Get premium membership and access revision papers, questions with answers as well as video lessons.
Cisy 201:Computer Organization And Archtecture Question Paper
Cisy 201:Computer Organization And Archtecture
Course:Communication And Journalism
Institution: Kenya Methodist University question papers
Exam Year:2013
KENYA METHODIST UNIVERSITY
END OF 3''RD ''TRIMESTER 2013 (FT) EXAMINATION
FACULTY : COMPUTING & INFORMATICS
DEPARTMENT : COMPUTER SCIENCE AND BUSINESS INFORMATION
UNIT CODE : CISY 201/BBIT 112
UNIT TITLE : COMPUTER ORGANISATION AND ARCHTECTURE
TIME : 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer question one and any other two.
Question One
(i) Explain the four structural components of a computer that form the basis of computer organization and architecture study.
(4mks)
ii) In addition describe the performance related issues of each of the components you have explained in (i) above. (4mks)
(i) Describe the components of the instruction cycle.
(2mks)
ii) Explain with justification the idea of interrupts and how interrupts are supported within computer architecture. (4mks)
Outline the internal organization of the hard disk using the terms cylinder, head, track and center.
(4mks)
Describe the typical 3 level hierarchical memory organization employed by many computer system and provide convincing justification for its use.
(4mks)
(i) In the context of performance enhancement using parallelism, explain the terms available parallelism and utilized parallelism.
(4mks)
ii) Explain the possible role of the programming language and hardware in enhancing utilized parallelism. (4mks)
Question Two
Using the standard parallel interface as an example, describe the general organization including the programming model of an 1/0 device interface adapter.
(5mks)
(i) Explain the role of the hard disk storage system in a computer systems performance and reliability.
(3mks)
ii) Describethe RAID technology and explain how it may be used for enhancement of reliability, performance or both. (3mks)
Highlight the benefits of using the SCSI disk interface system, as compared to IDE/ATA for PC-based server systems.
(5mks)
Using an illustrative diagram, explain the shared disk multi-computer cluster architecture highlighting the objectives of highly available server and the fault tolerant server design approaches.
(4mks)
Question Three
The memory type known as EEPROM or flash ROM has found application in main memory systems, 1/0 subsystems and mass storage subsystems. Explain the basic characteristics of flash ROM and how it is applied in these three subsystems.
(5mks)
Describe the memory organization known as memoryinterleaving and provide a convincing argument that its use indeed results in memory performance.
(5mks)
(i) In the context of cache memory, explain the term replacement policy highlighting its effect on cached memory performance.
(5mks)
ii) Explain why LRU is considered the preferred replacement policy. Comment on its implementation challenges. (5mks)
Question Four
(i) Using an appropriate illustrative diagram, outline the classical internal organization of the CPU.
(3mks)
ii) Explain the instruction cycle and the roles of PC, IR, MAR and MBR registers. (5mks)
(i) Explain the basic concept of the superscalar processor architecture.
(3mks)
ii) In the context of superscalar processor architecture, define the terms out-of-order issue with out-of-order completion. (4mks)
iii) Explain how anti-dependency is a problem in the context of superscalar processing. (2mks)
MIMD architectures may be classified into shared memory systems and distributed systems. Clearly differentiate between the two.
(3mks)
More Question Papers
Popular Exams
Return to Question Papers