Pulse and Digital Circuits (Short Answer Questions)

Differentiate vectored and non-vectored interrupts.

Interrupts may be vectored or non-vectored, depending upon the provision of their pre-defined branching address. If the branching address of the interrupt, where its ISR to be located, is pre-defined, then the interrupt is designated as a vectored interrupt. On the other hand, if the interrupt is not assigned any such pre-defined branching address for its ISR, it would be taken as a non-vectored interrupt.

List the advantage of segmented memory.

  • An immediate advantage of having separate data and code segments is that one program can work on several sets of data.
  • Perhaps the greatest advantage of segmented memory is that programs that reference logical addresses only can be loaded and run anywhere in memory.Explain importance of Hit ratio.

Explain the locality of reference.

Locality of Reference. The characteristics of a typical program that leads to a predictable access pattern is referred to as the locality of reference. 

What is a bootstrap loader?

The bootstrap loader is a small program whose single function is to load the OS into the memory and allows it to begin operation.

Explain about auxiliary memory in memory organization.

Auxiliary memory is also called secondary memory unit or mass storage system. As the name implies, the mass storage system has the capacity to store large amount of data without any electrical power. But its speed is slower than the main memory or semiconductor memory. Normally it stores the data and program which is not used by CPU at that point of time. The information from auxiliary memory will be transferred to the main semiconductor memory whenever the data or program is required by the CPU. The common examples of auxiliary memory devices are magnetic disk, magnetic tape, and compact disk. 

Explain content addressable memory.

It is a special purpose random access memory that performs association operation in addition to read and write operation. 

How many lines of address bus must be used to access 4096 bytes of memory?

\(\begin{array}{l}4096 = {2^{12}}\\{\log _2}(4096) = 12\end{array}\)

Thus, 12 address lines are needed to access 4096 bytes of memory. 

Write the importance of cache memory.

Cache memory is a very high speed semiconductor memory which can speed up the CPU.
It acts as a buffer between the CPU and the main memory. It is used to hold those parts of
data and program which are most frequently used by the CPU. 

Differentiate isolated I/O and Memory mapped I/O.

Numerous computers transfer data between the CPU and memory or I/O via a single bus. In an isolated I/O arrangement, the CPU has separate instructions for input and output, each of which is associated with an address in an interface register. To ensure that assignment of interface addresses does not impact the values of memory addresses, the isolated I/O approach divides both memory and I/O addresses, as each interface address space is independent. The other option is to use the same address space for I/O and memory.

---


The study material for AMIE/BTech/Junior Engineer exams is available at https://amiestudycircle.com

Comments