System architecture, memory and storage

Question 1

What is hardware?

Answer 1

Hardware is any physical part of a computer that you can touch.

Question 2

What is software?

Answer 2

Software is any program that runs on the computer.

Question 3

What is primary storage used for?

Answer 3

Used for holding instructions currently being executed and data that is being used.

Question 4

What is cache?

Answer 4

Cache is very fast memory close to the CPU used to temporarily hold data or instructions that are likely to be needed again by the processor in the course of running the program.

Question 5

What does the control unit do?

Answer 5

It controls the execution of instructions in the correct sequence. It decodes instructions.

Question 6

What does the ALU do?

Answer 6

Carries out logical operations, does arithmetic operations.

Question 7

What does the MAR do?

Answer 7

Holds the address of the instruction or piece of data to be fetched or stored.

Question 8

What does the MDR do?

Answer 8

Holds data or a program instruction temporarily when it is fetched from memory or is sent to memory.

Question 9

What does the program counter do?

Answer 9

Holds the memory address of the next instruction to be processed.