Hardware Architecture

Question 1

Explain Pipelining

Answer 1

Combines multiples Fetch and Execute steps into one process.

Question 2

Explain Interrupts

Answer 2

Hardware interrupt that stops the current CPU process and begins a new processing request.

Question 3

Explain RISC CPU design

Answer 3

Reduced Instruction Set Computer
Uses reduced set of simpler instructions
used in ARM (small devices)

Question 4

Explain ALU

Answer 4

Arithmetic Logic Unit

performs mathematical calculations

Question 5

Explain Control Unit

Answer 5

Feeds instructions to the ALU

Question 6

Explain CISC CPU design

Answer 6

Complex Instruction Set Computer
Uses large set of complex machine language instructions.
used in x86 (large computers)

Question 7

Explain Computer Bus

Answer 7

Primary communication channel on a computer system between CPU, memory, I/O devices.
Northbridge: On top, Memory Controller Hub, connects CPU to RAM, fast
Southbridge: On bottom, I/O Controller Hub, connects I/O devices, slow

Question 8

Explain Multitasking

Answer 8

Multiple tasks to run simultaneously on one CPU

Question 9

Explain Fetch and Execute

Answer 9

Four steps:
Fetch Instruction
Decode Instruction
Execute Instruction
Write result

Question 10

Explain Processes

Answer 10

Executable program loaded and running in memory

Made up of tasks and threads

Question 11

Explain Multiprocessing

Answer 11

Multiple processes on multiple CPUs