Many high-performance digital signal processors (DSPs) and microcontrollers are designed using a Harvard architecture instead of a traditional Von Neumann architecture.
Which of the following statements correctly describes a defining physical or operational characteristic of a system based on the Harvard architecture?
Instructions and data are stored in separate, physically distinct memory address spaces, allowing the CPU to fetch an instruction and read/write data memory simultaneously.
Instruction words must have the exact same bit-width as data words because both types of information must be multiplexed over a single shared physical data bus.
The Program Counter (PC) is eliminated, and instruction memory addresses are stored directly within the Memory Address Register (MAR) during the entire Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.
A single shared physical memory unit is partitionable by software into virtual zones, preventing instruction execution from occurring in the data segment to eliminate the Von Neumann bottleneck.
Systems architecture Questions
Practise AQA GCSE Computer Science Systems architecture with exam-style questions for GCSE Computer Science. 42 questions, matched to the AQA GCSE Computer Science (8525) specification and written in Paper 1 and Paper 2 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.