CPU performance and memory system fundamentals

Answer computer architecture questions: how out-of-order execution works and what limits it, cache organization (associativity, replacement, write policies, coherence), and how the memory system affects performance. Then say how you would make a chip faster without a newer manufacturing process: more parallelism, deeper or wider pipelines, better branch prediction, larger or smarter caches, specialized hardware, and the trade-offs in power and area.