Embedded Systems: Microprocessors and ISA Architecture

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What is the primary function of the instruction set architecture (ISA) in a microprocessor?

To manage the memory hierarchy of the embedded system
To define the operations and operands that can be used by programmers (correct)
To control the flow of data between I/O components and the master processor
To handle interrupts and context switching operations

What is the primary purpose of operands in a microprocessor?

To define the addressing modes used to access memory
To be manipulated by operations according to the ISA (correct)
To store data and operations in the memory
To perform computations and branches in the program

What is the organization of memory used to store operands in a microprocessor?

Circular
Random Access
Hierarchical
Linear (correct)

What type of operation is responsible for moving data from one memory location/register to another in a microprocessor?

Movement operation (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of interrupts in a microprocessor?

To signal the processor to perform a specific task (A) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of defining a specific instruction set architecture (ISA) for a microprocessor?

To provide a set of operations and operands that can be used by programmers (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of instruction-level parallelism in a microprocessor?

Increases the number of instructions that can be executed in a single clock cycle (C) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following architectures is characterized by the ability to process multiple instructions simultaneously within one clock cycle?

Superscalar (D) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of the VLIW model over other ISA architectures?

It allows for more instructions to be executed in parallel (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of instruction pipelining in a microprocessor?

It reduces the number of clock cycles required to execute an instruction (D) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is an example of a RISC-based architecture?

PowerPC (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of SIMD processing in a microprocessor?

It allows for more instructions to be executed in parallel (A) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary characteristic of a linear address space?

Represented incrementally, starting at 0 (B) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key aspect of an ISA's definition?

The byte ordering approach used for data storage (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of a register in a microprocessor?

To store operands for immediate or frequent use (B) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a type of register defined by an ISA?

Floating-point register (A) Signup and view all the answers

What is the significance of byte ordering in an ISA?

It defines the order of bits or bytes in data storage (C) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements is true about an ISA's definition of memory?

It defines how data is stored in memory (A) Signup and view all the answers