International Baccalaureate IB Computer Science

- The architecture that allows graphics processing units (GPUs) to handle specific tasks and makes them suitable for complex computations
- Real‑world scenarios may include video games, artificial intelligence (AI), large simulations and other applications that require graphics rendering and machine learning.

Explain the differences between the CPU and the GPU. (HL only)
- Differences in their design philosophies, usage scenarios
- Differences in their core architecture, processing power, memory access, power efficiency
- CPUs and GPUs working together: task division, data sharing, coordinating execution.

Explain the purposes of different types of primary memory.
- Random‑access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), cache (L1, L2, L3), registers
- The interaction of the CPU with different types of memory to optimise performance
- The relevance of the terms “cache miss” and “cache hit”.

Describe the fetch, decode and execute cycle.
- The basic operations a CPU performs to execute a single instruction in machine language
- The interaction between memory and registers via the three buses: address, data, control.

Describe internal and external types of secondary memory storage.
- Internal hard drives: solid state drive (SSD), hard disk drive (HDD), embedded multimedia cards (eMMCs)
- External hard drives: SSD, HDD, optical drives, flash drives, memory cards, network attached storage (NAS)
- The scenarios in which the various types of drive are used.