Part 1 Block 3 - Hardware & Software Concepts

Question 1

The p_______________ of a computer is the part that actually performs the instructions that we ask the computer to execute.

Answer 1

processor

Question 2

In the processor, what is the ALU, and what is the FPU

Answer 2

The arithmetic logic unit (ALU)
floating-point unit (FPU)

Question 3

ALU - Arithmetic Logic unit

The ALU contains the electronic circuits that perform b________ a____________, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on i___________, as well as circuits to perform logical operations, such as c____________ integers with zero, testing two integers for equality, testing if one integer is greater than another, etc.

Answer 3

binary arithmetic
integers
comparing

Question 4

FPU - Floating Point Unit

Its function is very similar to that of the ALU, but it operates on f________-p_______ numbers using specialised circuitry optimised to be as efficient as possible.

Answer 4

floating point

Question 5

Main memory is a s_______ a__________ that contains program instructions and data.

Answer 5

storage area

Question 6

When a program is first loaded, the corresponding instructions and data are put into main memory.
Is main memory inside or outside the processor?

Answer 6

Outside

Question 7

Main memory is sometimes referred to as
R_____.

Answer 7

RAM

Question 8

Where is the cache memory?
Inside the processor or outside of the processor?

Answer 8

Inside

Question 9

‘Registers’ are memory locations.
Registers are very small but very fast areas of memory that are used as a holding area for instructions and data immediately before they are needed by the A___/F____

Answer 9

ALU/FPU

Question 10

To calculate a percentage increase in time:

= new time - original time
___________________________ x 100%
original time

If the original time was 1.00 x 10^-7
and the new time is 1.09 x 10^-7
What is the percentage increase in time?

Answer 10

A 9% increase in time.

Step 1:
1.09 x 10^-7 - 1.00 x 10^-7
= 0.09 x 10^-7

Step 2:
0.09 x 10^-7
_____________
1.00 x 10^-7

= 0.09

Step 3:
0.09 x 100%
= 9%

Question 11

Each instruction and piece of data is held in a ‘chunk’ called a w______.

Answer 11

word

Question 12

A word has a fixed size (usually 32 or 64 bits in a modern computer), and it is handled as a u______ by the hardware of the processor.

Answer 12

unit

Question 13

As each ‘word’ gets closer to being processed, it is moved into the processor so that it can be accessed more quickly. This movement from main memory into the processor usually happens in two steps:

First, the word is moved to c_______ memory which is inside the processor
then from c________ memory to memory locations called r__________.

Answer 13

cache
cache
registers

Question 14

Registers are very small but very f______ areas of memory that are used as a h______ a_____ for instructions and data immediately before they are needed by the ALU/FPU.

Answer 14

fast
holding area

Question 15

The result of the operation is returned via r__________ and the c_________ memory, back to m________ memory.

Answer 15

registers
cache memory
main memory

Question 16

More about cache memory

Like the registers, cache memory is included on the p___________ microchip.

Answer 16

processor microchip

Question 17

More about cache memory

Cache memory is used as an i____________ storage area between the registers and the main memory.

Answer 17

intermediary

Question 18

More about cache memory

If there were no cache memory, a b___________ of data and instructions trying to get into and out of the processor would occur.

This is because the speed of data written to and read from the processor’s registers is much f___________ than the speed of reading from and writing to main memory.

Answer 18

bottleneck of data

faster

Question 19

More about cache memory

In modern processors, there may be s_________ levels of cache memory.

Answer 19

several levels

Question 20

More about cache memory

Which level of cache is fastest and smallest?
Level 1 or Level 2

Answer 20

Level 1

the aim is to use this for the data and instructions that will imminently be transferred to the registers.

Question 21

Organise the areas of memory in terms of speed.

main memory, cache, registers

Answer 21

1 = registers
2 = cache
3 = main memory

Question 22

In general, the f__________ the memory, the more e______________ the engineering required to make it.

Answer 22

faster
expensive

Question 23

More about cache memory

Data has to be moved into cache memory from main memory b____________ it is needed by the processor.

Answer 23

before

Therefore the use of the cache to speed up execution depends on how effective the cache management is at predicting future data use.

Question 24

More about registers

There are a number of different types of register in different parts of the p_________, and each is designed to hold a particular type of information for a specific function.

Answer 24

processor

Question 25

More about registers

The register within the ALU where an actual calculation takes place is sometimes referred to as the a____________________.

Answer 25

accumulator

The processor contains several general-purpose registers that can be used as accumulators.

Question 26

More about registers

What is the name of the register, sometimes called the flags register, that holds further information about the last operation executed?

Answer 26

The status register

Each bit in the register represents some description of the result – is the result zero? Is the result negative? Is the result too big to be stored in the accumulator? And so on. The values in the status register act as a report on the result of the recent activity in the processor.

Question 27

The control unit and other registers

The control unit has the role of c________________ the m____________ of data and instructions within the processor.

It does this by sending out electrical pulses, called c_________ s___________, that activate the necessary connections between main memory, cache, registers, ALU and FPU, as required, to execute the instruction.

Answer 27

coordinating the movement of data
control signals

Question 28

The a_________ r_____________ holds the location in memory (the memory address) of the next instruction to be executed.

Answer 28

address register