Basic Computer Model and different units of Computer

Basic Computer Model and different units of Computer

The model of a computer can be described by four basic units. These basic units
are:

❍ Central Processor Unit

❍ Input Unit
❍ Output Unit
❍ Memory Unit
The designer is concerned with structure and function:

■ Structure: The way in which the components are interrelated.

■ Function: The operation of each individual component as part

of the structure
Structure

The internal structure of a computer. We begin with a traditional computer with a

single processor that employs a microprogrammed control unit, then examine a
typical multicore structure.

Function
In general terms, there are only four basic functions that a computer can perform

■ Data processing
■ Data storage

■ Data movement

■ Control
Central processing unit (CPU): Controls the operation of the computer and performs its data
processing functions; often simply referred to as processor

Main memory: Stores data.

I/O: Moves data between the computer and its external environment.

System interconnection: Some mechanism that provides for communication among CPU, main
memory, and I/O. A common example of system interconnection is by means of a system bus,
consisting of a number of conducting wires to which all the other components attach.
Control unit: Controls the operation of the CPU

Arithmetic and logic unit (ALU): Performs the computer’s data processing
functions.

Registers: Provides storage internal to the CPU.

CPU interconnection: Some mechanism that provides for communication among

the control unit, ALU, and registers.
Central processing unit (CPU): That portion of a computer that fetches and executes
instructions. It consists of an ALU, a control unit, and registers. In a system with a single
processing unit, it is often simply referred to as a processor.

Core: An individual processing unit on a processor chip. A core may be equivalent in

functionality to a CPU on a single-CPU system. Other specialized processing units, such as
one optimized for vector and matrix operations, are also referred to as cores.

Processor: A physical piece of silicon containing one or more cores. The processor is the
computer component that interprets and executes instructions. If a processor contains
multiple cores, it is referred to as a multicore processor.
The First Generation: Vacuum Tubes

The Second Generation: Transistors

The Third Generation: Integrated Circuits

Later Generations (Micro electronics)

largescale integration (LSI), more than 1,000 components can be placed on

a single integrated circuit chip.
Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) achieved more than 10,000
components per chip,
Ultra-large-scale integration (ULSI) chips can contain more than one billion
components.
IAS instruction set
IAS Structure ( First generation)
IBM configuration (Third generation)
Fundamental Computer Elements
Relationship among Wafer, Chip, and Gate
Evolution of Intel Microprocessors
Microprocessor chips included registers, an ALU, and some
sort of control unit or instruction processing logic. As transistor density increased, it
became possible to increase the complexity of the instruction set architecture, and
ultimately to add memory and more than one processor.

A microcontroller chip makes a substantially different use of the logic space

available. A microcontroller is a single chip that contains the processor, non-volatile memory for the
program (ROM), volatile memory for input and output (RAM), a clock, and an I/O control unit. The
processor portion of the microcontroller has a much lower silicon area than other microprocessors and
much higher energy efficiency.

Microcontrollers come in a range of physical sizes and processing power. Processors range from 4-bit to
32-bit architectures. Microcontrollers tend to be much slower than microprocessors, typically operating
in the MHz range rather than the GHz speeds of microprocessors. Another typical feature of a
microcontroller is that it does not provide for human interaction. The microcontroller is programmed for
a specific task, embedded in its device, and executes as and when required.
A microcontroller is a chip optimized to control electronic devices. It is
stored in a single integrated circuit which is dedicated to performing a
particular task and execute one specific application.

It is specially designed circuits for embedded applications and is widely

used in automatically controlled electronic devices. It contains memory,
processor, and programmable I/O.

A microprocessor is a controlling unit of a micro-computer wrapped

inside a small chip. It performs Arithmetic Logical Unit (ALU) operations
and communicates with the other devices connected with it. It is a single
Integrated Circuit in which several functions are combined.
Types of Microprocessor

•Complex Instruction Set Microprocessors

•The Application Specific Integrated Circuit
•Reduced Instruction Set Microprocessors
•Digital Signal Multiprocessors (DSPs)

Types of Microcontroller

•8 bit Microcontroller
•16 bit Microcontroller
•32 bit Microcontroller
•Embedded Microcontroller
•External memory Microcontroller
History of Microprocessor

•Fairchild Semiconductors invented the first IC (Integrated Circuit) in 1959.

•In 1968, Robert Noyce, Gordan Moore, Andrew Grove found their own company Intel.
•Intel grew from 3 man start-up in 1968 to industrial giant by 1981.
•In 1971, INTEL created the first generation Microprocessor 4004 that would run at a clock
speed of 108 kHz
•From 1973 to 1978, second-generation 8-bit microprocessors were fabricated like
Motorola 6800 and 6801, INTEL-8085, and Zilog's-Z80.
•In 1978, Intel 8008 third-generation process came into the market.
•In the early 80s, Intel released fourth-generation 32-bit processors.
•In 1995, intel released in fifth-generation 64-bit processors .
History of Microcontroller

•First used in 1975(Intel 8048)

•The introduction of EEPROM in 1993
•The same year, Atmel introduced the first microcontroller using Flash
memory.
Features of Microcontroller

•Processor reset
•Program and Variable Memory (RAM) I/O pins
•Device clocking central processor
•Instruction cycle timers

Features of Microprocessor

•Offers built-in monitor/debugger program with interrupt capability

•Large amount of instructions each carrying out a different
variation of the same operation
•Offers Parallel I/O
•Instruction cycle timer
•External memory interface
Arithmetic and logic Unit (ALU)
ALU is responsible to perform the operation in the computer.
The basic operations are implemented in hardware level.
ALU is having collection of two types of operations:

❍ Arithmetic operations
❍ Logical operations

Consider an ALU having 4 arithmetic operations and 4 logical operation.

To identify any one of these four logical operations or four arithmetic operations,
two control lines are needed.

Also to identify the any one of these two groups- arithmetic or logical, another
control line is needed. So, with the help of three control lines, any one of these
eight operations can be identified.

Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

OR, AND, NOT & EX-OR.
We need three control lines to identify any one of these operations. The input
combination of these control lines are shown below:
Control line is used to identify the group: logical or arithmetic,
arithmetic operation : logical operation.
Control lines and are used to identify any one of the four operations in a group.
One possible combination is given here.
 A decode is used to decode the instruction.
The block diagram of the ALU is shown in the figure.
The ALU has got two input registers named as A and B and one output
storage register, named as C. It performs the operation as:
C = A op B
The input data are stored in A and B, and according to the operation specified
in the control lines, the ALU perform the operation and put the result in
register C.

As for example,

if the contents of controls lines are, 000, then the decoder enables the
addition operation and it activates the adder circuit and the addition operation
is performed on the data that are available in storage register A and B . After
the completion of the operation, the result is stored in register C.
In computer engineering, computer architecture is a set of rules and methods
that describe the functionality, organization, and implementation of computer
systems.

Some definitions of architecture define it as describing the capabilities and

programming model of a computer but not a particular implementation.

In other definitions computer architecture involves instruction set architecture

design, microarchitecture design, logic design, and implementation.
 Historically there have been 2 types of Computers:

1.Fixed Program Computers – Their function is very specific and they couldn’t be
programmed, e.g. Calculators.

2.Stored Program Computers – These can be programmed to carry out many

different tasks, applications are stored on them, hence the name.

The modern computers are based on a stored-program concept introduced by

John Von Neumann. This novel idea meant that a computer built with this
architecture would be much easier to reprogram.
Von Neumann Architecture:

Von Neumann Architecture is a digital computer architecture whose

design is based on the concept of stored program computers where
program data and instruction data are stored in the same memory. This
architecture was designed by the famous mathematician and physicist
John Von Neumann in 1945.
It is also known as IAS (Institute for advanced study)computer
and is having three basic units:
1.The Central Processing Unit (CPU)
2.The Main Memory Unit
3.The Input / Output Device

Control Unit – A control unit (CU) handles all processor control signals.
It directs all input and output flow, fetches code for instructions and
controlling how data moves around the system.

Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) – The arithmetic logic unit is that part
of the CPU that handles all the calculations the CPU may need, e.g.
Addition, Subtraction, Comparisons. It performs Logical Operations, Bit
Shifting Operations, and Arithmetic Operation.
 Input / Output Devices – Program or data is read into main memory from the input device or
secondary storage under the control of CPU input instruction. Output devices are used to output
the information from a computer.

Buses – Data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another, connecting all major internal
components to the CPU and memory, by the means of Buses. Types:

1.Data Bus: It carries data among the memory unit, the I/O devices, and the processor.

2.Address Bus: It carries the address of data (not the actual data) between memory and processor.

3.Control Bus: It carries control commands from the CPU (and status signals from other devices) in
order to control and coordinate all the activities within the computer.
Von Neumann bottleneck

Whatever we do to enhance the performance, we cannot get away from the fact that instructions
can only be done one at a time and can only be carried out sequentially. Both of these factors
hold back the competence of the CPU.

This is commonly referred to as the ‘Von Neumann bottleneck’. We can provide a Von Neumann
processor with more cache, more RAM, or faster components but if original gains are to be made
in CPU performance then an influential inspection needs to take place of CPU configuration.

This architecture is very important and is used in our PCs and even in super computers.
 Harvard Architecture:

In a normal computer that follows von Neumann architecture, instructions

and data both are stored in same memory. So same buses are used to fetch
instructions and data. This means CPU cannot do both things together (read a
instruction and read/write data).

Harvard Architecture is the computer architecture that contains separate

storage and separate buses (signal path) for instruction and data. It was
basically developed to overcome the bottleneck of Von Neumann
Architecture. The main advantage of having separate buses for instruction
and data is that CPU can access instructions and read/write data at the same
time.

Harvard Architecture is the digital computer architecture whose design is

based on the concept where there are separate storage and separate buses
(signal path) for instruction and data.
Buses:
Buses are used as signal pathways. In Harvard architecture there are separate buses for both
instruction and data.

Types of Buses:

Data Bus: It carries data among the main memory system, processor and I/O devices.

Data Address Bus: It carries the address of data from processor to main memory system.

Instruction Bus: It carries instructions among the main memory system, processor and I/O
devices.

Instruction Address Bus: It carries the address of instructions from processor to main
memory system.

Operational Registers:
There are different types of registers involved in it which are used for storing address of
different types of instructions.

For example, Memory Address Register and Memory Data Register are operational registers.
Program Counter:
It has the location of the next instruction to be executed. Program counter then passes this
next address to memory address register.

Arithmetic and Logic Unit:

Arithmetic logic unit is that part of the CPU that operates all the calculations needed.
It performs addition, subtraction, comparison, logical Operations, bit Shifting Operations
and various arithmetic operations.

Control Unit:
Control unit the part of CPU that operates all processor control signals.
It controls the input and output devices and also control the movement of instructions
and data within the system.

Input / Output System:

Input devices are used to read data into main memory with the help of CPU input instruction.
The information from a computer as output are given through Output devices. Computer
gives the results of computation with the help of output devices.
Advantage of Harvard Architecture:

Harvard architecture has two separate buses for instruction and data. Hence,
CPU can access instructions and read/write data at the same time. This is the
major advantage of Harvard architecture.
In practice Modified Harvard Architecture is used where we have two separate
caches (data and instruction). This is common and used in X86 and ARM
processors.
VON NEUMANN ARCHITECTURE HARVARD ARCHITECTURE

It is ancient computer architecture based on It is modern computer architecture based on

stored program computer concept. Harvard Mark I relay based model.

Same physical memory address is used for Separate physical memory address is used
instructions and data. for instructions and data.

There is common bus for data and Separate buses are used for transferring
instruction transfer. data and instruction.

Two clock cycles are required to execute

An instruction is executed in a single cycle.
single instruction.

It is cheaper in cost. It is costly than van neumann architecture.

CPU can not access instructions and CPU can access instructions and read/write
read/write at the same time. at the same time.

It is used in personal computers and small It is used in micro controllers and signal
computers. processing.
Types of Memory
► Static RAM
► Dynamic RAM
► ROM
► PROM
► EPROM
► EEPROM