unit 1 introduction

Question 1

what is architecture?

Answer 1

the design of the system visible to the assembly-level programmer. ( what instructions, how many registers, memory addressing scheme)

Question 2

What is organization?

Answer 2

how the architecture is implemented.

Question 3

what does the Central Processing Unit(CPU) contain?

Answer 3

The control logic and the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), registers, and program counter register

Question 4

what does the control logic do?

Answer 4

it initiates most activities on the computer

Question 5

What does the Arithmetic Logic Units(ALU) do?

Answer 5

performs the math and logic calculations for the CPU.

Question 6

what does a register contain?

Answer 6

temporary data values

Question 7

what does the program counter register contain?

Answer 7

the address of the next instruction to execute

Question 8

what is the bus?

Answer 8

a set of parallel wires that connect the CPU, memory, and I/O controllers

Question 9

what does a bus’s chipset do?

Answer 9

it determines who can use the bus at any given instant

Question 10

what does the width of the bus determine?

Answer 10

the maximum memory configuration

Question 11

What does I/O stand for?

Answer 11

input/output

Question 12

what does the I/O controller do?

Answer 12

direct the flow of data to and from I/O devices.

Question 13

how does the I/O controller know to initiate I/O?

Answer 13

The CPU sends a request

Question 14

What is the internal memory called?

Answer 14

Random Access Memory (RAM)

Question 15

What is kept in the RAM?

Answer 15

data and program instructions

Question 16

what is the order of the memory hierarchy from bottom to top?

Answer 16

removable media, DISK, RAM, cache, regs

Question 17

what does the instruction cycle do?

Answer 17

fetch instructions from memory and execute the instruction

Question 18

where does the the instruction cycle fetch instructions?

Answer 18

from the memory address in the Program Counter register

Question 19

what does the instruction cycle increment?

Answer 19

the Program counter

Question 20

what does the instruction cycle decode?

Answer 20

the type of instruction

Question 21

the instruction cycle fetches ___ and stores___

Answer 21

operands, results

Question 22

in the simple model of execution, an instruction sequence is determined by?

Answer 22

a simple conceptual control point

Question 23

in the simple model of execution, how are instructions completed?

Answer 23

One instruction is executed at a time. Each instruction is completed before the next instruction starts

Question 24

what are the layers in which you can consider computer operations?

Answer 24

Applications, middleware, High level languages, machine language, microcode, logic circuits, gates, transistors, silicon structures

Question 25

what are the different meanings of the binary values?

Answer 25

1 can be TRUE or HIGH and ) can be FALSE or LOW

Question 26

how do digital circuits represent 1 and 0?

Answer 26

they use voltage levels

Question 27

what system operates on a fixed number of bits?

Answer 27

Digital systems

Question 28

what is overflow?

Answer 28

when a result is too big to fit in the available number of bits

Question 29

what are instructions?

Answer 29

commands in a computer's language

Question 30

instruction languages are?

Answer 30

Assembly languages: human-readable format machine language: computer-readable format(1's and 0's)

Question 31

Architecture design principles

Answer 31

1) regularity supports design simplicity 2) make the common case fast 3) smaller is faster 4) good design demands good compromises

Question 32

what does regularity supports design simplicity mean?

Answer 32

consistent instruction format the same number of operands should be used there should be ease when encoding and handling hardware

Question 33

what is hierarchy?

Answer 33

dividing a system into modules, then further subdividing each of these modules until the pieces are easy to understand.

Question 34

modularity states?

Answer 34

the modules have well-defined functions and interfaces, so they connect together easily without unanticipated side effects.

Question 35

Regularity seeks?

Answer 35

uniformity among modules. Common modules are reused many times, reducing the number of distinct modules needing to be designed

Question 36

Regularity teaches?

Answer 36

that interchangeable parts are a good idea

Question 37

what does the amount of information D represent?

Answer 37

refers to a discrete-valued variable with N distinct states. Measured in units of bits

Question 38

what does an N-digit decimal number represent?

Answer 38

one of 10^N possibilities: 0,1,2,3,...,10^N -1

Question 39

what are Bits represented by?

Answer 39

0 or 1

Question 40

what are binary numbers?

Answer 40

0's or 1's joined together

Question 41

how much weight does each binary column have?

Answer 41

twice the amount of the previous column

Question 42

what is base 16?

Answer 42

hexadecimal

Question 43

what are hexadecimal numbers?

Answer 43

0 to 9 along with letters A to F

Question 44

what are the weights of the columns in base 16?

Answer 44

1,16,16^2(256), 16^3(4096)

Question 45

how do you convert hexadecimal to binary?

Answer 45

each hexadecimal digit directly corresponds to four binary digits

Question 46

what is the hex digit A equal to?

Answer 46

10, 1010

Question 47

what is the hex digit B equal to?

Answer 47

11, 1011

Question 48

what is the hex digit C equal to?

Answer 48

12, 1100

Question 49

what is the hex digit D equal to?

Answer 49

13, 1101

Question 50

what is the hex digit E equal to?

Answer 50

14, 1110

Question 51

what is the hex digit F equal to?

Answer 51

15, 1111

Question 52

how do you convert 2ED Hex to decimal

Answer 52

2 x16^2 + Ex16^1 + D x 16^0 = 749(10)

Question 53

what is a group of eight bits called?

Answer 53

a byte, which represents one of 2^8 possibilities

Question 54

what is a group of 4 bits called?

Answer 54

a nibble or half a byte. represented by one of 2^4 possibilities

Question 55

microprocessors handle data in chunks also called?

Answer 55

words

Question 56

64-bit processors operate on?

Answer 56

64-bit words

Question 57

what is the least significant bit(lsb)?

Answer 57

groups of bits in the 1's column