CPEN EXAM 2 STUDY GUIDE
Concurrency - Answers -The capability of doing more than one operation at the same
time
Pipelining - Answers -A method of concurrency, a task is divided into subtasks, and
then overlap performance of the subtasks for multiple iterations of the task
Speedup factor - Answers -A calculation of how much pipelining will improve the speed
of an operation
Delayed loads - Answers -Can cause problems if the instruction immediately after the
load uses the value being loaded as an operand, needs to stall the pipeline
Data dependencies - Answers -One instruction needs to use data that are being
generated/manipulated by another instruction that might be in the pipeline at the same
time.
RAW - Answers -read after write
Data forwarding - Answers -the process of receiving data on one digital data link and
outputting the data onto another digital data link in the proper format.
WAR - Answers -write after read
WAW - Answers -Write after write
Out-of-order execution - Answers -A situation in pipelined execution when an instruction
blocked from executing does not cause the following instructions to wait.
Functional unit - Answers -Different parts of the ALU that instructions can be assigned
instructions by type.
Scoreboard method - Answers -Scheduling instruction execution was developed for the
CDC 6600 (released in 1964) by lead engineers James Thornton and Seymour Cray
Tomasulo's method - Answers -Developed for the IBM System/360 Model 91 (released
in 1967) by Robert Tomasulo for scheduling instruction execution
Register renaming - Answers -The use of dynamically generated tags to identify
operands, rather than the static CPU register numbers generated by the programmer
Superpipelining - Answers -The use of a very deep, high-speed pipeline for instruction
processing in a microprocessor
, Superscalar - Answers -Processors that can execute more than one instruction per
clock cycle
Instruction-level parallelism - Answers -Multiple instructions that are not dependent on
one another, and thus can be executed simultaneously if parallel hardware is available
Speculative execution - Answers -The ability of some CPU's to execute instructions
ahead of the current location and beyond a conditional branch.
The results of these instructions will be usable only if the CPU guessed the branch
direction correctly
Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) - Answers -A style of instruction set architecture that
launches many operations that are defined to be independent in a single wide
instruction, typically with many separate opcode fields
Multithreading - Answers -Allows different parts of a single program to run concurrently
Arithmetic\logic unit - Answers -A component of a CPU that performs computations on
binary data
Registers - Answers -A component of a CPU that holds operands and memory
addresses for operands
Control unit - Answers -A component of a CPU that controls and sequences the
behavior of the other components
Fetch, Decode, Execute, Write Back - Answers -What are the steps of a simplified Von
Neumann cycle
Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) - Answers -The part of the computer architecture
related to programming, including the native data types, instructions, registers,
addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external
I/O
bit fields - Answers -Subsets of bits that make up a machine language instruction format
Operation code - Answers -Leftmost bit field that determines the function of the overall
instruction. Using more for the bit field will mean the machine can handle more separate
instructions.
Register Selection - Answers -The second and forth bit fields. Determines which CPU
registers will be used by the instruction.
Equation for determining the amount of registers a machine has based on the register
selection - Answers -2^x
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller GEEKA. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $10.99. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.