1ALU
Performs arithmetic, logical, and comparison operations
2Control Unit (CU)
Controls and coordinates all CPU operations
3Program Counter (PC)
Holds the address of the next instruction
4Instruction Register (IR)
Stores the current instruction
5Accumulator (ACC)
Stores intermediate results
6Instruction Cycle
The step-by-step process the CPU follows to execute a program
7Fetch
Retrieves the instruction from memory using the Program Counter
8Decode
The Control Unit interprets the instruction and determines the operation and operands
9Execute
The ALU performs the required operation
10Pipelining
Overlaps multiple instructions during execution to increase throughput
11Pipeline Hazards
Data hazard, control hazard, and structural hazard
12Superscalar Execution
Executes two or more instructions per clock cycle
13Memory Hierarchy
Registers → Cache → Main Memory → Secondary Storage
14Registers
Fastest and smallest storage in the memory hierarchy
15Cache
Small high-speed memory between the CPU and RAM that stores frequently used data
16L1 Cache
Fastest and smallest cache level
17Main Memory
Volatile memory that stores currently running programs
18Secondary Storage
Long-term non-volatile storage such as HDD and SSD
19Von Neumann Architecture
Uses one memory and one bus for both instructions and data
20Harvard Architecture
Uses separate memories and buses for instructions and data
21Modified Harvard Architecture
Architecture used by most modern systems according to the lesson
22Access Time
Time required to read or write data from memory
23Latency
Delay between a request and the start of data transfer
24Cache Hit Rate
Percentage of memory requests successfully found in cache
25Miss Rate
1 minus the cache hit rate
26AMAT
Average Memory Access Time
272's Complement
Important in performing binary arithmetic operations
28Binary Arithmetic
Binary addition and subtraction used in computer systems and digital devices