Question
Which of the following is/are part of an Instruction Set Architecture of a processor?
Official answer and solution
- Official answer
- D
- From
- Official GATE 2025 answer key
Solution
Distinguish between programmer-visible architectural state (ISA) and hardware implementation details (microarchitecture).
An Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) defines the interface between software and hardware, including the instruction set, data types, addressing modes, and the total number of programmer-visible architectural registers (D). Cache size (A), clock frequency (B), and number of cache levels (C) are microarchitectural/organizational parameters that can vary across implementations of the same ISA.
Option (D)
The answer is the one in the official GATE answer key. The solution is this site's own explanation.
Source
- Paper
- GATE 2025 Computer Science and Information Technology - Session 2 (CS2)
- Question
- 28 of 65
- Section
- Computer Science and Information Technology
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