1. Components and Performance of Processors (A Level Only)

Last updated almost 2 years ago
4 questions
INSTRUCTIONS
• Answer all the questions.

INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 9
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk (*).

ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer
Required
3

The following is a program written using the Little Man Computer instruction set.


Explain, giving an example, how pipelining in a CPU could speed up the execution of this program (3 marks)

Required
2

Describe one issue the line BRP start may cause for a CPU using pipelining (2 Marks)

Required
1

Pipelining is one factor that affects the performance of a CPU. Identify one other factor (1 Mark)

Required
3

A Little Man Computer (LMC) assembly language program is stored in memory as shown in Fig. 3.1.


In this variant of LMC the symbols & and # are used to denote different modes of addressing. Explain how pipelining would help a CPU execute the code in Fig. 3.1 more quickly (3 Marks)