A computer system of interest has a CPU with a clock cycle time of 0.5 ns. Machine language instruction types for this system include integer addition/subtraction/logic instructions that require one clock cycle to be executed, data transfer instructions that average two clock cycles to be executed, control transfer instructions that average three clock cycles to be executed, floating-point arithmetic instructions that average ve clock cycles to be executed, and input/output instructions that average two clock cycles to be executed.

a. Suppose you are a marketing executive who wants to hype the performance of this system. Determine its peak MIPS rating for use in your advertisements.

b. Suppose you have acquired this system and want to estimate its performance when running a particular program. You analyze the compiled code for this program and determine that it consists of 40% data transfer instructions; 35% integer addition, subtraction, and logical instructions; 15% control transfer instructions;

and 10% I/O instructions. What MIPS rating do you expect the system to achieve when running this program?

c. Suppose you are considering purchasing this system to run a variety of programs using mostly floating-point arithmetic. Of the widely used benchmark suites discussed in this chapter, which would be the best to use in comparing this system to others you are considering?

d. What does MFLOPS stand for? Estimate this system’s MFLOPS rating. Justify your answer with reasoning and calculations.