ITPEC FE Morning April 2021 Question 13
Which of the following is a computer system or architecture where the CPU sequentially reads and executes the programs that are stored in the main memory?
Explanation
Stored program architecture — the program is kept in main memory with the data, and the CPU fetches and executes its instructions one after another.
In the stored program (von Neumann) architecture, instructions are data in main memory. The CPU repeats a cycle: fetch the instruction at the address in the program counter, decode it, execute it, and move on to the next. Changing the program means loading different contents into memory, not rewiring the machine.
Answer (c)
Why not others:
- •(a) Addressing system — how an instruction specifies the address of its operand (immediate, direct, indirect, indexed), not how programs are executed
- •(b) DMA control architecture — lets an I/O device transfer data to and from main memory without passing it through the CPU
- •(d) Virtual memory system — lets programs use an address space larger than main memory by paging parts of it to auxiliary storage
Key rule: The stored program concept is what makes a computer general-purpose: the program lives in memory and is fetched and executed sequentially.
Computer Component · AI-written, may contain errors
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