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?

An instruction pipeline has five stages, namely, instruction fetch $$(IF),$$ instruction decode and register fetch $$(ID/RF)$$ instruction execution $$(EX),$$ memory access $$(MEM),$$ and register writeback $$(WB)$$ with stage latencies $$1$$ ns, $$2.2$$ $$ns,$$ $$2$$ $$ns,$$ $$1$$ $$ns,$$ and $$0.75$$ $$ns,$$ respectively ($$ns$$ stands for nanoseconds). To gain in terms of frequency, the designers have decided to split the $$ID/RF$$ stage into three stages $$(ID, RF1, RF2)$$ each of latency $$2.2/3$$ $$ns,$$ Also, the $$EX$$ stage is split into two stages $$(EX1, EX2)$$ each of latency $$1$$ ns. The new design has a total of eight pipeline stages. A program has $$20$$% branch instructions which execute in the $$EX$$ stage and produce the next instruction pointer at the end of the $$EX$$ stage in the old design and at the end of the $$EX2$$ stage in the new design. The IF stage stalls after fetching a branch instruction until the next instruction pointer is computed. All instructions other than the branch instruction have an average $$CPI$$ of one in both the designs. The execution times of this program on the old and the new design are $$P$$ and $$Q$$ nanoseconds, respectively. The value of $$P/Q$$ is _____________.

Consider an instruction pipeline with five stages without any branch prediction: Fetch Instruction $$(FI),$$ Decode Instruction $$(DI),$$ Fetch Operand $$(FO),$$ Execute Instruction $$(EI)$$ and Write Operand $$(WO).$$ The stage delays for $$FI, DI, FO, EI$$ and $$WO$$ are $$5$$ $$ns,$$ $$7$$ $$ns,$$ $$10$$ $$ns,$$ $$8$$ $$ns$$ and $$6$$ $$ns$$, respectively. There are intermediate storage buffers after each stage and the delay of each buffer is $$1$$ $$ns.$$ A program consisting of $$12$$ instructions $${{\rm I}_1},{{\rm I}_2},{{\rm I}_3},......,\,\,{{\rm I}_{12}}$$ is executed in this pipelined processor. Instruction $${{\rm I}_4}$$ is the only branch instruction and its branch target is $${{\rm I}_9}$$. If the branch is taken during the execution of this program, the time (in $$ns$$) needed to complete the program is

Consider an instruction pipeline with four stages $$\left( {S1,\,S2,\,S3,} \right.$$ and $$\left. {S4} \right)$$ each with combinational circuit only. The pipeline registers are required between each stage and at the end of the last stage. Delays for the stages and for the pipeline registers are as given in the figure.

What is the approximate speed up of the pipeline in steady state under ideal conditions when compared to the corresponding non-pipeline implementation?