Structure And Function Of The Processor Flashcards
What is the ALU?
Responsible for performing arithmetic and logical operations
4 things can ALU does
- calculations ( +, -)
- logical bitwise (AND, NOR)
- comparison operations ( <,=)
- shifting binary patterns ( L or R)
What is the control unit?
Co-ordinates all activities of the cpu
What does the CPU perform?
- directs flow of data between the CPU and other devices
- coordinates/communicates with all parts of CPU
- send memory read and write request to main memory
- manages FDE cycle
What is a bus?
Communication system used to transfer data between components
Address bus?
Used to specify the address of a memory location to read from or write data to in that memory location- unidirectional
Data bus?
Used to transfer data and instructions- bidirectional
Control bus?
Used to send control signals that manage the operations that take place inside a computer system
Examples of control signals?
Memory read, memory write, bus request, bus grant, bus busy, interrupt request, clock signals
Program counter (PC)
Holds the address of the best instruction to be executed by the processor
Memory Address Register (MAR)
Temporarily holds the address of the memory location that the processor needs to access
Memory Data Register (MDR)
Temporarily holds the data that have been read from or need to be written to main memory
Current Instruction Register (CIR)
Holds the current instruction that the processor is executing
Accumulator
StoreS the result of any calculation processed by the ALU
Clock speed?
An electronic oscillator that produces a signal to synchronize the operations of the processor- greater the clock speed the faster instructions are carried out
Clock speed?
Electronic oscillator that produces a signal to synchronize operations of the processor, the greater the clock speed, the faster, the instructions are carried out
Cores?
A core is a processor, (multicore- processor) so more cores generally means more instructions carried out
Cache?
Cache memory is a relatively fast and small memory location, it stored frequently used instructions and data, not having to access the ram all the time
Pipelining?
A technique used to improve processor performance
How does pipelining work?
A clock signal synchronizes the flow of data from one stage to another between registers, when one instruction is being fetched, another can be decoded
