Systems Architeture Flashcards
(21 cards)
What does the central processing unit do
Processes data and instructions by constantly repeating the fetch-execute cycle
What are the 4 cpu components
Control unit
Arithmetic and Logic unit
Registers
Cache
What does the control unit do
Sends control signals in to the direct operation of the CPU
What type of signals are sent to the ALU and other components such as RAM
Control and timing signals
What does the control unit do as part of the FE cycle
Decodes instructions
What is a register
A temporary storage space for one instruction or address
What does the ALU do
Performs simple calculations and logic operations
Why is cache sometimes used instead of RAM
This is because although it is slower to access than the registers it is much faster than RAM
What is cache used for
Used to temporarily store data that is frequently accessed
What is the pathway that data transferred between components called
Buses
Which cycle shows how the cpu processes data and instructions
The fetch execute cycle
What are the 5 types of registers
Program counter
Memory address Register
Memory data register
Current instruction register
Accumulator
What does the accumulator do
Stores the result of mathematical and logical calculations
What does the program counter do
Tracks the RAM address of the next instruction to be fetched
What does the memory address register do
Tracks the RAM address of the instruction that is to be fetched
What does the memory data register do
Stores the instruction that has been transferred from ram to the cpu
Fetch execute cycle
instructions are fetched from ram
The instruction is decoded
decoded instruction is executed by the cpu
this is then repeated
What 3 things affect the performance of the CPU
Cache memory
Clock speed
Number of Cores
How does cache affect performance
It is closer to cpu than ram meaning data and instructions are provided at a faster rate
How does the cpu and ram work together
instructions fetched to cpu from ram
instructions are decoded and executed by processor
Any results are returned to be stored in ram
