require faster transistors and have a strong relationship with energy consumption such as overheating.
How does the energy management of a computer improve its performance?
- Dynamic scaling of clock frequency.
- Manages switching activity at the transistor level.
- Allows better performance of energy recovery in logic circuits.
- Optimises the machine’s code through the use of more energy-efficient instruction sequences.
How can space managements improve the performance of a computer’s hardware?
by using 3D integrated circuits and increasing the transistor density per unit area (Moor’s law).
What are the different ways to improve the performance of computer hardware?
Architectural, Hardware, Enery management and Space management improvements
What is an identifier?
A variable.
What must an identifier be?
- A sequence of letters (a-z, A-Z), underscores (_), and digits (0-9).
- Start with a letter or underscore.
- Identifiers are case sensitive meaning lower and upper case letters differ.
What is a floating point number?
Is a real number containing a decimal point that can appear anywhere in the number.
What are constant variables and how do you declare them?
Are initialized variables whose value cannot change.
const is used to declare constant variables.
What is a character?
In what form is a character stored?
Where is a character stored?
What does a space before the %c cause?
A variable that can store a single character like the letter m.
Binary number form.
In the ASCII standard System.
Will cause the program to not read any upcoming white space.
What is printf () function?
Allows a program to print text and formatted numbers.
What is scanf used for?
Scanf is used to read a user-entered value into a variable.
What are underscores treated as?
As letters.
What is needed in the Arduino development board?
- Arduino board.
- Compatible IDE (integrated development environment).
What is Arduino?
Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software and is intended for anyone making interactive projects.
What is a sketch?
A program written for Arduino IDE (integrated development environment).
What does the minimum Arduino sketch look like?
Void setup ()
{
}
void loop ()
{
}
What is a format specifier?
A format specifier is a placeholder that defines the type of value that will be printed in its place.
What does a branch mean in Arduino?
A branch is a sequence of statements only executed under a certain condition.
What does computer hardware include?
Computer hardware includes the physical parts of the computer like the case and central processing unit (CPU).
How does the architecture of the computer improve its hardware?
- Decreases CPI (clock cycle per instruction).
- Decreases the clock time by reducing propagation delays or by using pipelining.
- Decreases the number of required cycles.
What is propagation delay?
The amount of time required for a signal to be received after it has been sent.
What is pipelining?
The process of accumulating instructions from the processor through a pipeline.
