ITPEC IP April 2023 Question 12

Different processing on each core at the same time, raising the throughput of the whole system — a multi-core processor has several complete processing units in one CPU.

Each core fetches and executes instructions on its own. The OS assigns different programs or threads to different cores, which run them simultaneously, so more work finishes per unit of time without raising the clock frequency. The gain depends on how much of the work can run in parallel.

Answer (a)

Why not others:

• •(b) — running the same processing several times and comparing the results is a redundant configuration such as a dual system, aimed at reliability; multi-core aims at throughput
• •(c) — the OS must support multiple cores (multiprocessor scheduling) to hand work to each of them; an OS unaware of the extra cores uses only one
• •(d) — throughput also depends on the clock frequency of each core, and on how much of the work can be divided among the cores

Key rule: Multi-core raises throughput through parallel execution, which needs OS support and divisible work; the speed of each core still counts as much as the number of cores.

Computer Component · AI-written, may contain errors