The previous years 4th Semester Computer Organization subject question paper for the Visvesvaraya Technological University required for preparation purpose is as follows:

1
a. What is performance measurement? Explain the overall SPEC rating for the computer in a program suite. (04Marks)

b. List and explain the technological features and devices improvement made during different generations of computers. (08Marks)

c. Mention four types of operations to be performed by instructions in a computer. Explain with basic types of instruction formats to carry out C  [A] + [B]. (08 Marks)

2
a. Define an addressing mode. Explain the following addressing modes, with example: immediate, indirect, index, relative and auto increment. (10Marks)

b. What is a stack frame? Explain a commonly used layout for information in a subroutine stack frame.

c. Explain shift and rotate operations, with example. (10Marks)

3
a. In a situation where multiple devices capable of initiating interrupts are connected to processor, explain the implementation of interrupt priority, using individual INTER and INTA and a common INTR line to all devices. (10Marks)

b. Define the terms ‘cycle stealing’ and ‘block mode’. (02Marks)

c. What is bus arbitration? Explain the different approaches to bus arbitration. (08Marks)

4
a. Explain with a neat block diagram, the hardware components needed for connecting a keyboard to a processor. (08Marks)

b. Briefly discuss the main phases involved in the operation of SCSI bus. (06Marks)

c. Explain the tree structure of USB with split bus operation. (06 Marks)


5
a. Explain the internal organization of a 16 megabit DRAM chip, configured as 2 M X 8 cells.(08Marks)

b. With a block diagram, explain the direct and set associative mapping between cache and main memory. (06Marks)

c. Describe the principles of magnetic disk. (06 Marks)

6
a. Explain with figure the design and working of a 16-bit carry –look –ahead adder built form 4-bit adders. (06Marks)

b. Explain Booth algorithm. Apply Booth algorithm to multiply the signed numbers +13 and –6. (10Marks)

c. Differentiate between restoring and non-restoring division. (04 Marks)

7
a. List out the actions needed to execute the instruction add(R3), R1. Write and explain sequence of control steps for the execution of the same. (10Marks)

b. With a neat block diagram, explain hardwired control unit. Show the generation Zinand End control signals. (10Marks)

8
a. State Amdahl’s law. Suppose a program runs in 100 sec on a computer with multiply operation responsible for 80 sec of this time, how much it requires to improve the speed of multiplication, if the program has to run 5 times faster? Justify your answer (06Marks)

b. Explain the classic organization of a shared –memory multiprocessor. (06Marks)

c. What is hardware multithreading. Explain the different approaches to hardware multithreading. (08 Marks)