What is the purpose of the cpu
Process data and instructions by constantly repeating the fetch execute cycle
What does the control unit do
The control unit sends controlled signals or timed signals to the ALU or RAM to direct the operation of the CPU
Decodes instructions in the FE cycle
What’s the ALU
Arithmetic logic unit
Performs simple calculations and logical operations and binary shifts
What are the registers
A temporary storage space for one instruction or address
Different registers are used during the fetch-execute cycle
What is cache memory
Temporarily store data that is frequently accessed
Split into different levels
Slower to access but faster than RAM
What is vonn Neumann architecture
Stores both program instructions and data in the same memory RAM and in the same format BINARY
What’s the difference between instructions and data
Instruction is an action to perform and data is the value to be used
They are not the same
How many times is the FE cycle performed every second
It’s performed 1 million times a second
What’s the fetch-execute cycle
Fetch:the cpu fetches instructions for the main memory(RAM)
decode:the cpu decodes the instruction to understand what actions to perform
Execute:the cpu performs the action specified by the instruction
Repeat:the cycle repeats itself
What are the 4 essential registers used in the FE cycle and what do they do
program counter(PC):tracks the RAM address of the next instruction to be fetched
Memory address register(MAR):stores the RAM address of the current instruction the cpu need to access
Memory data register(MDR):stores the instruction that has been transferred from RAM to the CPU
Accumulator(ACC):the ACC stores the result of mathematical or logical calculations
How does cache memory improve performance
Cache memory is closer to the cpu than RAM meaning that it can provide data and instructions to the CPU at a faster rate
A computer with more cache memory (8gb instead of 4gb) would have a higher performance because repeatedly used instructions can be stored and accessed faster
What is the limitation of cache memory
Cache memory is very costly so most computers only have a small amount
What is clock speed
Clock speed is the measure of how quickly a CPU can process instructions
What is clock speed measured in
Clock speed is measure in 3.5 GHZ. This means it can perform 3.5 billion cycles a second
How does clock speed improve performance
The faster the clock speed the faster the computer can perform the FDE cycle resulting in better performance because more instructions can be processed each second
How does overclocking and underclocking affect performance and what are they
Overclocking is when the computers clock speed is increased higher then the recommended rate.
this will make the computer perform faster but can lead to overheating and could damage the machine
under locking is when the computers clock speed is decreased lower than the recommended rate
This will make the computer perform slower but will increase the lifespan of the machine
What is a core?
A core is a complete set of CPU components (CU, ALU and registers) each core is able to perform its own FDE cycle
A multi core cpu have more than one set of components within the same CPU
How does the number of cores improve the performance
A single core processor can execute one instruction at a time, a dual core processor can execute 2 instruction at a time and a quad core can execute 4 instructions at a time
What are the limitations of having many cores
If one core is waiting for another core to finish processing,performance may not increase at all
What’s an embedded system
An embedded system is a computer system built into a larger machine (e.g. washing machine)
It has limited functions and is meant to constantly repeat a task
