Flashcards
Machine Architecture
Cards in this deck (32)
- 1Give examples of a processor- central Processing Unit
- micro-processor - 2Give examples of Main MemoryRAM - Random Access Memory
IAS - Immediate Access Store - 3Give examples of secondary storageBacking store
Auxiliary storage - 4Give examples of busesData
Address
Control - 5What does the Central Processing Unit do?It executes instructions and performs basic maths calculations.
- 6Give facts about the RAM (Random Access Memory)- Stores files/programs currently in use.
- A temporary storage of files/programs.
- It's volatile (loses all data when power is off). - 7Give facts about the primary store- Volatile (loses contents when the computer is turned off)
- It's directly accessible to the processor
- The capacity is limited by the width of the address bus
- The data can be accessed more quickly - 8Give facts about the Secondary storeage- Non-volatile (does not lose data when the computer is turned off)
- It's not accessible to the processor
- It has no limit on capacity - 9What are the two things that are connected together by the three buses?The processor and the main memory.
- 10What is a bus?It's a set of parallel wires that are uses to connect together components inside the computer
In order to pass signals between them - 11What does the data bus do?It carries data/instructions to/from the component.
- 12What does the address bus do?It carries the address about where the data is being sent to.
Only the processor assigns address values to the different devices. - 13What does the control bus do?To send control signals:
- clock/timing
- bus request
- bus grant
- memory read
- memory write - 14State the name of the only uni-directional bus.Address bus.
- 15Describe the stored program concept- The machine code instructions are stored in the main memory
- The processor then fetches the instructions and executes them one at a time - 16Give some upgrades you can have on the hardware- faster processor
- additional processor
- more RAM
- faster hard disk
- increase the bus size
- add a dedicated device e.g. graphics card - 17What does the CPU (central processing unit) consist of?- arithmetic logic unit
- control unit
- registers - 18What does the arithmetic logic unit do?- performs mathematical operations (calculations)
- performs comparisons - 19What does the control unit do?- fetches, decodes and executes instructions
- controls the other parts of the processor - 20What is a register?A very fast memory location within the processor.
- 21What is the effect on the processor performance when increasing the clock?It increases the number of instructions executed per second.
- 22What is the effect on the processor performance when increasing the bus width?The larger the size of data/instructions that can pass along its length in one go, the fewer the number of times it needs to be used.
- 23What is the effect on the processor performance when increasing the word length?- the bigger the word length of registers that can participate in arithmetic operations, the bigger the operands and results they can accommodate
- when operands and results exceed the word length of the registers, extra processing must be done to split operands and results across the several registers - 24What does having a 64-bit address bus mean?- the address bus has 64 wires
- there are 2 to the power of 64 memory locations available - 25Why does a limit have to be set on the clock speed?A limit has to be set on clock frequency because the heat generated in the chip by higher clock frequencies cannot be removed quickly enough.
- 26What is a multiple core?An increase in transistor density.
- 27Why choose multiple cores?- it's used to put more than one processor called cores on to the microprocessor chip
- each operate at lower frequencies than single core processors to overcome the heating problem caused by the clock frequency - 28What does an OPCODE represent?- indicates the basic machine operation
- executable binary code - 29What does an OPERAND represent?- represents a single item of data
- represents a memory address - 30Why choose assembly?- when fast speed of operation is required
- when the code needs to take up little memory
- need to access/address machine registers - 31Advantages of using Hex- takes up less space when printing/viewing
- less likely to make errors
- easier to understand for people
- less time taken when coding as more concise or quicker to program
- op-codes are easier to recognise - 32What is Hex used for?- represent memory addresses
- represent graphics in a bitmap (RGB)
- in assembly language programs
- error messages