Lecture 02

Question 1

Is assembler code portable across different architectures?

Answer 1

No

Assembler code is ISA specific

Question 2

Do assembly languages have the following feature?

Labels

Answer 2

Yes

Question 3

Do assembly languages have the following feature?

Data moves

Answer 3

Yes

Question 4

Do assembly languages have the following feature?

Arithmetic operations

Answer 4

Yes

Question 5

Do assembly languages have the following feature?

Loops and conditional constructs

Answer 5

No

Question 6

Do assembly languages have the following feature?

Variable names

Answer 6

No

Question 7

Do assembly languages have the following feature?

Data types

Answer 7

No

Question 8

Do assembly languages have the following feature?

Method calls and returns

Answer 8

No

Question 9

Do assembly languages have the following feature?

Conditional branches (or ‘branches’)

Answer 9

Yes

Question 10

Do assembly languages have the following feature?

Unconditional branches (or ‘jumps’)

Answer 10

Yes

Question 11

Can you choose the name for a register?

Answer 11

No

Question 12

How many general purpose registers do x86 architectures have?

Answer 12

16

Question 13

What makes an ISA ‘orthogonal’?

Answer 13

An ISA is ‘orthogonal’ if each instruction performs a unique task without overlapping with other instructions

Question 14

Is x86 historically considered an orthogonal architecture?

Answer 14

No

Question 15

Is ARM architecture considered orthogonal?

Answer 15

Yes

Question 16

Why are intermediate results of calculations written to registers instead of back into memory?

Answer 16

It is much cheaper to keep the data in the registers as often moving the data to/from memory can take longer than the calculations themselves

Question 17

What is an operand?

Answer 17

An operator is something that an operator is applied to. For example, in 2 + 3, 2 and 3 are the operands and + is the operator.