Structural hazards - computer architecture:

A structural hazard takes place when a part of the processor's hardware is required by 2 or more than two instructions at the same time. A structural hazard might take place, for example, if a program were to execute a branch instruction which is followed by a computation instruction. Because they are executed in parallel manner, and because branching is very slow (needing a comparison between program counter-related computation, and writing to registers), it is possible (depending on the architecture) that the both computation and the branch instruction will need the ALU (arithmetic logic unit) at the identical time.

When a machine is pipelined then overlapped execution of instructions needs pipelining of functional units and duplication of resources to permit all possible combinations of instructions in the pipeline.

If some particular combination of instructions can't be accommodated because of a resource conflict, the machine is denoting to have a structural hazard.

Common examples of structural hazards arise when Some functional unit is not completely pipelined. Then a sequence of instructions by using that un pipelined unit can't be proceed ahead at the rate of 1 per clock cycle

 Some resource has not been duplicated adequate to permit all combinations of instructions in the pipeline to execute.

 

 

Posted Date: 10/13/2012 4:14:18 AM | Location : United States

Ask an Expert

Related Discussions:- Structural hazards - computer architecture, Assignment Help, Ask Question on Structural hazards - computer architecture, Get Answer, Expert's Help, Structural hazards - computer architecture Discussions

Write discussion on Structural hazards - computer architecture
Your posts are moderated

Write your message here..

Related Questions

Explain implementation techniques, Explain Implementation techniques Im... Explain Implementation techniques Implementation techniques(e.g. remote invocation, HTTP). An event-based cooperation can be executed using message passing or it can  be based

Evidence of intelligent behavior - artificial intelligence, Evidence of int... Evidence of intelligent behavior - Artificial Intelligence: Machines mean they could simply be personal computers, or they could be robots with embedded automative systems, or

Elements of composition, The Elements of composition are the formal languag... The Elements of composition are the formal language used to communicate in the visual arts. The elements of composition can be loosely broken into 5 main elements, Line, shape, val

What is hyper-threading, Hyper-threading officially known as Hyper-threadin... Hyper-threading officially known as Hyper-threading Technology (HTT) is Intel's trademark for their functioning of simultaneous multithreading technology on Pentium 4 micro-archite

Difference between field-group header and other field groups, What is the d... What is the difference between field-group header and other field groups? The header field group is a particular field group for the sort criteria.  The system automatically p

.., 1mechanism of artificial satellite 1mechanism of artificial satellite

Uninformed search strategies - artificial intelligence, Uninformed Search S... Uninformed Search Strategies: To be able to undertake an unaware search, there is really important that the entire agent needs to know is the primary state, then the possible

Flow charts, n=(x*2)/(1=0) the value x=0 and is used to stop the algerithin... n=(x*2)/(1=0) the value x=0 and is used to stop the algerithin.The calculation is repeated using values of x=0 is input. There is only a need to check for error positions. The va

Explain grade of service with reference to telephone traffic, With referenc... With reference to telephone traffic, explain the terms GOS. GOS: in loss systems, the traffic carried through the network is usually lower than the actual traffic offered to

Why data bus is bidirectional, Why data bus is bidirectional and address bu... Why data bus is bidirectional and address bus is unidirectional in most microprocessors? The data bus is bidirectional because the data bus has to transfer data among the CPU a