Question Detail: I’ve been struggling with this problem for quite a while now and every explanation I have managed to find doesn’t seem to correctly solve it. We have the language L = {$ { a^{2^n} | n ge 0 } Read More …
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Retrieving the shortest path of a dynamic graph
Question Detail: I’m studying shortest paths in directed graphs currently. There are many efficient algorithms for finding the shortest path in a network, like dijkstra’s or bellman-ford’s. But what if the graph is dynamic? By saying dynamic I mean that we Read More …
Word- or byte-addressable? Correct terminology
Question Detail: Seemingly, a byte has established itself to be 8bit (is that correct?). RAM and NOR-flash can be normally accessed on a quite granular level, but it is up to the system architecture to determine if the smallest addressable unit Read More …
Calculating miss rates of word-addressable and direct-mapped cache
Question Detail: This a problem in a computer architecture course that’s giving me some trouble: You have an application whose memory access pattern is a stream and its entire data set is 128kB. The data cache in your machine has a Read More …
What is the significance of reverse polish notation?
Question Detail: I teach computing to 18 year olds. After having reverse polish notation explained to them one asked why is it significant enough to be in the public exam. I explained the historical significance of 70s calculators but this failed Read More …
Why did MIPS include shamt and distinguish funct/opcode?
Question Detail: I’m confused as to why the MIPS designers would include 5 bits dedicated to shifting and have separate opcode and function bits. Because MIPS is so RISC I assume that only shifting would be done in a few instructions, Read More …
Nim game tree + minimax
Question Detail: Problem : Two players have in front of them a single pile of objects, say a stack of 7 pennies. The first player divides the original stack into two stacks that must be unequal. Each player alternatively thereafter Read More …
Is search a binary heap operation?
Question Detail: According to the Wikipedia page, search is “not an operation” on binary heaps (see complexity box at top-right). Why not? Binary heaps may not be sorted, but they are ordered, and a full graph traversal can find any object Read More …
Memory Consistency vs Cache Coherence
Question Detail: Is it true that Sequential Consistency is a stronger property than Cache Coherence? According to Sorin, Daniel J; Hill, Mark D; Wood, David A: A Primer on Memory Consistency and Cache Coherence, Morgan & Claypool, 2011 sequential consistency can Read More …
Union of regular languages that is not regular
Question Detail: I’ve come across that question : “Give examples of two regular languages which their union doesn’t output a regular language. “ This is pretty shocking to me because I believe that regular languages are closed under union. Which means Read More …