A certain microprocessor requires either 2, 3, 4, 8, or 12 machine cycles to perform various operations. Twenty-five percent of its instructions require 2 machine cycles, 20% require 3 machine cycles, 17.5% require 4 machine cycles, 12.5% require 8 machine cycles, and 25% require 12 machine cycles. a) What is the average number of machine cycles per instruction for this microprocessor

The average number of machine cycles per instruction for this microprocessor is 5.8.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the average number of machine cycles per instruction for this microprocessor, we multiply each number of cycles for it's relative frequency.

We have that:

25% require 2 cycles.

20% require 3 cycles.

17.5% require 4 cycles.

12.5% require 8 cycles.

25% require 12 cycles.

So the average number is: