1.1.2.CPU performance

What does it mean if a CPU is quad-core?

• The CPU has 6 cores
• The CPU can perform 4 operations at the same time
• The physical processor chip has 4 duplicate CPUs built in
• There are 4 physically separate processor chips

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1.1.2.Number of Cores

Which of these characteristics of a computer system affects the performance of a CPU?

• The number of external peripherals
• The number of comments in code
• The number of secondary storage devices
• The number of cores

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1.1.2.Number of Cores

Why does increasing the number of cores increase the speed of the CPU?

• The clock ticks more quickly allowing the fetch, decode, execute cycle to operate more quickly
• More than one instruction can be executed at the same time
• Frequently used instructions and data can be held in the CPU
• There is a reduced requirement for RAM

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1.1.2.Number of Cores

What is the main advantage of the cache on board the CPU?

• Allows calculation to be performed on the CPU
• Allows sharing of data between registers
• Fast access to frequently used instructions and data without having to go to RAM.
• Allows for two way communication between the CPU and RAM

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1.1.2.Cache Size

Why does having a very large cache not give a big performance increase for the CPU?

• Instructions are not always sequential
• A large cache would need to be made of lower grade, cost effective components
• A large cache is more unreliable
• It will take more time to fetch the data in a large cache

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1.1.2.Cache Size

Why does having a small cache increase the speed of the CPU?

• Programs do not need to be executed from the hard disk
• Frequently used instructions and data are already in the CPU and are not fetched again from RAM
• The cache is another register that can be used
• There is no need to transfer binary between the accumulator and memory address register

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1.1.2.Cache Size

Which of these characteristics of a computer affects the performance of a CPU?

• The size of the CPU fan
• The size of the address bus
• The size of the cache
• The size of the motherboard

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1.1.2.Cache Size

Why does increasing the clock speed of a CPU increase performance?

• More busses can be used to transfer data between the CPU and RAM
• More than one instruction can be executed at the same time
• More instructions and data can be held within the processor requiring less read/write operations to the RAM
• More instructions can be fetched, decoded and executed in the same amount of time

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1.1.2.Clock speed

Which of these characteristics of a computer affects the performance of a CPU?

• Layering protocols
• Increased hard disk capacity
• Increased number of USB ports
• Increased clock speed

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1.1.2.Clock speed

What is meant by the term 'clock speed'?

• The process of overclocking a computer processor
• The speed at which a computer operates
• The process of keeping a computers internal clock synchronised
• The speed at which a processor operates

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1.1.2.Clock speed