ITPEC IP April 2025 Question 13

A 64-bit CPU can process a wider data word at once than a 32-bit CPU — the bit designation describes an important native processing width.

With comparable designs, a 64-bit processor has registers and operations capable of handling wider values than a 32-bit processor. This does not guarantee every program will be twice as fast, but the statement about the possible data length per operation is appropriate.

Answer (a)

Why not others:
- (b) is reversed; more useful cache generally reduces slow main-memory accesses
- (c) is reversed for the same architecture; a lower clock frequency means fewer cycles per second
- (d) is reversed; a quad-core CPU has more cores available for simultaneous work than a dual-core CPU

Key rule: CPU performance depends on several factors, including word width, clock rate, cache, architecture, and core count; each metric describes a different capability.

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