Preview

01 - Structure and function of the processor

 1. What part of a computer system is most directly concerned with performing the actions called for by a program?
This part is also commonly known as the "brain" of the computer - the crucial part!

  Main storage

  The monitor

  The hard disk .

  The processor

 2. About how many different fundamental operations can most processors perform

  100

  Just a single instruction or operation

  Just two

  Thousands ….

 3. What is a machine instruction?

  Several bytes in main memory that tells the processor to perform one machine operation.

  A particular combination of keys on the keyboard that turns the computer system off.

  A byte that contains numeric data.

  An electrical signal that activates the processor.

 4. Programming in machine code is very difficult as binary numbers are hard for a human to read and understand.To make things easier for programmers, the chip makers provide an 'Assembly Language' for their CPU

  True

  False

 5. How many machine instructions can execute per second on a modern processor?

  Up to 1000 (or in some cases 10,000) instructions per second

  1 instruction per second

  Millions of instructions per second

  Ten instructions per second

 6. The architecture of a processor chip is a description of its basic components and of its basic operations. Each processor family has its own architecture.

  FALSE

  TRUE

 7. The purpose of the CPU is to process data. The CPU is responsible for the following:

  Searching

  All of the above

  Decision making and calculating

  Sorting

 8. The CPU is NOT responsible for controlling all the other component parts of the computer e.g. Hard Disk, Graphics System etc.

  FALSE

  TRUE

 9. The CPU is a very complicated little chip which contains billions of individual transistors. Which of the following is NOT a main part of the CPU.
Control Unit, Arithmetic Logic Unit, The Registers, the RAM

  The RAM

  The Control Unit

  The Registers

  All of the items on the list are part of the CPU (are inside it)

 10. There are ______________ that connect all the parts together.

  three main buses (Data, Address and Control)

  256 main memory registers

  None of the above

  two main SATA cables

 11. The Control Unit has the following jobs/functions:

  Controls the way that data moves around the CPU by controlling the buses

  All of the above are valid descriptions of the control unit's role

  It executes the instructions provided by the program

  Controls and monitors the flow of data between the CPU and other components (e.g. input devices)

 12. The collection of instructions that the control unit can carry out is called the ____________________. This _______ was hard wired into the CPU when designed.

  binary bit sequence

  instruction set

  control signal

  Machine control

 13. The ALU consists of two types of processing: Arithmetic operations and _________ operations that deal with comparisons and other logic.

  magic

  binary

  logic

  assembly code

 14. The result from the ALU tends to be stored in the accumulator register.

  FALSE

  TRUE

 15. Along with the result generated by the ALU a set of _________ are set which include 'Zero' 'Carry' 'Negative' and __________
In the operation 3-4 = -1, the negative flag would be set.

  assembly code instructions / positive

  binary sequences / overflow

  bits / positive

  status flags / overflow

 16. A register is a type of memory inside the CPU. A register can ….

  act on the arithmetic logic unit

  explode if touched (they are incased in thin gold leaves)

  hold several million bytes of assembly language and execute it

  hold a data value

 17. An 8 bit CPU would have 16 registers on it and a 16 bit CPU would have 32 registers and so on…

  TRUE

  FALSE

 18. Registers are used to hold ____________ while a software program is running

  temporary data

  ASCII

  HEX

  assembly code

 19. It is much ________to shift data to and from the registers than to the cache or RAM

  less efficient

  more cumbersome

  slower

  faster

 20. The contents held in the CPU to be processed have to be copied from main memory into a special regsiter called the ______ which holds them temporarily.
This is done via the data bus.

  CIR

  MDR

  Program counter

  MAR

 21. The purpose of the ______is to temporarily store the address (location) of the next data or instruction in main memory,
It is connected via the address bus

  MAR

  MDR

  CIR

  Program counter

 22. When an instruction is fetched from main memory, it is later copied into the _________.

  Program counter

  MDR

  MAR

  CIR

 23. The _________ holds the current instruction ready for decoding and executing by the Control Unit

  Program counter

  CIR

  MDR

  MAR

 24. The 'Current Instruction' has two parts. The ______ and the operand (the_________ acts on the operand)

  ADD instruction

  branch set

  LMC set

  opcode

 25. The operand (which is acted on) contains data, a memory address or sometimes both.

  FALSE

  TRUE

 26. The purpose of the __________ is to store the location (address) of the next instruction.
When it is time to fetch the next instruction, the content of the program counter (PC) is loaded into the MAR

  Program counter

  MDR

  MAR

  CIR

 27. Simple linear programs would just ______________ the program counter, but there is also the option of using ________________ to jump to another location entirely.

  None of the above

  decrement / top bits

  increment / branch instructions

  binary shift / assembly code

 28. Each CPU family has its own instruction set. They are machine specific.

  FALSE

  TRUE

 29. Instruction sets may be categorized by the maximum number of operands explicitly specified in instructions.

  TRUE

  FALSE

 30. An _______________ program describes exactly what the hardware should do, step by step, in terms of the basic operations of the hardware

  assembly language

  operand program

  binary

  hexadecimal