Problem

(a) Using a labelled diagram of an Instruction-Execution cycle, describe how a CPU executes single machine instructions by referring to the five main operations.

(b) Differentiate between pipelined and non-pipelined processors.

(c) Using an example of your own, describe how a superscalar processor eliminates wasted cycles as compared to a conventional processor when executing multiple instructions at the same time.

(d) (i) Convert the numbers (12121)3 and (0.2143)8 to decimal. Display all workings.

(ii) What is the binary representation of hexadecimal number E5B6AED7?

(iii) Convert the floating number (78.375)10 to binary.

(e) During performance design, explain three factors that help in increasing the throughput of a system.

(f) The performance of a machine X for a given program is defined as: Performance (X) = 1 / Execution Time(X)

Provide that a machine A does a task in 20s while another machine B does the same task in 25s.

(i) What is the performance of each machine?

(ii) How much faster is A than B?

(iii) Is "performance" a meaningful metric?