Computer System Architecture Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: Memory Space

The set of addresses that physically exist in main memory is the memory space; the set of addresses a program may generate is the address space. Keeping the two apart is the basis of virtual memory, where the address space is larger than the memory space.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Peripheral devices

Peripherals - printers, keyboards, disk drives, tape units - are electromechanical and electromagnetic devices of some complexity, in contrast with the purely electronic circuits of the CPU and memory. Printing devices and input devices are both classes of peripheral, so naming either of them alone is too narrow.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Synchronous

When the CPU and the interface share a common bus they are driven by the same clock, so the transfer needs no separate timing agreement between them - that is what makes it synchronous. Asynchronous transfer is used precisely when the two units have independent clocks and must signal each other with control lines.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Pulse generator

A digital system is timed by a train of clock pulses produced by a pulse generator; the clock is the signal, not the source. A decoder or a counter distributes or divides that signal but does not create it.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Handshaking

In handshaking each unit sends a control signal to acknowledge the other - a request from the sender and a reply from the receiver - so neither has to assume the other is ready. A strobe uses a single pulse and gets no acknowledgement in return, which is the distinction being tested.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Interrupt driven I/O

With interrupt-driven I/O the processor issues the transfer and then continues with other work; the device raises an interrupt when it is ready, so the CPU never sits polling. Programmed I/O ties the processor up in a wait loop, and DMA removes the processor from the transfer altogether rather than letting it run a program concurrently with it.