NIELIT 2016 MAR Scientist C - Section C: 48

Question

In a microprocessor, WAIT states are used to 

• A. make the processor wait during a DMA operation 
• B. make the processor wait during a power interrupt processing
• C. make the processor wait during a power shutdown
• D. interface slow peripherals to the processor

Answer 1

Option D Should be Correct.

A wait state is a delay experienced by a computer processor when accessing external memory or another device that is slow to respond. Each of the cycles spent waiting is called a wait state. Wait states are a pure waste of a processor's performance

Wait states are a pure waste of a processor's performance. Modern designs try to eliminate or hide them using a variety of techniques: CPU cache, instruction pipelining, instruction pre fetch , branch prediction, simultaneous multithreading and others. No single technique is 100% successful, but together can significantly reduce the problem.