The FDE cycle

The FDE cycle

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. In this lesson, we will extend our knowledge of the components that make up the CPU by introducing the fetch-decode-execute cycle (FDE). We will observe a program running and will connect the parts of the CPU to their role in executing instructions.

Licence

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4 Questions

Q1.
Von Neumann architecture requires which parts of a computer program to be stored in memory?
Correct answer: Instructions and data
Just data
Just instructions
Neither instructions nor data
Q2.
Which part of the CPU controls the components and manages the instructions to be executed?
Arithmetic Logic Unit
Buses
Clock
Correct answer: Control unit
Q3.
Which component carries data around the CPU?
Arithmetic Logic Unit
Correct answer: Buses
Clock
Registers
Q4.
What are the small memory locations located within the CPU called?
Buses
RAM
Correct answer: Registers
ROM

5 Questions

Q1.
During the fetch stage of the FDE cycle, where are the instructions fetched from?
A memory stick
Current instruction register
Hard-drive
Correct answer: RAM
Q2.
What does a processor need to do to a binary instruction after it is fetched?
Check for viruses
Convert it to hexadecimal
Correct answer: Decode it
Store it
Q3.
During the execute stage, which CPU component tells the other components what to do?
ALU
Clock
Correct answer: Control Unit
Registers
Q4.
At which stage are results stored in the Accumulator?
Decode
Correct answer: Execute
Fetch
None of them
Q5.
What does the program counter do during the fetch stage?
Counts how long the fetch takes
Correct answer: Increases by 1
Nothing
Stores the next instruction

Lesson appears in

UnitComputing / Computer Systems

Computing