practice midterm

Question 1

linking

Answer 1

the process of combining multiple independently compiled subunits

Question 2

combinational

Answer 2

A type of digital logic circuit without “memory”; the output is a function only of the current input

Question 3

pseudoinstruction

Answer 3

An assembly language

Question 4

flip flop

Answer 4

A memory element storing a single bit, the value of which is changed only on a clock edge

Question 5

symbol table

Answer 5

A data structure created during the assembly process that stores for each label in a program the memory address to which it corresponds

Question 6

Benchmarks

Answer 6

A program chosen to save as the basis of performance comparison between computer systems

Question 7

With the IEEE 754 floating point standard, the result of dividing 0 by 0

Answer 7

NaN

Question 8

CPU execution time =

Answer 8

(instruction count) x (clock cycle time) x CPI

Question 9

instruction count

Answer 9

number of machine language instructions executed

Question 10

amdahls law

Answer 10

the performance improvement possible with a given system improvement is limited by the amount that the improved feature is used

Question 11

new execution time =

Answer 11

portion affected/improvement factor + portion unaffected

Question 12

ratio of new to old execution time

Answer 12

fraction affected/improvement factor + fraction unaffected

Question 13

How should the performance of diffent computer systems be compared

Answer 13

MIPS

Question 14

MIPS =

Answer 14

(clock rate in GHz) x 1000 / CPI

Question 15

clock cycle time =

Answer 15

1 / (clock rate)

Question 16

object file

Answer 16

• file that is the output of an assembler/compiler
• contains machine code and other information (external symbols & their values, list of external references and where their used, relocation information)