WGU C952 | 239 Questions and Answers(A+ Solution guide)

Register File - A state element that consists of a set of registers that can be read and written by supplying a register number to be accessed. provides 1024 scalar 32-bit registers for up to 64 threads. machine language - The language made up of binary-coded instructions that is used directly by the computer system software - The set of programs that enables a computer's hardware devices and application software to work together; it includes the operating system and utility programs. operating system - (computer science) software that controls the execution of computer programs and may provide various services Assembly Language - Programming language that has the same structure and set of commands as machine languages but allows programmers to use symbolic representations of numeric machine code. IBM 360/91 - Introduced many new concepts, including dynamic detection of memory hazards, generalized forwarding, and reservation stations. Tomasulo's algorithm The internal organization of the 360/91 shares many features with the Pentium III and Pentium 4, as well as with several other microprocessors. One major difference was that there was no branch prediction in the 360/91 and hence no speculation. Another major difference was that there was no commit unit, so once the instructions finished execution, they updated the registers. 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.Multiple DRAMs are used together to contain the instructions and data of a program. In contrast to sequential access memories, such as magnetic tapes, the RAM portion of the term DRAM means that memory accesses take basically the same amount of time no matter what portion of the memory is read. Modern DRAMS consist of rows in each bank frame buffering - A portion of RAM containing a bitmap that drives a video display. It is a memory buffer containing a complete frame of data. The image to be represented onscreen is stored in the frame buffer, and the bit pattern per pixel is read out to the graphics display at the refresh rate. The animation below shows a frame buffer with a simplified design of just 4 bits per pixel. 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.