CPU ARCHITECTURE

Objectives

• Show understanding of the basic Von Neumann model for a computer system and the stored
program concept

• Show understanding of the purpose and role of registers, including the difference between
general purpose and special purpose registers

• Show understanding of the purpose and roles of the Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU), Control Unit
(CU) and system clock, Immediate Access Store (IAS)

• Show understanding of how data are transferred between various components of the computer
system using the address bus, data bus and control bus

• Show understanding of how factors contribute to the performance of the computer system

• Understand how different ports provide connection to peripheral devices

 Von Neumann model
• Early computers were fed data while the machines The Von Neuman Architecture is
were running.
based on the principle of:
• It was not possible to store programs and data.
• Fetch an Instruction
Consequently, they were not able to run without
human intervention.
• Decode the Instruction
• Execute the Instruction
• In 1945, John Von Neumann developed the idea of
a stored program computer known as Von
Neumann Architecture concept.

• Instructions are stored in memory and are retrieved

and processed by the Central Processing Unit one
by one.
 Basic Features of Von Neumann model
The model von Neumann described has the following basic features.

• There is a processor - the central processing unit (CPU).

• The processor has direct access to memory.

• The memory contains a ‘stored program’ (which can be replaced by

another at any time) and the data required by the program.

• The stored program consists of individual instructions.

• The processor executes instructions sequentially.

Representation of Von Neumann architecture.
 Components of the processor (CPU)

The main components of the

processor are the:

• Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

• Control Unit (CU)

• System Clock

• Immediate Access Store (IAS).

 Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
• The ALU allows the required arithmetic (calculation) or logic
operations to be carried out while a program is being run.
• It is possible for a computer to have more than one ALU
• Multiplication and division are carried out by a sequence of
addition, subtraction and left/right shifting operations (for
example, shifting 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 two places to the left gives 1 1
0 1 1 1 0 0, which is equivalent to multiplying by a factor of 4).
• The accumulator (ACC) is a temporary register used when
carrying out ALU calculations.
 Control Unit
• The CU reads an instruction from memory (the address of the
location where the instruction can be found is stored in the
program counter (PC)).
• This instruction is then interpreted (decoded).
• During that process, signals are generated along the control
bus to tell the other components in the computer what to do.
• The CU ensures synchronisation of data flow and program
instructions throughout the computer.
 System Clock

A system clock is used to

produce timing signals on the
control bus to ensure this vital
synchronisation takes place –
without the clock the computer
would simply crash.
Immediate Access Store
• The IAS holds all the data and programs that the processor (CPU)
needs to access.
• The CPU takes data and programs held in backing store and puts
them into the IAS temporarily.
• This is done because read/write operations carried out using the
IAS are considerably faster than read/write operations to backing
store.
• Consequently, any key data needed by an application will be stored
temporarily in IAS to speed up operations.
• The IAS is another name for primary (RAM) memory.
 Registers
• Registers are small amounts of high-speed memory contained within the
CPU.
• All data must be represented in a register before it can be
processed.
• Registers can be general purpose or special purpose.
• General purpose registers hold data that is frequently used by the
CPU or can be used by the programmer when addressing the CPU
directly. The accumulator is a good example of a general purpose
register
• Special purpose registers have a specific function within the CPU
and hold the program state.
Special purpose registers
 Status Register
A status register is used when an instruction Consider this operation:
requires some form of arithmetic or logic
processing. Each bit is known as a flag. Most
systems have the following four flags.

• Carry flag (C) is set to 1 if there is a CARRY

following an addition operation
• Negative flag (N) is set to 1 if the result of a Since we have two negative
calculation yields a NEGATIVE value. numbers being added, the answer
• Overflow flag (V) is set to 1 if an arithmetic should be negative. The flags
operation results in an OVERFLOW being indicate that two errors have
produced. occurred: a carry has been
• Zero flag (Z) is set to 1 if the result of an generated, and a ninth bit overflow
arithmetic or logic operation is ZERO. has occurred.
 System Buses
• A bus is a high-speed internal
connection. Buses are used to
send control signals and data
between the processor and other
components.

• There are three common buses

used in the Von Neumann
architecture known as address
bus, data bus and control bus.
 Address Bus
• Between the CPU and memory the
address bus is unidirectional (in other
words, bits can travel in one direction
only). This prevents addresses being
carried back to the CPU, which would be
undesirable.
• The width of a bus is important. The wider
the bus, the more memory locations
which can be directly addressed at any
given time; for example, a bus of width 16
bits can address 216 (65 536) memory
locations, whereas a bus width of 32 bits
allows 4 294 967 296 memory locations to
be simultaneously addressed
 Data Bus

• The data bus is bidirectional (in other

words, it allows data to be sent in both
directions along the bus). This means
data can be carried from CPU to
memory (and vice versa) as well as to
and from input/output devices.
• It is important to point out that data can
be an address, an instruction or a
numerical value.
• The width of the data bus is
important: the wider the bus, the larger
the word length that can be transported.
 Control Bus
• The control bus is also bidirectional.

• It carries signals from the CU to all

the other computer components.

• It is usually 8-bits wide since it only

carries control signals.

 System Clock
• The clock defines the clock cycle which synchronises all computer operations.
• The control bus transmits timing signals, ensuring everything is fully
synchronised.
• By increasing clock speed, the processing speed of the computer is also
increased.

• Although the speed of the computer may have been increased, it is not possible
to say that a computer’s overall performance is necessarily increased by using a
higher clock speed.
Factors that can increase the performance of the computer system

• increasing bus width (data and address buses) increases the

performance and speed of a computer system
• increasing clock speed usually increases the speed of a computer
• a computer’s performance can be changed by altering bus width,
clock speed and use of multicore CPUs
• use of cache memories can also speed up a processor’s
performance.
 Computer ports

Input and output devices

Types of ports
are connected to a
computer via ports. The
interaction of the ports
with connected input and
output is controlled by the
control unit.
 List of PC Ports

Port Input Output

Universal Serial Port √ √
(USB)
VGA √

HDMI √

Ethernet(‘network’) √ √
 USB Cable
• The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an asynchronous serial data transmission
method. The data bits are transferred along a single line, in sequence.
• The USB cable consists of a four-wired shielded cable, with two wires for
power and the earth, and two wires used for data transmission. When a device
is plugged into a computer using one of the USB ports
➢ the computer automatically detects that a device is present (this is due to a
small change in the voltage level on the data signal wires in the cable)
➢ the device is automatically recognised, and the appropriate device driver is
loaded up so that computer and device can communicate effectively
➢ if a new device is detected, the computer will look for the device driver
which matches the device. If this is not available, the user is prompted to
download the appropriate software.
 USB Cable

• The connection is made by means of a bus that

connects a port on the computer case to the
processor.

• The USB bus allows bi-directional data transfer, for

example, it can read and write to the connected USB
external disk drive.

• There are several USB standards in widespread use:

Type A, Type B and a ‘micro-USB’. All of these have
either 4 or 9 pin connectors.
 Pros of USB system Cons of USB system
• devices plugged into the computer are • the present transmission rate is limited to
automatically detected and device drivers are less than 500 megabits per second
automatically loaded up • the maximum cable length is presently
• the connectors can only fit one way, which about five metres
prevents incorrect connections being made • the older USB standard near future
• this has become the industry standard, which
means that considerable support is available
to users
• several different data transmission rates are
supported
• newer USB standards are backward
compatible with older USB standards
 High-definition multimedia interface (HDMI)

• High-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) ports allow output (both audio

and visual) from a computer to an HDMI-enabled device.
• They support high-definition signals (enhanced or standard).
• HDMI was introduced as a digital replacement for the older Video Graphics
Array
• Modern HD (high definition) televisions have the following features, which
are making VGA a redundant technology:
➢ They use a widescreen format (16:9 aspect ratio).
➢ The screens use a greater number of pixels (typically 1920 × 1080).
➢ The screens have a faster refresh rate (such as 120 Hz or 120 frames a
second).
➢ The range of colours is extremely large (some companies claim up to
four million different colour variations).
 Pros of HDMI Cons of HDMI

• the current standard for modern • not a very robust connection (easy
televisions and monitors to break connection when simply
• allows for a very fast data transfer rate moving device)
• improved security (helps prevent • limited cable length to retain good
piracy) signal
• supports modern digital systems • there are currently five
cable/connection standards
 Video Graphics Array (VGA)

• VGA was introduced at the end of the 1980s.

• VGA supports 640 × 480 pixel resolution on a television or
monitor screen.
• It can also handle a refresh rate of up to 60 Hz (60 frames a
second) provided there are only 16 different colours being
used.
• If the pixel density is reduced to 200 × 320, then it can support
up to 256 colours.
• The technology is analogue and is being phased out.
 Pros of VGA Cons of VGA

• simpler technology • old out-dated analogue

• only one standard available technology
• it is easy to split the signal and • it is easy to bend the pins when
connect a number of devices from making connections
one source • the cables must be of a very high
• the connection is very secure grade to ensure good undistorted
signal