Problem 1. A computer with a 5-stage pipeline like the one described in class deals with conditional branches by stalling for the next three cycles, so that it knows which branch to take. How much does stalling hurt the performance, if 20% of all instructions are conditional branches

The correct answer to the following question will be "0.625".

Explanation:

Amount of clock cycles required for subsidiary conditional guidance

= 1+3

= 4

Probability of component instruction with condition

= 0.2

Amount of clock cycles required for further guidance

= 1

Probability of a particular command

= 0.8

Normal duration of the clock

= 0.2*4+1*0.8

= 0.8+0.8

= 1.6 clocks

Median number of instructions per clock

= 1/1.6

= 0.625

Slow down

= 0.625/1

= 0.625