Computer Architecture

General purpose registers are:

• Designed for a particular role during the processing of code

• used by the CPU to temporarily store and manipulate values during the processing of instructions.

• Is the part of the CPU where all the calculations and comparisons are made

• Holds the address in memory of the next program instruction

The accumulator is inside the ALU (arithmetic and logic unit) and is the part of the CPU:

• holds the memory address for the instruction or piece of data that is being used.

• holds anything that is being transferred from memory to the CPU, or vice versa.

• Where the address of the next program instruction to be fetched is stored.

• holds intermediate results from the current instruction being processed.

Identify the special registers contained in the CPU from the following.

• current instruction register (CIR)

• memory data register (MDR)

• Program Counter

• Accumulator

• All of the above

A low-level program that is written to loop through some data to count how many records match a search value, with one register being used to keep a count of how many matching records have been found and another register used to keep a count of how many iterations have been made is an example of:

• accumulator

• general purpose register

• special register

• program counter

• all of the above

When a software or hardware needs to get the attention of the CPU or operating system. What does it use?

• Interrupts

• Special Registers

• General Purpose Registers

• Bus

The Program Counter is a special purpose register and:

• holds the memory address for the instruction or piece of data that is being used.

• holds anything that is being transferred from memory to the CPU, or vice versa.

• holds the address in memory for the next instruction that is going to be processed.

• holds intermediate results from the current instruction being processed.

Hardware ...................... – created by hardware devices to inform the CPU they need attention. For example, when a user presses a key on the keyboard.

When are interrupts checked for?

• After the fetch stage of the fetch-decode-execute cycle.

• After the decode stage of the fetch-decode-execute cycle.

• At any time.

• Before the fetch stage of the fetch-decode-execute cycle.

When multiple interrupts occur at the same time, how is it decided which is dealt with first?

• First come, first serve.

• Highest priority first.

• Last come, first serve.

• Lowest priority first.

What is the name of the data structure that the contents of the registers are copied to while an interrupt is handled?

• The interrupt service routine.

• The interrupt register.

• The queue.

• The stack.