Hardware and Virtual Machines P3

Question 1

What does RISC stand for?

Answer 1

Reduced Instruction Set Computer

Question 2

What does CISC stand for?

Answer 2

Complex Instruction Set Computer

Question 3

How does RISC compare to CISC in terms of instruction count?

Answer 3

RISC has fewer instructions; CISC has more

Question 4

How does instruction complexity differ between RISC and CISC?

Answer 4

RISC uses simpler instructions; CISC uses more complicated ones

Question 5

How many instruction formats does RISC use?

Answer 5

A small number

Question 6

How many instruction formats does CISC use?

Answer 6

Many

Question 7

What kind of instruction cycle does RISC aim for?

Answer 7

Single-cycle whenever possible

Question 8

What kind of instruction cycle is typical for CISC?

Answer 8

Multi-cycle

Question 9

What type of instruction length does RISC use?

Answer 9

Fixed-length

Question 10

What type of instruction length does CISC use?

Answer 10

Variable-length

Question 11

How does RISC access memory?

Answer 11

Only with load and store instructions

Question 12

How does CISC access memory?

Answer 12

With many types of instructions

Question 13

Which has more addressing modes: RISC or CISC?

Answer 13

CISC

Question 14

Which uses more registers: RISC or CISC?

Answer 14

RISC

Question 15

What type of control unit does RISC use?

Answer 15

Hard-wired control unit

Question 16

What type of control unit does CISC use?

Answer 16

Microprogrammed control unit

Question 17

Which is easier to pipeline: RISC or CISC?

Answer 17

RISC

Question 18

What is pipelining?

Answer 18

Instruction-level parallelism for faster execution

Question 19

Why are multiple registers important in RISC?

Answer 19

To allow each pipeline stage its own set of registers

Question 20

What is a disadvantage of pipelining?

Answer 20

Interrupts complicate instruction handling

Question 21

What happens during an interrupt in a pipelined CPU?

Answer 21

Pipeline instructions are flushed and ISR is loaded

Question 22

How many stages are typically used in RISC pipelining?

Answer 22

Five

Question 23

Name the five pipeline stages.

Answer 23

Instruction Fetch (IF)

Question 24

What is the performance benefit of pipelining?

Answer 24

One instruction finishes per clock cycle after startup

Question 25

What issue can occur with interrupts in a pipelined CPU?

Answer 25

Five instructions in the pipeline must be removed before servicing

Question 26

What does SISD stand for?

Answer 26

Single Instruction Single Data stream

Question 27

Where is SISD used?

Answer 27

Early computers

Question 28

Does SISD use pipelining?

Answer 28

No

Question 29

What does SIMD stand for?

Answer 29

Single Instruction Multiple Data

Question 30

Where is SIMD used?

Answer 30

Array processors

Question 31

How does SIMD handle memory?

Answer 31

Each processor has its own memory

Question 32

What does MISD stand for?

Answer 32

Multiple Instruction Single Data

Question 33

Where is MISD used?

Answer 33

Sorting large quantities of data

Question 34

What does MIMD stand for?

Answer 34

Multiple Instruction Multiple Data

Question 35

Where is MIMD found?

Answer 35

Modern personal computers

Question 36

What does a massively parallel computer contain?

Answer 36

Vast amounts of processing power

Question 37

What infrastructure supports massively parallel systems?

Answer 37

Bus structure and network for multiple host computers

Question 38

Where are massively parallel computers used?

Answer 38

Solving complex mathematical problems

Question 39

What is a virtual machine?

Answer 39

A software-emulated system that provides a copy of actual hardware

Question 40

Who handles hardware interactions for a virtual machine?

Answer 40

The OS kernel

Question 41

Give one benefit of virtual machines.

Answer 41

Allows multiple OSs to run on one system

Question 42

Give another benefit of virtual machines.

Answer 42

Allows legacy software to run on new hardware

Question 43

What is a downside of virtual machines?

Answer 43

Performance drop from native OS

Question 44

What's another disadvantage of virtual machines?

Answer 44

High time and effort for implementation

Question 45

How do developers benefit from virtual machines?

Answer 45

They can test applications on different systems without extra hardware