For the following data, what is the average number of cycles per instruction?

Operation Frequency Cycles

Arithmetic/logical operations 45% 1

Register load operations 18% 5

Register store operations 10% 2

Unconditional branch instructions 7% 1

Conditional branch instructions 20% 6

A) 3.65

B) 2.82

C) 1.87

D) 2.10

2.82

Explanation:

The computation of the average number of cycles per instruction is shown below:

= Arithmetic/logical operations * frequency cycles + Register load operations * frequency cycles + Register store operations * frequency cycles + Unconditional branch instructions * frequency cycles + Conditional branch instructions * frequency cycles

= 45% * 1 + 18% * 5 + 10% * 2 + 7% * 1 + 20% * 6

= 0.45 + 0.9 + 0.2 + 0.07 + 1.2

= 2.82