Computer Architecture

  1. a set of rules and methods that describe the functionality, organization, and implementationof computer systems
    Computer Architecture
  2. the capabilities and programming model of a computer but not a particular implementation.
    Computer Architecture
  3. a specification detailing how a set of software and hardware technology standards interact to form a computer system or platform.
    Computer Architecture
  4. In short, _______________ refers to how a computer system is designed and what technologies it is compatible with.
    computer architecture
  5. The ______________, proposed by the mathematician John Von Neumann in 1945 is one of the best examples of a computer architecture and is still used by most types of computers today.
    Von Neumann architecture
  6. It describes the design of an electronic computer with its CPU, which includes the arithmetic logic unit, control unit, registers, memory for data and instructions, an input/output interface and external storage functions.
    Von Neumann architecture
  7. This includes all hardware components in the system, including data processors aside from the CPU.
    System Design
  8. It also includes memory controllers, data paths and miscellaneous things like multiprocessing and virtualization.
    System Design
  9. This is the embedded programming language of the central processing unit.
    Instruction Set architecture
  10. It defines the CPU's functions and capabilities based on what programming it can perform or process.
    Instruction Set architecture
  11. Otherwise known as computer organization, this type of architecture defines the data paths, data processing and storage elements, as well as how they should be implemented in the ISA.
    Microarchitecture
  12. (T/F) The role of Computer Architecture is to design a computer that maximizes performance while keeping power consumption in check, costs low relative to the amount of expected performance, and is also very reliable. Instruction Set Design, Functional Organization, Logic Design, and Implementation should be considered.
    True
  13. (T/F) Optimization of the design requires familiarity with Compilers, Operating Systems to Logic Design and packaging. Implementation involves Integrated Circuit Design, Packaging, Power, and Cooling.
    True
  14. An ___________ is the interface between the computer's software and hardware and also can be viewed as the programmer's view of the machine.
    instruction set architecture (ISA)
  15. (T/F) Computers do not understand high level languages which have few, if any, language elements that translate directly into a machine's native opcodes. A processor only understands instructions encoded in some numerical fashion, usually as binary numbers. Software tools, such as compilers, translate high level languages, such as C, into instructions.
    True
  16. The _____ of a computer is usually described in a small book or pamphlet, which describes how the instructions are encoded. Also, it may define short (vaguely) mnemonic names for the instructions.
    ISA
  17. __________ helps optimize performance-based products. It also helps plan the selection of a processor for a particular project.
    Computer organization
  18. ___________ and features also affect power consumption and processor cost.
    Computer organization
  19. Once an instruction set and micro-architecture are described, a practical machine must be designed. This design process is called the ____________.
    implementation
  20. ____________ is usually not considered architectural definition, but rather hardware design engineering
    Implementation
  21. In computing, an ________ (abbreviated from operation code) is the portion of a machine language instruction that specifies the operation to be performed. Beside itself, instructions usually specify the data they will process, in form of operands.
    opcode
  22. An __________ is a computer program that translates a human-readable form of the ISA into a computer-readable form.
    assembler
  23. ____________ are software programs to isolate and correct malfunctions in binary computer programs.
    Disassemblers
  24. ___________ designs the blocks defined in the micro-architecture at (primarily) the register-transfer level and logic gate level.
    Logic Implementation
  25. _______________ does transistor-level designs of basic elements (gates, multiplexers, latches etc.) as well as of some larger blocks (ALUs, caches etc.) that may be implemented at this level, or even (partly) at the physical level, for performance reasons.
    Circuit Implementation
  26. ______________ draws physical circuits. The different circuit components are placed in a chip floor plan or on a board and the wires connecting them are routed.
    Physical Implementation
  27. ____________ tests the computer as a whole to see if it works in all situations and all timings.
    Design Validation
  28. _________ is the amount of time that it takes for information from one node to travel to the source
    Latency
  29. (T/F) The most common scheme does an in depth power analysis and figures out how to keep power consumption low, while maintaining adequate performance.
    True
  30. Modern computer performance is often described in IPC (instructions per cycle).This measures the efficiency of the architecture at any clock speed
    Performance
  31. ___________ is another measurement that is important in modern computers. Power efficiency can often be traded for speed or lower cost.
    Power consumption
  32. Increases in publicly released clock-speeds have relatively grown slowly over the past few years, with respect to vast leaps in power consumption reduction and miniaturization demand.
    Shifts in consumer demand
  33. (T/F) Historic computers had IPC counts as low as 0.1.
    Simple modern processors easily reach near 1.
    Superscalar processors may reach three to five by executing several instructions per clock cycle.
    Multicore and vector processing CPUs can multiply this further by acting on a lot of data per instruction, which have several CPUs executing in parallel.
    True
  34. (T/F) The typical measurement in this case is MIPS/W (millions of instructions per second per watt). Modern circuits have less power per transistor as the number of transistors per chip grows. Therefore, power efficiency has increased in importance.
    True
  35. Recent processor designs such as Intel's ___________, put more emphasis on increasing power efficiency. Significant reductions in power consumption, as much as 50% reported by Intel in their release of the __________; where they dropped their target down to 10-20 watts vs 30-40 watts in the previous model.
    Haswell (microarchitecture)
Author
FelipeJung
ID
322021
Card Set
Computer Architecture
Description
1st Semester
Updated