By Adrian Armstrong

40537676

COMP226 Tutorial 2
1.
a. Instruction Register: A high-speed circuit that holds an instruction for
decoding and execution. Each instruction to be executed is loaded into
the instruction register which holds it while it is decoded, prepared and
eventually executed. 1, 2

b. ALU: This is known as the Arithmetic Logic Unit, which does arithmetic
operations, Logic Operations (AND, OR, XOR), and Bit-shifting
operations. 3, 4

c. Registers: Registers are fast memory close to the CPU that are used to
store and process information such as the data being processed.
Registers are 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, or 64-bits. 5, 6

d. PC: Stands for Program Counter, which is a register in the control unit of
the CPU that keeps track of the address of the current instruction being
executed or the next instruction. 7, 8

e. RAM: Random Access Memory, also known as Main Memory (MM), is a

volatile memory that requires power to keep its data (stored in bytes) that
can be accessed in any order (hence “Random”). 9, 10

f. Cache: Is a high speed access area that stores data locally to the CPU
that improves performance of retrievals of data. It can either be a
reserved section of main memory (Memory Cache) or it can be a section
of memory on the disk board (Disk Cache). 11, 12

g. System Bus: A data connection that is serial or parallel, between two or

more devices connected to the computer that allows communication
between them. For example, a bus is the main pathway of communication
between the CPU and memory, or video card with memory. 13, 14

2. One advantage of a RISC architecture is that it has a simpler instruction set

(hence “Reduced”) than CISC and each instruction is therefore simpler and faster
to execute. 15

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruction_register
2
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=instruction+register&i=45056,00.asp
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic_logic_unit
4
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/a/alu.htm
5
Lecture 1 – Mike Johnson
6
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/r/register.htm
7
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_Counter
8
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=program+counter&i=49793,00.asp
9
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0%2C2542%2Ct%3DRAM&i%3D50159%2C00.asp
10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-access_memory
11
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0%2C2542%2Ct%3Dcache&i%3D39177%2C00.asp
12
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/cache.htm
13
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/b/bus.htm
14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-side_bus
15
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~eroberts/courses/soco/projects/2000-01/risc/risccisc/