Chapter 1, Problem 28RQ

Explanation of Solution

Importance of von Neumann bottleneck:

As we know that modern computers run on von Neumann architecture. Von Neumann Architecture uses a single memory to store data as well as programs and a processor to perform computations. Data and instructions flow from the memory to processor for computation and later the result is transferred back to the memory. But the problem here is that there is a single bus for transfer for instructions and data to the processor.

This greatly reduces the throughput of the processor as the processor has to remain idle for most of its time waiting for the data from the memory. This problem is popularly known as von Neumann bottleneck. Even though in recent years there has been significant increase in the processor speed, but it just means that the processor will remain idle for more time. There have been improvements in the memory density...