System Architecture Chapter 4 Full

Gigahertz (GHz)

- a measurement of wave or system clock frequency; one billion cycles per second.

Gate

A circuit that can perform a processing function on a single binary electrical signal, or bit.

Benchmark

A measure of CPU or computer system performance when carrying out one or more specific tasks.

Integrated circuit (IC) -

A semiconductor device that incorporates several transistors and their interconnections on a single chip.

Instruction pointer (IP) -

A special-purpose register that stores the address of the next instruction the control unit should fetch from memory.

Heat sink -

An object designed to absorb head and rapidly dissipate it via air or water movement; it's placed in direct physical contact with an electrical device.

Heat sink -

An object designed to absorb heat and rapidly dissipate it via air or water movement; it's placed in direct physical contact with an electrical device.

Multiprocessing -

Any Cpu architecture in which duplicate CPUs or processor stages can execute in parallel; a form of parallel processing.

Rock's Law -

Arthur Rock's addendum to Moore's Law, stating that the cost of fabrication facilities for the latest chip generation doubles every four years.

Benchmark Suite

Combined benchmarks.

Fetch Cycle

During this cycle, data inputs are prepared for transformation into data outputs.

Execution Cycle

During this cycle, the transformation takes place and data output is stored.

Clock Cycle

Each tick begins a new _________.

Moore's Law -

Gordon Moore's observation that the rate of increase in transistor density on microchips doubles every 18 to 24 months, with no increase in unit cost.

Op code -

In an instruction's bit string, it's the first group of bits and represents the instructions unique binary number.

Operand -

In an instruction's bit string, they are groups of bits after the op code that hold the instructions input values;

ADD

Instructions accepts two numeric inputs and produces their arithmetic sum.

Branch (or Jump)

Instructions causes the processor to depart from sequential instruction order.

AND

Instructions generates the result TRUE if BOTH of its data inputs are true.

Exclusive OR (XOR)

Instructions generates the value TRUE if either (but not both) data inputs is TRUE.

Arithmetic SHIFT

Instructions performs multiplication or division.

Conditional Branch

Occurs only if a specified condition is met, such as the equivalence of two numeric variables.

Benchmark Program

Performs specific tasks that can be counted or measured.

Fixed - Length Instructions

Simplify the instruction - fetching process in the control unit.

Conductor

Substances that electrons can flow through.

Instruction cycle -

The CPU cycle in which data inputs are prepared for transformation into data outputs; instructions are fetched from primary storage and stored in registers.

Conductivity

The capability of an element or a substance to enable electron flow.

Instruction set -

The collection of instructions that a CPU can process.

Clock Rate

The frequency at which the system clock generates timing pulses is the system's ___________.

Decoding

The process of extracting the op code and operands, loading data inputs, and signaling the ALU.

Complex Instruction

They represent combinations of primitive processing operations.

General Purpose Register

Used only by the currently executing program.

Logical SHIFT -

a SHIFT instruction used to extract a single bit from a bit string.

Switch -

a central connection point for nodes in a LA; examines incoming destination addresses and temporarily connects the transmission line to the receiving transmission line.

Reduced instruction set computing (RISC) -

a computer and processor design approach that typically includes fixed-length instructions, short instruction length, and a large number of general-purpose registers; the main feature is the absence of some complex instructions.

Store -

a data transfer from a register into primary storage.

Load -

a data transfer from main memory into a register.

System clock -

a digital circuit that generates timing pulses and transmits them to the other device in the computer.

Megahertz (MHz) -

a measurement of wave or system clock frequency; one million cycles per second.

Petaflops (PFLOPS) -

a measurements of the rate at which floating point operations are performed; used to measure CPU performance.

Pipelining -

a method of organizing CPU circuitry so that multiple instructions can be different stages of execution at the same time; a form of parallel.

Microprocessor -

a microchip containing all the circuits and components of a CPU.

Special-purpose register -

a processor that's designed to perform only one specific task; essentially, a processor with a single internal program.

Microchip -

a semiconductor device capable of integrating hundreds, thousands, and even billions of electrical devices on a single chip.

Program status word (PSW) -

a special-purpose register containing a bit string describing the CPU's status and the currently running program.

Instruction register -

a special-purpose register that holds an instruction the control unit has fetched from memory.

Special execution -

an approach to dealing with conditional BRANCHes in which the CPU executes instructions after a branch prediction but before the final branch condition value is known with certainty; a form of parallel processing.

Wait state -

an idle clock cycle during which the CPU is waiting for a response from another device.

Unconditional BRANCH -

an instruction in which the processor always departs from the normal execution sequence.

JUMP -

an instruction that cause the processor to depart from sequential instruction order; its operand is loaded into the register that the control unit uses to fetch the next instruction.

MOVE -

an instruction that copies data bits to storage locations and can copy data between any combination of registers and primary storage locations.

Inclusive OR -

an instruction that generates the value true if either or both data inputs are true, usually called just an " OR instruction".

SHIFT -

an instruction that moves all bit values right or left, according to the number of positions specified by the operand; after shifting, empty positions are filled with 0s, and bit values that shift beyond the bit string bounds are discarded.

HALT -

an instruction that suspends the normal flow of instructions execution in the current program; in some CPU to ease all operations, and in others, its cease a BRANCH to a predetermined memory address.

NOT -

an instruction that transfomer the Boolean value true into false and the value into true.

Word -

an unit of data containing a fixed number of types of bytes and bits, loosely defines as the amount od data a CPU porcesses at one time.

Trace -

arrangements of conductive molecules that enable electrons to flow from one place or device to another.

Wire -

arrangements of conductive molecules that enable electrons to flow from one place or device to another.

Transistor -

electrical switches made of semiconductors material that has been treated with chemical impurities to enhance semiconducting effects.

Semiconductor -

materials with conductivity that varies in response to the electrical inputs applies; they have resistance properties that can be modified between those of a conductor and an insulator by adding chemical impurities.

Trillions of floating-

point operations per second (Teraflops or TFLOPS)

Millions of floating-

point operations per second (megaflops or MFLOPS) - A measurement of the rate at which instructions are executed; assumed to measure CPU performance when applying single-pression.

Resistance -

the loss of electrical power that occurs as electrons pass through a conductor; lower resistance means little power is lost.