Computer Organization and Architecture Fundamentals

Posted on Sep 3, 2024 in Computers

Computer Technology and Architecture

  1. Computer technology is changing at a rapid pace.
  2. Computer architecture refers to those attributes that have a direct impact on the logical execution of a program.
  3. Architectural attributes include I/O mechanisms.
  4. Organizational attributes include hardware details transparent to the programmer.
  5. It is an architectural design issue whether a computer will have a multiply instruction.
  6. It is an organizational issue whether the multiply instruction will be implemented by a special multiply unit or by a mechanism that makes repeated use of the add unit of the system.
  7. A hierarchical system is a set of interrelated subsystems.
  8. An I/O device is referred to as a peripheral.
  9. When data are moved over longer distances, to or from a remote device, the process is known as data communications.
  10. The main memory stores data.
  11. The I/O moves data between the computer & its external environment.
  12. A common example of system interconnection is by means of a system bus.
  13. A system interconnection is a mechanism that provides for communication among CPU, main memory, & I/O.
  14. Registers provide storage internal to the CPU.
  15. The ALU performs the computer’s data processing functions.
  16. Multiple parallel pipelines are used in superscalar execution.
  17. The desktop application(s) that require the great power of today’s microprocessor-based systems include all of the above.
  18. Branch prediction potentially increases the amount of work available for the processor to execute.
  19. The interface between processor & main memory is the most crucial pathway in the entire computer because it is responsible for carrying a constant flow of program instructions & data between memory chips & the processor.
  20. The cache is a relatively small, fast memory interposed between a larger, slower memory & the logic that accesses the larger memory.
  21. An increase in clock rate means that individual operations are executed more rapidly.
  22. A GPU is a core designed to perform parallel operations on graphics data.
  23. An arithmetic mean is a good candidate for comparing the execution time performance of several systems.
  24. Amdahl’s law deals with the potential speedup of a program using multiple processors compared to a single processor.
  25. One increment, or pulse, of a clock is referred to as a clock cycle.
  26. The use of multiple processors on the same chip is referred to as multicore & provides the potential to increase performance without increasing the clock rate.
  27. With respect to changes in values, the geometric mean gives equal weight to all of the values in the data set.
  28. The speed metric measures the ability of a computer to complete a single task.
  29. A measurement of how many tasks a computer can accomplish in a certain amount of time is called throughput.
  30. The best known of the SPEC benchmark suites is SPEC CPU2006.

Number Systems and Representation

Our primary counting system is based on binary digits to represent numbers. F
The decimal system has a radix of 10. F
Negative powers of 10 are used to represent the positions of the numbers for decimal fractions. T
A number with both an integer & fractional part has digits raised to both positive & negative powers of 10. T
In any number, the rightmost digit is referred to as the most significant digit. F
There are 5 tens in the number 509. T
The decimal system is a special case of a positional number system with radix 10 & with digits in the range 0 through 9. T
A number cannot be converted from binary notation to decimal notation. F
Although convenient for computers, the binary system is exceedingly cumbersome for human beings. T
A nibble is a grouping of 4 decimal digits. F
Hexadecimal notation is only used for representing integers. F
It is extremely easy to convert between binary & hexadecimal notation. T
Hexadecimal notation is more compact than binary notation. T
A sequence of hexadecimal digits can be thought of as representing an integer in base 10. F
Because of the inherent binary nature of digital computer components, all forms of data within computers are represented by various binary codes. T
One drawback of sign-magnitude representation is that there are two representations of 0. T
Both sign-magnitude representation & 2’s complement representation use the most significant bit as a sign bit. T
It is not necessary for the ALU to signal when overflow occurs. F
Overflow can only occur if there is a carry. F
Compared with addition & subtraction, multiplication is a complex operation, whether performed in hardware or software. T
For each 1 on the multiplier, add & shift operations are required; but for each 0 only a shift is required. T
Addition & subtraction can be performed on numbers in 2’s complement notation by treating them as unsigned integers. T
Booth’s algorithm performs more additions & subtractions than a straightforward algorithm. F
With a fixed-point notation, it is possible to represent a range of positive & negative integers centered on or near 0. T
An advantage of biased representation is that nonnegative floating-point numbers can be treated as integers for comparison purposes. T
For base 2 representation, a normal number is one in which the most significant bit of the significand is zero. F
Actual floating-point representations include a special bit pattern to designate zero. T
The numbers represented in floating-point notation are not spaced evenly along the number line, as are fixed-point numbers. T
Overflow is a less serious problem because the result can generally be satisfactorily approximated by 0. F
One of the trade-offs of floating-point math is that many calculations produce results that are not exact & have to be rounded to the nearest value that the notation can represent. T
The operation of the digital computer is based on the storage & processing of binary data. T
Claude Shannon, a research assistant in the electrical engineering department at MIT, proposed the basic principles of Boolean algebra. F
In the absence of parentheses, the AND operation takes precedence over the OR operation. T
Logical functions are implemented by the interconnection of decoders. F
The delay by the propagation time of signals through the gate is known as the gate delay. T
A combinational circuit consists of n binary inputs & m binary outputs. T
Any Boolean function can be implemented in electronic form as a network of gates. T
A Boolean function can be realized in sum-of-products (SOP) form but not in the product-of-sums (POS) form. F
“Don’t care” conditions are when certain combinations of values of variables never occur, & therefore the corresponding output never occurs. T
The value to be loaded into the program counter can come from a binary counter, the instruction register, or the output of the ALU. T
In general, a decoder has n inputs & 2n outputs. T
Combinational circuits are often referred to as “memoryless” circuits because their output depends only on their current input & no history of prior inputs is retained. T
Binary addition is exactly the same as Boolean algebra. F
Events in the digital computer are synchronized to a clock pulse so that changes occur only when a clock pulse occurs. T
A register is a digital circuit used within the CPU to store one or more bits of data. T