Spring 2018 EE380 Assignment 0 Solution

  1. For this question, check all that apply. Which of the following five statements about current computer hardware is/are true?
    The internet is a WAN
    A typical PC now has at least 2000MB of main memory
    An optical mouse actually contains a high-speed camera
    The red, green, and blue portions of an LCD pixel are actually separate elements
    A Hard Disk should outlast an SSD in an application that is continually rewriting data
  2. Here's one to look up in the history reference materials.... Which of the following folks is now generally credited with implementing the first floating-point arithmetic?
    Bill Gates
    Alan Turing
    Konrad Zuse
    John von Neumann
    Grace Murray Hopper
  3. In 1999, AMD's K7 (the original Athlon) contained about 22,000,000 transistors. Given that, about how many of those processors could fit on a chip using the state-of-the-art technologies that AMD currently uses for their Epyc 7601 chip? (Hint: you can guess correctly based on knowing how many years were between the two parts being released.)
    1
    10
    100
    1,000
    10,000
  4. For this question, check all that apply. Which of the following five choices is/are among the "eight great ideas" discussed in class and the text's first chapter?
    Parallel processing
    Optimizing for the common cases
    Programming in high-level languages
    Use of a state machine to implement control logic
    Anticipating how computer technology will change over time
  5. For this question, check all that apply. Which of the following statements about how computer technology has been changing over the last few decades is/are true?
    Main memory has been getting faster
    The number of transistors/chip is increasing
    SSDs are starting to replace hard disk drives
    Power consumption per transistor has been decreasing
    Supercomputers on the Top500 list nearly double performance every year
  6. Computer architecture is a field in which lifelong learning plays a critical role, in part because many aspects of computer architecture are expected to change in fundamental ways throughout your career. A key reason is found in how performance of different subsystems changes over time. Some years ago, computers often accessed instructions and data directly from main memory; briefly explain why computers now have a memory hierarchy.
  7. For this question, check all that apply. Which of the following things is/are associated with an Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)?
    Machine Code
    Assembly Language
    Processor clock frequency
    High-level programming language
    Number of clock cycles/instruction
  8. What is the meaning of "multi-core processor?"
  9. Most cell phones now use a pouch battery that is permanently glued inside rather than an individually-packaged user-interchangeable battery. Broader impact refers to potential benefit, or harm, to society as a whole. Briefly describe one negative broader impact of consumer devices using permanently glued-in batteries and include a URL for an article supporting your claim:
  10. For this question, check all that apply. Here's something you know from EE280: Which of the following logic equations implement a multiplexor with two inputs, i0 and i1, and one select line, s?
    ((s OR (NOT i0)) AND (s OR i1))
    ((i1 AND (NOT s)) OR (i0 AND s))
    ((i1 AND s) OR (i0 AND (NOT s)))
    ((s AND (NOT i1)) OR (s AND i0))
    (((NOT s) AND i0) OR (s AND i1))



EE380 Computer Organization and Design.