Advanced CPU Designs

For a CPU running at Gigahertz speeds, how many instructions are executed every second?

• thousands

• millions

• billions

• trillions

In the early days of electronic computing, processors were typically made faster by ___

• installing a cache

• improving transistor switching time

• instruction pipelining

• adding more cores

Dividing two numbers by doing many subtractions in a row isn't efficient because it gobbles up a lot of ___

• cache

• lines of code

• RAM

• clock cycles

Processors with MMX, 3DNow!, or SSE, are processors with additional, specialized ___

• lines of code

• circuits

• cache

• RAM

How many op codes were in the instruction set of the Intel 4004, the first truly integrated CPU?

• 46

• 404

• 640

• 4004

A memory module that typically lies outside the CPU is called ___

• RAM

• cache

• a register

• a bus

Sets of wires that transfer data between computer components is called ___

• a bus

• cache

• parallel processing

• a register

A little piece of RAM placed right on the CPU is called a ___

• register

• memory deposit

• cache

• stash

Saving a block of data into cache is useful because computer data is often arranged and processed ___

• sequentially

• serendipitously

• perceptibly

• randomly

Because the cache is so close to the processor, it can typically provide the data ___

• instantly

• in a single clock cycle

• in a few clock cycles

• in about a dozen clock cycles