Internal Hardware components

Question 1

What is the address bus and is it bi or uni directional?

Answer 1

Processor sends address of data to send or receive, uni-directional

Question 2

What is the data bus and is it bi or uni directional?

Answer 2

Transfers data between processor and other components, bi-directional

Question 3

What is the control bus and is it bi or uni directional?

Answer 3

Controls how data flows between components, bi-directional

Question 4

What is the stored program concept?

Answer 4

The program being executed is stored in main memory alongside the data that the program needs. Instructions are retrieved and executed one at a time

Question 5

What factors affect processor performance?

Answer 5

Size
Clock speed
Cache size
Temperature
No. of cores

Question 6

What are the steps of the fetch part of the FDE cycle?

Answer 6

PC -> MAR

MAR sent along address bus
Read signal sent along control bus
Data transferred back using data bus

Into MBR
MBR -> CIR

Question 7

Differences between Von Neumann architecture and Harvard architecture

Answer 7

Von Neumann uses the same physical memory for instructions and data. Harvard has separate memory for each.

Von Neumann has a common bus for instruction and data transfer. Harvard has separate

Von Neumann is cheaper