MODULE COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND
ARCHITECTURE
Objectives:
a.) Discuss the definition of computer organization and
architecture.
b.) Discover the evolution of computing devices.
c.) Describe the functional units of a digital systems.
Lesson 1: Introduction
What is Computer Architecture and Organization?
In general terms, the architecture of a computer system can
be considered as a catalogue of tools or attributes that are visible to
the user such as instruction sets, number of bits used for data,
addressing techniques, etc.
Whereas, Organization of a computer system defines the way
system is structured so that all those catalogued tools can be used. The
significant components of Computer organization are ALU, CPU, memory and
memory organization.
Evolution of Computing Devices
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first computing system designed
in the early 1940s. It consisted of 18,000 buzzing electronic switches called vacuum tubes, 42
panels each 9'x 2'x1'. It was organized in U-Shaped around the perimeter of a room with forced
air cooling.
Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) design was known as the first digital electronic
computer (though not programmable). It was designed and built by John Vincent
Atanasoff and his assistant, Clifford E. Berry in 1937.
In 1941, Z3 was invented by German inventor Konrad Zuse. It was the first working
programmable, fully automatic computing machine.
Transistors were invented in 1947 at Bell Laboratories which were a fraction the size of
the vacuum tubes and consumed less power, but still, the complex circuits were not easy
to handle.
Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce invented the Integrated Circuit at the same time. In July
1959 Noyce filed a patent for this.
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MODULE COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE
In 1968, Robert Noyce co-founded Intel Electronics company which is still the global
market leader in IC manufacturing, research, and development.
In 1983, Lisa was launched as the first personal computer with a graphical user interface
(GUI) that was sold commercially; it ran on the Motorola 68000, dual floppy disk drives,
a 5 MB hard drive and had 1MB of RAM.
In 1990, Apple released the Macintosh Portable; it was heavy weighing 7.3 kg (16 lb) and
extremely expensive. It was not met with great success and was discontinued only two
years later.
In 1990, Intel introduced the Touchstone Delta supercomputer, which had 512
microprocessors. This technological advancement was very significant as it was used as a
model for some of the fastest multi-processors systems in the world.
For more knowledge about evolution of computing devices, please check the link
provided; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M6lANfzFsM
Lesson 2: Functional Units of Digital Systems
Functional Units of Digital System
o A computer organization describes the functions and design of the various units of a
digital system.
o A general-purpose computer system is the best-known example of a digital system. Other
examples include telephone switching exchanges, digital voltmeters, digital counters,
electronic calculators and digital displays.
o Computer architecture deals with the specification of the instruction set and the
hardware units that implement the instructions.
o Computer hardware consists of electronic circuits, displays, magnetic and optic storage
media and also the communication facilities.
o Functional units are a part of a CPU that performs the operations and calculations called
for by the computer program.
o Functional units of a computer system are parts of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) that
performs the operations and calculations called for by the computer program. A
computer consists of five main components namely, Input unit, Central Processing Unit,
Memory unit Arithmetic & logical unit, Control unit and an Output unit.
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MODULE COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE
Input unit
o Input units are used by the computer to read the data. The most commonly used input
devices are keyboards, mouse, joysticks, trackballs, microphones, etc.
o However, the most well-known input device is a keyboard. Whenever a key is pressed,
the corresponding letter or digit is automatically translated into its corresponding binary
code and transmitted over a cable to either the memory or the processor.
Central processing unit
o Central processing unit commonly known as CPU can be referred as an electronic circuitry
within a computer that carries out the instructions given by a computer program by
performing the basic arithmetic, logical, control and input/output (I/O) operations
specified by the instructions.
Memory unit
o The Memory unit can be referred to as the storage area in which programs are kept which
are running, and that contains data needed by the running programs.
o The Memory unit can be categorized in two ways namely, primary memory and secondary
memory.
o It enables a processor to access running execution applications and services that are
temporarily stored in a specific memory location.
o Primary storage is the fastest memory that operates at electronic speeds. Primary
memory contains a large number of semiconductor storage cells, capable of storing a bit
of information. The word length of a computer is between 16-64 bits.
o It is also known as the volatile form of memory, means when the computer is shut down,
anything contained in RAM is lost.
o Cache memory is also a kind of memory which is used to fetch the data very soon. They
are highly coupled with the processor.
o The most common examples of primary memory are RAM and ROM.
o Secondary memory is used when a large amount of data and programs have to be stored
for a long-term basis.
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MODULE COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE
o It is also known as the Non-volatile memory form of memory, means the data is stored
permanently irrespective of shut down.
o The most common examples of secondary memory are magnetic disks, magnetic tapes,
and optical disks.
Arithmetic & logical unit
o Most of all the arithmetic and logical operations of a computer are executed in the ALU
(Arithmetic and Logical Unit) of the processor. It performs arithmetic operations like
addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and also the logical operations like AND, OR,
NOT operations.
Control unit
o The control unit is a component of a computer's central processing unit that coordinates
the operation of the processor. It tells the computer's memory, arithmetic/logic unit and
input and output devices how to respond to a program's instructions.
o The control unit is also known as the nerve center of a computer system.
o Let's us consider an example of addition of two operands by the instruction given as Add
LOCA, RO. This instruction adds the memory location LOCA to the operand in the register
RO and places the sum in the register RO. This instruction internally performs several
steps.
Output Unit
o The primary function of the output unit is to send the processed results to the user.
Output devices display information in a way that the user can understand.
o Output devices are pieces of equipment that are used to generate information or any
other response processed by the computer. These devices display information that has
been held or generated within a computer.
o The most common example of an output device is a monitor.
Lesson 3: Basic Operational Concepts
Basic Operational Concepts
o The primary function of a computer system is to execute a program, sequence of
instructions. These instructions are stored in computer memory.
o These instructions are executed to process data which are already loaded in the computer
memory through some input devices.
o After processing the data, the result is either stored in the memory for further reference,
or it is sent to the outside world through some output port.
o To perform the execution of an instruction, in addition to the arithmetic logic unit, and
control unit, the processor contains a number of registers used for temporary storage of
data and some special function registers.
o The special function registers include program counters (PC), instruction registers (IR),
memory address registers (MAR) and memory and memory data registers (MDR).
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MODULE COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE
o The Program counter is one of the most critical registers in CPU.
o The Program counter monitors the execution of instructions. It keeps track on which
instruction is being executed and what the next instruction will be.
o The instruction register IR is used to hold the instruction that is currently being executed.
o The contents of IR are available to the control unit, which generate the timing signals that
control, the various processing elements involved in executing the instruction.
o The two registers MAR and MDR are used to handle the data transfer between the main
memory and the processor.
o The MAR holds the address of the main memory to or from which data is to be
transferred.
o The MDR contains the data to be written into or read from the addressed word of the
main memory.
o Whenever the processor is asked to communicate with devices, we say that the processor
is servicing the devices. The processor can service these devices in one of the two ways.
o One way is to use the polling routine, and the other way is to use an interrupt.
o Polling enables the processor software to check each of the input and output devices
frequently. During this check, the processor tests to see if any devices need servicing or
not.
o Interrupt method provides an external asynchronous input that informs the processor
that it should complete whatever instruction that is currently being executed and fetch a
new routine that will service the requesting device.
For more knowledge about introduction to computer organization and architecture ,
please check the link provided; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEjPop-aK_w
REFERENCES
https://www.javatpoint.com/evolution-of-computing-devices
https://www.javatpoint.com/functional-units-of-digital-system
https://www.javatpoint.com/basic-operational-concepts
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