Clemson University -- CPSC 231 -- Fall 2007 -- Study Guide for Final Exam


The final is cumulative as defined by previous study guides along with
material in chapters 11 and 13 as covered in Fall 2007.


1. Be able to define and discuss these terms:

        binary fraction         scaled numbers (fixed-point numbers)

        floating point          exponent
        fraction                hidden bit
        significand             bias notation (e.g., excess-127)
        rounding                cancellation of approx. equal numbers
        flt. pt. addition       flt. pt. multiplication

2. Be able to explain why computations with real numbers (i.e., floating
   point) can sometimes experience errors.  Why does the cancellation of
   approximately equal numbers tend to magnify any representation and/or
   roundoff errors?



----- did not get to the material below in Fall 2007; will not be on exam -----



3. Be able to define and discuss these terms:

        locality of reference   cache
        cache hit               cache miss

        virtual memory          physical memory
        virtual address         physical address
        address translation     TLB (translation lookaside buffer)
        page / segment fault

        binding                 static binding
        dynamic binding         lazy evaluation / just-in-time
        binding time(s)

4. Be able to explain why one memory access pattern is better than another;
   e.g., why do different matrix multiply algorithms have such varied
   performance?

5. Be able to identify various naming tables in hardware and software that
   support some type of dynamic binding.