Questions and Answers of Computer Architecture Fundamentals

Consider the various aspects of an ideal computer memory discussed in Section 2.1.1 and the characteristics of available memory devices discussed in Section 2.1.2. Fill in the columns of the table
What is different about logical variables in a fuzzy system compared to a conventional computer system?
Why are ANNs well suited to applications such as robotic control? Give an example of an application for which you do not think an ANN would be a good choice.
Explain in your own words the differences between computer systems architecture and implementation. How are these concepts distinct, yet interrelated? Give a historical example of how implementation
Describe the technologies used to implement computers of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth generations. What were the main new architectural features that were introduced or
What was the main architectural difference between the two early computers ENIAC and EDVAC?
Why was the invention of solid-state electronics (in particular, the transistor) so important in the history of computer architecture?
Explain the origin of the term core dump.
What technological advances allowed the development of minicomputers, and what was the significance of this class of machines? How is a microcomputer different from a minicomputer?
How have the attributes of very high performance systems (a.k.a. supercomputers) changed over the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth generations of computing?
What is the most significant difference between computers of the past 10 to 15 years versus those of previous generations?
What is the principal performance limitation of a machine based on the von Neumann (Princeton) architecture? How does a Harvard architecture machine address this limitation?
Summarize in your own words the von Neumann machine cycle.
Does a computer system with high generality tend to have higher quality than other systems? Explain.
How does ease of use relate to user-friendliness?
The obvious benefit of maintaining upward and/or forward compatibility is the ability to continue to run legacy code. What are some of the disadvantages of compatibility?
Name at least two things (other than hardware purchase price, software licensing cost, maintenance, and support) that may be considered cost factors for a computer system.
Give as many reasons as you can why PC-compatible computers have a larger market share than Macs.
A computer system of interest has a CPU with a clock cycle time of 0.5 ns. Machine language instruction types for this system include integer addition/subtraction/logic instructions that require one
One computer system has a 3.2-GHz processor, and another has only a 2.7-GHz processor. Is it possible that the second system might outperform the first? Explain.
Why does a hard disk that rotates at higher RPM generally outperform one that rotates at lower RPM? Under what circumstances might this not be the case?
Fill in the blanks below with the most appropriate term or concept discussed in this chapter: The actual, physical realization of a computer system as opposed to the conceptual or block-level
A memory system can read or write a 64-bit value every 2 ns. Express its bandwidth in megabytes per second.
If a manufacturer’s brochure states that a given system can perform I/O operations at 1500 MB/s, what questions would you like to ask the manufacturer’s representative regarding this claim?
Describe in your own words what a hierarchical memory system is and why it is used in the vast majority of modern computer systems.
What is the fundamental, underlying reason that low-order main memory interleaving and/or cache memories are needed and used in virtually all high-performance computer systems?
A main memory system is designed using 15-ns RAM devices using a four-way low-order interleave.a. What would be the effective time per main memory access under ideal conditions?b. What would
Is it correct to refer to a typical semiconductor integrated circuit ROM as a random access memory? Why or why not? Name and describe two other logical organizations of computer memory that are not
Assume that a given system’s main memory has an access time of 6.0 ns, and its cache has an access time of 1.2 ns (five times as fast). What would the hit ratio need to be in order for the
A particular program runs on a system with cache memory. The program makes a total of 250,000 memory references; 235,000 of these are to cached locations.a. What is the hit ratio in this case?b. If
Is hit ratio a dynamic or static performance parameter in a typical computer memory system? Explain your answer.
What are the advantages of a set-associative cache organization as opposed to a direct-mapped or fully associative mapping strategy?
A computer has 64 MB of byte-addressable main memory. A proposal is made to design a 1 MB cache memory with a refill line (block) size of 64 bytes.a. Show how the memory address bits would be
Define and describe virtual memory. What are its purposes, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of virtual memory systems?
Name and describe the two principal approaches to implementing virtual memory systems. How are they similar, and how do they differ? Can they be combined, and if so, how?
Fill in the blanks below with the most appropriate term or concept discussed in this chapter: A characteristic of a memory device that refers to the amount of information that can be stored in a
What is the purpose of having multiple levels of page or segment tables rather than a single table for looking up address translations? What are the disadvantages, if any, of this scheme?
A process running on a system with demand-paged virtual memory generates the following reference string (sequence of requested pages): 4, 3, 6, 1, 5, 1, 3, 6, 4, 2, 2, 3. The operating system
In what ways are cache memory and virtual memory similar? In what ways are they different?
In systems that make use of both virtual memory and cache, what are the advantages of a virtually addressed cache? Does a physically addressed cache have any advantages of its own, and if so, what
Does an architecture that has fixed-length instructions necessarily have only one instruction format? If multiple formats are possible given a single instruction size in bits, explain how they could
The instruction set architecture for a simple computer must support access to 64 KB of byte-addressable memory space and eight 16-bit general-purpose CPU registers.a. If the computer has
What are the advantages and disadvantages of an instruction set architecture with variable-length instructions?
Name and describe the three most common general types (from the standpoint of functionality) of machine instructions found in executable programs for most computer architectures.
Given that we wish to specify the location of an operand in memory, how does indirect addressing differ from direct addressing? What are the advantages of indirect addressing, and in what
Various computer architectures have featured machine instructions that allow the specification of three, two, one, or even zero operands.Explain the trade-offs inherent to the choice of the number of
Why have load–store architectures increased in popularity in recent years? (How do their advantages go well with modern architectural design and implementation technologies?) What are some of their
Discuss the two historically dominant architectural philosophies of CPU design:a. Define the acronyms CISC and RISC and explain the fundamental differences between the two philosophies.b. Name one
Discuss the similarities and differences between the programmer visible register sets of the 8086, 68000, MIPS, and SPARC architectures.In your opinion, which of these CPU register organizations has
A circuit is to be built to add two 10-bit numbers x and y plus a carry in. (Bit 9 of each number is the most significant bit [MSB], and bit 0 is the least significant bit [LSB]. c0 is the carry in
Under what circumstances are carry save adders more efficient than normal binary adders that take two operands and produce one result? Where, in a typical general-purpose CPU, would one be most
Given two 5-bit, signed, twos complement numbers x = –6 = 110102 and y = +5 = 001012, show how their 10-bit product would be computed using Booth’s algorithm.
Discuss the similarities and differences between scientific notation (used for manual calculations in base 10) and floating-point representations for real numbers used in digital computers.
Consider a simple von Neumann architecture computer like the one discussed in Section 3.3.1 and depicted in Figure 3.34. One of its machine language instructions is an ANDM instruction that reads the
Why was IEEE 754-1985 a significant development in the history of computing, especially in the fields of scientific and engineering applications?
In 2008, the IEEE modified standard 754 to allow for “half-precision” 16-bit floating-point numbers. These numbers are stored in similar fashion to the single precision 32-bit numbers but with
Show how the decimal value –267.5625 would be represented in IEEE 754 single and double precision formats.
Repeat question 20 using the vertical control word depicted in Figure 3.42.Question 20Given the horizontal control word depicted in Figure 3.41 for our simple example machine, develop the micro
Given the horizontal control word depicted in Figure 3.41 for our simple example machine, develop the micro routines required to fetch and execute the ANDM instruction using the steps you outlined in
What are the two principal design approaches for the control unit of a CPU? Describe each of them and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. If you were designing a family of high-performance
Fill in the blanks below with the most appropriate term or concept discussed in this chapter: This type of architecture typically has instructions that explicitly specify only one operand. A feature
In a machine with a microprogrammed control unit, why is it important to be able to do branching within the microcode?
Suppose you are designing a machine that will frequently have to perform 64 consecutive iterations of the same task (for example, a vector processor with 64-element vector registers). You want to
Considering the overall market for all types of computers, which of the following are more commonly found in today’s machines: arithmetic pipelines or instruction unit pipelines? Explain why this
Why do control transfers, especially conditional control transfers, cause problems for an instruction-pipelined machine? Explain the nature of these problems and discuss some of the techniques that
A simple RISC CPU is implemented with a single scalar instruction processing pipeline. Instructions are always executed sequentially except in the case of branch instructions. Given that pb is the
What are the similarities and differences between a delayed branch and a delayed load?
Given the following sequence of assembly language instructions for a CPU with multiple pipelines, indicate all data hazards that exist between instructions.I1: Add R2, R4, R3 ;R2 = R4 + R3I2: Add R1,
What are the purposes of the scoreboard method and Tomasulo’s method of controlling multiple instruction execution units? How are they similar and how are they different?
List and explain nine common characteristics of RISC architectures. In each case, discuss how a typical CISC processor would (either completely or partially) not exhibit the given attribute.
How does the overlapping register windows technique, used in the Berkeley RISC and its commercial successor the Sun SPARC, simplify the process of calling and returning from subprograms?
You are on a team helping design the new Platinum V® processor for AmDel Corporation. Consider the following design issues:a. Your design team is considering a superscalar versus superpipeline
Fill in the blanks below with the most appropriate term or concept discussed in this chapter: The time required for the first result in a series of com- putations to emerge from a pipeline. This is
How are VLIW architectures similar to superscalar architectures, and how are they different? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each approach? In what way can VLIW architectures be
Is explicitly parallel instruction computing (EPIC) the same thing as a VLIW architecture? Explain why or why not.
Are superthreaded and hyperthreaded processors the same thing? If not, how do they differ?
What do we mean when we say that interrupts must be processed transparently? What does this involve and why is it necessary?
Some processors, before servicing an interrupt, automatically save all register contents. Others automatically save only a limited amount of information. In the second case, how can we be sure that
Explain the function of a watchdog timer. Why do embedded control processors usually need this type of mechanism?
How are vectored and autovectored interrupts similar and how are they different? Can they be used in the same system? Why or why not? What are their advantages and disadvantages compared with
Given the need for user programs to access operating system services, why are traps a better solution than conventional subprogram call instructions?
Compare and contrast program-controlled I/O, interrupt-driven I/O, and DMA-based I/O. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Describe scenarios that would favor each approach over the
Systems with separate I/O have a second address space for I/O devices as opposed to memory and also a separate category of instructions for doing I/O operations as opposed to memory data transfers.
Given that many systems have a single bus that can be controlled by only one bus master at a time (and thus the CPU cannot use the bus for other activities during I/O transfers), explain how a system
Compare and contrast the channel processors used in IBM mainframes with the PPUs used in CDC systems.
Name and describe the three types of data transfers that can be used for USB-connected input/output devices. Give an example of where each would be appropriate and explain why.
Suppose a USB data packet being transmitted at Full Speed consists of a sync pattern that lasts 8 bit times, an 8-bit PID, 1024 bytes of data, and 16 bits of CRC information. What is the minimum time
Discuss at least three distinguishing factors that can be used to differentiate among parallel computer systems. Why do systems vary so widely with respect to these factors?
Michael Flynn defined the terms SISD, SIMD, MISD, and MIMD to represent certain classes of computer architectures that have been built or at least considered. Tell what each of these abbreviations
What is the main difference between a vector computer and the scalar architectures that we studied in Chapters 3 and 4? Do vector machines tend to have a high or low degree of generality as defined
How are array processors similar to vector processors and how are they different? Explain the difference between fine-grained and coarse-grained array processors. Which type of array parallelism is
How are graphics processing units (GPUs) similar to, yet different from, SIMD array processors? What types of computational problems are well suited to run on GPU-accelerated systems?
Explain the difference between multiprocessor and multicomputer systems. Which of these architectures is more prevalent among massively parallel MIMD systems? Why? Which architecture is easier to
Explain the similarities and differences between UMA, NUMA, and COMA multiprocessors.
What does “cache coherence” mean? In what type of computer system would cache coherence be an issue? Is a write-through strategy sufficient to maintain cache coherence in such a system? If so,
What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of write-update and write-invalidate snoopy protocols?
What are directory-based protocols, and why are they often used in CC-NUMA systems?
Explain why synchronization primitives based on mutual exclusion are important in multiprocessors. What is a read-modify-write cycle, and why is it significant?
Describe the construction of a cluster system (once commonly referred to as a “Beowulf cluster” after the NASA project that spawned the idea). Architecturally speaking, how would you classify
Describe the similarities and differences between circuitswitched networks and packet-switched communications networks. Which of these network types is considered static, and which is dynamic? Which

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