Deck 4: Processor Technology and Architecture

Question 1

Pipelining is a method of organizing CPU circuitry so that multiple instructions can be in different stages of execution at the same time.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Arithmetic SHIFT instructions are more complex when applied to twos complement values because the rightmost bit is a sign bit.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The CPU alternates constantly between fetch and execution cycles.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

RISC is a philosophy of processor design that deliberately includes complex instructions.

Question 5

The control unit cannot execute instructions without assistance from the ALU.

Question 6

MOVE tests the bit values in the source location and moves these values to the destination location.

Question 7

Complex instructions are a tradeoff between processor complexity and program simplicity.

Question 8

​The ALU component of the CPU moves data and instructions between main memory and registers.

Question 9

A perfect conductor can be described as one having maximum resistance.

Question 10

Shifting an 8-bit twos complement value to the right by seven positions is a simple way to extract and test the sign bit.

Question 11

One action that occurs during the fetch cycle is incrementing a pointer to the location of the next instruction.

Question 12

The operand of a CPU instruction cannot contain the location of a data item.

Question 13

Binary addition works with complex data types, such as floating-point and double-precision numbers.

Question 14

A CPU is a complex system of interconnected electrical switches.

Question 15

With bit strings, NOT treats each bit in the bit string as a separate Boolean value.

Question 16

Compared with RISC processors, CISC processors have some advantages for computationally intensive applications.

Question 17

Data inputs are accessed from storage or extracted directly from the operands and stored in one or more registers.

Question 18

Electricity travels through a trace at approximately 70% of the speed of light.

Question 19

The BRANCH command has one operand containing the memory address of the next instruction.

Question 20

A benchmark program performs specific tasks that can be counted or measured.

Question 21

Low voltage circuits are less susceptible to damage from voltage surges and static electricity.

Question 22

The first group of bits in an instruction represents its unique binary number, commonly called the ____.

A) data word
B) op code
C) operand
D) operand

Question 23

​The ____ section of the CPU performs all computation and comparison operations.

A) ​register
B) ​ALU
C) ​shifter
D) ​control unit

Question 24

A microprocessor that fails to perform reliably at a higher clock rate might still be usable and rated for sale at a lower clock rate.

Question 25

Transistors and the tracks that interconnect them are the fundamental building blocks of all CPUs.

Question 26

The earliest computers were constructed with ordinary copper wire and vacuum tube switches and were unreliable because of the heat the vacuum tubes generated.

Question 27

Practical optical processors will probably appear first as full-fledged computer processors.

Question 28

Current fabrication technology is capable of squeezing more than a billion transistors onto a wafer of silicon approximately one square centimeter.

Question 29

Early Xeon processors filled an important niche in the small server market but weren't powerful enough to perform processing duties in many large-scale servers.

Question 30

During the ____ cycle of the CPU, the transformation takes place and data output is stored.

A) execution
B) fetch
C) store
D) wait

Question 31

According to Moore's Law, the doubling of transistor density is achieved with a 50% increase in unit cost.

Question 32

A(n) ____ is the lowest-level command that software can direct a processor to perform.

A) cycle
B) process
C) operand
D) instruction

Question 33

A(n) ____ directs the CPU to route electrical signals representing data inputs through predefined processing circuits that implement the appropriate function.

A) operation
B) process
C) instruction
D) cycle

Question 34

A ____ instruction copies data bits to storage locations and can copy data between any combination of registers and primary storage locations.

A) JUMP
B) LOAD
C) STORE
D) MOVE

Question 35

Integrated circuits reduced manufacturing cost per circuit because many chips could be manufactured in a single sheet, or wafer.

Question 36

During the ____ cycle of the CPU, data inputs are prepared for transformation into data outputs.

A) execution
B) store
C) fetch
D) wait

Question 37

Subsequent groups of bits after the first group in an instruction hold its input values, called ____.

A) operands
B) op codes
C) operators
D) words

Question 38

A ____ operation is a data transfer from main memory into a register.

A) store
B) load
C) jump
D) move

Question 39

Traditional bus interfaces are too slow and power hungry to provide sufficient data transfer capacity between many processors or between processors and primary storage.

Question 40

The PC revolution wouldn't have been possible without standardized microprocessors.

Question 41

Each clock cycle the CPU spends waiting for a slower device is called a ____.

A) suspend state
B) block state
C) hold state
D) wait state

Question 42

A(n)____ instruction generates the value true if either (but not both) data input is true.

A) AND
B) exclusive OR
C) inclusive OR
D) NOT

Question 43

____ hold frequently used data items such as loop counters and array indexes.

A) Reserved registers
B) Kernel registers
C) Instruction registers
D) General-purpose registers

Question 44

A ____ instruction causes the processor to depart from sequential instruction order.

A) MOVE
B) COMPARE
C) BRANCH
D) HALT

Question 45

The term ____ describes instructions executed after the guess but before the final result is known with certainty.

A) speculative execution
B) consecutive execution
C) parallel execution
D) symmetric execution

Question 46

A(n) ____ instruction generates the result true if both of its data inputs are true.

A) AND
B) inclusive OR
C) exclusive OR
D) NOT

Question 47

A ____ is a unit of data containing a fixed number of bytes or bits and can be loosely defined as the amount of data a CPU processes at one time.

A) block
B) unit
C) word
D) pixel

Question 48

A(n) ____ instruction generates the value true if either or both data inputs are true.

A) exclusive OR
B) AND
C) inclusive OR
D) NOT

Question 49

When manipulating single-precision floating-point numbers, CPU performance is measured in ____.

A) watts
B) MHz
C) MFLOPS
D) MIPS

Question 50

The frequency at which the system clock generates timing pulses is the system's ____.

A) clock cycle
B) clock rate
C) clock rate
D) clock rate

Question 51

The register that holds bit values (flags) that describe comparison operation results, control conditional BRANCH execution, or indicate actual or potential error conditions ____.

A) load register
B) instruction register
C) program status word
D) control register

Question 52

A(n) ____ instruction suspends the normal flow of instruction execution in the current program.

A) COMPARE
B) ADD
C) JUMP
D) HALT

Question 53

____ is a philosophy of processor design that deliberately includes complex instructions.

A) CISC
B) RISC
C) OR
D) XOR

Question 54

A ____ performs specific tasks that can be counted or measured.

A) benchmark program
B) metric program
C) compiler
D) system program

Question 55

____ instructions represent combinations of primitive processing operations.

A) Standard
B) Complex
C) High-order
D) System

Question 56

The ____ can extract a single bit from a bit string.

A) logic SHIFT
B) ROTATE
C) ADD
D) NOT

Question 57

When the control unit fetches an instruction from memory, it stores it in the ____.

A) load register
B) instruction register
C) first general-purpose register
D) control register

Question 58

The ____ is a digital circuit that generates timing pulses, or signals, and transmits the pulses to other devices in the computer.

A) data clock
B) memory clock
C) variance clock
D) system clock

Question 59

In most CPUs, the ____ is the time required to fetch and execute the simplest instruction in the instruction set.

A) cycle time
B) block time
C) hold time
D) rest time

Question 60

____ are used only by the currently executing program.

A) Reserved registers
B) Kernel registers
C) Instruction registers
D) General-purpose registers

Question 61

​Silicon and germanium are basic elements with resistance characteristics that can be controlled or enhanced with chemicals called ____.

A) resistors
B) Dopants
C) Reactants
D) reagents

Question 62

The ____________________ of the CPU keeps track of the next program instruction location by incrementing a pointer after each fetch.

Question 63

____ states that the cost of fabrication facilities for the latest chip generation doubles every four years.

A) Rock's Law
B) Moore's Law
C) Nelson's Law
D) Lamb's Law

Question 64

Quantum computing uses quantum states to simultaneously encode two values per bit, called a ____.

A) bi-bit
B) neobit
C) qubit
D) sim-bit

Question 65

In a(n) ____________________ instruction, the processor always departs from the normal execution sequence.

Question 66

A(n) ____ is an electrical switch with three electrical connections.

A) transistor
B) resistor
C) insulator
D) conductor

Question 67

A(n) ____________________ instruction transforms the Boolean value true (1) into false (0) and the value false into true.

Question 68

____ is based on the observation that the rate of increase in transistor density on microchips had increased steadily, roughly doubling every 18 to 24 months.

A) Lamb's Law
B) Newton's Law
C) Rock's Law
D) Moore's Law

Question 69

A(n) ____________________ instruction accepts two numeric inputs and produces their arithmetic sum.

Question 70

The collection of instructions that a CPU can process is called the CPU's ____________________.

Question 71

Several transistors and their interconnections on a single chip form a(n) ____.

A) optimized circuit
B) combination circuit
C) integrated circuit
D) reduced circuit

Question 72

____ has been the primary basis for CPU speed and clock rate improvement since the first electrical computer.

A) Consolidation
B) Cooling
C) Power
D) Miniaturization

Question 73

Substances that electrons can flow through are called ____.

A) resistors
B) semiconductors
C) conductors
D) insulators

Question 74

The loss of electrical power that occurs as electrons pass through a conductor is called ____.

A) resistance
B) voltage
C) amperage
D) wattage

Question 75

A(n) ____________________ is a command to the CPU to perform a primitive processing function on specific data inputs.

Question 76

​____________________ are storage locations that hold inputs and outputs for the ALU.

Question 77

A(n) ____________________ SHIFT instruction performs multiplication or division.

Question 78

____ is the flow of electrons from one place or device to another.

A) Electrical voltage
B) Electrical current
C) Electrical resistance
D) Electrical conduction

Question 79

____ describes any CPU architecture in which duplicate CPUs or processor stages can execute in parallel.

A) Uniprocessing
B) Scaled processing
C) Hyperprocessing
D) Multiprocessing

Question 80

A(n) ____________________ operation is a data transfer from a register into primary storage.