Which of the following computer design approaches is based on the fact that in earlier technologies, the instruction fetch was the longest part of the cycle?
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A. B. C. D.C.
Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) uses instructions that perform many operations per instruction.
It was based on the fact that in earlier technologies, the instruction fetch was the longest part of the cycle.
Therefore, by packing more operations into an instruction, the number of fetches could be reduced.
Pipelining involves overlapping the steps of different instructions to increase the performance in a computer.
Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC) involve simpler instructions that require fewer clock cycles to execute.
Scalar processors are processors that execute one instruction at a time.
Source: KRUTZ, Ronald L.
& VINES, Russel.
D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 5: Security Architectures and Models (page 188).
The computer design approach that is based on the fact that in earlier technologies, the instruction fetch was the longest part of the cycle is B. Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC).
RISC is a type of computer architecture that focuses on reducing the number of instructions that a processor has to execute by simplifying the instruction set. The idea is that by reducing the number of instructions, the processor can execute each instruction more quickly, and as a result, improve overall performance.
In earlier technologies, such as the first microprocessors, the instruction fetch was the longest part of the cycle. This means that the processor spent the most time retrieving instructions from memory. RISC was designed to address this issue by simplifying the instruction set and reducing the number of instructions that a processor has to execute.
In contrast, Complex Instruction Set Computers (CISC) is a type of computer architecture that focuses on including a large number of complex instructions that can perform multiple operations in a single instruction. This approach was popular in the early days of computing, but it led to processors that were difficult to design and manufacture, and that were slower than RISC processors.
Pipelining is another computer design approach that aims to improve performance by allowing multiple instructions to be processed simultaneously. This approach divides the processing of instructions into multiple stages, with each stage handling a specific part of the instruction. By doing this, multiple instructions can be processed simultaneously, and the overall throughput of the processor can be increased.
Finally, scalar processors are a type of processor that can perform one operation at a time. This is in contrast to vector processors, which can perform multiple operations simultaneously on large amounts of data. Scalar processors were the norm in the early days of computing, but they have largely been replaced by more advanced architectures such as RISC and CISC.