Deck 3: The Central Processing Unit CPU

Question 1

Which of the following is true about RISC CPU hardware?

A) it is less complicated and can perform pipelining more effectively than CISC hardware
B) it is more complicated and must run at slower clock speeds than CISC hardware
C) instructions take a widely varying number of clock cycles
D) all current CPUs are based on it

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which hardware component predicts what data will be needed and makes that data available to the CPU's internal memory?

A) cache controller
B) data bus
C) address bus
D) registers

Answer 2

A

Question 3

You will be using a mobile device that is based on RISC architecture for a new project. Which of the following CPU families is most likely running in the device?

A) AMD Ryzen 7
B) Intel Xeon
C) ARM
D) Pentium

Answer 3

C

Question 4

You are troubleshooting a computer that is in the design phase. The problem you see is that the CPU is not receiving information about the status of resources and devices connected to the computer. The CPU is also not receiving IRQs. What component of the computer do you suspect could be the problem?

A) CPU cache
B) data bus
C) control bus
D) address bus

Question 5

A RISC CPU performs more complex instructions and uses a uniform number of clock cycles for each instruction.

Question 6

Which feature of RISC CPUs allows the processor to operate on one instruction at the same time it is fetching one or more subsequent instructions?

A) caching
B) CPU scheduling
C) coprocessing
D) pipelining

Question 7

What type of material is used to manufacture CPUs used on modern PCs?

A) silicon
B) argon
C) teflon
D) radon

Question 8

The address bus almost always runs faster than the external clock speed of the CPU.

Question 9

A bus is the part of a CPU that performs computational and logic work.

Question 10

Approximately how much data could a CPU with an external clock speed of 2 GHz and a 32-bit data bus transfer per second?

A) 4 Gigabits
B) 8 Gigabits
C) 4 Gigabytes
D) 8 Gigabytes

Question 11

Which of the following is best described as a technology that enables a single processor core to appear as two logical processors to the OS and allows multiple parts of a single process to run simultaneously?

A) multitasking
B) hyper-threading
C) RISC
D) virtualization

Question 12

If your address bus is 16-bits wide, approximately how much memory can your computer address?

A) 64K bytes
B) 1024K bytes
C) 4G bits
D) 64K bits

Question 13

What was the primary difference between the 8088 processor and the 8086 processor?

A) The 8088 processor cost more than the 8086 processor.
B) The 8088 processor had 8 cores compared to 6 cores on the 8086.
C) The 8086 processor had a 16-bit data bus compared to the 8-bit bus of the 8088.
D) The 8086 processor had 86 registers compared to 88 registers on the 8088.

Question 14

You are designing a prototype of a computer system that includes a CPU, RAM, and non-volatile memory. You have stored CPU instructions in non-volatile memory. When you start the CPU, your logic analyzer is showing that the CPU is reading instructions, but not the instructions you have stored. What is a likely problem?

A) the CPU is overheating
B) the instructions are not stored at the reset vector
C) the instructions are for the wrong type of CPU
D) your power supply has failed

Question 15

CPUs that run faster generally require more energy and generate more heat.

Question 16

If you are designing a CPU on which you want memory that can be accessed at the internal clock speed of the CPU, which type of memory are you concerned with?

A) L4 RAM
B) L4 cache
C) L1 cache
D) L1 RAM

Question 17

Which part of the CPU is responsible for receiving and decoding an instruction and giving it to another CPU component for execution?

A) CU
B) ALU
C) register
D) system bus

Question 18

You are troubleshooting an embedded system and are debugging a process that is running on the system. You have a logic analyzer that can show you the contents of all the CPU registers and program memory. You need to determine the location of the next instruction the CPU will execute. Where should you look?

A) program counter
B) reset vector
C) L2 cache
D) data register

Question 19

A CPU that has two or more components that read and execute instructions is referred to as which of the following?

A) multiprocessor CPU
B) single-CPU system
C) multicore processor
D) multibus processor

Question 20

ARM processors are RISC processors that are commonly used in mobile devices and embedded systems.

Question 21

In which part of a computer does CPU scheduling occur?

A) control bus
B) operating system
C) microcode
D) interrupts

Question 22

A software developer needs to design an application in which multiple parts of the application can be scheduled and executed simultaneously. What is each part of an application that can be independently scheduled called?

A) container
B) process
C) task
D) thread

Question 23

You want your server to be able to access at least 128 GB of RAM. What specification must the system have for this requirement to be met?

A) 32-bit data bus
B) 64-bit data bus
C) 64-bit address bus
D) 32-bit address bus

Question 24

What is a name given to the process of a CPU switching between applications very quickly?

A) time slicing
B) multithreading
C) pipelining
D) floating point operations

Question 25

You are reading the specifications of a computer that supports quad-core CPUs. The computer supports up to a maximum of 16 cores. What must be true about this computer?

A) It is a single-processor computer.
B) It is a multiprocessor computer.
C) It should be only used as a client computer.
D) It is a multithreading computer.

Question 26

You are discussing a CPU that will be used on a new project. Your colleague comments that the CPU he has in mind does not use microcode. What type of CPU is being discussed?

A) RISC
B) Intel
C) AMD
D) CISC

Question 27

What is the silicon wafer called that the CPU circuitry is manufactured on?

A) a chip
B) a die
C) a core
D) a vector

Question 28

An analysis of a running system shows that the system is frequently being interrupted to execute program code related to interrupts. How does the CPU know when it must execute this code?

A) The CPU periodically checks each device.
B) IRQ information is carried by the control bus.
C) The CPU is informed by the data bus.
D) The cache controller generates a signal.

Question 29

You have just installed a single quad-core processor onto a new computer motherboard and installed Windows 10. When Windows 10 boots, you run Task Manager and it reports 8 logical processors. If the CPU is a quad-core processor, why is Task Manager reporting 8 logical processors?

A) Each processor core always contains two logical processors.
B) Windows has a bug in it that incorrectly reports the number of processors.
C) The CPU is a hyper-threading processor.
D) Quad-core means that the CPU has 8 processor cores.

Question 30

Which type of cache is found as part of more advanced CPUs, is shared among the CPU cores and typically comes in sizes of 8 and 16 MB?

A) Level 4
B) Level 2
C) Level 1
D) Level 3

Question 31

A CPU has just been powered on and it stores an address into one of its registers. Where did the CPU store the address?

A) reset vector
B) program counter
C) data bus
D) status register

Question 32

If two parts of the same process can be executed simultaneously by the CPU, what feature is being used?

A) multithreading
B) multiprocessing
C) multitasking
D) multischeduling

Question 33

Which of the following is NOT considered part of a computer's system architecture?

A) the kernel
B) CPU type
C) address bus
D) data bus

Question 34

You have just finished writing a program that uses instructions such as load R1, X and stor R1, Z. What must be used to create opcodes from those instructions?

A) compiler
B) linker
C) interpreter
D) assembler

Question 35

A CPU has just been powered on and it immediately executes a machine code instruction. What is the most likely type of instruction that it executed?

A) a halt instruction
B) a store instruction
C) a load instruction
D) a jump instruction

Question 36

On most computers, what type of code is usually found where the reset vector points to?

A) operating system boot code
B) operating system kernel code
C) interrupt service routine code
D) network processing code

Question 37

If you are concerned about how many bytes per second your computer can transfer from main memory to the CPU, what part of the computer should you investigate to determine this figure?

A) the data bus and external clock speed
B) the Level I cache and internal clock speed
C) the size of the CPU registers
D) the address bus and the external clock speed

Question 38

What address does a CPU read when power is first applied?

A) reset vector
B) program counter
C) ROM
D) kernel

Question 39

While troubleshooting a computer hardware problem, you find that the processor is not being informed when a device has data ready to be read or written. What is the likely problem?

A) ALU
B) hyper-threading
C) IRQs
D) CPU core

Question 40

Which of the following is true about single-processor computers?

A) They only have one processor core.
B) They can only run one process at a time.
C) They cannot run Windows 10.
D) They have one physical CPU chip.

Question 41

How many bytes can a computer with a 64-bit data bus transfer at one time?

A) 64
B) 16
C) 8
D) 4

Question 42

Which of the following can be described as the description of a CPU's internal circuitry, the technology used to create the chip, and its supported instruction set?

A) die size
B) microarchitecture
C) opcode
D) microcode

Question 43

What are the numeric values created by an assembler that represent CPU machine instructions?

A) high-level code
B) opcodes
C) assembly language
D) microcode

Question 44

You are interested in seeing the assembly language instructions created when you write C++ code on your Windows 10 computer. What do you need to install on your computer to see the assembly language created by C++ code?

A) compiler
B) linker
C) interpreter
D) assembler

Question 45

When a CPU is executing a program and the current instruction needs four bytes of data, where does the CPU first look for the needed data?

A) cache
B) microcode
C) RAM
D) pipeline