IPA IP 2021 Question 64
A question IPA Japan published in 令和3年度 ITパスポート試験 公開問題 問64, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
Which of the following is a high-speed, small-capacity memory circuit inside the CPU that is used for temporarily storing data related to arithmetic operations and control?
Explanation
Register — the fastest, smallest storage of all, built into the CPU itself.
Registers hold the values the CPU is working on right now: operands and results of calculations (general-purpose registers, the accumulator), the address of the next instruction (program counter) and the instruction being executed (instruction register). Being part of the CPU's circuits, they are faster than cache memory and main memory, but each holds only a word or so of data.
In the memory hierarchy, speed falls and capacity grows in the order: register, cache memory, main memory, SSD or HDD.
Answer (d)
Why not others:
- •(a) GPU — a processor specialised in image processing and parallel computation, not a memory circuit
- •(b) SSD — an auxiliary storage device using flash memory, outside the CPU, large and comparatively slow
- •(c) Main memory — sits outside the CPU and holds the programs and data being run; larger and slower than registers
Key rule: Register, cache, main memory, auxiliary storage: each step away from the CPU is larger and slower.
Computer Component · AI-written, may contain errors
This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.