Computer Architecture

Question 1

Hardware

Answer 1

The physical elements of a computing system

Question 2

Software

Answer 2

a series of instructions that can be understood by the CPU

Question 3

Peripheral

Answer 3

a device that is used to put information into or get information out of the computer

Question 4

Network

Answer 4

A collection of computing devices connected so that they can communicate and share resources

Question 5

Human resources (meatware)

Answer 5

refers to the human entities that operate or use a computer for any computing process

Question 6

CPU

Answer 6

Central Processing Unit

Question 7

ALU

Answer 7

Arithmetic Logic Unit

Question 8

CU

Answer 8

Control Unit

Question 9

Registers

Answer 9

small temporary storage spaces inside the CPU

Question 10

CPU definition

Answer 10

combination of the ALU, CU, and Registers; the brain of the computer that interprets and executes instructions

Question 11

CU definition

Answer 11

controls the actions of other computer components so as to execute the instructions in a sequence

Question 12

ALU definition

Answer 12

performs arithmetic operations ( +,-, *, /) and logical operations (>,<, =, !=) also refered to as a core

Question 13

PC (Registers)

Answer 13

Program Counter, an incrementing counter that holds the address of the next
instruction to be executed

Question 14

IR (Registers)

Answer 14

Instruction Register, a temporary storage for the instruction that has just been
fetched from memory

Question 15

AC (Registers)

Answer 15

Accumulator, a register to hold the result of the operations performed by the ALU

Question 16

MAR (Registers)

Answer 16

Memory Address Register, stores the memory address of the piece of data being fetched or the address to which the data will be sent and stored

Question 17

MDR (Registers)

Answer 17

Memory Data Register, contains the data to be stored or the data that was fetched from the computer storage (e.g. RAM, hard drive)

Question 18

Von Neumann Architechture

Answer 18

processor module and memory module (used today as CPU and Primary Memory)

Question 19

RAM

Answer 19

Random Access Memory, memory in which each cell (usually a byte) can be directly accessed or even changed

Question 20

ROM

Answer 20

Read-Only Memory, contents located in the memory cannot be changed (e.g. OS)

Question 21

RAM characteristics

Answer 21

• volatile
• contains user’s programs and data that has been loaded up since ‘booting up’
• usually measured in Gigabytes (common capacities are 8GB, 16GB, 32GB)

Question 22

ROM characteristics

Answer 22

• non-volatile
• contains BIOS
• usually measured in kilobytes (much smaller than RAM)

Question 23

Control Bus (connections between RAM & CPU)

Answer 23

bi directional

Question 24

Address Bus characteristics

Answer 24

sends addresses, uni directional - from CPU to RAM only

Question 25

Data Bus

Answer 25

sends data, bi directional - receives and sends data to memory

Question 26

Bus

Answer 26

a set of wires that connects two components in a computer system

Question 27

Cache

Answer 27

a type of small, high-speed memory inside the CPU used to hold frequently used data, so that the CPU needs to access the much slower RAM less frequently

Question 28

Machine Instruction Cycle

Answer 28

Fetch -> Decode -> Execute -> Store