Review for Final Exam - Computer Architecture - Fall 2006 | COSC 6385, Study notes of Computer Architecture and Organization

Download Review for Final Exam - Computer Architecture - Fall 2006 | COSC 6385 and more Study notes Computer Architecture and Organization in PDF only on Docsity! 1 COSC 6385 – Computer Architecture Edgar Gabriel COSC 6385 Computer Architecture - Review for the Final Exam Edgar Gabriel Fall 2006 COSC 6385 – Computer Architecture Edgar Gabriel Topic areas • Detailed reading assignments: please checkout out the according file on the web • Possible calculations and practical examples – Amdahl’s Law – CPU performance equation – Correlated branches – N1/2 or Nα calculations for vector processors – Comparisons ‘direct mapped vs. set associative caches’ – Comparisons ‘unified vs. split data and instruction cache’ 2 COSC 6385 – Computer Architecture Edgar Gabriel Control questions to section 5 • What are the two types of locality which caches make use of? • Where do you place a data item of address xyz in a – Direct mapped cache – 4-way set associative cache? • What operations are required to check whether a data item is in the cache for a – Direct mapped cache – 4-way set associative cache? • Explain the different block-replacement strategies which can be applied for a set-associate cache COSC 6385 – Computer Architecture Edgar Gabriel Control questions section 5 (II) • Explain the differences between a write-through and a write-back cache • What is the role of the write-buffer in a write-through cache? • What is Virtual Memory and what are its main advantages? • What is a translation look-aside buffer?