Computer Architecture & Organization

Assignment # 2
BS (CS), 4th Semester

Note the following:

1. All questions should be attempted by each individual student and copy/paste is strictly
prohibited. Those who do not follow the instructions, will be marked zero in their
respective assignments.
2. As this is part of semester course assessment’s, it should be submitted through LMS only
and within due date. Assignment submitted after the deadline will not be accepted nor
graded.
3. Answer the questions in your own neat handwriting and scan & submit it through LMS.

Q1. Assume a computer has 32 bit addresses. Each block stores 16 words. A direct-mapped cache
has 256 blocks. In which block (line) of the cache would we look for each of the following
addresses? Addresses are given in hexadecimal for convenience.
a. 1A2BC012
b. FFFF00FF
c. 12345678
d. C109D532

Q2. Briefly explain the followings:

a. Explain the stored-program concept?
b. Explain types of Locality of Reference in connection to Cache Memory?
c. What is virtual memory? Explain the need for virtual memory.
d. What are the main differences between a multi-processor system and a multi-computer
system?
e. In a shared memory system, explain two schemes to maintain cache-coherence?