McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All
 Chapter 5A

Transforming Data Into

Information

McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 How Computers Represent Data
• Number systems
– A manner of counting
– Several different number systems exist
• Decimal number system
– Used by humans to count
– Contains ten distinct digits
– Digits combine to make larger numbers
• Every digit in a number has place value

5A-3
 How Computers Represent Data
• Binary number system
– Used by computers to count
– Two distinct digits, 0 and 1
– 0 and 1 combine to make numbers
– To represent greater quantity in binary
• Need to add more digits same as decimal
• Every digit has its positional value

5A-4
 How Computers Represent Data
• Bits and bytes
– Binary numbers are made of bits
– Bit represents a switch
– A byte is 8 bits
– Byte represents one character

5A-5
 How Computers Represent Data
• Text codes
– Converts letters into binary
– Standard codes necessary for data transfer
– ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
• American English symbols
• 8-bit and support 0-127 characters values
– Extended ASCII
• Graphics and other symbols
• 8-bit and 128-255 character values
– Unicode (Unicode Worldwide Character Standard)
• All languages on the planet
5A-6 • 32-bit (4 bytes)
 How Computers Process Data
Lecture-03

5A-7
 How Computers Process Data
• The CPU
– Central Processing Unit
– Brain of the computer
– Control unit – (CU)
• Controls resources in computer (Like a traffic signal, directing the
flow of data through the CPU and from other devices)
• Instruction set (microcode) of CPU is built into control unit
– Arithmetic logic unit – (ALU)
• Simple math operations (+,-,x,/) and Logical operations (<,>…)
• Contain group of registers
• Data Movement related instructions are carried out by CU
• Instruction that involve arithmetic or Logic , CU passes it to ALU
5A-8
 Machine Cycle
Instruction Cycle

• Fetching: Before the CPU can execute an instruction, the Control unit
must retrieve (or fetch) a command or data from the computer’s memory
(RAM)
• Decoding: Before a command can be executed, the control unit must
break down (or decode) the command into micro instructions /
microcodes that CPU can understand.

Execution Cycle

• Executing: Each microcode or microinstruction is executed.

• Storing: The CPU may be required to Store the results of each
microinstruction in memory

9
 Machine Cycle
• For every instruction, a processor repeats a set of four
basic operations, which comprise a machine cycle

10
 Machine Cycle
• Processor performance is measured in
– Million of Instructions per Second (MIPS) or Billion of Instructions per
Second (BIPS)
• In some computers, the processor fetches, decodes, executes,
and stores only one instruction at a time
• Today’s personal computers support a concept called
pipelining
• Multitasking: OS support running of many programs
– OS and CPU creates threads
• Thread is one instruction from the program
– Hyper-threading: a single CPU to serve multiple threads

11
 Machine Cycle – Processor
• Most current personal
computers support
pipelining
– Processor begins fetching
a second instruction
before it completes the
machine cycle for the first
instruction

12
 How Computers Process Data
• Memory
– Stores open programs and data
– Small chips on the motherboard
– More memory makes a computer faster

5A-13
 How Computers Process Data
• Nonvolatile memory
– Holds data when power is off
– Read Only Memory (ROM)
– Programmable ROM
• Contents can not be changed
• Often found on hard drives and printers
– Basic Input Output System (BIOS)
• Startup instructions for computer
• Power On Self Test (POST)
– Set of instructions that ensure system and its attached components are
working properly

5A-14
 How Computers Process Data
• Flash memory
– Data is stored using physical switches
– Special form of nonvolatile memory
– Camera cards, USB key chains

5A-15
 How Computers Process Data
• Volatile memory
– Requires power to hold data
– Random Access Memory (RAM)
– Data in RAM has an address
– CPU reads data using the address
– CPU can read any address

5A-16
 Memory – RAM
• RAM chips usually reside on a memory module
– Memory slots on the motherboard hold memory modules
– Two types of memory modules
• SIMM (Single Inline Memory Module) (64bit) Use in Desktop
• DIMM (Double Inline Memory Module) (32 bit) Computers

• Small Outline (So-DIMM) [use in laptops]

17
 Components affecting Speed

5A-18
 Affecting Processing Speed
• Registers
– Number of bits processor can handle
• First PC could hold 2 Bytes (16 bits)
• Today it can hold 4 Bytes – 8 Bytes
– Word size
• Amount of data with which the computer can work
– Larger indicates more powerful computer
– 32 bit processors, 64 bit processors
• Is the size of registers in processors

5A-19
 Affecting Processing Speed
• Virtual RAM
– Computer is out of actual RAM
– Swap out: non-essential parts of files from the RAM
– Swap In: program/data loaded into RAM
– Computer swaps data to virtual RAM
• Least recently used data is moved

5A-20
 Affecting Processing Speed
• The computer’s internal clock
– Quartz crystal
– Every tick causes a cycle
– Speeds measured in Hertz (Hz)
• Modern machines use Giga Hertz (GHz)
– Clock Cycle
• A single tick or time it takes to turn a transistor off and back on
again

5A-21
 Affecting Processing Speed
• The Bus
– Electronic pathway between components
– A system bus (internal bus)
• Reside on motherboard
• Connects the CPU to other device on motherboard (RAM, Cache)
– A expansion bus (external bus)
• Connect processor to communicate with peripherals (keyboard,
mouse etc.)
– Bus width is measured in bits (16, 32, 64bits)

5A-22
 Affecting Processing Speed
• Data Bus
– Connects CPU, Memory and other hardware devices on the
motherboard
– Bus speed is measure in MHz
• A bus clock speed of 400, 533, 667, 800, 1066, 1333, or 1600 MHz
– Speed is tied to the processor speed
• Use multiplier to make CPU run faster
– Example
System bus = 400 MHz supporting 1.6 GHz Processor
Fastest CPU can talk to external devices is 400 MHz
The multiplier in this system is 4
• Address Bus: Connects CPU and RAM , Carries only RAM address
5A-23
 Affecting Processing Speed
• External bus standards
• Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)
• Local bus
• Peripheral control interface
• Accelerated graphics port
• Universal serial bus
• IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
• PC Card

5A-24
 Affecting Processing Speed
• Peripheral control interface (PCI)
– Connects modems and sound cards
– Found in most modern computers

5A-25
 Affecting Processing Speed
• Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
– Connects video card to motherboard
– Extremely fast bus
– Found in all modern computers

5A-26
 Affecting Processing Speed
• Universal Serial Bus (USB)
– Connects external devices
– Allows up to 127 devices
– Cameras, printers, and scanners

5A-27
 Affecting Processing Speed
• PC Card
– Used on laptops
– Devices are the size of a credit card

5A-28
 Affecting Processing Speed
• Cache memory
– Very fast memory
– Holds common or recently used data
– Speeds up computer processing
– Most computers have several caches
– L1 holds recently used data
– L2 holds upcoming data
– L3 holds possible upcoming data

5A-29
 Ports and Connectors

A port is the point at which a peripheral attaches to or

communicates with a system unit (sometimes referred
to as a jack)

A connector joins a cable to a port

30
Ports and Connectors

31
 Ports and Connectors
• On a notebook computer, the ports are on the back,
front, and/or sides

32
Ports and Connectors

33
 Ports
• Serial and Parallel Ports

5A-34
 Chapter 5A

End of Chapter

McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.