ITPEC IP April 2019 Question 10

Same architecture, higher clock, faster — with the same instruction set and design, a higher clock frequency executes the same instructions in less time.

The clock frequency is the number of clock cycles per second, and each instruction takes a number of cycles set by the architecture. When two CPUs share the architecture, the cycles per instruction are the same, so the one with the higher clock finishes each instruction sooner and the response time is shorter. Between different architectures the clock alone does not decide speed, because the work done per cycle differs.

Answer (d)

Why not others:

• •(a) — describes virtual memory, which uses auxiliary storage to extend the apparent main memory; cache memory is a small, fast memory that shortens access time, not capacity
• •(b) — the arithmetic and logical function (the ALU) and the control function (the control unit) are separate functions of the CPU; one is not part of the other
• •(c) — the bit width is the amount of data handled at once, and a wider CPU handles more data per instruction, so bit width does affect performance

Key rule: The CPU's two functions are arithmetic/logic and control; clock frequency compares speed only between CPUs of the same architecture.

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