Lesson 4--Datapaths

Question 1

VLIW datapath

Answer 1

Collection of its execution units, which performs data transformation

Question 2

CISC and DSP

Answer 2

All operands reside in memory

Question 3

VLIW and RISC

Answer 3

Operands are in the registers before any work is done.

Question 4

True or False: 16 bit buses are much more efficient than 32 bit buses

Answer 4

True

Question 5

ISA minimum requirements

Answer 5

• -Minimum commands for accessing memory ­ load, store
• -Minimum commands to perform arithmetic functions ­ subtraction
• -Minimum commands for control functions ­ less than zero, equals zero, branch unconditional

Question 6

Choosing Operations tradeoffs

Answer 6

• -Efficiency
• -Performance
• -Complexity
• -Design
• -Silicon cost

Question 7

Other architectures

Answer 7

SIMD
MIMD
microSIMD

Question 8

True or False: VLIW is more efficient than microSIMD for a media processor

Answer 8

False

Question 9

True or False: For the same number of addressible registers, microSIMD holds more multimedia data than superscalar or VLIW.

Answer 9

True

Question 10

True or False: microSIMD supports data parallelism, but at a much higher complexity of register ports

Answer 10

False

Question 11

Min instructions for accessing memory

Answer 11

• -Load a value from mem into register

- -Store a value from a register into mem

Question 12

Min instructions set to perform arithmetic functions of a processor:

Answer 12

Subtract

Question 13

Min instructions set to perform control functions of a processor:

Answer 13

• -Result is zero
• -Result is less than zero (no need for greater than zero)
• -Branch unconditional (goto)