Consider a non-pipelined processor with a clock rate of 2.5 gigahertz and average cycles per instruction of four. The same processor is upgraded to a pipelined processor with five stages; but due to the internal pipeline delay, the clock speed is reduced to 2 gigahertz. Assume that there are no stalls in the pipeline. The speed up achieved in this pipelined processor is_________.

Consider the following reservation table for a pipeline having three stages $${S_1},{S_2}$$ and $${S_3}.$$

The minimum average latency $$(MAL)$$ is ________.

Consider the sequence of machine instructions given below:

MUL	R5, R0, R1
DIV	R6, R2, R3
ADD	R7, R5, R6
SUB	R8, R7, R4

In the above sequence, $$R0$$ to $$R8$$ are general purpose registers. In the instructions shown, the first register stores the result of the operation performed on the second and the third registers. This sequence of instructions is to be executed in a pipelined instruction processor with the following $$4$$ stages: $$(1)$$ Instruction Fetch and Decode $$(IF), (2)$$ Operand Fetch $$(OF), (3)$$ Perform Operation $$(PO)$$ and $$(4)$$ Write back the result $$(WB).$$ The $$IF,$$ $$OF$$ and $$WB$$ stages take $$1$$ clock cycle each for any instruction. The $$PO$$ stage takes $$1$$ clock cycle for $$ADD$$ or $$SUB$$ instruction, $$3$$ clock cycles for $$MUL$$ instruction and $$5$$ clock cycles for $$DIV$$ instruction. The pipelined processor uses operand forwarding from the $$PO$$ stage to the $$OF$$ stage. The number of clock cycles taken for the execution of the above sequence of instructions is _______________________ .

Consider the following processors ($$ns$$ stands for nanoseconds). Assume that the pipeline registers have zero latency.
$$P1:$$ Four-stage pipeline with stage latencies $$1$$ $$ns,$$ $$2$$ $$ns,$$ $$2$$ $$ns,$$ $$1$$ $$ns.$$
$$P2:$$ Four-stage pipeline with stage latencies $$1$$ $$ns,$$ 1$$.5$$ $$ns,$$ $$1.5$$ $$ns,$$ $$1.5$$ $$ns.$$
$$P3:$$ Five-stage pipeline with stage latencies $$0.5$$ $$ns,$$ $$1$$ $$ns,$$ $$1$$ $$ns,$$ $$0.6$$ $$ns,$$ $$1$$ $$ns.$$
$$P4:$$ Five-stage pipeline with stage latencies $$0.5$$ $$ns,$$ $$0.5$$ $$ns,$$ $$1$$ $$ns,$$ $$1$$ $$ns,$$ $$1.1$$ $$ns.$$

Which processor has the highest peak clock frequency?