What is the key idea behind the Von Neumann Architecture?
Instructions and data are stored together in memory and treated identically by the processor.
What are the four major components of the Von Neumann model?
Input, Processor (CPU), Memory, and Output.
What is the purpose of the fetch–decode–execute cycle?
It allows the CPU to repeatedly retrieve an instruction from memory, interpret it, execute it, and then move to the next instruction.
What is the role of the Control Unit (CU)?
The Control Unit directs instruction flow by coordinating the Program Counter (PC), Instruction Register (IR), and status flags during the fetch–decode–execute cycle.
What does the clock do in a processor?
The clock provides timing signals that synchronize data movement, register updates, and overall instruction sequencing.
What operations are performed by the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)?
Arithmetic operations (ADD, SUB, MUL), logical operations (AND, OR, NOT), and comparisons.
What is the difference between registers and cache?
Registers are the fastest storage locations inside the CPU for operands and intermediate results, while cache is a small, high-speed memory that reduces main memory access latency.
What is the difference between RAM and ROM?
RAM is volatile and used for active computation, while ROM is non-volatile and stores permanent instructions such as firmware.
Why can the CPU not execute instructions directly from secondary storage?
Secondary storage is not directly accessible by the CPU; instructions must first be loaded into primary memory (RAM).
What is a stack overflow?
A stack overflow occurs when a program uses more stack memory than allocated, often due to infinite recursion, deep function nesting, or large local variables.
What are the three types of system buses and their roles?
The address bus specifies where data is accessed, the data bus carries the actual data, and the control bus coordinates read/write operations and timing.
How does a keyboard key press reach memory?
The key press generates a signal, the I/O interface sends an interrupt, the processor places the device address on the address bus, reads the data from the data bus, and writes it to RAM.
What is differential signaling in USB?
USB transmits data using the voltage difference between two wires (D+ and D−), improving noise immunity and reliability.
How do CPUs and GPUs differ in architectural focus?
CPUs are optimized for complex control and sequential logic, while GPUs are optimized for large-scale parallel numerical computation.
Why are GPUs well suited for matrix operations such as C = A x B ?
Each element of the result matrix can be computed independently, allowing thousands of GPU cores to perform parallel computations simultaneously.
