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EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS
UNIT I OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

Eight ideas – Components of a computer system – Technology – Performance – Power wall
– Uniprocessors to multiprocessors; Instructions – operations and operands – representing
instructions – Logical operations – control operations – Addressing and addressing modes.
1. Define Computer Architecture.

 It is concerned with the structure and behavior of the various functional modules
computer and how they interact to provide the processing needs of the user.
 It includes the information formats, the instruction set and techniques for addressing
memory.
2. Define Computer Organization.
 It describes the function and design of the various units of digital computer that store and
process information.
 It refers to the operational units and their interconnections that realize the architectural
specifications.
3. What are the components of a computer.
 Input unit
 Memory unit
 Arithmetic and Logic Unit
 Output unit
 Control unit
4. What is Execution time/Response time?
Response time also called execution time. The total time required for the computer to complete a
task, including disk accesses, memory accesses, I/O activities, operating system overhead, CPU
execution time, and so on.
5. What is CPU execution time, user CPU time and system CPU time?
CPU time: The actual time the CPU spends computing for a specific task. user CPU time: The
CPU time spent in a program itself. System
CPU time: The CPU time spent in the operating system performing tasks on behalf the program.
Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

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6. What is clock cycle and clock period?

Clock cycle: The time for one clock period, usually of the processor clock, which runs at a
constant rate.
Clock period: The length of each clock cycle.
7. Define CPI.
The term Clock Cycles per Instruction, which is the average number of clock cycles each
8 What are the eight ideas in computer architecture?
 Design for Moore’s Law
 Use abstraction to simplify design
 Make the common case fast
 Performance via Parallelism
 Performance via Pipelining
 Performance via Prediction
 Hierarchy of Memory
 Dependability via Redundancy
9. Define power wall.
 Old conventional wisdom:
 Power is free
 Transistors are expensive
 New conventional wisdom: “Power wall”
 Power expensive
 Transistors “free” (Can put more on chip than can afford to turn on)
10. What is uniprocessor?
A uniprocessor system is defined as a computer system that has a single central processing unit
that is used to execute computer tasks. As more and more modern software is able to make use of
multiprocessing architectures, such as SMP and MPP, the term uniprocessor is therefore used to
distinguish the class of computers where all processing tasks share a single CPU. Most desktop
computers are now shipped with multiprocessing architectures

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11. What is multicore processor?

A multi-core processor is a single computing component with two or more independent actual
central processing units (called "cores"), which are the units that read and execute program
instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions such as add, move data, and branch,
but the multiple cores can run multiple instructions at the same time, increasing overall speed for
programs amenable to parallel computing.
12. Write the basic functional units of computer?
The basic functional units of a computer are
 Input unit
 Output unit
 Memory unit
 ALU unit and control unit.
13. Draw the block diagram of a computer
14. What is meant by register?

In a computer, a register is one of a small set of data holding places that are part of a computer
processor
A register may hold a computer instruction, a storage address or any kind of data
15. What are the types of register?
 Data Register
 Address Register
 Status Register
 Program Counter
 General purpose register

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16. What is meant by bonding?

Once we have found good dies, they are connected to be input/output pins of a package using a
process called bonding.
17. What is a super computer?
A computer with high computational speed, very large memory and parallel structured hardware
is known as a super computer. EX: CDC 6600
18. What is mainframe computer?
It is the large computer system containing thousands of IC’s. It is a room- sized machine placed
in special computer centers and not directly accessible to average users. It serves as a central
computing facility for an organization such as university, factory or bank.
19. What is minicomputer?
Minicomputers are small and low cost computers are characterized by
 Short word size i.e. CPU word sizes of 8 or 16 bits.
 Limited hardware and software facilities.
 Physically smaller in size.
20. Define microcomputer.
Microcomputer is a smaller, slower and cheaper computer packing all the electronics of the
computer in to a handful of IC’s, including the CPU and memory and IO chips.
21. What is workstation?
The more powerful desktop computers intended for scientific and engineering applications are
referred as workstations.
22. What is instruction register?
The instruction register (IR) holds the instruction that is currently being executed. Its Output is
available to the control circuits which generate the timing signals that control the various
processing elements involved in executing the instruction.
23. What is program counter?
The program counter (PC) keeps track of the execution of a program. It contains the memory
address of the next instruction to be fetched and executed.
24. What is processor time?
The sum of the periods during which the processor is active is called the processor time.

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25. What are clock and clock cycles?

The timing signals that control the processor circuits are called as clocks.
The clock defines regular time intervals called clock cycles.
The clock cycles also called tick, clock period. It is the time for one clock period usually of the
processor clock, which runs at constant rate. The length of each clock period is know as clock
period.
26. What is the difference between Uniprocessors and multiprocessors?
Uniprocessors Multiprocessors
Uses single processing unit Uses two or more processing unit
Used at home and office Not used for small application
Cost is less More Expensive
One processing Core More than one processing core
Task cannot be divided Task division can take place
27. Define instruction set

It is the vocabulary of commands to understand a given architecture
Instruction set will describe the functions of architecture
28. What is the difference between memory and register?
Memory Register
Memory must be slower than registers Registers are faster than memory
Data Accesses is slow Data Accesses is fast
Take more time to access the data Take less time to access the data
Less throughput High throughput than memory
29. What is index register?

It is a data transfer instructions used to hold an index of an array with the offset used for starting
of an array
30. What is meant by logical operation?
It is an instruction in which the quantity being operated on bit and the results of the operation can
have two values 0 and 1
31. What are the logical operations?

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Shift Operation
Logical AND Operation
Logical OR Operation
Logical NOT Operation
Logical NOR Operation
32. What are the decisions making instructions used in MIPS assembly Language?
There are two decision making instruction used in MIPS assembly Language such as
BEQ – Branch is equal
BNE – Branch is not equal
33. Give the CPU performance equation. OR Write the formula for CPU execution time for
a program
CPU execution time for a program = CPU clock cycle for a program X clock cycle time
OR
𝐶𝑃𝑈 𝐶𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝐶𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚
𝐶𝑃𝑈 𝐸𝑥𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 =
𝐶𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒
34. Write the formula for CPU clock cycles required for a program.
𝐶𝑃𝑈 𝐶𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝐶𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 = 𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 ∗ 𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐶𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝐶𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
35. What is superscalar execution?
In this type of execution, multiple functional units are used to create parallel paths through which
different instructions can be executed in parallel. so it is possible to start the execution of several
instructions in every clock cycle. This mode of operation is called superscalar execution.
36. What is RISC and CISC?
The processors with simple instructions are called as Reduced Instruction Set Computers(RISC).
The processors with more complex instructions are called as Complex Instruction Set Computers
(CISC).
37. List out the methods used to improve system performance.
The methods used to improve system performance are
 Processor clock
 Basic Performance Equation
 Pipelining
 Clock rate
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 Instruction set
 Compiler
38. What is the assembly language notation? Give example.
To represent machine instructions and program assembly Language format is used. For
example: The statement specifies an instruction that causes the transfer described below, from
memory location LOC to processor registerR1. Move LOC, R1. The contents of LOC are
unchanged by the execution of this instruction, but the old contents of register R1 are
overwritten.
39. Define addressing modes and its various types.
The different ways in which the location of a operand is specified in an instruction is referred to
as addressing modes:
Types:
 Register addressing mode
 Base and displacement addressing mode
 Immediate addressing mode
 PC - Relative addressing mode
 Pseudodirect addressing mode
Or
 Immediate mode
 Register mode
 Absolute mode
 Indirect mode
 Index mode
 Base with index
 Base with index and offset
 Relative mode
 Auto-increment mode
 Auto-decrement mode
40. What is meant by little endian and Big Endian?

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Big endian are systems in which the Most Significant byte of the word is stored in the smallest
address given and the least significant byte is stored in largest
Address Value
1000 90
1001 AB
1002 12
1003 CD
Little endian are systems are those in which the least significant byte is stored in smallest address
Address Value
1000 CD
1001 12
1002 AB
1003 90
41. Define MIPS.
MIPS is a microprocessor without interlocked pipeline stages is a Reduced Instruction set
Computer (RISC) Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) developed by MIPS technologies. Million
Instructions per Second (MIPS) is a measurement of program execution speed based on the
number of millions of instructions.
𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡
𝑀𝐼𝑃𝑆 =
𝐸𝑥𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 ∗ 106
42. What is meant by data transfer Instruction?
Data transfer Instruction is a command that moves data between memory and registers.
43. Define Address.
Address is a value used to delineate the location of a specific data element within the memory
array
44. What is meant by memory?
Memory is a storage area in which programs are kept. When they are running and that contains
the data needed by the running program.
45. What are the technologies used for building processors and memory?
Transistor
Integrated Circuit
Silicon crystal
46. What is meant by bandwidth?

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It is also called as Throughput. It is one of the parameter to measure the performance of the
system. It is number of tasks completed per unit time.
47. Define CPU Time and its types.
It is the actual time for the CPU spends for computing a specific task. It is also called as CPU
execution time
Types:
User CPU Time
System CPU Time
48. What is meant by alignment restriction?
Alignment restriction is a requirement that data be aligned in memory on natural boundaries.
48. Differentiate between RISC and CISC.
RISC CISC
Emphasis on hardware Emphasis on software
Includes multi-clock complex instructions Single-clock, reduced instruction only
Memory-to-memory: "LOAD" and "STORE" Register to register: "LOAD" and "STORE"
incorporated in instructions are independent instructions
Small code sizes, high cycles per second Low cycles per second, large code sizes.
Transistors used for storing complex Spends more transistors on memory registers
instructions
49. Differentiate between Assembler and Compiler.
Assembler: A computer program that takes computer instructions and converts them into a
pattern of bits that the computer can understand and perform by it certain operations.
Compiler: This is a special program that processes statements written in a programming
language and turns them into machine language that a computer's processor uses.
50. What do you understand by Interleaved DMA?
A Stack is a type of data container/ data structure that implements the LAST-IN-FIRST-OUT
(LIFO) strategy for inserting and recovering data.
This is a very useful strategy, related to many types of natural programming tasks. For instance:
Keeping track of nested invocation calls in a procedural programming language, Evaluating
arithmetic expressions and To eliminate the need for direct implementation of recursion.
51. What are the five classic components of a computer?

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The five classic components of a computer are input, output, memory, datapath, and control,
with the last two sometimes combined and called the processor.
52. Define Instruction Set Architecture.
The instruction set architecture, or simply architecture of a computer is the interface between the
hardware and the lowest-level software. It includes anything programmers need to know to make
a binary machine language program work correctly, including instructions, I/O devices, and so
on.
53. Define Application Binary Interface.
Typically, the operating system will encapsulate the details of doing I/O, allocating memory, and
other low-level system functions so that application programmers do not need to worry about
such details. The combination of the basic instruction set and the operating system interface
provided for application programmers is called the application binary interface (ABI).
54. Define Moore’s Law.
Moore‘s Law has provided so much more in resources that hardware designers can now build
much faster multiplication and division hardware. Whether the multiplicand is to be added or not
is known at the beginning of the multiplication by looking at each of the 32 multiplier bits.
55. Define Auto-decrement addressing mode.
The Effective Address of the operand is the contents of a register in the instruction.
After accessing the operand, the contents of this register is automatically decremented to point to
the next item in the list.
Mode Assembler Syntax Addressing Function
EA=[Ri];
Auto-decrement -(Ri)
Decrement Ri
56. Define Auto-increment addressing mode.

The Effective Address of the operand is the contents of a register in the instruction.
After accessing the operand, the contents of this register is automatically incremented.
EA=[Ri];
Auto-increment (Ri)+
Increment Ri

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57. What is a Relative Addressing mode?

It is same as index mode. The difference is, instead of general purpose register, here we can use
program counter (PC).
Relative Mode:
The Effective Address is determined by the Index mode using the PC in place of the general
purpose register (gpr).
This mode can be used to access the data operand. But its most common use is to specify the
target address in branch instruction. Eg. Branch>0 Loop
It causes the program execution to goto the branch target location. It is identified by the name
loop if the branch condition is satisfied.

Relative X(PC) EA=[PC]+X
58. Define Index addressing Mode.

The effective address of an operand is generated by adding a constant value to the contents of a
register.
The constant value uses either special purpose or general purpose register. We indicate the index
mode symbolically as, X(Ri)
Where
 X – Denotes the constant value contained in the instruction
 Ri – It is the name of the register involved.
The Effective Address of the operand is, EA=X + [Ri]
The index register R1 contains the address of a new location and the value of X defines an offset
(also called a displacement).
To find operand,
 First go to Reg R1 (using address)-read the content from R1-1000
o Add the content 1000 with offset 20 get the result.
o 1000+20=1020

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 Here the constant X refers to the new address and the contents of index register define the
offset to the operand.
 The sum of two values is given explicitly in the instruction and the other is stored in
register.
Eg: Add 20(R1) , R2 (or) EA=>1000+20=1020
Index Mode Assembler Syntax Addressing Function
Index X(Ri) EA=[Ri]+X
Base with Index (Ri,Rj) EA=[Ri]+[Rj]
Base with Index and
X(Ri,Rj) EA=[Ri]+[Rj] +X
offset
59. Define Indirect addressing Mode.

The effective address of the operand is the contents of a register.
We denote the indirection by the name of the register or new address given in the instruction.
Indirect Mode: Address of an operand (B) is stored into R1 register .If we want this operand,
we can get it through register R1 (indirection). The register or new location that contains the
address of an operand is called the pointer.
Indirect Ri, LOC EA=[LOC]
60. What is a Immediate addressing Mode?

The operand is given explicitly in the instruction.
Eg: Move 200 immediate ,R0
It places the value 200 in the register R0.The immediate mode used to specify the value of source
operand.
In assembly language, the immediate subscript is not appropriate so # symbol is used. It can be
re-written as
Move #200,R0
Assembly Syntax Addressing Function
Immediate #value Operand =value
61. Define Register mode and Absolute Mode with examples.

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Register mode
 The operand is the contents of the processor register.
 The name (address) of the register is given in the instruction.
Absolute Mode (Direct Mode)
 The operand is in new location.
 The address of this location is given explicitly in the instruction.
Example: MOVE LOC,R2
 The above instruction uses the register and absolute mode.
 The processor register is the temporary storage where the data in the register are accessed
using register mode.
 The absolute mode can represent global variables in the program.

Register Mode Ri EA= Ri
Absolute Mode LOC EA=LOC
Where EA-Effective Address

62. Write down the MIPS Assembly language notation for arithmetic operations
Category Instruction Example Meaning Comments

Arithmetic Add add $s1,$s2,$s3 $s1 = $s2 + $s3 Three register operands
subtract Subtract sub $s1,$s2,$s3 $s1 = $s2 – $s3 Three register operands
add immediate Add addi $s1,$s2,20 $s1 = $s2 + 20 Used to add constants
63. What is the straight-line sequencing?

The CPU control circuitry automatically proceed to fetch and execute instruction, one at a time
in the order of the increasing addresses. This is called straight line sequencing.
64. Explain the three, two, and one address instruction?
Three-address instruction: It can be represented as
ADD A, B, C
Operands a,b are called source operand and
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c is called destination operand.

Two-address instruction: It can be represented as
ADD A, B
One address instruction: It can be represented as
LOAD A
ADD B
STORE C
65. What are the Most Common Fields Of An Instruction Format?
 An operation code field that specifies the operation to be performed.
 An address field that designates, a memory address or register.
 A mode field that specifies the way the operand or the effective address is determined
66. What is a Operation Code (Opcode)?
The operation code of an instruction is a group of bits that define operations as add, subtract,
multiply, shift and complement etc.
67. Define Instruction Format.
Instructions are represented as numbers .Therefore, entire programs can be stored in memory to
be read or written just like numbers (data).Thus simplifies software/Hardware of computer
systems. Each instruction is encoded in binary called machine code.
68. Define MIPS Rate:
The rate at which the instructions are executed at a given time
69. Define Throughput and Throughput rate.
 Throughput -The total amount of work done in a given time.
 Throughput rate-The rate at which the total amount of work done at a given time.
70. What are the various types of operations required for instructions?
• Data transfers between the main memory and the CPU registers
• Arithmetic and logic operation on data
• Program sequencing and control
• I/O transfers

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71. What is a Program?

A program is a set of instructions that specify the operations, operands and the sequence by
which processing has to occur.
72. What is a Computer Instruction?
A Computer instruction is a binary code that specifies a sequence of micro operations for the
computer. 4 http://www.francisxavier.ac.in
73. What is a Instruction Code?
An instruction code is a group of bits that instruct the computer to perform a specific operation.
74. State and explain the basic performance equation?
The Performance Equation is a term used in computer science. It refers to the calculation of the
performance or speed of a central processing unit (CPU).
N denotes number of machine Instructions, Suppose that the average number of basic steps
needed to execute one machine instruction is S, where each basic step is completed in one clock
cycle. If the clock cycle rate is R cycles per second, the processor time is given by
T = (N x S) / R
This is often referred to as the basic performance equation

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EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT II: ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS
UNIT II ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS

ALU - Addition and subtraction – Multiplication – Division – Floating Point operations –
Subword parallelism.
1. What is meant by Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)?

It is the brain of the computer, the device that performs the arithmetic operations like addition,
subtraction, Multiplication and division or logical operation like OR,AND,NOT, and EX-OR
2. What is the basic hardware used to construct ALU?
Four basic hardware components such as
AND gates
OR Gates
Inverters
Multiplexers
3. What are the design classifications of ALU?
Based on the design ALU can be classified into Two Types
– Combinational Logic Circuits
– Sequential Logic Circuits
4. What is meant by overflow?
It is a condition, occurred when adding two positive numbers, the result will be negative and
adding two negative numbers will produce the positive result
5. How many kinds of addition performed on binary numbers?
– Unsigned binary Numbers
– Signed Binary Numbers
6. How the sign of binary numbers can be represented?
In binary number to represent the sign the least significant bit is used. If MSB is 0, the number is
positive and if MSB is 1, then the number is called negative number.
Example:
01101 = +13
11001 = -9

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7. When overflow occurs in addition and Subtraction?

Addition: If two operands having same sign it will cause the overflow in Addition process
Subtraction: If two operands having same sign it does not cause the overflow in addition
operation
8. Write the MIPS instruction for multiplication.
MIPS has two instructions to produce a proper product for signed and unsigned numbers such as
 multiply (mult)
 multiply unsigned (multu)
9. What is meant by floating point number?
If' a number having fractional point that is called a floating point number.
Example:
 4.982 - > decimal floating point number
 1001.0111 - > binary floating point number
10. What is meant by scientific notation?
 Scientific notation is a representation for real number.
 A number in scientific notation has no leading O's called a normalized number.
11. What are the advantages of scientific notation?
 It simplifies exchange of data that includes floating point numbers .
 It simplifies the floating point arithmetic algorithm to know that numbers will always be
in this form .
 It increases the accuracy of the numbers that can be stored in word.
12. Write the representation for floating point number.
Floating point can be represented using the following form: (1) SF 2 E
Where
 S - sign of the floating point number (O-negative, I-positive)
 F - fraction field
 E - Involves value

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13. Define overflow in floating point representation.

Overflow is a situation in which a positive exponent becomes too large to fit in the exponent
field.
14. Define underflow in floating point representation.
Under flow is a situation in which a negative exponent becomes too large to fit in the exponent
field. Overflow and underflow occurs in floating point arithmetic.
15. What is meant by IEEE 754 floating point standards?
 IEEE 754 is a standard used to represent the floating point.
 It has some special features.
 It has special symbols to represent unusual events (∞).
 It has symbols for the result of invalid operations (NaN).
16. Write the advantages and disadvantages of floating point.
Advantages
 Floating point has separate registers.
 Register bandwidth is high
 More bits can be stored in the instruction format.
Disadvantages
 It must have separate set of data transfer instructions.
 Floating point has separate register that increase the number of instructions needed to
execute a program.
17. What is meant by guard and round?
Floating point does not produce accurate result so, IEEE 754 always keeps two. Extra bits on the
right during intermediate additions, called guard and round.
Guard: The first of two extra bits kept on the right during intermediate calculations of floating
point format.
Round: It is a method to make the intermediate floating point result fit the floating point format.
18. What is a sticky bit?
It is a bit used in rounding in addition to guard and round that is set whenever there are non-zero
bits to the right of the round bit.

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19. What is a/used multiply add?

Floating point instruction that performs both a multiply and add, but .rounds only once after the
add operation is called fused multiply add.
20. What is meant by subword parallelism?
 Parallelism is a used to speed up the process.
 The parallelism must occur within a wide word, in case it extends means that is called as
subword parallelism.
 It is also called data level parallelism or vector or SIMD parallelism.
21. What are the data used to perform parallelism?
Parallelism performs simultaneous operations on short vectors of following values:
 Sixteen 8 bit operands
 Eight 16 bit operands
 Four 32 bit operands
 Two 64 bit operands 22
22. What is biased notation?
Bias is the number subtracted from the normal, unsigned representation to determine the real
value. It is a convenient way to represent the most negative exponent as 0000two and the most
positive as 1111two'
23. How the subtraction can be performed using adder circuit in ALU?
 In ALU adder circuit itself we can perform the subtraction.
 Take complement of the oPerand and add with another operand. It will produce
the subtraction value.
24. How MIPS ignore overflow in signed integers?

MIPS computer has two methods to ignore overflow in signed integers.
 Add (add), add immediate (addi) cause exceptions on overflow.
 Add unsigned, (addu), add immediate unsigned (addiu) do not cause exceptions on
overflow.
25. How 32 bit ALU can be constructed?

32 bit ALU can be constructed using 1 bit ALU.
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26. State the principle of operation of a carry look-ahead adder.

The input carry needed by a stage is directly computed from carry signals obtained from all the
preceding stages i-1,i-2,…..0, rather than waiting for normal carries to supply slowly from stage
to stage. An adder that uses this principle is called carry look-ahead adder.
27. What are the main features of Booth’s algorithm?
 It handles both positive and negative multipliers uniformly.
 It achieves some efficiency in the number of addition required when the multiplier has a
few large blocks of 1s.
28. How can we speed up the multiplication process?(CSE Nov/Dec 2003)
There are two techniques to speed up the multiplication process:
 The first technique guarantees that the maximum number of summands that must be
added is n/2 for n-bit operands.
 The second technique reduces the time needed to add the summands.
29. What is bit pair recoding? Give an example.
Bit pair recoding halves the maximum number of summands. Group the Booth-recoded
multiplier bits in pairs and observe the following: The pair (+1 -1) is equivalent to the pair (0
+1). That is instead of adding -1 times the multiplicand m at shift position i to +1 ( M at position
i+1, the same result is obtained by adding +1 ( M at position i. Eg: 11010 – Bit Pair recoding
value is 0 -1 -2
30. What is the advantage of using Booth algorithm?
 It handles both positive and negative multiplier uniformly.
 It achieves efficiency in the number of additions required when the multiplier has a few
large blocks of 1‘s.
 The speed gained by skipping 1‘s depends on the data.
31.When can you say that a number is normalized?
When the decimal point is placed to the right of the first (nonzero) significant digit, the number
is said to be normalized.
32. Explain about the special values in floating point numbers.
The end values 0 to 255 of the excess-127 exponent E( are used to represent special values such
as: When E(= 0 and the mantissa fraction M is zero the value exact 0 is represented. When E(=

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255 and M=0, the value ( is represented. When E(= 0 and M (0 , demurral values are represented.
When E(= 2555 and M(0, the value represented is called Not a number.
33. Write the Add/subtract rule for floating point numbers.
 Choose the number with the smaller exponent and shift its mantissa right a number of
steps equal to the difference in exponents.
 Set the exponent of the result equal to the larger exponent.
 Perform addition/subtraction on the mantissa and determine the sign of the result
 Normalize the resulting value, if necessary.
34. Write the multiply rule for floating point numbers.
Add the exponent and subtract 127.
Multiply the mantissa and determine the sign of the result.
Normalize the resulting value , if necessary.
35. What is the purpose of guard bits used in floating point arithmetic
Although the mantissa of initial operands is limited to 24 bits, it is important to retain extra bits,
called as guard bits.
36. What are the ways to truncate the guard bits?
There are several ways to truncate the guard bits:
 Chooping
 Von Neumann rounding
 Rounding
37. Define carry save addition(CSA) process.
Instead of letting the carries ripple along the rows, they can be saved and introduced into the next
roe at the correct weighted position. Delay in CSA is less than delay through the ripple carry
adder.
38. What are generate and propagate function? The generate function is given by Gi=xiyi and
The propagate function is given as Pi=xi+yi. 16. What is floating point numbers? In some
cases, the binary point is variable and is automatically adjusted as computation proceeds. In such
case, the binary point is said to float and the numbers are called floating point numbers.
39. In floating point numbers when so you say that an underflow or overflow has occurred?
In single precision numbers when an exponent is less than -126 then we say that an underflow

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has occurred. In single precision numbers when an exponent is less than +127 then we say that
an overflow has occurred.
40. What are the difficulties faced when we use floating point arithmetic?
Mantissa overflow: The addition of two mantissas of the same sign may result in a carryout of
the most significant bit Mantissa underflow: In the process of aligning mantissas, digits may
flow off the right end of the mantissa.
Exponent overflow: Exponent overflow occurs when a positive exponent exceeds the maximum
possible value.
Exponent underflow: It occurs when a negative exponent exceeds the maximum possible
exponent value.
41. In conforming to the IEEE standard mention any four situations under which a
processor sets exception flag.
Underflow: If the number requires an exponent less than -126 or in a double precision, if the
number requires an exponent less than -1022 to represent its normalized form the underflow
occurs.
Overflow: In a single precision, if the number requires an exponent greater than -127 or in a
double precision, if the number requires an exponent greater than +1023 to represent its
normalized form the underflow occurs.
Divide by zero: It occurs when any number is divided by zero.
Invalid: It occurs if operations such as 0/0 are attempted.
42. Why floating point number is more difficult to represent and process than
integer?(CSE May/June 2007)
An integer value requires only half the memory space as an equivalent. IEEE double-precision
floating point value. Applications that use only integer based arithmetic will therefore also have
significantly smaller memory requirement A floating-point operation usually runs hundreds of
times slower than an equivalent integer based arithmetic operation.
43. Give the booth’s recoding and bit-pair recoding of the computer.
1000111101000101(CSE May/June 2006)
44 .Draw the full adder circuit and give the truth table (CSE May/June 2007)

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EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
UNIT IV PARALLELISM
Instruction-level-parallelism – Parallel processing challenges – Flynn's classification – Hardware
multithreading – Multicore processors
What is meant by multiprocessor?

Multiprocessor is a computer system with at least two processors. This computer is
contrast to a uniprocessor.
What is meant by task level parallelism?
Task level parallelism also called as process level parallelism. Task level parallelism
utilizing multiple processors by running independent programs simultaneously.
What is parallel processing program?
Parallel processing program is a single program that runs on multiple processors
simultaneously.
What is cluster?
Cluster is a set of computers connected over a local area network that function as a single
large multiprocessor.
What is a multicore microprocessor?
A microprocessor containing multiple processors(cores) in a single integrated circuit.
Virtually all microprocessors today in desktops and servers are multicore.
What is shared memory multiprocessor?
Shared memory multiprocessor is a parallel processor with a single physical address
space.
What are the challenges includes in parallel programming?
Parallel programming challenges includes scheduling, partitioning the work into parallel
pieces, balancing the loud evenly between the workers, time to synchronize and overhead for
communication between the parties.
How to get good speed up on a multiprocessor?
To achieve a good speed up on a multiprocessor problem size must be fixed and the
problem size is increased means it is hard to get good speed up.
Write two methods used to increase the scale up.

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Two methods are find to increase the scale up such methods are
 Strong scaling
 Weak scaling
What is strong scaling?
In these methods speed up achieved on a multiprocessor without increasing the size of the
problem.
“Strong scaling means measuring speed up while keeping the problem size fixed”.
What is weak scaling?
In this method speed up is achieved on a multiprocessor while increasing the size of the
problem proportionally to the increase in the number of processors.
Write Flynn’s classification for parallel hardware.
Flynn’s classification divides parallel hardware into four groups based on the number of
instruction streams and the number of data streams.
 Single Instruction stream and Single Data stream(SISD)
 Single Instruction stream Multiple Data stream (SIMD)
 Multiple Instruction stream and Single Data stream(MISD)
 Multiple Instruction stream and Multiple data stream(MIMD)
What is SISD?
Single Instruction stream and Single Data stream is a uniprocessor in m I=mD=1.
Conventional machines with a single CPU capable only of scalar arithmetic fall into this
category.
What is SIMD?
Single Instruction stream Multiple Data streams the same instruction is applied to many data
stream as in a vector processor. Here mI=1,mD>1, it has single program control unit and many
independent execution units.
What are the advantages of SIMD?
 Cost of the control unit over dozens of execution unit.
 It has reduced instruction bandwidth and space.
 It needs only one copy of the code that is being executed simultaneously.
What are drawbacks of SIMD?

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SIMD method is not suitable for case or switch condition data because depending on
what data it has execution unit must perform a different operation.
What is MISD?
Multiple Instruction stream Single Data stream processor is a stream processor that
perform a series of computations on a single data stream in a pipelined fashion. Here
mI>1,mD=1, fault tolerant computers where several CPU’s process the same data using different
programs are MISD.
What is MIMD?
Multiple Instruction stream Multiple Data stream is a multiprocessors, which are
computers with more than one CPU and the ability to execute several programs simultaneously.
What is data level parallelism?
Data level parallelism is a kind of parallelism achieved by performing the same operation
on independent data.
What are basic principles of vector architecture?
Basic principle of vector architecture is to collect data elements from memory, put the
data into a large set of register, operate on them sequentially in registers using pipelined
execution units and then write the results back.
What is strip mining?
In vector architecture if the loops are larger than we add bookkeeping code to iterate full
length vector operations and to handle the leftovers. This process is called strip mining.
What is vector lane?
Vector lane is one or more vector functional units and a portion of the vector register file.
Inspired by lanes on highways that increase traffic speed and multiple lanes execute vector
operations simultaneously.
What is hardware multithreading?
Hardware multithreading allows multiple threads to share the functional units of a single
processor in an overlapping fashion to try to utilize the hardware resources efficiently.
What are the approaches involved in hardware multithreading process?
There are two main approaches to hardware multithreading such as,
 Fine grained multithreading
 Coarse grained multithreading

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What is meant by thread?

Thread is a lightweight process which includes the program counter, the register state and
stack. It shares a single address space.
Define process.
Process is a task on currently being execution. It includes one or more threads, the
address space and the operating system state. Process switch can invoke the operating system but
thread switch cannot do it.
what is fine grained multithreading?
Fine grained multithreading is a version of hardware multithreading that implies
switching between threads after every instruction.
What is coarse grained multithreading?
Coarse grained multithreading is a version of hardware multithreading that implies
switching between thread only after significant events such as last level cache miss.
Write the advantages and disadvantages of fine grained multithreading?
Advantages:
It can hide the throughput losses that arise from both short and long stalls because
instruction from other threads can be executed when one thread stalls.
Disadvantages:
It slows down the execution of the individual threads because thread that is ready to
execute without stalls will be delayed by instructions from other threads.
Write the advantages and disadvantages of coarse grained multithreading?
Advantages:
It is more useful for reducing the penalty of high cost stalls.
Disadvantages:
It is limited in its ability to overcome throughput losses especially from shorter stalls.
What is simultaneous multithreading?
Simultaneous multithreading is a variation on hardware multithreading that uses the
resources of a multiple issue, dynamically scheduled micro architecture.
How many types in single address space multiprocessor?
Single address space multiprocessor comes in two styles such as
 Uniform Memory Access (UMA)

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 Non Uniform Memory Access (NUMA)

Define uniform memory access (UMA).
Uniform Memory Access is a multiprocessor in which latency to any word in main
memory is same no matter which processor requests the access.
What is non uniform memory access (NUMA)?
Non Uniform Memory Access is a type of single address space multiprocessor in which
some memory accesses are much faster than others depending on which processor asks for which
word.
What are the difference between UMA and NUMA?
Uniform Memory Access Non Uniform Memory Access
Programming challenges are easy. Programming challenges are hard.
UMA machines can scale small sizes. NUMA machines can scale to larger sizes.
It has higher latency. It has lower latency to nearby memory.
Define synchronization.
Synchronization is the process of coordinating the behavior of two or more processes
which may be running on different processors.
What is meant by lock?
Lock is a synchronization device that allows access to data to only one processor at a
time and other processors interested in shared data must wait until the original processor unlocks
the variable.
What is instruction level parallelism?
Instruction level parallelism is a kind of parallelism it executes the instruction in parallel
way.
What is multiple issues?
Multiple issues is scheme used to place multiple instructions in one clock cycle. It has two types
Static multiple issue
Dynamic multiple issue
What is static multiple issue?
Static multiple issue is an approach to implementing a multiple issue processor where many
decisions are made by the compiler before execution.

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What is dynamic multiple issue?

Dynamic multiple issue is an approach to implementing a multiple issue processor where
many decisions are made during execution by the processor.
What is speculation?
Speculation is an approach in that compiler or process guesses the outcome of an
instruction to remove it as dependence in executing other instruction.
What is issue packet?
Issue packet is set of instruction that issues together in one clock cycle and the packet may be
determine statically by the compiler or dynamically by the processor.
What is VLWI?
VLWI is Very Long Instruction Word, it is style of instruction set architecture that launches
many operations.
All instructions are independent in a single wide instruction with many separate opcode fields.
What is loop unrolling?
Loop unrolling is an important compiler technique to get more performance from loops.
In unrolling multiple copies of the loop body are made.
What is register renaming?
Register renaming is the process of renaming of registers by the compiler or hardware to
remove antidependences.
What is superscalar processor?
Superscalar processor is a dynamic multiple issue processor. It is an advanced technique
that enables the processor to execute more than one instruction per clock cycle by selecting them
during execution.

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EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

UNIT I OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

1. Define Computer Architecture.

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

6. What is clock cycle and clock period?

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

11. What is multicore processor?

14. What is meant by register?

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

16. What is meant by bonding?

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

25. What are clock and clock cycles?

27. Define instruction set

29. What is index register?

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

56. Define Auto-increment addressing mode.

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

57. What is a Relative Addressing mode?

Mode Assembler Syntax Addressing Function

58. Define Index addressing Mode.

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

59. Define Indirect addressing Mode.

60. What is a Immediate addressing Mode?

61. Define Register mode and Absolute Mode with examples.

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

Mode Assembler Syntax Addressing Function

Where EA-Effective Address

Category Instruction Example Meaning Comments

63. What is the straight-line sequencing?

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

c is called destination operand.

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT I: OVERVIEW & INSTRUCTIONS

71. What is a Program?

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT II: ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS

UNIT II ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS

1. What is meant by Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)?

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT II: ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS

7. When overflow occurs in addition and Subtraction?

Mr.S.Siddharthan, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE

EC8552 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE UNIT II: ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS

13. Define overflow in floating point representation.