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U1A3 Chortle Ch4 The Processor

The document discusses machine language programs and how they are executed by processors. It explains that processors run billions of instructions per second by executing one instruction at a time. It also discusses why programmers use high-level languages instead of machine language and the roles of compilers and interpreters in translating source code into executable programs.

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Harsh Patel
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50 views3 pages

U1A3 Chortle Ch4 The Processor

The document discusses machine language programs and how they are executed by processors. It explains that processors run billions of instructions per second by executing one instruction at a time. It also discusses why programmers use high-level languages instead of machine language and the roles of compilers and interpreters in translating source code into executable programs.

Uploaded by

Harsh Patel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

Which component of a computer system is directly responsible for


running a program?
a. The processor.
b. The CPU is responsible for running a program
2. What is a machine instruction?
a. A machine instruction consists of several bytes in memory that
tell the processor to perform one machine operation.
b. The processor looks at machine instructions in main memory one
after another, and performs one machine operation for each
machine instruction.
3. What is a machine language program?
a. A collection of machine instructions in main memory is called a
machine language program
4. What is a machine language program typically called?
a. an executable program.
5. When machine language programs are running, where are they
located?
a. Machine code is stored in RAM, but is typically also kept in a set
of caches for performance reasons.
6. When the processor runs a program, how many machine instructions
are executed at a time?
a. A program without loops would execute for only a few seconds
even if it had billions of instructions.
7. What is a group of machine instructions that executes repeatedly
called?
a. A group of machine instructions that executes repeatedly is
called a loop.
8. How many machine instructions does a modern processor execute
(run) in 1 second?
a. A modern processor executes billions of instructions per second.
9. Why do most programmers use a high level programming language?
a. The executable files (the directly runnable machine language
programs) for most applications contain hundreds of thousands
(or even millions) of machine language instructions.
b. It would be very hard to create something like that from scratch.
c. With a high level language, a programmer creates a program
using powerful, "big" operations which will later be converted
into many little machine operations.
10. What is a source program?
a. A source program is a text file that contains instructions written
in a high level language.
b. It can not be executed (made to run) by a processor without some
additional steps.
11. What does a (source code) compiler do?
a. A translator (compiler) program translates the source program
into an executable program.
i. The source program remains unchanged; a new executable
program is created.
ii. The executable program contains machine instructions.
iii. A translator translates from a specific high level language
(like C) into machine instructions for a specific processor
type (like Pentium).
iv. The executable program is also kept on the hard disk.
12. What does a (source code) interpreter do?
a. Another way to execute a source program is to use an interpreter
for the language.
b. An interpreter is an executable program that runs directly on the
processor.
c. An interpreter reads through a source program written in a high
level language and performs the actions that the source program
asks for.
13. Watch the following video, then list the six (6) major factors
affecting CPU performance, relating factor specifications to CPU
performance. That is, does having more of that factor increase the
speed of the processor?
a. Multiple Cores
i. Every core is designed to fetch, read, and execute
instructions.
b. Cache Memory .
i. The processor uses cache memory to store instructions and
data that it might need again temporarily.
c. Clock Speed
i. The processor's clock speed, or clock rate, shows how fast
the CPU can run
d. Word Length
i. Word length, also known as word size, refers to how much
data the processor can handle at one time.
e. Address Bus Width
i. Width of the address bus determines maximum address
f. Data Bus Width
i. The number of bits that can be transferred simultaneously

Yes, having that factor does in fact increase the speed of the processor. For
example, increasing the number of cores it has, whilst still keeping the same
clock speed.

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