Chapter One

General Introduction

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 Outlines
Computer
Data in computer
Generation And Type of Computer
Organization and architecture
Structure and Function
Computer evolution and Performance

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 Computers
What is a computer?
Oxford  “An automatic electronic apparatus for making calculations or controlling operations that
are expressible in numerical or logical terms”
Its name Comes from the word compute == calculate, hence means a device that calculates some
operations
Generally, a computer is an electronics that does the following basic functions.
Accepts data
Processes the data according to specified rules
Provides result
Stores data and results for further use

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 Data in computers

• In modern digital computers data is represented in binary form by using

two symbols 0 and 1.
– Each digit is called a binary digit or bit.
– A collection of 8 bits is called byte.
– Word a unit of information, which a computer can process, or transfer at a time.
A word may be equal to 8, 16, 32 or 64 bits.
• Since, computers only work with binary digits, characters and symbols are
represented by a byte.
– Single character is represented by one byte internally.

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 Generation and type of computers
• Computers in today’s world come through many evolutions (generations)
• There are 5 generations of computers in which each generation have some
improvements over the other.
• Computers are classified based on the parameters like
•Speed of operation
•Cost
•Computational power
•Type of application
• There are different types of computers based on the above parameters.

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 Reading assignment

Read about generation(1 st up to 5 th

generation) and types of computers!!!

N.B. focus on the basic differences and
improvements of each generation and
type.

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 Organization and Architecture
Architecture Organization

• Refers to those attributes of a system visible to a • Refers to the operational units and their
programmer or those attributes that have a direct interconnections that realize the architecture
impact on logical execution of a program. specifications.
• Examples of architecture attributes: • Examples of organization attributes:
 instruction set
 Control signals
 number of bits used to represent various data
 interfaces between the computer and peripherals
 I/O mechanism and techniques for addressing memory
 the memory technology used
• The science of integrating the components to ac
• The components from which computers are built
hieve a level of functionality and performance.
• Example: the number nails, lumbers..
• Example design of house
– Is there HW multiply unit or is done by repeated addition?
– Presence or absence of multiply operation

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 • Attributes of a system visible to • Instruction set, number of bits
the programmer used to represent various data
• Have a direct impact on the types, I/O mechanisms,
logical execution of a program techniques for addressing
memory
Architectural
Computer
attributes
Architecture
include:

Organizational
Computer
attributes
Organization
include:
• Hardware details transparent • The operational units and
to the programmer, control their interconnections that
signals, interfaces between the realize the architectural
computer and peripherals, specifications.
memory technology used.
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 Structure and Function
• Structure
– The way in which components relate to each other.
• Function
– The operation of individual components as part of
the structure

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 Function
• There are four basic functions that a computer can perform:
– Data processing
• Data may take a wide variety of forms and the range of processing requirements is broad.
– Data storage
• Short-term
• Long-term
– Data movement
• Input-output (I/O) - when data are received from or delivered to a device (peripheral) that
is directly connected to the computer
• Data communications – when data are moved over longer distances, to or from a remote
device.
– Control
• A control unit manages the computer’s resources and orchestrates the performance of its
functional parts in response to instructions.

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 Structure
The Computer: Top-Level Structure

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  CPU – controls the operation of the computer and
There are four
main structural performs its data processing functions.
components  Main Memory – stores data
of the computer:
 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

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 CPU • Control Unit
– Controls the operation of the CPU and hence the
• Major structural computer.
components: • Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)
– Performs the computer’s data processing function.

• Registers
– Provide storage internal to the CPU.

• CPU Interconnection
– Some mechanism that provides for communication
among the control unit, ALU, and registers

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 Multicore Computer Structure
MOTHERBOARD
Main memory chips
■ Instruction logic: involves fetching and
decoding each instruction to determine the
Processor
chip
I/O chips instruction operation and the memory locations of
any operands.
PROCESSOR CHIP

Core Core Core Core ■ Arithmetic and logic unit (ALU): Performs the
L3 cache L3 cache operation specified by an instruction.
Core Core Core Core ■ Load/store logic: Manages the transfer of data
to and from main memory via cache.
CORE

Instruction
Arithmetic
and logic Load/ ■ L1I cache, is used for the transfer of instructions
logic unit (ALU) store logic

L1 I-cache L1 data cache to and from main memory.

L2 instruction L2 data ■ L1 data cache, for the transfer of operands and
cache cache
results.

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Figure ByComputer
1.2 Simplified View of Major Elements of a Multicore Shimelis A. 14
 • Processor chip
– A physical piece of silicon containing one or more cores.
– Is the computer component that interprets and executes instructions.
– Referred to as a multicore processor if it contains multiple cores.
• Core
– An individual processing unit on a processor chip
– May be equivalent in functionality to a CPU on a single-CPU system
• Cache Memory
– Multiple layers of memory between the processor and main memory
– Is smaller and faster than main memory, used to speed up memory access by
placing in the cache data from main memory .
– A greater performance improvement may be obtained by using multiple levels of
cache, with level 1 (L1) closest to the core and additional levels (L2, L3, etc.)
progressively farther from the core.
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 COMPUTER EVOLUTION AND PERFORMANCE
 The evolution of computers has been characterized by increasing processor speed,
decreasing component size, increasing memory size, and increasing I/O capacity and
speed.
 Shrinking size of microprocessor components; this reduces the distance between components
and hence increases speed.
 Pipelining and parallel execution techniques and the use of speculative execution techniques
but these techniques are designed to keep the processor busy as much of the time as possible.
 A critical issue in computer system design is balancing the performance of the various
elements so that gains in performance in one area are not handicapped by a lag in other
areas.
 In particular, processor speed has increased more rapidly than memory access time.
 Techniques is used to compensate for this mismatch, including caches, wider data paths from
memory to processor, and more intelligent memory chips.

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 THANK YOU!

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