Computer Architecture (EE-221)

Assignment Questions

INSTRUCTIONS:
Give precise answers to the questions.
Use A4 size blank page to submit the assignment.
Assignment is to be submitted in handwritten form.
1. What is the function of a CPU?
2. What purpose does a datapath serve?
3. What does the control unit do?
4. Where are registers located and what are the different types?
5. How does the ALU know which function to perform?
6. Why is a bus often a communications bottleneck?
7. What is the difference between a point-to-point bus and a multipoint bus?
8. Why is a bus protocol important?
9. Explain the differences between data buses, address buses, and control buses.
10. What is a bus cycle?
11. Name three different types of buses and where you would find them.
12. What is the difference between synchronous buses and nonsynchronous buses?
13. What are the four types of bus arbitration?
14. Explain the difference between clock cycles and clock frequency.
15. How do system clocks and bus clocks differ?
16. What is the function of an I/O interface?
17. Explain the difference between memory-mapped I/O and instruction-based I/O.
18. What is the difference between a byte and a word? What distinguishes each?
19. Explain the difference between byte-addressable and word-addressable.
20. Why is address alignment important?
21. List and explain the two types of memory interleaving and the differences between

them.
22. Describe how an interrupt works and name four different types.
23. How does a maskable interrupt differ from a nonmaskable interrupt?
24. Why is it that if Computer has 4K words of main memory, addresses must have 12 bits?
25. Explain the functions of registers IR, AC, OutReg, InReg, MAR, MBR, PC.
26. What is an opcode?
27. Explain how each instruction in MARIE works.
28. How does a machine language differ from an assembly language? Is the conversion oneto-one (one assembly instruction equals one machine instruction)?
29. What is the significance of RTN?
30. Is a microoperation the same thing as a machine instruction?
31. How does a microoperation differ from a regular assembly language instruction?
32. Explain the steps of the fetch-decode-execute cycle.
33. How does interrupt-driven I/O work?
34. What is an embedded system? How does it differ from a regular computer?
35. Provide a trace (similar to the one in Figure 4.13) for Example 4.1.
36. Explain the difference between hardwired control and microprogrammed control.
37. What is a stack? Why is it important for programming?
38. Compare CISC machines to RISC machines.
39. How does Intels architecture differ from MIPS?
40. Name four Intel processors and four MIPS processors.