NEW 1.1.1 Structure and function of the processor

Which bus carries signals to co-ordinate all of a computer activities?

• Address

• Control

• Data

• Serial

Answer explanation

The control bus is responsible for sending command and control signals in order to co-ordinate all of a computers activities.

What is one purpose of the CPU?

• Save instructions

• Make a computer run faster

• Portable storage medium

• Fetch instructions

Answer explanation

The CPU is the central processing unit. It fetches, decodes and executes instructions to execute.

Which register is connected to the data bus?

• Current Instruction Register

• Memory Data Register

• Interrupt Register

• Memory Address Register

Answer explanation

The memory data register holds data fetched from, or to be written to main memory (RAM). This data travels down the data bus.

One purpose of the memory data register is to?

• Hold the address of an instruction passed from the program counter

• Hold the results of calculations

• Hold the address of data ready for use by the memory data register

• Hold data fetched from, or to be written to the memory

Answer explanation

The memory data register holds data fetched from, or to be written to main memory (RAM). This information travels down the data bus.

One purpose of the memory address register is to?

• Hold the data from the memory data register

• Store the result of calculations from the ALU

• Hold the address of data to be sent to the memory data register

• Cache data from the memory data register

Answer explanation

The program counter holds the address of the next instruction. This is passed to the memory address register and then down the address bus. The memory address register also holds the address at which to store data held in the memory data register when data is written back to the memory.

What is one purpose of the CPU?

• Define a set of characters the computer understands

• Optimise a set of instructions

• Execute instructions

• Prevent phishing

Answer explanation

The CPU is the central processing unit. It fetches, decodes and executes instructions to execute.

The three buses that make the systems bus.

• Serial, Data, Address

• Control, Data, Serial

• Conrtol, Serial, Address

• Address, Data, Control

Answer explanation

The systems bus which connects the internal components of a computer system together are the address, data and control bus.

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

• The physical processor chip has 4 duplicate CPUs built in

• The CPU can perform 4 operations at the same time

• There are 4 physically separate processor chips

• The CPU has 6 cores

Answer explanation

A multicore processor means there are multiple CPU cores built into one physical chip multiprocessor. Quad-core would mean a single chip with 4 CPU cores.

What does the program counter hold?

• Data being transferred to and from main memory

• The current instruction to be executed

• Address of the next instruction to be executed

• Address of the instruction or piece of data to be fetched or stored

Answer explanation

The Program Counter (PC) holds the address of the next instruction to be executed. It is the first register checked at the start of each F-D-E cycle.

Which part of the F-D-E cycle can be described as, 'the current instruction is carried out.'

• Fetch

• None

• Execute

• Decode