Questions tagged [computer-architecture]
Computer architecture refers to various aspects of computer system designs which can affect compatibility, performance, and interfacing. Some issues related to computer architecture can be processor word size, memory bus size, or protocol implementation.
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why is memory addressed using 2 decoders only? [closed]
I am currently taking a university course about computer architecture in which we learned basic DRAM architecture and addressing. As far as I know, each latch is selected using decoder outputs to ...
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Why are x86 processors limited to 8 sockets? [closed]
Why are x86 processors only manufactured to operate in, up to, 8 socket systems?
I understand that it's the hardware itself, that determines the number of interconnects a processor has, but why ...
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what exactly is VGA
is VGA (Video Graphics Array) a piece of video hardware, or is it a video output standard, whatever that means, or is it just an interface between the graphics card and the display device. these are ...
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Isn't assembly and machine code just a text?
I can't understand one fact: Source code is text, it gets translated to assembly language(roughly), but if I can see the assembly language that means it is text as well, same story with machine code. ...
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How do Spectre patches work?
How could Intel/Microsoft provide software patches to Spectre, which exploits the speculative execution nature of superscalar processors, which is a hardware feature that cannot be modified or ...
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Exception and Interrupt difference
I know a Exception is a software Interrupt however after a Interrupt the program counter always returns to the address before the Interrupt was thrown but after a Exception a program may be terminated ...
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What is the capacity of the memory for a Harvard Architecture system
Harvard Architecture Image
I'm having trouble understanding how to calculate the total memory capacity of both the program and data memory in a Harvard Architecture system.
In the image above, the ...
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Wha functionalities does "Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family Thermal Subsystem (rev 31)" provide?
I'm setting up libvirt powered virtual machine for Windows10, on my Debian host, with passthrough-ed NVIDIA GPU. Everything goes well until I want to passthrough a USBHUB into the VM for convenience ...
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Difference between Arm/Amd/aarch/armf?
I would like to know what is the main diffrence between these many architectures available for diffrent OS.
Amd64 /Amd32
Arm64 /Arm32
aarch64/ aarch32
armhf64/armhf32
I was trying to install ...
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How to remap two keys that have the same scan code
I recently bought a Dell G15 5520, and it has a few redundant/useless keys. Above the number pad, it has a dedicated Calulator key, a Clear Key (delete), and a +/- key (f9). The regular f9 key came ...
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How do Xeon processors differ from regular processors in 2022? [duplicate]
What's the difference between a Xeon processor and a regular processor? Of course Xeon processors are meant for server use. But that's just the intention, it doesn't tell anything about the actual ...
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CPU and its operations
The 3 operations performed by a CPU are:
Transfer of data between memory and I/O
Logical and Arithmetical functions
Program flow through simple decisions
I dont understand what the 3rd operation is ...
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Cant understand visually what main memory is
According to my university's notes the main memory is made of a consecutive number of positions, each of them contains the same amount of binary digits. Every position corresponds to a unique address ...
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Is device BIOS stored on device controller?
I am reading this article, How does system bootstrap, according to it:
The BIOS then looks for other devices' ROMs to see if any of them have BIOSes. Normally, the IDE/ATA hard disk BIOS will be ...
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SQUASHFS errors when installing Ubuntu (only on certain USB ports)
I am receiving multiple SQUASHFS errors when installing Ubuntu 22.04 and 20.04 when using the front-side USB ports of my new PC. (Same errors as described here)
However, using a rear-side USB port (on ...
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Why are most of the common processors' bit counts powers of 2?
Most of the processors/CPUs widely used today, have a bit count that is a power of 2 (usually 32 and 64, but also 16, 8, and 4 bits).
Even though the meaning of bit count isn't consistent (some say it'...
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How does a motherboard become an open circuit after shutdown of PC/laptop?
When I press power switch in my laptop the pins get connected and therefore it makes a close circuit for power supply.
But when I shutdown my laptop how the pins get disconnected?
How the does laptop ...
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Does a computer mouse store or transmit the ‘images’ it takes?
Does a computer mouse temporarily store or send to a computer the images it takes when tracking its movements? Or does it just send updated coordinates to the computer and the images are temporary and ...
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Calculate reading time of a highly fragmented file (random read) from HDD
Having hdd specifications:
Manufacturer
Toshiba
Disk Family
MQ-01ABD100
Features
Silent Seek technology, shock sensor, Silent HDD, Advanced Format technology, S.M.A.R.T.
Bytes per ...
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Virtual Memory Organization
I have a question pertaining to virtual memory. In the description we always tend to show Heap growing from Low Address to High Address, and Stack in the other direction e.g.
Question: Is this just ...
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If two bit-identical computers perform the same actions but in different orders, will they remain bit-identical?
Consider two computers, one a bit-for-bit clone of the other. If I then perform any two arbitrary actions on machine A- like change the volume, then open a chrome browser, then do the same on computer ...
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Processor with a higher IPC vs Processor with lower IPC but specific instructions
Context: Intel and AMD have long been fierce competitors in the CPU industry. As of late, AMD seems to have managed to make processors with a higher IPC on a single core than Intel (e.g. the Ryzen ...
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Is there a difference between Simultaneous multithreading scheduling different processes and different threads in a process? [closed]
I am investigating the technology of Simultaneous multithreading. But I found that SMT technology was proposed long ago. Until 2008, after Intel introduced the Nehalem microarchitecture, most Intel ...
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Literal white noise
My friend has a work desktop computer with some non-fancy hardware. The onboard audio is output via a 3.5mm cable to some speakers in the room. These speakers produce a constant hum while the computer ...
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Are computers still being limited by the RAM frequency?
My friend wants to buy the last i9 processors for his PC, I told him thats a wast of money, that all the components of a computer have to run on the same frequency and processors are much more evolved ...
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Centos7: Website Not Loading
Having trouble getting a website orcanutrition.com to load on a new server. Pings to the proper IP.
Here is my scenario
[root@s233403 www]# sudo httpd -S
VirtualHost configuration:
*:80 ...
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How does a computer know which device is connected to the usb port?
I was wondering that in a same USB port many devices can be connected like keyboard, mouse, storage device etc. So, how does a computer know which device is connected to the USB port, like when we ...
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Privilege levels in 64bit Intel architecture [closed]
I'm currently reading this paper and while this is probably a very basic question, I can't find an answer:
In the Privilege Level chapter, how does the CPU know in what privilege level it's currently ...
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DRAM Self-Refresh not the Lowest Power Mode
I have a DDR3L Samsung DRAM on my Laptop. Based on page 23 of its datasheet, IDD6 or the Self-Refresh current is much higher than IDD2P0, IDD2P1 and IDD3P, which are the Precharge/Active Power-Down ...
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How do redundant memory cells in DRAM raise yield?
I was recently reading Computer Architecture-A Quantitative Approach(6th edition), and I encountered a problem while trying to understand a section from page 34:
Given the tremendous price pressures ...
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Why should I install my programs into my SSD? Shouldn't disk accesses be infrequent after loading to memory?
I'm wondering why people always say to put the Operating System and the program installations on the SSD (as opposed to a larger magnetic disk HDD).
As I understand, in the memory hierarchy, programs ...
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DDR4-2933 data transfer rate
DDR4-2933 functionates at 2933 MHz
How do I find peak data transfert rate in GB/s from there ?
Is it vendor/capacity dependent ? Is there a universal conversion approach ?
It should be something ...
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GPU cores vs. CPU cores
A (say NVidia) GPU is made of streaming multiprocessors consisting of arrays of streaming processors or CUDA core. There are 5120 CUDA cores on V100. A general purpose (say Intel) CPU has "only" up to ...
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If firmware is a CS concept, how is it defined?
I have a problem understanding the term firmware (as a type of software);
If it is a CS concept, it might be good to ask about it here to get a formal definition and a correction for my mistake, as a ...
user529857
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Why do we need PHY Interface between DDR Controller and DRAM Memory?
Is it required to have PHY in all the systems, if not what happens ?
if PHY is removed can we still pull the data from DRAM memory using the DDR controller ? if yes, then why do we need to have PHY ...
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How can I fix the error "boot! And select proper boot device"?
I tried to fix that. Pressed ctrl+alt+Del and it shows the motherboard settings. I don't know what should I do?
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Does UEFI run on top of BIOS?
This page: https://wiki.osdev.org/UEFI and few others which are rather creditable mention that UEFI is kind of an application which run on BIOS (legacy BIOS) and not a firmware If I got it right. Some ...
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Why MLC ssd has lower TBW than TLC?
I have ssd's.
Crucial mx100 250GB: MLC, TBW 72.
Crucial mx200 250GB: MLC, TBW 80.
Adata sx8200Pro 250gb: TLC, TBW 160.
From many sources I learnt that MLC should last ~ 6-10 times more writes than ...
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How to install armhf packages on an x86 host
I am trying to cross-compile some libraries for an ARMv7, and one of the needed prerequisites is python3-dev:armhf.
I am starting with a fresh debian docker-container (docker pull debian) so this ...
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How does multicore CPU thread synchronisation work at the hardware level?
I'm trying to understand how multicore CPU's implement thread synchronisation at the hardware level.
From my research so far I've found that the process involves using a location in memory to act as ...
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Instruction set and pseudo-command
I use 'objdump' on linux in a variety of binaries and it returns their assembly. The commands that I receive is 'real' commands or pseudo-command? I have read that there are some commands which are a ...
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HDD : Data is written on HDD sequentially or round robin fashion?
Say I need to create and save the file data on HDD. HDD is nothing but a stack of multiple spinning disks. My understanding is file
data is divided in to number of memory blocks which can be saved to ...
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What are the Memory Locations in Random Access Memory? [closed]
What is the meaning of memory locations in Ram. I really do not understand the definition of the word memory location in RAM. Tell me which English dictionary in google you used to find the meaning of ...
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Creating an overflow for a 8 bit binary [closed]
Hi everyone I am new to this site, apologies if this is in the wrong section.
I have made a 8 bit diagram to represent 2's compliment however when the binary reaches the maximum of 255 I would like to ...
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DDRAM Rack and channels
I have a question regarding the DDRAM architecture: I was reading a scientific paper regarding a new processor that reduces power consumption while keeping a very high level of performances, and as ...
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Can one use 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, or 32-bit sized pointers on a 64-bit machine?
I just did a rough calculation around the max size of an unsigned 64-bit integer, which is:
18,446,744,073,709,551,615
q5 q4 t b m t h
Looking at AWS's hardware specifications on their ...
user39251
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calculate avg time to read bytes on a disk
Question gives me following parameters:
track seek time = 10ms (milli-second).
The rotation speed of disk= 9000 revs per minute
Sectors on each track = 600
Each sector can store 512 bytes of data....
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How can 4 GB be equal to 32 bits memory address?
Forgive me for being naive to ask this question.
How can 4 GB be equal to 32 bits memory address? If i am not mistaken, 4GB * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 4,294,697,296 bytes of memory cells. So, why we don'...
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Inserting CMOS battery upside down
What happens when CMOS battery is inserted upside down? What is it capable of damaging? Power supply, entire motherboard or specific ICs.
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Graphic card lights up but newly built PC won't turn on
This is my first time of and I assembled my new PC and it is not starting for some reason. Though, strange my GPU is lights up but nothing else. I've checked the compatibility of each devices and they'...
