ECE243 Practice Question Website


Main Assembly Programming Input/Output Memory Computer Architecture Advanced Topics

Memory Questions





Question 3

A memory system has the following performance characteristics:

Cache Tag Check time: 1ns
Cache Read Time: 1ns
Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Memory Access time (Time to start memory operation): 10 ns
Memory Transfer time: 1ns/memory word
Memory Word: 16 bytes

The processor is pipelined and has a clock cycle of 500 MHz. The memory operation occupies one stage in the pipeline. If it takes longer, the pipeline is stalled.

If a memory operation hits in the cache, does it stall the pipeline?

Answer

No

Full Solution

No (takes 2 nsec as well)