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Cisy 301:Computer Architecture And Organization Question Paper

Cisy 301:Computer Architecture And Organization

Course:Bachelor Of Science In Computer Science

Institution: Kenya Methodist University question papers

Exam Year:2010

COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE AND ORGANIZATION (BBIT 122 / CISY 301) 3rd Trimester 2010

FACULTY : SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOY

DEPARTMENT : CIS AND BIT

TIME : 2 HOURS

INSTRUCTIONS Answer Question ONE (compulsory) and any Other TWO Questions

Question 1

a) Describe the high speed bus interconnection structure and its operation. Describe how the bus interconnection structure compares with the tradition structure? (4marks)

b) Outline the internal organization of the hard disk storage medium using the terms cylinder, head, track and sector. (5marks)

c) Describe the von Neumann programmable machine model. (5marks)

d) Provide examples of processor registers (1mark)

e) Describe the distinguishing characteristics of the following memory types and further, explain with justification their possible areas of application within a typical computer system). Memory types: EPROM, Flash ROM, DRAM, SRAM. (5marks)

f) Describe interrupt driven I/O and explain its advantage as compared to programmed I/O. (4marks)

g) Explain the difference between cache hit and cache miss. (2marks)

i) Discuss any two cache placement policies and two replacement policy. (4marks)

Question 2

a) Clearly describe the concept of memory hierarchy and describe how that architecture can lead to enhancement of overall computer system performance. (5marks)

b) With an aid of a diagram, describe the general structure, of an I/O module and explain its functions. (5marks)

c) Using relevant examples explain the distinguishing characteristics of computer memory based on the features below. (10marks)

i) Location

ii) Capacity

iii) Unit of transfer

iv) Memory access methods

v) Physical type

Question 3

a) Distinguish between the following Bus design key elements (8marks)

i) Dedicated and Multiplexed

ii) Centralized and distributed arbitration

iii) Synchronous and Asynchronous Timing

iv) Split and non split transactions

b) What is split cache? Explain the advantage, if any, of having a split cache (3marks)

c) What is RAID as applicable to disk storage? Explain the following RAID systems and state the benefits they provide. (7marks)

i) RAID 0

ii) RAID 1

iii) RAID 5

d) What is the function of DMA? (2marks)

Question 4

a) Explain the benefits of using the SCSI disk interface system (as compared to IDE/ATA) for PC-based server systems. (5marks)

b) Super scalar architecture is said to attempt to exploit instruction level parallelism while vector processing attempts to exploit data processing. Explain. (5marks)

c) In the context of cached memory system, explain the performance factors hit ratio and miss penalty. Explain also the principle of locality and its relevance to cached memory performance. (5marks)

d) Briefly explain instruction pipelining as a performance enhancement technique. (5marks)

Cisy 301:Computer Architecture And Organization Question Paper

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