Structure & Function of the Processor (OCR A Level Computer Science): Exam Questions

28 mins12 questions
13 marks

A charity uses a desktop computer to record financial donations that it receives. The computer contains a single core, 2.4GHz processor with 2MB cache.

The processor contains registers including the accumulator and the program counter. The contents of these registers are modified during the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.

State the name of three other registers that are used during the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.

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22 marks

A program written using the Little Man Computer instruction set is shown in Fig. 1.

Assembly code listing featuring input, storing, loading, subtraction, branching, output, addition, halting, and data declaration for basic operations.

Various registers are used when the program above is executed.

State what is meant by the term ‘register’.

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32 marks

OCR Insurance uses a computer system to calculate the price that customers pay for car insurance.

The computer system contains a CPU, GPU, RAM and ROM

State two factors that affect the performance of a CPU.

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41 mark

A charity uses a desktop computer to record financial donations that it receives. The computer contains a single core, 2.4GHz processor with 2MB cache.

The processor uses the Von Neumann architecture.

Give one way that the Harvard architecture differs from the Von Neumann architecture.

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52 marks

A charity uses a desktop computer to record financial donations that it receives. The computer contains a single core, 2.4GHz processor with 2MB cache

The processor contains registers including the accumulator and the program counter. The contents of these registers are modified during the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.

Describe how the accumulator is used during the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.

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62 marks

The processor contains registers including the accumulator and the program counter. The contents of these registers are modified during the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.

Describe how the program counter is used during the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.

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1a3 marks

Fig. 1 shows assembly code written using the Little Man Computer (LMC).

The program calculates and outputs the total amount that is donated to a charity in any particular day. Depending on the amount, an additional bonus may be added to each amount donated.

Assembly-like code listing with labels such as start, nobonus, and bonus, performing arithmetic using variables like hundred, twenty, donation, and total.

This program is run on a processor that allows pipelining.

Define the term ‘pipelining’.

1b2 marks

Explain one benefit to the charity of using a processor that allows pipelining.

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23 marks

The CPU uses pipelining to improve efficiency.

Explain what is meant by the term ‘pipelining’

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32 marks

Explain why pipelining can improve the performance of the processor.

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42 marks

A program written using the Little Man Computer instruction set is shown in Fig. 1

Assembly language code listing with variables and instructions: INP, STA numone, LDA, SUB, BRP pos, OUT, HLT, DAT numone, numtwo, one, count.

Various registers are used when the program above is executed.

Explain how the accumulator is used when the line BRP pos is executed.

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52 marks

A charity uses a desktop computer to record financial donations that it receives. The computer contains a single core, 2.4GHz processor with 2MB cache.

The processor uses the Von Neumann architecture.

Describe what is meant by the term ‘Von Neumann architecture’.

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62 marks

A charity is concerned that the performance of their computer is not sufficient and wishes to replace the processor.

Give two features of a replacement processor that would increase the typical performance of the computer.

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