Question

A certain microprocessor requires either 2, 3, 4, 8, or 12 machine cycles to perform various operations. Twenty-five percent of its instructions require 2 machine cycles, 20% require 3 machine cycles, 17.5% require 4 machine cycles, 12.5% require 8 machine cycles, and 25% require 12 machine cycles. a) What is the average number of machine cycles per instruction for this microprocessor

Answer 1

Answer:

The average number of machine cycles per instruction for this microprocessor is 5.8.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the average number of machine cycles per instruction for this microprocessor, we multiply each number of cycles for it's relative frequency.

We have that:

25% require 2 cycles.

20% require 3 cycles.

17.5% require 4 cycles.

12.5% require 8 cycles.

25% require 12 cycles.

So the average number is:

$M = 0.25*2 + 0.2*3 + 0.175*4 + 0.125*8 + 0.25*12 = 5.8$