(P1)Topical Past papers of (1.4.

1 CPU Architecture)
Topical Past Paers 9608
with Sir Majid Tahir

Past Papers May/June 2015 to 2018:

9608/11/M/J/15
Q8(a) Explain how the width of the data bus and system clock speed affect the performance of
a computer system.
Width of the data bus ................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Clock speed ..............................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[3]
(b) Most computers use Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports to allow the attachment of devices.
Describe two benefits of using USB ports.

1 ................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

2 ................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[2]
(c) The table shows six stages in the von Neumann fetch-execute cycle.
Put the stages into the correct sequence by writing the numbers 1 to 6 in the right hand
column.

www.majidtahir.com Contact: 03004003666 Email: [email protected]

1
(P1)Topical Past papers of (1.4.1 CPU Architecture)
Topical Past Paers 9608
with Sir Majid Tahir

9608/11/O/N/15
2 (a) The diagram below shows a simplified form of processor architecture.

Name the three buses labelled A, B and C.

A ...............................................................................................................................................

B ...............................................................................................................................................

C ............................................................................................................................................... [3]

(b) State the role of each of the following special purpose registers used in a typical processor.

Program Counter ......................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Memory Data Register ..............................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Current Instruction Register ......................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Memory Address Register ........................................................................................................

................................................................................................................................................... [4]

www.majidtahir.com Contact: 03004003666 Email: [email protected]

2
(P1)Topical Past papers of (1.4.1 CPU Architecture)
Topical Past Paers 9608
with Sir Majid Tahir

9608/11/O/N/17
4 (a) The diagram shows the components and buses found inside a typical Personal Computer
(PC).

Some components and buses only have labels A to F to identify them. For each label, choose
the appropriate title from the following list. The title for label D is already given.

Control bus
System clock
Data bus
Control unit
Main memory
Secondary storage

A ...........................................................................................................................................

B ...........................................................................................................................................

C ...........................................................................................................................................

D Address bus

E ...........................................................................................................................................

F ........................................................................................................................................... [5]

www.majidtahir.com Contact: 03004003666 Email: [email protected]

3
(P1)Topical Past papers of (1.4.1 CPU Architecture)
Topical Past Paers 9608
with Sir Majid Tahir

9608/12/O/N/17
4 The following diagram shows the components and buses found inside a typical personal
computer (PC).

(a) Some components and buses only have labels A to F to identify them. For each label,
choose the appropriate title from the following list. The title for label D is already given.
Control bus
Address bus
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
General purpose registers
Secondary storage
System clock
A ...........................................................................................................................................

B ...........................................................................................................................................

C ...........................................................................................................................................

D Data bus

E ...........................................................................................................................................

F
........................................................................................................................................... [5]

(b) Clock speed is a factor that affects the performance of a PC. Explain this statement.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[2]

www.majidtahir.com Contact: 03004003666 Email: [email protected]

4
(P1)Topical Past papers of (1.4.1 CPU Architecture)
Topical Past Paers 9608
with Sir Majid Tahir

Answer
9608/11/M/J/15
Q8(a)
8 (a) maximum of 2 marks for data bus width and maximum of 2 marks for clock speed
Data bus width
the width of the data bus determines the number of bits that can be simultaneously
transferred
increasing the width of the data bus increases the number of bits/amount of data that
can be moved at one time (or equivalent)
…hence improving processing speed as fewer transfers are needed
By example: e.g. double the width of the data bus moves 2x data per clock pulse
Clock speed
determines the number of cycles the CPU can execute per second
increasing clock speed increases the number of operations/number of fetch-execute
cycles that can be carried out per unit of time
...however, there is a limit on clock speed because the heat generated by higher clock
speeds cannot be removed fast enough [3]
(b) Any two from:
devices automatically detected and configured when first attached/plug and play
it is nearly impossible to wrongly connect a device
USB has become an industrial standard
supported by many operating systems
USB 3.0 allows full duplex data transfer
later versions are backwards compatible with earlier USB systems
allows power to be drawn to charge portable devices [2]

www.majidtahir.com Contact: 03004003666 Email: [email protected]

5
(P1)Topical Past papers of (1.4.1 CPU Architecture)
Topical Past Paers 9608
with Sir Majid Tahir

9608/11/O/N/15
ANSWERS

ANSWERS
9608/11/O/N/17
4 (a)

ANSWERS
9608/12/O/N/17

www.majidtahir.com Contact: 03004003666 Email: [email protected]

6