WGU C952 - Computer Architecture Questions and Answers Already Passed

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WGU C952 - Computer Architecture Questions and Answers Already Passed Personal computer (PC) ✔✔A computer designed for use by an individual, usually incorporating a graphics display, a keyboard... , and a mouse. Server ✔✔A computer used for running larger programs for multiple users, often simultaneously, and typically accessed only via a network. Supercomputer: ✔✔A class of computers with the highest performance and cost; they are configured as servers and typically cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. Embedded computer: ✔✔A computer inside another device used for running one predetermined application or collection of software. Personal mobile devices (PMDs) ✔✔are small wireless devices to connect to the Internet; they rely on batteries for power, and software is installed by downloading apps. Conventional examples are smart phones and tablets. Cloud computing ✔✔refers to large collections of servers that provide services over the Internet; some providers rent dynamically varying numbers of servers as a utility. Software as a Service (SaaS) ✔✔delivers software and data as a service over the Internet, usually via a thin program such as a browser that runs on local client devices, instead of binary code that must be installed, and runs wholly on that device. Examples include web search and social networking. Multicore microprocessor ✔✔A microprocessor containing multiple processors ("cores") in a single integrated circuit. Acronym ✔✔A word constructed by taking the initial letters of a string of words. For example: RAM is an acronym for Random Access Memory, and CPU is an acronym for Central Processing Unit. Terabyte (TB): ✔✔Originally 1,099,511,627,776 (240) bytes, although communications and secondary storage systems developers started using the term to mean 1,000,000,000,000 (1012) bytes. To reduce confusion, we now use the term tebibyte (TiB) for 240 bytes, defining terabyte (TB) to mean 1012 bytes. The figure below shows the full range of decimal and binary values and names. Systems software: ✔✔Software that provides services that are commonly useful, including operating systems, compilers, loaders, and assemblers. Operating system ✔✔Supervising program that manages the resources of a computer for the benefit of the programs that run on that computer. Compiler ✔✔A program that translates high-level language statements into assembly language statements. Binary digit ✔✔Also called a bit. One of the two numbers in base 2 (0 or 1) that are the components of information. Instruction ✔✔A command that computer hardware understands and obeys Assembler ✔✔A program that translates a symbolic version of instructions into the binary version. Assembly language ✔✔A symbolic representation of machine instructions. Machine language ✔✔A binary representation of machine instructions High-level programming language ✔✔A portable language such as C, C++, Java, or Visual Basic that is composed of words and algebraic notation that can be translated by a compiler into assembly language. Input device ✔✔A mechanism through which the computer is fed information, such as a keyboard. Output device ✔✔A mechanism that conveys the result of a computation to a user, such as a display, or to another computer Liquid crystal display: ✔✔A display technology using a thin layer of liquid polymers that can be used to transmit or block light according to whether a charge is applied. Active matrix display ✔✔A liquid crystal display using a transistor to control the transmission of light at each individual pixel. Pixel ✔✔The smallest individual picture element. Screens are composed of hundreds of thousands to millions of pixels, organized in a matrix. Integrated circuit ✔✔Also called a chip. A device combining dozens to millions of transistors. Central processor unit (CPU) ✔✔Also called processor. The active part of the computer, which contains the datapath and control and which adds numbers, tests numbers, signals I/O devices to activate, and so on. Datapath ✔✔The component of the processor that performs arithmetic operations. Control ✔✔The component of the processor that commands the datapath, memory, and I/O devices according to the instructions of the program. Memory ✔✔The storage area in which programs are kept when they are running and that contains the data needed by the running programs. Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) ✔✔Memory built as an integrated circuit; it provides random access to any location. Access times are 50 nanoseconds and cost per gigabyte in 2012 was $5 to $10. Cache memory ✔✔A small, fast memory that acts as a buffer for a slower, larger memory. Static random access memory (SRAM): ✔✔Also memory built as an integrated circuit, but faster and less dense than DRAM. Instruction set architecture ✔✔Also called architecture. An abstract interface between the hardware and the lowest-level software that encompasses all the information necessary to write a machine language program that will run correctly, including instructions, registers, memory access, I/O, and so on. Application binary interface (ABI) ✔✔The user portion of the instruction set plus the operating system interfaces used by application programmers. It defines a standard for binary portability across computers. Implementation ✔✔Hardware that obeys the architecture abstraction Volatile memory ✔✔Storage, such as DRAM, that retains data only if it is receiving power. Nonvolatile memory ✔✔A form of memory that retains data even in the absence of a power source and that is used to store programs between runs. A DVD disk is nonvolatile. Main memory ✔✔Also called primary memory. Memory used to hold programs while they are running; typically consists of DRAM in today's computers. [Show More]

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