Hardware

Question 1

What does the control unit do?

Answer 1

The control unit directs the flow of data and information into the CPU. It also controls other parts of the CPU

Question 2

What does the ALU do?

Answer 2

The Arithmetic Logic Unit performs simple calculations and logical operations

Question 3

What do the registers do?

Answer 3

Registers are temporary storage spaces for data and instructions inside the CPU

Question 4

What does the cache do?

Answer 4

Cache memory is used to temporarily store data that is frequently accessed. Cache memory is spilt into different levels (L1 and L2 are inside whereas L3 is just outside the CPU.

Question 5

Name the 5 Important Registers

Answer 5

Program Counter (PC)
Memory Address Register (MAR)
Memory Data Register (MDR)
Current Instruction Register (CIR)
Accumulator (ACC)

Question 6

Describe the FDE cycle

Answer 6

1. The PC displays the address in RAM of the next instruction to be processed.
2. The PC is increased by 1.
   3.The CPU checks the address in RAM which matches the address held in the MAR
3. The instruction in RAM is transferred to the MDR
   5.The instruction in the MDR is copied into the CIR
4. The instruction in the CIR is decoded. Any result of execution is stored in the accumulator.

Question 7

What is Volatile and Non-Volatile?

Answer 7

• Volatile storage is temporary (data is lost whenever power is turned off)
• Non-Volatile storage saves the data even when not being powered. Data can be stored long-term.

Question 8

What are the storage characteristics?

Answer 8

Capacity,Durability,Portability,Access Speed and Cost

Question 9

Give a type of magnetic storage and its characteristics

Answer 9

• Magnetic Hard Disc Drive (HDD)
• Large Capacity
• NOT Durable
• Slow access speed

Question 10

Give a type of optical storage and its characteristics

Answer 10

• CD,DVD or Blu-ray
• Low Capacity
• NOT Durable
• Very Portable
• Cheap (to buy in bulk)
• Slowest Access Speed

Question 11

Give a type of solid state storage and its characteristics

Answer 11

• USB, SD Card
• High Capacity (But more expensive per GB than magnetic)
• Usually Durable
• Very Portable
• Fastest Access Speed

Question 12

What 3 factors affect performance?

Answer 12

Cache Memory
Clock Speed
Number Of Cores

Question 13

How does cache memory improve performance?

Answer 13

• A computer with more cache memory should have a higher performance because repeatedly used instructions can be stored faster
• Larger Cache size will make data be accessed extremely quickly

Question 14

How does a clock speed improve performance?

Answer 14

The faster the clock speed, the faster the computer can perform the FDE cycle resulting in better performance as more instructions can be processed each second.

Question 15

How does the number of cores improve performance?

Answer 15

A computer with more cores will have higher performance as it can process more instructions at once.

Question 16

What is an embedded system?

Answer 16

A computer system built into a larger machine to provide a means of control.

Example: A washing machine has a control chip that manages the different program cycles.

Question 17

Motherboard

Answer 17

The motherboard is the main circuit board of the computer. It holds and connects different components together, allowing data to be transferred between them.

Question 18

GPU

Answer 18

A GPU is a microprocessor that performs complex calculations to generate graphical images to be displayed on a monitor.

Question 19

Sound Card

Answer 19

Sound cards convert analogue sound waves into digital data (binary) when inputting audio through a microphone