More Computer Architecture Questions with Answers
Latch is a D- type flip-flop used as a temporary storage device controlled by a timing signal, which can store 0 or 1. The primary function of a Latch is data storage. It is used in output devices such as LED, to hold the data for display.
What is 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th generation processor?
The processor made of PMOS / NMOS / HMOS / HCMOS technology is called 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th generation processor, and it is made up of 4 / 8 / 16 / 32 bits.
Is the address bus unidirectional?
The address bus is unidirectional because the address information is always given by the Micro Processor to address a memory location of an input / output devices.
Difference between static and dynamic RAM?
Static RAM: No refreshing, 6 to 8 MOS transistors are required to form one memory cell, Information stored as voltage level in a flip flop.
Dynamic RAM: Refreshed periodically, 3 to 4 transistors are required to form one memory cell, Information is stored as a charge in the gate to substrate capacitance.
Design Goals Of a Computer Architecture
The most common goals in computer architecture revolve around the tradeoffs between cost and performance (i.e. speed), although other considerations, such as size, weight, reliability, feature set, expandability and power consumption, may be factors as well
What are Pipelining Issues?
Pipelining increases the CPU instruction throughput - the number of instructions completed per unit of time. But it does not reduce the execution time of an individual instruction. In fact, it usually slightly increases the execution time of each instruction due to overhead in the pipeline control.
The increase in instruction throughput means that a program runs faster and has lower total execution time.
Limitations on practical depth of a pipeline arise from:
Pipeline latency. The fact that the execution time of each instruction does not decrease puts limitations on pipeline depth;
Imbalance among pipeline stages. Imbalance among the pipe stages reduces performance since the clock can run no faster than the time needed for the slowest pipeline stage;
Pipeline overhead. Pipeline overhead arises from the combination of pipeline register delay (setup time plus propagation delay) and clock skew.
Once the clock cycle is as small as the sum of the clock skew and latch overhead, no further pipelining is useful, since there is no time left in the cycle for useful work.
How do you detect if two 8-bit signals are same?
XOR each bits of A with B (for eg A[0] xor B[0] ) and so on. the o/p of 8 xor gates are then given as i/p to an 8-i/p nor gate. if o/p is 1 then A=B.
Difference between RISC and CISC?
RISC-Means Reduced Instruction Set Computer.a Risc system has reduced number of instructions and more importantly it is load store architecture were pipelining can be implemented easily.Eg.ATMEL AVR
CISC-Means Complex instruction set architecure.A CISC system has complex instructions such as direct addition between data in two memory locations.Eg.8085
What is pipelining?
A technique used in advanced microprocessors where the microprocessor begins executing a second instuction before the first has been completed. That is, several instructions are in the pipeline simultaneously, each at a different processing stage.
What is Virtual Memory?
Virtual memory is a concept that, when implemented by a computer and its operating system, allows programmers to use a very large range of memory or storage addresses for stored data. The computing system maps the programmer’s virtual addresses to real hardware storage addresses. Usually, the programmer is freed from having to be concerned about the availability of data storage.
In addition to managing the mapping of virtual storage addresses to real storage addresses, a computer implementing virtual memory or storage also manages storage swapping between active storage (RAM) and hard disk or other high volume storage devices. Data is read in units called “pages” of sizes ranging from a thousand bytes (actually 1,024 decimal bytes) up to several megabyes in size. This reduces the amount of physical storage access that is required and speeds up overall system performance.
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