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Prepare for the WGU C952 Computer Architecture Midterm Exam with this comprehensive study guide featuring practice questions, verified answers, and detailed explanations covering the most important computer architecture concepts. This resource reviews processor architecture, instruction set architecture (ISA), CPU organization, memory hierarchy, cache memory, pipelining, assembly language, binary arithmetic, logic gates, input/output systems, performance optimization, and computer organization principles commonly assessed in the course. Updated for 2026–2027, this exam preparation guide is ideal for Western Governors University C952 students seeking to strengthen their understanding of computer architecture and improve their performance on the midterm exam.
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WGU C952 Midterm EXAM Questions with 100% Correct Answers | Verified | Updated (Actual Exam) 2026 2027 Graded A+ A state element that consists of a set of registers that can be read and written by supplying a register number to be accessed. provides 1024 scalar 32-bit registers for up to 64 threads. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Register File
The language made up of binary-coded instructions that is used directly by the computer - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-machine language The set of programs that enables a computer's hardware devices and application software to work together; it includes the operating system and utility programs. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-system software (computer science) software that controls the execution of computer programs and may provide various services - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-operating system Programming language that has the same structure and set of commands as machine languages but allows programmers to use symbolic representations of numeric machine code. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Assembly Language
Multiple DRAMs are used together to contain the instructions and data of a program. In contrast to sequential access memories, such as magnetic tapes, the RAM portion of the term DRAM means that memory accesses take basically the same amount of time no matter what portion of the memory is read. Modern DRAMS consist of rows in each bank - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) A portion of RAM containing a bitmap that drives a video display. It is a memory buffer containing a complete frame of data. The image to be represented onscreen is stored in the frame buffer, and the bit pattern per pixel is read out to the graphics display at the refresh rate.
The animation below shows a frame buffer with a simplified design of just 4 bits per pixel. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-frame buffering The component of the processor that performs arithmetic operations - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Datapath The component of the processor that commands the datapath, memory, and I/O devices according to the instructions of the program. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔- Control Also called a chip. A device combining dozens to millions of transistors. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔- Integrated circuit Also called processor. The active part of the computer, which contains the datapath and control and which adds numbers, tests numbers, signals I/O
Storage, such as DRAM, that retains data only if it is receiving power. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Volatile memory A form of memory that retains data even in the absence of a power source and that is used to store programs between runs. A DVD disk is nonvolatile. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Nonvolatile Memory Also called hard disk. A form of nonvolatile secondary memory composed of rotating platters coated with a magnetic recording material. Because they are rotating mechanical devices, access times are about 5 to 20 milliseconds and cost per gigabyte in 2012 was $0.05 to $0.10 - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔- Magnetic disk Also called primary memory. Memory used to hold programs while they are running; typically consists
of DRAM in today's computers. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔- Main memory Nonvolatile memory used to store programs and data between runs; typically consists of flash memory in PMDs and magnetic disks in servers. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Secondary memory A nonvolatile semiconductor memory. It is cheaper and slower than DRAM but more expensive per bit and faster than magnetic disks. Access times are about 5 to 50 microseconds and cost per gigabyte in 2012 was $0.75 to $1.00. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Flash memory A uniprocessor - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Single Instruction Single Data (SISD)
When a planned instruction cannot execute in the proper clock cycle because the hardware does not support the combination of instructions that are set to execute. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Structural hazard Technique that allows the CPU to work on more than one instruction at a time Formula total process time = [longest task * (total load - 1)] + total load time - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Pipelining Requires register file and the ALU. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-R-format ALU operations The register that contains the address of the next instruction to be executed - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔- Program Counter (PC)
The minimum unit of information that can be either present or not present in a cache. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Block (or line) The fraction of memory accesses found in a level of the memory hierarchy. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Hit rate The fraction of memory accesses not found in a level of the memory hierarchy - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔- Miss rate The time required to fetch a block into a level of the memory hierarchy from the lower level, including the time to access the block, transmit it from one level to the other, insert it in the level that experienced the miss, and then pass the block to the requestor. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-miss penalty
The time required to access a level of the memory hierarchy, including the time needed to determine whether the access is a hit or a miss. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Hit time consist of dividing a program into separate components that run in parallel on individual computers in the cluster - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔- Parallelization Technique primarily associated with hardware. Functional units (ALU, Floating Point Unit, Load/Store Unit) are duplicated in the pipeline of a superscalar processor which allows the hardware to issue multiple instructions to each unit simultaneously. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-superscalar
Varying system memory access times, because of system hardware. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) A technique to get more performance from loops that access arrays, in which multiple copies of the loop body are made and instructions from different iterations are scheduled together. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-loop unrolling a failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it can help reduce cache miss rate - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔- Blocking A cache that has a fixed number of locations (at least two) where each block can be placed. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Set Associative Cache
Disk Striping. Disk striping requires at least two drives. It does not provide redundancy to data. If any one drive fails, all data is lost. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-RAID 0 (Disk Striping) Two drives are used in unison, and all data is written to both drives, giving you a mirror or extra copy of the data, in the case that one drive fails - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-RAID 1 (mirroring) Bit-level striping with dedicated Hamming-code parity. OBSOLETE. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-RAID 2 Byte-level striping with dedicated parity. OBSOLETE, replaced with RAID 5. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-RAID 3
Also called architecture. An abstract interface between the hardware and the lowest-level software that encompasses all the information necessary to write a machine language program that will run correctly, including instructions, registers, memory access, I/O, and so on - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) The user portion of the instruction set plus the operating system interfaces used by application programmers. It defines a standard for binary portability across computers. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔- Application Binary Interface (ABI) An on/off switch controlled by an electric signal - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-Transistor
A device containing hundreds of thousands to millions of transistors. - ✔✔ANSWER ✔✔-very large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuit A natural element that is a semiconductor
