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Electronics Engineering QUESTION #11703
Question 1
The Harvard architecture used in many microcontrollers differs from Von Neumann architecture primarily in that:
  • It uses only 8-bit data buses
  • Program memory and data memory have separate buses allowing simultaneous fetch and execute✔️
  • It does not support interrupts
  • It uses RISC instruction sets exclusively
Correct Answer Explanation
Harvard architecture uses physically separate memory spaces and buses for instructions (program) and data. This allows the CPU to fetch the next instruction while simultaneously reading/writing data memory — a key performance advantage. Von Neumann uses a shared bus, creating the 'Von Neumann bottleneck.' AVR, PIC, and ARM MCUs use modified Harvard architecture.