Final answer:
The program counter holds the memory address of the next instruction. A branch instruction may not be able to reach a far address, while a j instruction can directly jump to a given target address. In this case, it is possible to use a j instruction to jump to address 0x00000020.
Step-by-step explanation:
In computer architecture, the program counter (PC) holds the memory address of the next instruction to be executed. In this case, the program counter value is given as 0x24924924 or 00100100100100100100100100100100 in binary. To determine if it is possible to use a branch instruction or a j instruction to jump to a specific address, we need to check if the target address is within the range of the instruction format.
A branch instruction is typically used to branch to addresses within a small range, specified as a signed offset from the current instruction's address. Since 0x00000020 is located far from the current address, it is unlikely that a branch instruction could be used to reach it.
On the other hand, a j instruction, also known as a jump instruction, can be used to directly jump to a given target address. It uses the 26 most significant bits of the target address and concatenates them with the two most significant bits of the program counter to form the new address. Therefore, it is possible to use a j instruction to jump to address 0x00000020.