Questions and Answers of Computer Architecture

Define a bus.What are buses used for?
Assume the following values in various registers and memory locations at a given point in time:PC: 20 A: 150 Memory location 20: 160 [ADD 60] Memory location 60: 30.Show the values that are stored in
Using the ADD instruction as a model, show the fetch–execute cycle for a SUBTRACT instruction.
Once the fetch operation is complete, what is the first step of the execution phase for any instruction that accesses a memory address for data (e.g., LOAD, STORE)?
What does the Little Man do during the second phase of a COFFEE BREAK or HALT instruction?
The instruction cycle is divided into two phases. Name each phase. The first phase is the same for every instruction. What is the purpose of the first phase that makes this true? Explain what the
Even if he runs out of instructions to execute, the Little Man only stops trying to execute instructions under one condition. What is that condition? What happens if the Little Man runs out of
Why is the instruction cycle called a cycle?
Explain carefully, step by step, what the Little Man will do when he executes a BRANCH ON ZERO instruction.
Explain carefully what the Little Man will do when he executes a JUMP instruction.
Write a Little Man program that accepts two numbers as input, subtracts the first from the second and outputs the result.
Write a Little Man program that accepts two numbers as input and outputs the numbers in reverse order.
If a user wants to enter two numbers, what must the Little Man program do before she enters the second number? Why?
Describe, step by step, what the Little Man does to execute an INPUT instruction.
Describe, step by step, what the Little Man does to execute a STORE instruction.
Instructions in the Little Man Computer are three digits, divided into two parts. Show the format of an LMC instruction.
Without looking at the book, draw a Little Man Computer. Label each of the components in your drawing.
Write a program in your favorite language that converts numbers represented in the decimal floating point formatSEEM M M M Minto 10’s complementary integer form. Round any fractional decimal value.
The IEEE provides a standard 32-bit format for floating point numbers. The format for a number is specified as ±1.M × 2E − 127. Explain each part of this format.
When adding two floating point numbers, what must be true for the exponents of the two numbers?
Exponents are normally stored in excess-N notation. Explain excess-N notation. If a number is stored in excess-31 notation and the actual exponent is 2+12, what value is stored in the computer for
To represent a number in exponential form in the computer, two additional assumptions must be made about the number. What are those assumptions?
Real numbers in a computer (or float, if you prefer), are most often represented in exponential notation. Four separate components are needed to represent numbers in this form. Identify each
What is the relationship between complementary representation and sign-and magnitude representation for positive numbers?
Explain the procedure for adding two numbers in 2’s complement form. As an example, convert +38 and −24 to 8-bit 2’s complement form and add them. Convert your result back to decimal and
How do you detect overflow when adding two numbers in 2’s complement form?
How do you change the sign of an integer stored in 2’s complement form? As an example, the 8-bit representation for the value 19 is 000100112. What is the 2’s complement representation for −19?
If you see a 2’s complement number whose value is 111111102, what rough estimate can you make about the number?
Explain the procedure for adding two numbers in 1’s complement form. As an example, convert +38 and −24 to 8-bit 1’s complement form and add them. Convert your result back to decimal and
How do you identify an overflow condition when you add two numbers in 1’s complement form?
How do you change the sign of an integer stored in 1’s complement form? As an example, the 8-bit representation for the value 19 is 000100112. What is the 1’s complement representation for −19?
What is a quick way to identify negative numbers when using 1’s complement arithmetic?
Give an example that shows the disadvantage of using a sign-and-magnitude format for manipulating signed integers.
What does BCD stand for? Explain at least two important disadvantages of storing numbers in BCD format. Offer one advantage for using a BCD format for storing numbers.
What is the largest unsigned integer that can be stored as a 16-bit number?
Investigate several audio formats, and discuss the different features that each provides. Also discuss how the choice of features provided in different formats affects the type of processing that the
Find a book or article that describes the various bitmapped graphics formats, and compare .GIF and .RLE.
Find a book or article that describes the various bitmapped graphics formats, and compare .GIF, .PNG, and .BMP.
If you have access to a debug program, load a text file into computer memory from your disk, and read the text from computer memory by translating the ASCII codes.
Explain the difference between numeric characters and numbers. Under what conditions would you expect the computer to use numeric characters? When would you expect the computer to use numbers? When
Name five simple data types that are provided in most high-level programming languages.
What is a page description language? Give an example of a page description language.
Explain the difference between lossless and lossy data compression. Which type normally provides a smaller file? What is “lost” in lossy audio data compression? Under what circumstances is it
Describe briefly the most important characteristics and features of an MP3 audio file.
Explain briefly how an A-to-D converter converts audio data into binary data.
What is the function of a video codec? What is the function of a video “container”? Name at least two different codecs. Name at least two different containers.
Name two advantages to the use of object images.
What is image metadata? Give an at least three examples of metadata that would be required for a bitmap image.
What are the major characteristics of a bitmap image? What are the major characteristics of an object or vector image? Which is used for displays? What types of images must be stored and manipulated
What is a collating sequence?
What is the relationship between the ASCII Latin-1 character set and its Unicode equivalent that makes conversion between the two simple?
Name the three standards in common use for alphanumeric characters. Which standard is designed to support all of the world’s written languages? Which language is used primarily with legacy programs
When data is input to a computer, it is nearly always manipulated and stored in some standard data format. Why is the use of data standards considered important, or indeed, crucial in this case?
Convert the number 11110011011002 directly from binary to hexadecimal. Without looking at the original number, convert your answer directly back to binary and compare your final answer with the
Convert the number 1010001011002 directly from binary to hexadecimal. Without looking at the original number, convert your answer directly back to binary and compare your final answer with the
What number in base 10 is equivalent to D in base 16? What number in base 16 is equivalent to the number 10 in base 10? Use the weights method to convert the number 5D16 to base 10. Use the division
Use the multiplication method to convert 135716 to base 10. Verify your answer by using the division method to convert your answer back to base 16.
Use the multiplication method to convert 10112 to base 10. Verify your answer by using the weights method to convert the number back to base 2.
Use the division method to convert 1234510 to base 2. Verify your answer by using the weights method to convert your answer back to base 10.
Use the division method to convert 1234510 to base 16. Verify your answer by using the weights method to convert your answer back to base 10.
Use the division method to convert 117010 to base 16. Confirm that your answer is the same as that in question 8, above.Data from Question 8Using the weights in base 16, convert 11710 into base 16.
Use the division conversion method to convert 321210 into base 8. Confirm that your answer is the same as that in question 7, above.Data from Question 7Using the weights in base 8, convert 21210 into
Using the weights in base 16, convert 11710 into base 16. Convert 117010 into base 16.
Using the weights in base 8, convert 21210 into base 8. Convert 321210 into base 8.
What are the first three weights in base 16? Using these weights, convert 35916 to base 10. (Notice that the same technique works for any base, even if the base is larger than 10.)
What are the first six weights in base 2? Using these weights, convert 1001012 to base 10.
Use the base 2 addition table to add 101012 and 11102. Use the base 2 multiplication table to multiply 101012 and 11102.
Use the table in Figure 3.5 to add 218 and 338. Use the table in Figure 3.5 to add 468 and 438. Figure 3.5 0 1 2 4 6 7 1 2 4 5 7 1 1 2 4 5 6. 7 10 2 4 7 10 11 (no 8 or 9, 12 of course) 3 4 6. 7 10
How many different digits would you expect to find in base 6? What is the largest digit in base 6? Let z represent that largest digit. What is the next value after 21z if you’re counting up by 1s?
In the book we show that 52710 represents 5 × 102 +2 × 101 +7 × 100. What is the representation for 5278? What would its equivalent base 10 value be?
Give a simple explanation and example for SaaS. Do the same for PaaS. Do the same for IaaS.
Explain cloud computing in simple terms. Briefly discuss the major advantages and risks to an organization when considering the adoption of cloud computing.
Many system architects base their IT system designs on an n-tier architecture, where n is a number with value 2 or greater. Explain the difference between a single-tier architecture and an n-tier
What are the principal responsibilities of a system architect?
Web-based system architecture is a popular approach to many organizational systems because it offers a number of advantages to the users and to the organization over other types of systems. Discuss
Most modern computing in organizations is based on client–server models. Explain why this tends to be the case. Give an example of client–server computing that you are familiar with and explain
What is the primary concern of application architecture? Give an example of application architecture, either your own, or one from the examples in the book. Explain how this example fulfills the
What does the top-down approach allow a system architect to do that might be more difficult otherwise?
Explain what is meant by the architecture of a system.
Explain the following statement about systems: “Decomposition is inherently hierarchical”.
Explain the relationships among the following words: system, environment, boundary, and interface.
What are the most important ideas, keywords, and phrases that are stated in the deﬁnition of a system?
Write a small program in your favorite high-level language. Compile your program. What is the ratio of high-level language statements to machine language statements? As a rough estimate, assume that
Suppose you would like to buy a computer for your own needs. What are the major considerations and factors that would be important in your decision? What technical factors would influence your
For the computer that you normally use, identify which pieces constitute the hardware and which pieces constitute the system software. Now think about the file system of your computer. What part of
Look at the computer ads on the business pages of a large daily newspaper and make a list of all the terms used that you don’t understand. Save this list and check it from time to time during the
What is a protocol? What is a standard? Do all protocols have to be standards? Explain. Are all standards protocols? Explain.
Virtualization is a concept that has taken on major importance in the early twenty-first century. Explain what is meant by virtualization.
The book compares a large mainframe computer to a smartphone or tablet, and states that the difference between them is one of magnitude, not of concept. Explain the meaning of that statement.
The book divides the software component of a computer system into two major categories. Identify each category and give an example of each that you are already familiar with. Briefly explain the role
Explain the differences between primary storage and secondary storage. What is each type used for?
One way to view an information technology system is to consider an IT system as consisting of four major components or building blocks. This book takes this approach by dividing the remainder of the
Any computer system, large or small, can be represented by the four elements of an IPO model. Draw an IPO model; clearly label each of the four elements in your drawing.
It is possible to provide more flexible protection than that in the Intel Pentium architecture by using a protection scheme similar to that used in the Hewlett-Packard Precision Architecture (HP/PA).
How big should a TLB be? TLB misses are usually very fast (fewer than 10 instructions plus the cost of an exception), so it may not be worth having a huge TLB just to lower the TLB miss rate a bit.
Power efficiency has become very important for modern processors, particularly for embedded systems. Create a version of gcc for two architectures that you have access to, such as x86, MIPS, PowerPC,
Gcc targets most modern instruction set architectures (see www.gnu.org/software/gcc/). Create a version of gcc for several architectures that you have access to, such as x86, MIPS, PowerPC, and
SPIM is a popular simulator for simulating MIPS processors. Use SPIM to measure the instruction set mix for some SPEC CPU2006 benchmark programs.
For the SGEMM code developed above for the i7 processor, include the use of AVX intrinsics to improve the performance. In particular, try to vectorize your code to better utilize the AVX hardware.
Newer processors such as Intel’s i7 Sandy Bridge include support for AVX vector/multimedia instructions. Write a dense matrix multiply function using single-precision values and compile it with

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