THE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, SRI LANKA

IESL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

ADVANCED DIPLOMA-STAGE I- MODEL PAPER

COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
Answer FIVE questions only Time allowed: 3 Hours

Q1.
(a) List the parts of a computer system and completely explain the instruction execution
cycle. (8Marks)
(b) Using diagrams to show the updating of important register contents, explain the
process followed in serving interrupts in a modern computer. (6Marks)
(c) How does a computer handle multiple simultaneous interrupts? (3Marks)
(d) What is bus arbitration? Why is it important? (3Marks)

Q2.
(a) State and prove Amdhals law. (5Marks)
(b) Consider the following table.
Floating point
Benchmark operations Time (S)
(in millions)
1 N1 T1
2 N2 T2
3 N3 T3
4 N4 T4
5 N5 T5

Find the individual and overall MFLOPs. (5Marks)

(c) How can a computer system improve performance by pipelining? (5Marks)

(d) Use Amdhals law to discuss the performance improvement with different numbers
of pipelining stages. (5Marks)

Q3.
(a) What is a micro operation in the context of microprocessors? Explain. (3Marks)
(b) List the sequence of operations which takes place during the fetch-execute cycle for
the instruction ADD @30, #2. (Use symbolic notations) (8Marks)
(c) Compare and contrast micro-programmed control and hardwired control. (4Marks)
(d) Using clear diagrams, briefly explain the implementation of a hardwired control unit.
(5Marks)

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Q4.
(a) Write short notes on the following. (2x4Marks)
i. Machine level parallelism
ii. Speculative loading
iii. Branch predication
iv. NUMA systems
(b) Explain branch prediction. Compare it to delayed branching. (4Marks)
(c) Compare superscalar and superpipelined architectures highlighting their advantages
and disadvantages. (4Marks)
(d) State and explain the cache coherence and the MESI protocol used in parallel processing
systems. (4Marks)

Q5.
(a)
i. State the memory hierarchy in a modern computer system. (2Marks)
ii. Explain how four 4MB ROM chips can be arranged to prepare a 16MB ROM.
Clearly show the address, data and control lines in a diagram stressing their sizes.
(4Marks)
iii. Differentiate the following. (2x2Marks)
a. Direct and random memory access
b. Dynamic and static RAM
(b)
i. What are the two main foundation principles behind caches performance
improvement? (2Marks)
ii. Using suitable diagrams, clearly explain the set associative cash mapping rule.
(4Marks)
iii. A certain memory system consists of a RAM and a cache memory. The CPU
requires the data blocks in the following order. 1,2,1,3,3,4,1,5,3. Assuming
that a cache capacity of 3 data blocks, show the snapshots of cache contents at
each and every times when,
a. FIFO
b. LRU

cache replacement policies are used. (2x2Marks)

Q6.
(a) Completely explain the data storage plan on a single surface a magnetic disk pack.
(3Marks)
(b) Compare and contrast constant angular velocity and multiple zone recording on a
magnetic disc. (3Marks)
(c) Write short notes on the following. (2x4Marks)
i. Seek time
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 ii. Rotational delay
iii. Winchester hard drive
iv. RAID

(d) Providing reasoning, propose suitable RAID configurations for the following
situations. (2x3Marks)
i. A company wishes to have a video server which will allow users to download.
ii. IESL mail where multiple accesses at the same time but content is less, is to
be hosted in a server.
iii. Defense forces need to host their critical databases.

Q7.
(a) Represent the following in sign magnitude and twos complement representations
(use 8 bits). (2x3Marks)
i. +18 in sign magnitude and twos complement representations with 8 bits
ii. -18 in sign magnitude and twos complement representations with 8 bits
iii. -0.000555510 in 32 bit floating point representation

(b) Convert the flowing numbers from 4 bits to 8 bits without converting back to
decimal. Show your calculation steps/reasoning. (2x2Marks)
i. 1101 in sign magnitude
ii. 1010 in twos complement

(c) Perform the following operations showing the steps. (2x3Marks)

i. 14 17 in sign magnitude
ii. 14 17 in twos complement
iii. 1011 1101 in unsigned binary using shift and add method

(d) Show how the calculation 3010+20010 in floating point is carried out. (4Marks)