JAVA: Computer Hardware Flashcards
1
Q
CPU
A
- Control Processing Unit
- CPU should never be idle
- made of CU and ALU
2
Q
CU
A
- Control Unit
- sends read and write signals + their address’ to memory (registers in ALU)
3
Q
ALU
A
- Arithmetic Logic Unit
- all calculations + logical comparisons
- data results sent back to memory (accumulator)
4
Q
Accumulator
A
- the register that stores the results of each run
5
Q
Registers
A
- purpose: stores current instruction + its data
- made from Static RAM (SRAM)
- very fast but very expensive
- no capacitors = must be constantly refreshed = hight access time
6
Q
Register sizes
A
32 bits
- process data in 32-bit groups
- 64 bits in 2 groups
- less memory consumption
64 bits
- process in 64-bit groups
- greater performance
- higher memory consumption
7
Q
Serial processing
A
- one instruction at a time
- single core
8
Q
Parallel processing
A
- simultaneously breaking up and running program instructions
- on multiple microprocessors
9
Q
Hyperthreading
A
- next instruction is preloaded into second set on processors
- fast context switching
- improves processing performance
- supported by OS
- appears ro run at same time
10
Q
Multiprocessing
A
- multiple CPU’s (cores) on single CPU chip
- entire core is duplicated on CPU chip
- many processes can run at same time
- actually runs at same time
- supported by OS and Motherboard
11
Q
GPU
A
- Graphics Processign Unit
- for high-end gaming systems
12
Q
Processor cache
A
- speed of processor (CPU) is much faster than speed of RAM
- between CU and ALU in speed
- made from SRAM chips
- stores blocks of program instructions + data that have been pre-fetched from RAM so data may be served faster
13
Q
cache hit
A
the requested data can be found in the cache
14
Q
cache miss
A
the requested data cannot be found in cache
15
Q
RAM
A
- random access memory
- main memory chips on modules
- attached to slots on motherboard
- stores programs + their data currently in use
