80 Questions
What are the five basic parts of a processor?
Memory, Arithmetic Logic Unit, Program Control Unit, Input Equipment, and Output Equipment
What is the effect of phases involving memory access on program performance?
It has a significant impact on program performance
What is the primary characteristic of the accumulator storage type?
One operand is implicitly the accumulator register
What is the main difference between instruction set architectures classes?
The internal storage type in a processor
What is the role of the program control unit in the execution of an instruction?
It is responsible for decoding the instruction
What is the primary characteristic of the stack storage type?
The ALU operands are implicitly on the top of the stack
What is the result of splitting the execution of an instruction into different phases?
It helps to identify the different stages of instruction execution
What is the primary role of the instruction set architecture?
It defines the instruction set of a processor
What is the purpose of the instruction 'AR = PC' in Listing 2.5?
To store the program counter value in the address register
What is the function of the instruction 'IR = DR [opcode]' in Listing 2.5?
To retrieve the operation code from the data register
In the given microprogram, what happens when the processor is not active?
No operation is performed
What type of architecture is implicit in the given microprogram?
Register-Memory Architecture
What is the primary purpose of the program counter (PC) in the given microprogram?
To point to the next instruction
What is the outcome of the instruction 'PC = PC + 1' in Listing 2.5?
The program counter is incremented
What is the primary function of the accumulator in the processor architecture depicted in Figure 2.3?
To store temporary results
What is the purpose of the instruction #15 Jump in the microprogram?
To manage the program counter
What is the characteristic of the processor architecture depicted in Figure 2.3 that is typical of RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) architectures?
Simple and highly optimized instructions
What is the primary difference between the accumulator architecture and the register-memory architecture?
The way memory is accessed
What is the purpose of the instruction #21 Stop in the microprogram?
To halt the processor
What is the role of the AR (Address Register) in the processor architecture depicted in Figure 2.3?
To store memory addresses
What is the primary goal of computer architecture design?
To maximize performance and energy efficiency
What is the role of the instruction set architecture (ISA) in a computer system?
To serve as the boundary between the software and hardware
What is the approximate rate at which the number of transistors in an IC doubles?
Every two years
What are the three main aspects of computer design that architecture aims to cover?
Instruction set, organization, and hardware
What is the main constraint on the design of computer architecture?
Meeting functional requirements and goals
What is the primary advantage of reducing the power density of transistors?
Increased performance and energy efficiency
What is the primary role of the microarchitecture in a computer system?
To implement the organization and hardware
What is the primary goal of the organization in a computer system?
To manage the memory system and interconnect
What is the primary advantage of using a cluster with 5000 processors for Kirchhoff migration?
Increased parallel processing capabilities for large-scale jobs
What is the typical thickness of a wafer used in chip manufacturing?
Less than 1mm
What is the primary purpose of the Czochralski process in chip manufacturing?
To create a silicon crystal ingot
What is the main benefit of using a 300-mm wafer in chip manufacturing?
Increased yield of functional chips
What is the primary application of photolithography in chip manufacturing?
To create layers of insulators and conductors
What is the primary characteristic of high-performance computing systems?
High processing speed
What is the primary benefit of using parallel processing in high-performance computing?
Accelerated processing for large-scale computations
What is the primary application of middleware in high-performance computing?
To manage job scheduling and resource allocation
What is the primary purpose of using scaling factors in SPEC benchmarks?
To relate the performance of different versions of SPEC benchmarks
What is a characteristic of massively parallel computers used in HPC systems?
They use distributed memory mechanisms
What is the primary application of HPC systems in the area of numerical simulations?
All of the above
What is the purpose of ASICs in the IBM Blue Gene project?
To design application-specific integrated circuits
What is a risk associated with the use of benchmarks in computer design?
Designers may be pressured to optimize their designs for benchmark performance
What is the primary characteristic of HPC systems used in servers?
They process large amounts of data in parallel
What is the primary purpose of the BlueGene/L Link ASIC in the IBM Blue Gene project?
To connect multiple processors in a distributed memory system
What is the primary benefit of using HPC systems in numerical simulations?
They allow for the simulation of complex physical processes
What is the primary function of the memory bus in the computer organization shown in Figure 1.8?
To enable communication between the processor and cache memory
Which of the following classes of computers has a wide range in price due to the need for VLS multiprocessor systems for high-end transaction processing?
Servers
What is the primary difference between the architecture depicted in Figure 1.7 and Figure 1.8?
The presence of a cache memory in Figure 1.8
What is the main characteristic of the computer organization shown in Figure 1.8?
A direct interface between the processor and cache memory
What is the primary advantage of using a cache memory in the computer organization shown in Figure 1.8?
Improved memory access times
Which of the following is a key design issue for embedded systems?
Low power consumption
What is the primary reason for the wide range of prices in the server market?
The requirement for VLS multiprocessor systems
What is the primary characteristic of the ARM-based devices that has led to their widespread adoption?
Low power consumption
What is the main reason behind the x86's survival in the RISC vs CISC debate?
Its high chip volume, binary compatibility with PC software, internally translation from CISC to RISC, and enough scaling to support extra hardware
What are the two factors that have driven the improvement in computer performance over the last 40-50 years?
Moore's Law and Dennard scaling
What is the potential benefit of domain-specific architectures (DSA) in terms of performance and power?
Equivalent to 3-plus generations of Moore's Law and Dennard scaling
What is the significance of the end of Dennard scaling and the slowdown of Moore's Law?
It highlights the need for a paradigm shift in computer architecture
What is the primary characteristic of the VAX instruction set architecture?
It is a discontinued instruction set architecture developed by DEC
What is the primary advantage of domain-specific architectures (DSA) over general-purpose architectures?
They can provide better implementations and performance benefits
What is the significance of the development of open-source architectures?
It has resulted in longer lifetimes for architectures, slowing down Moore's Law
What is the primary goal of domain-specific architectures (DSA) and reconfigurable computing?
To provide better implementations and performance benefits than general-purpose architectures
Each cabinet in the system shown in Figure 1.19 has 1024 processors.
False
The power consumption of the system per cabinet is approximately 100 kW.
True
CPTEC/INPE uses HPC systems for geological studies.
False
The total number of processors in the system shown in Figure 1.19 is 131,072.
True
Petrobras uses HPC systems for weather forecast and climate operational numerical forecast.
False
The computing power of the system shown in Figure 1.19 is approximately 360 TFLOPS.
True
The SPEC integer benchmark is only used to evaluate the performance of floating-point programs.
False
The BlueGene/L Compute ASIC is used for general-purpose computing.
False
High-performance computing systems are typically used for low-volume transaction processing.
False
Massively parallel computers used in HPC systems are designed to work with only a few processors.
False
The primary purpose of benchmarks is to optimize system design for real-world applications.
False
HPC systems are primarily used for simulating nuclear explosions and tidal evolution.
False
The Tupã computer used 1100 processors to achieve a maximum performance of 5,748 GFLOPS.
True
The Cray XE6 supercomputer used more than 30,000 processors to achieve a maximum performance of 258 TFLOPS.
False
Seismic migration method is not used in Petrobras for image quality and accuracy improvement.
False
Parallelism is not essential for seismic processing and wells positioning in Petrobras.
False
In 1998, Petrobras had more than 100 PCs for software development.
False
NEC SX6 supercomputer used 96 processors to achieve a maximum performance of 768 GFLOPS.
True
The NEC SX3 supercomputer used 16 processors to achieve a maximum performance of 3 GFLOPS.
False
High-performance computing is not used in numerical simulations.
False
Study Notes
Processor Operation
- A processor consists of five basic parts: memory, arithmetic logic unit (ALU), program control unit, input equipment, and output equipment.
- The instruction set architecture (ISA) defines the processor's instructions, which in turn leads to the design of control and data paths.
Instruction Execution Phases
- The execution of an instruction can be split into five phases:
- Operation code fetch
- Operation code decode
- Operands fetch
- Effective instruction execution
- Results store
- Phases involving memory access can be 10 times slower than the other phases, impacting program performance.
Instruction Set Architectures Classes
-
The internal storage type in a processor is the main differentiation in terms of ISA classes.
-
The main ISA classes are:
Stack
- Both instructions and operands are stored in memory following a stack abstract data type.
- The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) operands are implicitly on the top of the stack (TOS).
Accumulator
- Instructions involve a special register (ACC register), and in some cases, memory.
- One operand is implicitly the accumulator (ACC) register.
Microprogram
- A microprogram is a set of instructions that control the processor's operation.
- The microprogram behaves according to the processor's architecture (e.g., accumulator architecture).
- The microprogram pseudo-code consists of a series of instructions that execute specific tasks (e.g., fetching operands, storing results).
Computer Architecture Definitions
- The definition of computer architecture has evolved beyond instruction set design to include organization, hardware, and functional requirements.
- The main goals of computer architecture are to maximize performance and energy efficiency while minimizing cost, power, and size.
Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
- ISA refers to the programmer-visible instruction set and serves as the boundary between software and hardware.
- ISA is about designing the organization and hardware to meet goals and functional requirements.
Computer Organization
- The organization addresses high-level aspects of computer design, including the memory system, interconnect, internal processor, and microarchitecture.
- Microarchitecture is another term for organization.
The Five Basic Parts
- The original von Neumann machine has five basic parts: memory, arithmetic logic unit (data path), program control unit (control path), input equipment, and output equipment.
High-Performance Computing Systems
- High-performance computing systems have many applications in real-world domains, including nuclear explosions simulation, tidal evolution simulation, and subsoil mapping.
- They use massively parallel computers with hundreds or thousands of processors and distributed memory mechanisms.
Chip Manufacturing
- The processor's chip is built on wafers made of silicon, which comes from beach sand.
- The Czochralski process is used to create single crystals, which are then chopped into wafers.
- Wafers are polished and sent to chip manufacturers, where they are mounted using photolithography.
Amdahl's Law
- Performance is relative to the program and should not be evaluated solely based on benchmarks.
- Benchmarks, such as SPEC integer benchmarks, have changed over the years and require scaling factors to estimate performance.
High-Performance Computing Applications
- High-performance computing is used in numerical simulations of physical processes, fluid flow, and subsoil mapping.
- Servers with high volumes of transactions processed per time unit also demand high computational power.
RISC vs. CISC
- The debate between RISC and CISC has been ongoing, with x86 being the only surviving CISC architecture.
- RISC processor and RISC instruction set architecture are not the same, and neither are MIPS processor and MIPS ISA.
Trends in Computer Architecture
- The improvement in computer performance over the last 40-50 years was provided by computer architecture advancements, notably Moore's Law and Dennard scaling.
- With the end of Dennard scaling and the slowdown of Moore's Law, domain-specific architectures (DSAs) may provide an equivalent performance and power benefits.
Benchmarking
- Performance is relative to the program being used.
- SPEC benchmarks have changed over time, and a scaling factor is used to estimate performance between different versions (e.g., SPEC89, SPEC92, SPEC95, SPEC2000, and SPEC2006).
- Risks associated with benchmarking include optimizing projects for the benchmark rather than real-world performance.
High Performance Computing (HPC) Applications
- HPC systems are used for numerical simulations of physical processes, such as:
- Nuclear explosions effects
- Tidal evolution and ocean movement
- Atmospheric/weather simulation
- Fluid flow
- Subsoil mapping by wave reflection calculation
- HPC systems are also used for servers with high transaction volumes.
HPC Systems
- Massively parallel computers are designed to work with hundreds or thousands of processors, using distributed memory mechanisms.
- Examples of HPC systems include:
- IBM Blue Gene project
- Clusters (multiple computers connected to operate as a single system)
IBM Blue Gene Project
- Aimed to build a petaflop supercomputer to attack problems like protein folding.
- Used two application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs):
- BlueGene/L Compute (BLC)
- BlueGene/L Link (BLL)
- The system had 131,072 processors, 16 TB DDR memory, and a computing power of 180-360 TFLOPS.
- Power consumption was approximately 20 MWh/month.
Clusters
- Achieve high processing power by connecting multiple computers.
- Use specific middleware (software) for efficient information exchange between computers, such as:
- Message-passing interface (MPI)
- Parallel virtual machine (PVM)
- Examples of clusters include:
- Google clusters
HPC in Brazil
- Examples of HPC applications in Brazil include:
- Weather forecast and climate operational numerical forecast (CPTEC/INPE)
- Geological studies (Petrobras)
CPTEC/INPE
- Used computers for weather forecast and climate simulation, including:
- NEC SX3 (1994)
- NEC SX4 (1998)
- NEC SX6 (2004)
- NEC SUN (2007)
- Cray XE6 (Tupã, 2012)
- The Tupã computer was ranked 29th in the Top 500 list of November 2010.
Petrobras
- Used seismic processing and wells positioning, with a focus on image quality and accuracy.
- Developed in-house seismic migration method, which required increasingly powerful computers for parallelism.
Learn about the basic components of a computer processor, including memory, ALU, and control units, as well as the phases of instruction execution.
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