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Test 1 (Oct 12) Review Topics and Questions
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-Ian! D. Allen - idallen@idallen.ca - www.idallen.com

Test format: Short answers, calculations, multiple choice. These review
topics do not cover all the material.

The Big Picture: Bit patterns have no inherent meaning. They may
represent signed integers, unsigned integers, floating point numbers,
or even executable program instructions. The instructions that operate
on the bits give the bits meaning.

Example:  The 32-bit pattern 00111111100000000000000000000000 (3F800000h)
 If you interpret this bit pattern as:
   unsigned -> 1065353216 decimal
   sign/magnitude -> 1065353216 decimal
   two's complement -> 1065353216 decimal
   IEEE 754 SP FP -> 1.0 decimal

Example:  The 32-bit pattern 10111111100000000000000000000000 (BF800000h)
 If you interpret this bit pattern as:
   unsigned -> 3212836864 decimal
   sign/magnitude -> -1065353216 decimal
   two's complement -> -1082130431 decimal
   IEEE 754 SP FP -> -1.0 decimal

Numbers represented in computers have a limited size, hence limited
precision.  Floating point numbers trade away some precision in favour
of greater range.  Though floating-point numbers have a greater range
than integers, the range is not infinite.

 *  Table 1.1 page 5: know the names and decimal and power-of-two
    values of all prefixes from Pico (10**-12, 2**-40) up to Tera
    (10**12, 2**40)
 *  What is Cache, page 10.
 *  Section 1.5.6: Moore's law page 27
 *  Questions p.36: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 21, 24
 *  Exercises p.37: 2, 3, 14

 *  Conversion among all of decimal, binary, octal, hexadecimal.
 *  Unsigned, one's complement, two's complement, sign-magnitude.
 *  Know what is meant by "orders of magnitude" (powers of 10)
 *  What causes carry, overflow.
 *  What flag indicates that an unsigned addition is wrong?
 *  What flag indicates that a two's complement addition is wrong?
 *  Conversions to/from decimal and IEEE 754 SP floating-point.
 *  Differentiate between range, accuracy and precision.
 *  Questions p.93: 1-9, 12, 13, 15-19
 *  Exercises p.94: 1-9, 23, 25