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A quiz for a slow Sunday afternoon

the one that was about CPU clock speed being how fast it can process instructions, which as we know in modern processors more Gigahertz doesn't always more IPC
 
PanMaster said:
The quiz is wrong.
"The smallest wire on a chip is measured in microns. Current chips have wires that are less than one micron wide, while a human hair is about 100 microns thick. "

We use nanometers now and I thought human hair was 50microns thick. Edit yes it.
Click to expand...

I do remember a couple of borderline questions, and when the questions were made.
 
bru said:
the one that was about CPU clock speed being how fast it can process instructions, which as we know in modern processors more Gigahertz doesn't always more IPC
Click to expand...

While that's true, the classic CS answer is that clock speed affects the number of instructions per second that can be processed. Indeed, given a 2GHz chip and a 3GHz variant of the same chip, both running flat-out, clearly the 3GHz one will process more instructions per second.

Of course, if you add different architectures into the mix, differing amounts of cache and cores it'll screw things up, but at the basic level a chip running faster will process more instructions. That's certainly what was taught at the turn of the century in schools and universities, even though back then there were a multitude of different chip architectures and even some dual-core chips from the likes of IBM's Power architecture. The answer in the quiz would have been the correct one to give if the question came up in an exam, although writing the disclaimer about like-for-like comparison would have been a good idea too!
 
24, half my correct answers were complete guesses, do i win a prize?

If anyone needs some CPU advice you know who to shout. :)
 
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my girlfriend (who's computer knowledge stems from making exasperated noises whenever she comes home to see me with a PC in pieces in the lounge) mangaged to score 24 for a bit of perspective (although it is multiple choice with a 33% chance of lucking out!)
 
PanMaster said:
The quiz is wrong.
"The smallest wire on a chip is measured in microns. Current chips have wires that are less than one micron wide, while a human hair is about 100 microns thick. "

We use nanometers now and I thought human hair was 50microns thick. Edit yes it.
Click to expand...

Was going to say the same. Microns are still used for die size and even cell size but really for feature size we've talked in nanometres since 90nm ... though, the tech files still tend to use microns as standard unit so you claim it's all still microns.

Anyway, I got 33 ... became a bit blasé half way through and misread a couple of questions and got the wrong.

Also one question claimed AMD manufacture computer chips ... they span out their manufacturing into global foundries years ago so they are now effectively fabless ... and then their idea of what buses are used for is somewhat limited!
 
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