ECEn 424 Review Topics: Chapter 2
ECEn 424 Review Topics: Chapter 2
- How does one convert between binary, hex, and decimal number
representations?
- How does one determine the word size of a computer?
- What does it mean for a computer to be little endian or
big endian and under what circumstances does this matter
to a programmer?
- Important C basics:
- What are pointers, and how are they declared and used?
- How are strings represented?
- What bit-level, logical, and shift operations does C provide?
- What integral data types does C support?
- What floating-point (FP) data types does C support?
- What encodings are used for the integral and FP data types and
what range of values can be represented?
- What happens numerically when you convert between all
combinations of supported data types?
- What are the rules of implicit type conversion?
- What numerical outcomes are signaled as errors by the hardware
and/or runtime system?
- How can bit vectors be used to represent finite sets?
- What are the general properties of integer arithmetic using a
finite number of bits?
- What sequence of operations might be used to replace an integer
multiply operation, and under what circumstances might the
multi-instruction sequence be faster?
- Under what circumstances can an integer divide instruction be
replaced by simpler instructions, and when must a bias be added
to the dividend?
- IEEE FP basics:
- In general, how is a value represented using the sign bit, the
significand, and the exponent?
- How does one distinguish between normalized, denormalized, and
special values?
- What is the problem of rounding and what options exist
for dealing with it?
- What properties hold for FP multiplication and division?
- What floating-point data types are available in C?
- What rules are followed in C when casting values between int,
long, float and double formats?
- Self test: Can you complete all practice problems in Chapter 2?
Updated for 3rd Edition of CS:APP