Computer Organization and Architecture, unit: CPU Architecture and Instruction Sets. Core concepts, terminology, and worked-example cues a college student meets for this unit, building on prior units without repeating them. Front: a term, concept, or short problem cue. Back: the definition, explanation, or answer.
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- What is CPU architecture?
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The design and organization of a processor's internal components and instruction handling- What is the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)?
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The CPU component that performs arithmetic and logical operations- What is the Control Unit?
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The CPU component that directs the operation of the processor by interpreting instructions- What is a register, in CPU architecture?
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A small, extremely fast storage location inside the CPU used to hold data during execution- What is the Program Counter (PC)?
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A register holding the memory address of the next instruction to execute- What is an instruction set?
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The complete set of commands a CPU is designed to execute- What is an instruction set architecture (ISA)?
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The interface defining a processor's instruction set, registers, and memory model- What is RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer)?
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A CPU design philosophy using a small set of simple, fast instructions- What is CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer)?
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A CPU design philosophy using a larger set of more complex instructions- What is the fetch-decode-execute cycle?
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The basic process a CPU follows: retrieve an instruction, interpret it, then perform it- What happens during the fetch stage?
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The CPU retrieves the next instruction from memory using the program counter- What happens during the decode stage?
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The CPU interprets the fetched instruction to determine what operation to perform- What happens during the execute stage?
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The CPU carries out the operation specified by the decoded instruction- What is a clock cycle?
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One tick of the CPU's internal clock, used to synchronize operations- What is clock speed measured in?
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Hertz, representing the number of clock cycles per second
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