0984
Computer Architecture
Hardware · 4 question types
Exam Frequency Analysis
Past paper frequency (2018 to 2024)
This topic accounts for approximately 7% of your exam marks.
stable
Low
Stable7%
The fetch-decode-execute cycle and von Neumann architecture are tested almost every year.
The carries out every arithmetic operation and every logical comparison required by the program.
Arithmetic operations include:
- Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division
- Increment (add 1), decrement (subtract 1)
Logical operations include:
- Comparisons such as "is X greater than 5?", "is A equal to B?"
- Bitwise operations such as AND, OR, NOT
A modern ALU can perform billions of these basic operations per second, and the result of each one is usually stored in the register (covered in section 5).