INSTITUT SUPERIEUR D’INGENIERIE ET

D’AGRONOMIE TCHONANG (ISIAT)

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING
Computer Architecture
Final CA

Duration: 2 hours
Instruction: Answer all the question.
SECTION A: MCQ (20 marks)
1) What do processors of all computers must have? c) 1968
A. Control unit d) 1972
B. ALU 8) The hardware in which data is stored permanently
C. Primary Storage for a computer system is
D. All of these a) Registers
2) In the CPU, what is the functionality of the control b) Bus
unit? c) Secondary memory
A. To decode program instruction d) Main memory
B. To perform logic operations 9) Which language can be understood directly by
C. To store program instruction CPU?
D. To transfer data to primary storage a) C
3) With the help of _______ we reduce the memory b) Machine
access time: c) Java
A. SDRAM d) All
B. Cache 10) Which unit is used to measure the CPU’s
C. Heaps processing power?
D. Higher capacity RAMs a) GIPS
b) LIPS
4) What is a dedicated computer?
c) MIPS
A. Which does one kind of software
d) Nanoseconds
B. Which is meant for application software only
11) Which unit is used to measure the CPU’s speed
C. Which is used by one person only
of a computer?
D. Which is assigned to one and only one task
a) IPS
5) What is used to increase the apparent size of
b) GPS
physical memory?
c) Clock speed
A. Disks
d) IPC
B. Hard-disk
12) Which of the following is used by ALU to store
C. Virtual memory
intermediate results?
D. Secondary memory
a) Registers
b) Heap memory
6) What is a collection of 8 bits called? c) Stack memory
A. Byte d) Accumulator
B. Word 13) Which of the following special-purpose register
C. Record keeps track of the address of the instruction
D. None of these which is to be executed next?
7) The first computer architecture was designed (or a) Stack pointer
developed) in b) Program counter
a) 1970 c) ALU
b) 1971 d) Both b and c

1
14) Both the CISC and RISC architectures have been 18) Which of the following is not considered as a
developed to reduce the ______ peripheral device?
a) Time delay a. CPU
b) Semantic gap
b. Keyboard
c) Cost
d) All of the mentioned c. Monitor
15) Which of the following is the full form of CISC? d. All of the above
a) Complex Instruction Sequential Compilation
b) Complete Instruction Sequential Compilation 19) Which of the following computer memory is
c) Computer Integrated Sequential Compiler fastest?
d) Complex Instruction Set Computer
a. Register
16) . There are ___ kinds of buses.
a. One b. Hard disk
b. Two c. RAM
c. Three d. None of the above
d. Fou
17) Which of them is a CPU register.
20) Which of the following computer register collects
a. PC
the result of computation?
b. MAR
c. MDR a. Accumulator
d. All of the above b. Instruction Pointer
c. Storage register
d. None of the above

SECTION B: STRUCTURAL (20 marks)

1) Explain the following terms (4 marks)

a) Instruction Set Architecture
b) Virtual memory
c) Stored-program computer
d) Interrupt
2) Differentiate SRAM from DRAM. (2 marks)
3) Give the use of each of the following features or components of Von Neumann Architecture (4 marks)
• Control unit
• Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)
• Memory
• Input/output interface
4) Differentiate the Von Neuman Architecture from the Harvard Architecture (1 mark)
5) In relation to the Von Neuman Architecture, what is the role played by (3 marks)
a) Memory Address Register (MAR)
b) Program Counter (PC)
c) Accumulator
6) The sequence of operations shows the register transfer notation of the Fetch-Decode-execute cycle.
1-MAR  [PC]
2-PC  [PC] + 1
3-IR  [MAR]
3-MAR  IR[11-0]
4-MBR  M[MAR]
5-AC  MBR
Note that [register] denotes the content of the specified register or memory location
Describe briefly what happens in each step. (5 marks)
7) What is a Buffer memory? (1 mark)