Activities: Review Assembly/Machine Language
and Interpret A Circuit Diagram

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PART 1: Assembly Language and Machine Language (Review)

• Consider the following tasks: (1) adding 100 numbers stored in main memory, and (2) adding a number to itself 100 times. Although both tasks require 100 additions, the second would be executed much more quickly than the first would. Why? (Think about the steps you would need to do to program each of these tasks in assembly/machine language.)
• Describe at least one advantage of assembly languages over machine languages.
• Describe two advantages of high-level language programming over machine language programming.

PART 2: Truth Tables and Circuits

The next two questions refer to the following circuit diagram:

• Provide the Boolean formula (in terms of a and b) for the output z in the circuit diagram above.
• Provide a truth table that shows the inputs a and b and the output z corresponding to the circuit diagram above.

* Some of these questions are taken from A Balanced Introduction to Computer Science, David Reed, 2005.