1. What does SPARC stand for?
a) scalable processor architecture
b) speculating architecture
c) speculating processor
d) scaling Pentium architecture
Explanation: SPARC was designed for optimizing compilers and easily pipelined hardware implementations and it can license by anyone that is, having a nonproprietary architecture which is used to develop various microprocessors.
2. How many bits does SPARC have?
a) 8
b) 16
c) 32
d) 64
Explanation: It is a 32 bit RISC architecture having 32-bit wide register bank
3. Which company developed SPARC?
a) intel
b) IBM
c) Motorola
d) sun microsystem
Explanation: SPARC is developed by Sun Microsystem but different manufacturers from other companies like Intel, Texas worked on it.
4. What improves the context switching and parameter passing?
a) register windowing
b) large register
c) stack register
d) program counter
Explanation: SPARC follows Berkeley architecture model and uses register windowing in order to improve the context switching and parameter passing. It also supports superscalar operations.
5. How many external interrupts does SPARC processor support?
a) 5
b) 10
c) 15
d) 20
Explanation: SPARC processor provides 15 external interrupts which are generated by the interrupt lines IRL0-IRL3.
6. Which level is an in-built nonmaskable interrupt in SPARC processor?
a) 15
b) 14
c) 13
d) 12
Explanation:The level 15 of the SPARC processor is assigned to be a nonmaskable interrupt and the remaining 14 levels are unmasked and if necessary they can be made maskable.
7. How many instructions does SPARC processor have?
a) 16
b) 32
c) 64
d) 128
Explanation: The instruction set of SPARC processor have 64 instructions which can be accessed by load and store operation with a RISC architecture.
8. What is generated by an external interrupt in SPARC?
a) internal trap
b) external trap
c) memory trap
d) interfaced trap
Explanation: In SPARC when an external interrupt is generated, an internal trap is created in the trap base register in which the current and next instructions are saved, the pipeline gets flushed and the processor turns into a supervisor mode.
9. When an external interrupt is generated, what type of mode does the processor supports?
a) real mode
b) virtual mode
c) protected mode
d) supervisor mode
Explanation: In SPARC when an external interrupt is called, it creates an internal trap in which the current and next instructions get saved and mode of the processor switches to supervisor mode.
10. Where is trap vector table located in SPARC processor?
a) program counter
b) Y register
c) status register
d) trap base register
Explanation:The trap vector table is located in the trap base register which supplies the address of the service routine. When it is completed REIT instructions are executed.