2083181
Description
Flashcards by Balikkoftesi, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Balikkoftesi
almost 10 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Give examples of a processor | - central Processing Unit - micro-processor |
| Give examples of Main Memory | RAM - Random Access Memory IAS - Immediate Access Store |
| Give examples of secondary storage | Backing store Auxiliary storage |
| Give examples of buses | Data Address Control |
| What does the Central Processing Unit do? | It executes instructions and performs basic maths calculations. |
| Give 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). |
| Give 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 |
| Give 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 |
| What are the two things that are connected together by the three buses? | The processor and the main memory. |
| What 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 |
| What does the data bus do? | It carries data/instructions to/from the component. |
| What 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. |
| What does the control bus do? | To send control signals: - clock/timing - bus request - bus grant - memory read - memory write |
| State the name of the only uni-directional bus. | Address bus. |
| Describe 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 |
| Give 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 |
| What does the CPU (central processing unit) consist of? | - arithmetic logic unit - control unit - registers |
| What does the arithmetic logic unit do? | - performs mathematical operations (calculations) - performs comparisons |
| What does the control unit do? | - fetches, decodes and executes instructions - controls the other parts of the processor |
| What is a register? | A very fast memory location within the processor. |
| What is the effect on the processor performance when increasing the clock? | It increases the number of instructions executed per second. |
| What 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. |
| What 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 |
| What 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 |
| Why 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. |
| What is a multiple core? | An increase in transistor density. |
| Why 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 |
| What does an OPCODE represent? | - indicates the basic machine operation - executable binary code |
| What does an OPERAND represent? | - represents a single item of data - represents a memory address |
| Why choose assembly? | - when fast speed of operation is required - when the code needs to take up little memory - need to access/address machine registers |
| Advantages 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 |
| What is Hex used for? | - represent memory addresses - represent graphics in a bitmap (RGB) - in assembly language programs - error messages |
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