Order the following computer operations from slow to fast?
Disk Access (slowest) Context Switch Memory Access Register Access (fastest) There are some potential variances in these : Disk access may be significantly faster at times due to caching ... so can memory access (CPUs sometimes manage a caches from main memory to help speed up access and avoid competition for the bus). Memory access could also be as slow or slightly slower than disk access at times, due to virtual memory page swapping. Context switching needs to be extremely fast in general ... if it was slow then your CPU could begin to spend more time switching between processes than actually performing meaningful work when several processes are running concurrently. Register access is nearly instantaneous.
What is the difference between CPU usage, I/O usage and memory?
Your CPU usage is the percentage of cycles used in the last second to the maximum cycles allowed (for example, a 2.6 GHz CPU allows a maximum of 2,600,000,000 clock cycles each second)RAM usage is the amount of RAM filled to the maximum RAM allowed. RAM is basically fast memory.IO usage is the hard drive. These are very slow, and usually more programs want to use it then it can handle, which is why Windows normally shows it as 100%. Suppose your drive supports 110 MB/so and 50 IOPS. Your programs are accessing a 400 MB file which is in 121 fragments, a 1 kB file which is not fragmented, and a 80 MB file which is in 54 fragments. It totals to 176 disk lookups for the files, + [assumed] 5 for the file tables telling where the files are. 181 / 50 per second = 4 seconds. It would take 5 seconds for the 480 MBs to be read at 110 MB/s, so the total disk lookup would be between 5-9 seconds, hence 100% usage.
How does a processor communicate with the memory of a CPU?
By using a bus architectureIn this model everything is connected to the same bus. When some node in the bus (like the CPU) wants to read or write something to the memory, it puts the address of the memory block to write to onto the address bus and data (if needed) to the data bus, then raises the appropriate signal on the control bus like [math]\overline{R}[/math] (read), [math]\overline{W}[/math] (write), enable... to inform other devices. As one noticed that the address belongs to it, it will capture the address and do the needed things, in this case getting the data out and put it on the data bus for the other node to read back.That's how it work in general. To understand more you need to have some knowledge on digital electronics and computer architectures.
Modified Fetch Execute Cycle?
I didn't take this class, or any other class for that matter. I'm still a programmer and can comprehend microcode. However, I'm not entirely sure about the nomenclature. PC = program counter MAR = m?? address register? MDR = m?? data register? IR = instruction register A = accumulator For one thing, you will have to do "PC + 2 ->PC". For the ADD, are you supposed to get the addend from the address in IR[low]?
Why are my Computer Games running so slow?
my system specs Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate MOBO: ASUS M4N72-E CPU Type: AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0 CPU Speed (GHz): 3.0 System Memory (GB): 4.00 Video Card Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (x2 SLI'd) Desktop Resolution: 1680x1050 Hard Disk Size (GB): 500 Hard Disk Free Space (GB): 372 Just today I flashed my BIOS and updated the videocard drivers, cleaned up my disk and defragged it, it helped, but not by much. I feel my computer should be faster than it is. I'm only getting 10-15 FPS in 25m Icecrown Citadel in World of Warcraft. Of course all settings are on Ultra.