- From a computer architecture point of view, why are standardized ISAs important for software?
- You have noticed that loading programs from your hard disk seems to take longer than it used to. A friend suggests copying the files, one at a time, from your disk to a different device and then back to your disk. You do so and discover that the programs seem to load much faster now. What happened? What alternative approach would more easily achieve a similar result?
- Suppose you have a magnetic disk with the following parameters: average seek time = 15 ms, rotation rate = 5400 RPM, transfer rate = 150 MB/second, sector size = 512 bytes, and controller overhead = 2 ms. What is the average time to read a single sector?
- A standard computer DVD holds approximately 5 billion characters. Estimate how many linear feet of shelf space would be required to house 5 billion characters as printed bound books rather than on electronic media. Assume there are 5 characters per word, 300 words per page, and 300 pages per inch of shelf space. Briefly described how you came to your answer.
- Compare the number of memory accesses for the data needed to compute the expression by four machines of question 3.
A = (B+C) * (D+E)
Question 3:
If a certain processor has a frequency of 100 MHz, what is the clock period ?
