Faculty of Computing, Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University

Chapter One
Introduction

Computer Organization and Architecture

Why Study Computer Organization and Architecture?

 To be a professional in any field of computing today, one should not regard the computer just
as a black box that executes programs by magic.
 Students need to understand computer architecture in order to structure a program so that it
runs more efficiently on a real machine.

In describing computers, a distinction is often made between computer architecture And

computer organization.
Computer architecture refers to those attributes of a system visible to a programmer or those
attributes that have a direct impact on the logical execution of a program.

Examples of architectural attributes include:

> Instruction set

> Number of bits used to represent various data types (e.g. numbers, characters)
> I/O mechanisms
> Memory addressing techniques

Computer organization refers to the operational units and their interconnections that
realize the architectural specifications.

Examples of organizational attributes are transparent to programmer, such as:

> Control signals

> Interfaces between the computer and peripherals
> Memory technology being used

As an example:

> The fact that a multiply instruction is available is a computer architecture issue.
> How that multiply is implemented is a computer organization issue.

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 Many computer manufacturers offer a family of computer models all with the same
architecture.

 All Intel x86 family share the same basic architecture.

 The IBM System/370 family share the same basic architecture.

> This gives compatibility for new models.

 Organization differs between different versions with changing technology.

Structure and Function

 Modern computers contain millions of electronic components.

 The key to describe such systems is to recognize their hierarchical nature.

 A hierarchical system is a set of layers or levels of interrelated subsystems.

 The designer need only deal with a particular level of the system at a time.

 At each level, the system consists of a set of components and their interrelationships.

 The behavior at each level depends only on a simplified, abstracted characterization of

the system at the next lower level.

 At each level, the designer is concerned with:

> Structure: The way in which components relate to each other (interrelated).
> Function: The operation of each individual components as part of the structure.

 We will usually describe systems from the top-down, instead of bottom-up.

Function
There are only four basic functions that a computer can perform

 Data processing: Data may take a wide variety of forms, and the range of processing
equirements is broad. However, we shall see that there are only a few fundamental methods
or types of data processing.

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 Data storage: Even if the computer is processing data on the fly (i.e., data come in and get
processed, and the results go out immediately), the computer must temporarily store at least
those pieces of data that are being worked on at any given moment. Thus, there is at least a
short- term data storage function. Equally important, the computer performs a long- term
data storage function. Files of data are stored on the computer for subsequent retrieval and
update.
 Data movement: The computer’s operating environment consists of devices that serve as
either sources or destinations of data. When data are received from or delivered to a device
that is directly connected to the computer, the process is known as input–output (I/O), and
the device is referred to as a peripheral. When data are moved over longer distances, to or
from a remote device, the process is known as data communications.
 Control: Within the computer, a control unit manages the computer’sresources and
orchestrates the performance of its functional parts in response to instructions.

Structure
Scructure of a computer
There are four main structural components in the internal structure of the computer:

1. Central processing unit (CPU): Controls the operation of the computer and performs its
data processing functions; often simply referred to as processor.
2. Main Memory: Stores data.
3. I/O: Moves data between the computer and its external environment.
4. System interconnection: Some mechanism that provides for communicationamong
CPU, main memory, and I/O. A common example of system interconnectionis by means
of a system bus, consisting of a number of conducting wires to which all the other
components attach.

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Internal Structure of a computer

Internal scructure of the CPU

 Traditionally, there has been just a single processor. In recent years, there has been
increasing use of multiple processors in a single computer.
 Major structural components of CPU are as follows:
> Control Unit: Controls the operation of CPU and hence computer.
> Arithmetic and logic unit (ALU): Performs computer’s data processing functions.
> Registers: Provides storage internal to the CPU.
> CPU interconnection: Some mechanism that provides communication among
control unit, ALU and registers.

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Internal Structure of the CPU

Internal structure of the control Unit

 There are several approaches to the implementation of the control unit. The most
common is a microprogrammed implementation. A microprogrammed control unit
operates by executing microinstructions that define the functionality of the control unit.

Internal Structure of the Control Unit

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Computer Evolution and Performance

Key Points
 The evolution of computers has been characterized by:

> increasing processor speed

> decreasing component size
> increasing memory size
> increasing I/O capacity and speed
 One factor responsible for great increase in processor speed is the shrinking size of
microprocessor components; this reduces the distance between components and increase
speed.
 A critical issue in computer system design is balancing the performance of various
elements, so that gains in performance in one area are not handicapped by a lag in other
areas.

A Brief History of Computers

The First Generation: Vacuum Tubes
The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes for digital logic elements and
memory. A number of research and then commercial computers were built using vacuum
tubes
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was world’s first general-
purpose electronic digital computer.
> Started to be built in 1943 and completed in 1946.
> Designed to create ballistics tables for World War II but too late to be used in the
war effort.
> Its first task was to perform a series of complex calculations that were used to
help determine the feasibility of the hydrogen bomb.
> Used until 1955.
> ENIAC was a decimal rather than a binary machine. Numbers were represented in
decimal form and arithmetic was performed in the decimal system.

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> Its memory consisted of 20 accumulators, each capable of holding a 10-digit

decimal number.
> The major drawback of the ENIAC was that it had to be programmed manually
by setting switches and plugging and unplugging cables.
> ENIAC was an enormous machine with weighing 30 tons occupying 1500
square feet of floor space containing more than 18,000 vacuum tubes.
> When operating, it consumed 140 kilowatts of power.
> It was being capable of 5000 additions per second.
The Von Neumann Machine: A fundamental design approach first implemented in the
IAS computer is known as the stored-program concept. This idea is usually attributed to
the mathematician John von Neumann. Alan Turing developed the idea at about the
same time. The first publication of the idea was in a 1945 proposal by von Neumann for a
new computer, the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer).
 In 1946, von Neumann and his colleagues began the design of a new stored program
computer, referred to as the IAS computer, at the Princeton Institute for Advanced
Studies.
 The IAS computer, although not completed until 1952, is the prototype of all subsequent
general-purpose computers.
 With rare exceptions, all of today’s computers have this same general structure, and are
thus referred to as von Neumann machines.
General structure of the IAS computer
It consisted of:

A main memory, which stores

both data and instructions.
An arithmetic and logic unit
(ALU) capable of operating on
binary data.
A control unit, which interprets
the instructions in memory and
causes them to be executed.

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Input and output (I/O) equipment operated by the control unit.

 The memory of the IAS consists of 1000 storage locations (numbered from 0 to 999), called
words, of 40 binary digits (bits) each.
 Numbers are represented in binary form, and each instruction is a binary code.
 Each number is represented by a sign bit and a 39-bit value.
 A word may also contain two 20-bit instructions, with each instruction consisting of an
8-bit operation code (opcode) specifying the operation to be performed a 12-bit address
designating one of the words in memory.
 Both data and instructions are stored there.

The control unit operates IAS by fetching instructions from memory and executing them
one at a time. Both control unit and ALU contain storage locations called registers.
 Memory buffer register (MBR): Contains a word to be stored in memory or sent to the
I/O unit, or is used to receive a word from memory or from the I/O unit.
 Memory address register (MAR): Specifies the address in memory of the word to be
written from or read into the MBR
 Instruction register (IR): Contains the 8-bit opcode instruction being executed.
 Instruction buffer register (IBR): Employed to hold temporarily the right- hand
instruction from a word in memory.

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 Program counter (PC): Contains the address of the next instruction pair to be fetched
from memory.
 Accumulator (AC) and multiplier quotient (MQ): Employed to hold temporarily
operands and results of ALU operations. For example, the result of multiplying two 40-
bit numbers is an 80-bit number; the most significant 40 bits are stored in the AC and the
least significant in the MQ.

 IAS operates by repetitively performing an instruction cycle which contains of two

subcycles as fetch and execute cycles.
> During fetch cycle, opcode of next instruction is loaded into instruction register
(IR) and address portion is loaded into memory address register (MAR).
> Once opcode is in IR, execution cycle is performed where data is moved or an
operation is performed by arithmetic-logic unit (ALU).

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First Commercial computers

 In 1950, UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) which was commissioned by
Bureau of Census was the first successful commercial computer.
 The UNIVAC II, which had greater memory capacity and higher performance than the
UNIVAC I, was delivered in the late 1950s.
 It was first example of backward compatibility.

The Second Generation: Transistors

The first major change in the electronic computer came with the replacement of the vacuum tube
by the transistor. The transistor, which is smaller, cheaper, and generates less heat than a vacuum
tube, canbe used in the same way as a vacuum tube to construct computers. Unlike the vacuum
tube, which requires wires, metal plates, a glass capsule, and a vacuum, the transistor is a solid-
state device, made from silicon.
 The transistor was invented at Bell Labs in 1947 and by the 1950s had launched an
electronic revolution. It was not until the late 1950s, however, that fully transistorized
computers were commercially available. The use of the transistor defines the second
generation of computers.
 There are other changes as well. The second generation saw the introduction of more
> complex arithmetic and logic units and control units,
> the use of high level programming languages like COBOL, FORTRAN were used.
> the provision of system software with the computer.
Some examples of second generation computers include IBM 1620, IBM 7094, UNIVAC …

The Third Generation: Integrated Circuits

 Throughout 1950s and early 1960, electronic equipment was composed largely of
discrete components – transistors, resistors, capacitors and so on.
 In 1958 came the achievement that revolutionized electronics and started the age
of microelectronics: the invention of integrated circuits.
 It is the integrated circuit that defines third generation of computers.

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Microelectronics
> Microelectronics means literally “small electronics”.
> The basic elements of a digital computer must perform storage, movement,
processing and control functions.
> Only two fundamental types of components are required: gates and memory cells.
> A gate is a device that implements a simple Boolean or logical function, such as:

IF A AND B ARE TRUE THEN C IS TRUE

> Such devices are called gates because they control data flow in much the same
way that canal gates do.
> The memory cell is a device that can store one bit of data; that is, the device can
be in one of two stable states at any time.

 By interconnecting large numbers of these fundamental devices, we can construct a

computer.
 The integrated circuit exploits the fact that such components as transistors, resistors and
conductors can be fabricated from a semiconductor such as silicon.
 Many transistors can be produced at the same time on a single wafer of silicon.
 A thin wafer of silicon is divided into a matrix of small areas.
 The identical circuit pattern is fabricated in each area and wafer is broken up into chips.

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Relations hip among Wafer, Chip, and Gate

 Moore’s Law:
> Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel, propounded Moore’s law in 1965. According
to Moore’s Law, number of transistors on a chip will double every year.
> Since 1970’s development has slowed a little. Number of transistors doubles
every 18 months.

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Growth in CPU Transistor Count

IBM System/360
 In 1964, IBM produced the first planned family of computer, System/360.
 The family covered a wide range of performance and cost.
 360 product line was incompatible with older IBM machines.
 360 models were compatible in the sense that a program written for one model should be
capable of being executed by another model in the series, with only a difference in the
time it takes to execute.
 With some modifications and extensions, the architecture of the 360 remains same as the
architecture of IBM’s mainframe computers.
 The characteristics of 360 family are as follows:
> Similar or identical instruction sets
> Similar or identical operating system
> Increasing speed

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> Increasing number of I/O ports

> Increasing memory size
> Increasing cost
 DEC PDP-8
> In 1964, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) produced PDP-8, the first
minicomputer.
> It was small enough to sit on a lab bench and did not need air conditioned room.
> It used bus structure that is now virtually universal for minicomputers and
microcomputers.
Later Generations
 Semiconductor Memory

> The first application of integrated circuit technology to computers was

construction of the processor (the control unit and the arithmetic and logic unit)
out of integrated circuit chips. But it was also found that this same technology
could be used to construct memories.

> In 1970, Fairchild produced the first relatively capacious semiconductor

memory. This chip could hold 256 bits of memory. It took only 70 billionths of a
second to read a bit.

> Following this, there has been a continuing and rapid decline in memory cost
accompanied by a corresponding increase in physical memory density. This has
led the way to smaller, faster machines.

 Microprocessors

> 16-bit microprocessors began to be developed and at the end of 1970s, a general-
purpose 16-bit microprocessors appeared. One of these was the 8086.

> Then, Bell Labs and Hewlett-Packard developed 32-bit, single-chip

microprocessors.

> Intel introduced its own 32-bit microprocessor, the 80386, in 1985.

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> Then, Intel produced a family of 64-bit microprocessors, called Itanium. In 2001,
the first Itanium processor codenamed as Merced is released.

The Evolution of the Intel Processors

 In terms of market share, Intel has ranked as the number one maker of microprocessors
for decades. It is worthwhile to list some of the evolution of the Intel product line:
 8080
> First general purpose microprocessor.
> An 8-bit machine with an 8-bit data path to memory.
> Used in the first personal computer, the Altair.
 8086
> Much more powerful.
> 16-bit machine.
 80286
> Extension to 8086.
 80386
> Intel’s first 32-bit machine.
> Support for multitasking, meaning it could run multiple programs at the same
time.
 80486
> Sophisticated powerful cache and instruction pipelining (a processor organization
in which processor consists of a number of stages, allowing multiple instructions
to be executed concurrently).
> Offers a built in maths co-processor, offloading complex math operations from
main CPU.
 Pentium
> Introduce the use of superscalar techniques which allows multiple instructions
executed in parallel.
 Pentium Pro
> Increased superscalar organization.
 Pentium II

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> Incorporated MMX technology which is designed specifically to process graphics,

video and audio data efficiently.
 Pentium III
> Incorporates additional floating point instructions for 3D graphics.
 Pentium 4
> Includes further floating point and multimedia enhancements.
 Dual Core
> This is the first Intel x86 microprocessor with a dual core, referring to the
implementation of two processors on a single chip.
 Itanium
> Intel’s first processor to make use of 64-bit organization (x64 architecture).

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