Higher National Diploma in Electrical Engineering

EE 3105: Microelectronic System III

Third Year, Second Semester Examination – 2014

Model Answer
1. (a) If the program was represented in a form suitable for storing in memory alongside the
Data, then a computer could get its instructions by reading them from memory, and a
Program could be set or altered by setting the values of a portion of memory. This is
known as the stored program concept. - 3 Marks -
Von Neumann Computer or IAS computer - 1 Marks -

(b) Consisting of Binary Logic Circuit; Program stored in memory; Instruction stored in
Sequence - 3 Marks –

(c) (i) Fetch, decode and execute program instruction in the proper order.
(ii) Transfer data to and from memory & to and from the I/O section
(iii) Respond to external interrupt
(iv) Provide overall timing and control signals for the entire system - 4 Marks –

(d) IP (PC) – Instruction Pointer (Program Counter); IR – Instruction Register;

MAR – Memory Address Register; MDR – Memory Data (Buffer) Register;
Temp – Temporary Register; ALU – Arithmetic Logic Unit

- 6 Marks -

(e) By using Throughput – It is the number of task that can be completed within a given time
Interval
Response Time – It is the amount of time required to complete a single task from the time it
has been submitted. - 3 Marks -

2. (a) Flynn classification: (1966) is based on multiplicity of instruction streams and the data
streams in computer systems. - 2 Marks –

(b) Single-Instruction Single-Data streams (SISD)

Conventional single-processor von Neumann computers are classified as SISD systems.
Single-Instruction Multiple-Data streams (SIMD)
each processor in the array has a small amount of local memory where the distributed
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 data resides while it is being processed in parallel.
The processor array is connected to the memory bus of the front end so that the front end
can randomly access the local processor memories as if it were another memory.
The front end can issue special commands that cause parts of the memory to be operated
on simultaneously or cause data to move around in the memory.
The application program is executed by the front end in the usual serial way, but issues
commands to the processor array to carry out SIMD operations in parallel.

Multiple-Instruction Single-Data streams (MISD)

In the MISD category, the same stream of data flows through a linear array of
processors executing different instruction streams.
In practice, there is no viable MISD machine; however, some authors have considered
pipelined machines (and perhaps systolic-array computers) as examples for MISD.

and
Multiple-Instruction Multiple- Data streams (MIMD)
A shared memory system typically accomplishes inter-processor coordination through a
global memory shared by all processors.
Because access to shared memory is balanced, these systems are also called SMP
(symmetric multiprocessor) systems.
A message passing system (also referred to as distributed memory) typically combines
the local memory and processor at each node of the interconnection network.
There is no global memory, so it is necessary to move data from one local memory to
another by means of message passing.
This is typically done by a Send/Receive pair of commands, which must be written into
the application software by a programmer. - 8 Marks –

(c) Immediate addressing - MOV AX, 7 ;

Direct / Absolute Addressing - ADD AX, BX ;
Indirect addressing - ADD AX, (BX) ;
Relative addressing - JUMP next - 4 Marks –

(d) Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC CPU)

“High level” Instruction Set - Executes several “low level operations”
Ex: load, arithmetic operation, memory store
Features :
Instructions can operate directly on memory ; Small number of general purpose registers ;
Instructions take multiple clocks to execute ; Few lines of code per operation
Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC CPU)
RISC is a CPU design that recognizes only a limited number of instructions such as
Simple instructions which are executed quickly.
Features :
Reduced” instruction set and Executes a series of simple instruction instead of a complex
Instruction ; Instructions are executed within one clock cycle ; Incorporates a large
number of general registers for arithmetic operations to avoid storing variables on a stack
in memory ; Only the load and store instructions operate directly onto memory
- 6 Marks –

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3. (a)

 Technique to process multiple instructions at the same time

 Allows instructions to be executed efficiently

- 5 Marks –
𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑒𝑥𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
(b) Speed up ratio = 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑆. 𝑛. 𝑇
= where n = number of homogeneous unit/stage
𝑛 .𝑇+(𝑆−1).𝑇
S = number of tasks and
T = Period of the clock cycle
If stages of pipeline, n increases, better speed up will be expected. - 3 Marks –

(c) Due to the increase in pipeline stages, overhead of latching and dependencies between
stages affect latency and throughput of an instruction execution.
Instruction Pipeline Hazards – Resource Conflicts ; Procedural Dependencies ;
Data Dependencies - 4 Marks –

(d)

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 - 6 Marks –
(e) By interleaving instructions of different programs in the pipeline and by executing one
instruction from each program in sequence, large computer system in a multi-user
environment can be operated without any disasters effect. This is known as multithread
concept in microprocessor system. - 2 Marks –

4. (a) (I) Word length - A word is basically a fixed-sized group of digits (binary or decimal) that
are handled as a unit by the instruction set or the hardware of the processor. The
number of digits in a word (the word size, word width, or word length) is an important
characteristic of any specific processor design or computer architecture. Current
microprocessor has 64 – bit word length.
(II) Speed of operation of an instruction - Instructions per second (IPS) is a measure of
a computer's processor speed. Many reported IPS values have represented "peak"
execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic
workloads typically lead to significantly lower IPS values. The performance of
the memory hierarchy also greatly affects processor performance, an issue barely
considered in MIPS calculations. Current microprocessor has 127,273 MIPS at 3.9 GHz
as speed of operation of an instruction.
(III) Width of address bus and data bus - The width of the address bus determines the
amount of memory a system can address. For example, a system with a 32-bit address
bus can address 232 (4,294,967,296) memory locations. If each memory address holds
one byte, the addressable memory space is 4 GB.
The width of data bus determines the size of each register or memory of a system.
64 bits is a wordsize that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses,
memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them.
(IV) I/O facilities - In computing, input/output or I/O is the communication between
an information processing system and the outside world, possibly a human or another
informa ion processing system. Inputs are the signals or data received by the system
and outputs are the signals or data sent from it. - 6 Marks –

(b) Chip failure due to exceeding the limit of manufacturer’s data ;

Open circuit interconnection due to a break in any signal or power line
Bridging or short circuit interconnection due to compact of circuit design
Externally induced interference due to sequence of pulses in microprocessor
Original software bugs due to logical error or bugs - 6 Marks –

(c) Conventional fault finding techniques - Visual inspection ; d.c. test ; Oscilloscope test.
Non-Conventional fault finding techniques – use of special test equipment which have
been developed to enable faults to be more readily isolated in digital microprocessor based
system. - 3 Marks –

(d) Equipment used in Non-Conventional fault finding techniques are logic probe, logic pulsar,
current tracer, logic chip, logic comparator, logic analyser and signature analyser.
- 3 Marks –
(e) Mean time between failures (MTBF) describes the expected time between two failures for a
repairable system.

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 The failure rate can be defined as the following : The total number of failures within an
item population, divided by the total time expended by that population, during a particular
measurement interval under stated conditions. - 2 Marks –

5. (a) An Operating System is a program that controls the execution of application programs and
acts as an interface between the user of a computer and the computer hardware. In other
words “The software that controls the hardware”. An Operating system exploits the
hardware resources of one or more processors to provide a set of services to system users
- 3 Marks –

(b) Implementing the user interface ; Sharing hardware among users ; Allowing users to
share data among themselves ; Preventing users from interfering with one another ;
Scheduling resources among users ; Facilitating input/output ; Recovering from
errors ; Accounting for resource usage ; Consider other functions - 5 Marks –

(c) (I) As with most operating systems, Windows and UNIX both have kernels. The kernel
provides the base functionality of the operating system. The major functionality of the
kernel includes process management, memory management, thread management,
scheduling, I/O management, and power management.
In UNIX, the API functions are called system calls. System calls are a programming
interface common to all implementations of UNIX. The kernel is a set of functions that
are used by processes through system calls.
Windows has an API for programming calls to the executive. In addition to this, each
subsystem provides a higher-level API. This approach allows Windows operating
systems to provide different APIs, some of which mimic the APIs provided by the
kernels of other operating systems. The standard subsystem APIs include the Windows
API (the Windows native API) and the POSIX API (the standards-based UNIX API).

(II) UNIX is a multiprocessing, multiuser system. At any given point, you can have many
processes running on UNIX. Consequently, UNIX is very efficient at creating processes.
Windows relies more heavily on threads than processes. (A thread is a construct that
enables parallel processing within a single process.) Creating a new process is a
relatively expensive operation while creating a new thread is not as expensive in terms of
system resources like memory and time.

(III) UNIX uses a simple security model. The operating system applies security by assigning
permissions to files. This model works because UNIX uses files to represent devices,
memory, and even processes.
Windows uses a unified security model that protects all objects from unauthorized
access. The system maintains security information for:
o Users. System users are people who log on to the system, either interactively by
entering a set of credentials (typically user name and password) or remotely
through the network. Each user’s security context is represented by a logon
session.
o Objects. These are the secured resources (for example, files, computers,
synchronization objects, and applications) that a user can access. - 9 Marks –

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 (b)

- 3 Marks –

6. (a) File system is a structured data representation and a set of metadata that describe the
stored data. File system can not only serve for the purposes of the whole storage but also be
a part of an isolated storage segment – disk partition. Usually the file system operates
blocks, not sectors. File system blocks are groups of sectors that optimize storage
addressing. - 3 Marks –

(b) (I) FAT file system is one of the simplest types of file systems. It consists of file system
descriptor sector (boot sector or superblock), file system block allocation table
(referenced as File Allocation Table) FAT32 is a file system, used on Windows-
compatible external storages or disk partitions with size below 32GB

(II) NTFS (New Technology File System): This is a default file system for disk partitions
and the only file system that is supported for disk partitions over 32GB. The file system
is quite extensible and supports many file properties, including access
control, encryption etc. Each file on NTFS is stored as file descriptor in Master File
Table and file content. Master file table contains all information about the file: size,
allocation, name etc. - 5 Marks –

(c) SEQUENTIAL ACCESS

A sequential access is that in which the records are accessed in some sequence i.e the
information in the file is processed in order, one record after the other. This access method
is the most primitive one. Example: Compilers usually access files in this fashion.
DIRECT/RANDOM ACCESS
Random access file organization provides, accessing the records directly.
Each record has its own address on the file with by the help of which it can be directly
accessed for reading or writing. - 5 Marks –

(d) In Unix use ls command, on window use Window Explorer. - 3 Marks –

(e) The name EEPROM stands for Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory.
These are constructed like EPROMS, but allow the erasing of individual bytes or the
entire memory space electrically without UV light.
There are three special "Enable" pins on the EEPROM: CE (Chip Enable), OE (Output
Enable), and WE (Write Enable). CE simply activates the chip (if CE is not enabled, the
EEPROM will do nothing). keep CE enabled, OE disabled. Next connect its power pins
to a power supply Configure the EEPROM's address and data buses to indicate the byte
you would like to store, and the address you want to store it in.
Set WE low for a moment (assuming it is active-low), then put it high again.
Consider other method also - 4 Marks –