COMPUTER ORGANIZATION

MODULE 3: BASIC STRUCTURE OF COMPUTERS

BASIC CONCEPTS
• Computer Architecture (CA) is concerned with the structure and behaviour of the computer.
• CA includes the information formats, the instruction set and techniques for addressing memory.
• In general covers, CA covers 3 aspects of computer-design namely: 1) Computer Hardware, 2)
Instruction set Architecture and 3) Computer Organization.
1. Computer Hardware
 It consists of electronic circuits, displays, magnetic and optical storage media and
communication facilities.
2. Instruction Set Architecture
 It is programmer visible machine interface such as instruction set, registers, memory
organization and exception handling.
 Two main approaches are 1) CISC and 2) RISC.
(CISCComplex Instruction Set Computer, RISCReduced Instruction Set Computer)
3. Computer Organization
 It includes the high level aspects of a design, such as
→ memory-system
→ bus-structure &
→ design of the internal CPU.
 It refers to the operational units and their interconnections that realize the architectural
specifications.
 It describes the function of and design of the various units of digital computer that store and
process information.

FUNCTIONAL UNITS
• A computer consists of 5 functionally independent main parts:
1) Input
2) Memory
3) ALU
4) Output &
5) Control units.

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BASIC OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS
• An Instruction consists of 2 parts, 1) Operation code (Opcode) and 2) Operands.
OPCODE OPERANDS
• The data/operands are stored in memory.
• The individual instruction are brought from the memory to the processor.
• Then, the processor performs the specified operation.
• Let us see a typical instruction
ADD LOCA, R0
• This instruction is an addition operation. The following are the steps to execute the instruction:
Step 1: Fetch the instruction from main-memory into the processor.
Step 2: Fetch the operand at location LOCA from main-memory into the processor.
Step 3: Add the memory operand (i.e. fetched contents of LOCA) to the contents of register R0.
Step 4: Store the result (sum) in R0.
• The same instruction can be realized using 2 instructions as:
Load LOCA, R1
Add R1, R0
• The following are the steps to execute the instruction:
Step 1: Fetch the instruction from main-memory into the processor.
Step 2: Fetch the operand at location LOCA from main-memory into the register R1.
Step 3: Add the content of Register R1 and the contents of register R0.
Step 4: Store the result (sum) in R0.

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MAIN PARTS OF PROCESSOR
• The processor contains ALU, control-circuitry and many registers.
• The processor contains „n‟ general-purpose registers R0 through Rn-1.
• The IR holds the instruction that is currently being executed.
• The control-unit generates the timing-signals that determine when a given action is to take place.
• The PC contains the memory-address of the next-instruction to be fetched & executed.
• During the execution of an instruction, the contents of PC are updated to point to next instruction.
• The MAR holds the address of the memory-location to be accessed.
• The MDR contains the data to be written into or read out of the addressed location.
• MAR and MDR facilitates the communication with memory.
(IR  Instruction-Register, PC  Program Counter)
(MAR  Memory Address Register, MDR Memory Data Register)
STEPS TO EXECUTE AN INSTRUCTION
1) The address of first instruction (to be executed) gets loaded into PC.
2) The contents of PC (i.e. address) are transferred to the MAR & control-unit issues Read signal to
memory.
3) After certain amount of elapsed time, the first instruction is read out of memory and placed into
MDR.
4) Next, the contents of MDR are transferred to IR. At this point, the instruction can be decoded &
executed.
5) To fetch an operand, it's address is placed into MAR & control-unit issues Read signal. As a result,
the operand is transferred from memory into MDR, and then it is transferred from MDR to ALU.
6) Likewise required number of operands is fetched into processor.
7) Finally, ALU performs the desired operation.
8) If the result of this operation is to be stored in the memory, then the result is sent to the MDR.
9) The address of the location where the result is to be stored is sent to the MAR and a Write cycle is
initiated.
10) At some point during execution, contents of PC are incremented to point to next instruction in the
program.

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BUS STRUCTURE
• A bus is a group of lines that serves as a connecting path for several devices.
• A bus may be lines or wires.
• The lines carry data or address or control signal.
• There are 2 types of Bus structures: 1) Single Bus Structure and 2) Multiple Bus Structure.
1) Single Bus Structure
 Because the bus can be used for only one transfer at a time, only 2 units can actively use the
bus at any given time.
 Bus control lines are used to arbitrate multiple requests for use of the bus.
 Advantages:
1) Low cost &
2) Flexibility for attaching peripheral devices.
2) Multiple Bus Structure
 Systems that contain multiple buses achieve more concurrency in operations.
 Two or more transfers can be carried out at the same time.
 Advantage: Better performance.
 Disadvantage: Increased cost.

• The devices connected to a bus vary widely in their speed of operation.

• To synchronize their operational-speed, buffer-registers can be used.
• Buffer Registers
→ are included with the devices to hold the information during transfers.
→ prevent a high-speed processor from being locked to a slow I/O device during data transfers.

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PERFORMANCE
• The most important measure of performance of a computer is how quickly it can execute programs.
• The speed of a computer is affected by the design of
1) Instruction-set.
2) Hardware & the technology in which the hardware is implemented.
3) Software including the operating system.
• Because programs are usually written in a HLL, performance is also affected by the compiler that
translates programs into machine language. (HLL High Level Language).
• For best performance, it is necessary to design the compiler, machine instruction set and hardware in
a co-ordinated way.

• Let us examine the flow of program instructions and data between the memory & the processor.
• At the start of execution, all program instructions are stored in the main-memory.
• As execution proceeds, instructions are fetched into the processor, and a copy is placed in the cache.
• Later, if the same instruction is needed a second time, it is read directly from the cache.
• A program will be executed faster
if movement of instruction/data between the main-memory and the processor is minimized
which is achieved by using the cache.

PROCESSOR CLOCK
• Processor circuits are controlled by a timing signal called a Clock.
• The clock defines regular time intervals called Clock Cycles.
• To execute a machine instruction, the processor divides the action to be performed into a sequence
of basic steps such that each step can be completed in one clock cycle.
• Let P = Length of one clock cycle
R = Clock rate.
• Relation between P and R is given by

• R is measured in cycles per second.

• Cycles per second is also called Hertz (Hz)

BASIC PERFORMANCE EQUATION

• Let T = Processor time required to executed a program.
N = Actual number of instruction executions.
S = Average number of basic steps needed to execute one machine instruction.
R = Clock rate in cycles per second.
• The program execution time is given by

------(1)
• Equ1 is referred to as the basic performance equation.
• To achieve high performance, the computer designer must reduce the value of T, which means
reducing N and S, and increasing R.
 The value of N is reduced if source program is compiled into fewer machine instructions.
 The value of S is reduced if instructions have a smaller number of basic steps to perform.
 The value of R can be increased by using a higher frequency clock.
• Care has to be taken while modifying values since changes in one parameter may affect the other.

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CLOCK RATE
• There are 2 possibilities for increasing the clock rate R:
1) Improving the IC technology makes logic-circuits faster.
This reduces the time needed to compute a basic step. (IC  integrated circuits).
This allows the clock period P to be reduced and the clock rate R to be increased.
2) Reducing the amount of processing done in one basic step also reduces the clock period P.
• In presence of a cache, the percentage of accesses to the main-memory is small.
Hence, much of performance-gain expected from the use of faster technology can be realized.
The value of T will be reduced by same factor as R is increased „.‟ S & N are not affected.

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
• Benchmark refers to standard task used to measure how well a processor operates.
• The Performance Measure is the time taken by a computer to execute a given benchmark.
• SPEC selects & publishes the standard programs along with their test results for different application
domains. (SPEC  System Performance Evaluation Corporation).
• SPEC Rating is given by

• SPEC rating = 50  The computer under test is 50 times as fast as reference-computer.

• The test is repeated for all the programs in the SPEC suite.
Then, the geometric mean of the results is computed.
• Let SPECi = Rating for program „i' in the suite.
Overall SPEC rating for the computer is given by

where n = no. of programs in the suite.

INSTRUCTION SET: CISC AND RISC

RISC CISC
Simple instructions taking one cycle. Complex instructions taking multiple cycle.
Instructions are executed by hardwired control Instructions are executed by microprogrammed
unit. control unit.
Few instructions. Many instructions.
Fixed format instructions. Variable format instructions.
Few addressing modes, and most instructions Many addressing modes.
have register to register addressing mode.
Multiple register set. Single register set.
Highly pipelined. No pipelined or less pipelined.

Problem 1:
List the steps needed to execute the machine instruction:
Load R2, LOC
in terms of transfers between the components of processor and some simple control commands.
Assume that the address of the memory-location containing this instruction is initially in register PC.
Solution:
1. Transfer the contents of register PC to register MAR.
2. Issue a Read command to memory.
And, then wait until it has transferred the requested word into register MDR.
3. Transfer the instruction from MDR into IR and decode it.
4. Transfer the address LOCA from IR to MAR.
5. Issue a Read command and wait until MDR is loaded.
6. Transfer contents of MDR to the ALU.
7. Transfer contents of R0 to the ALU.
8. Perform addition of the two operands in the ALU and transfer result into R0.
9. Transfer contents of PC to ALU.
10. Add 1 to operand in ALU and transfer incremented address to PC.

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Problem 2:
List the steps needed to execute the machine instruction:
Add R4, R2, R3
in terms of transfers between the components of processor and some simple control commands.
Assume that the address of the memory-location containing this instruction is initially in register PC.
Solution:
1. Transfer the contents of register PC to register MAR.
2. Issue a Read command to memory.
And, then wait until it has transferred the requested word into register MDR.
3. Transfer the instruction from MDR into IR and decode it.
4. Transfer contents of R1 and R2 to the ALU.
5. Perform addition of two operands in the ALU and transfer answer into R3.
6. Transfer contents of PC to ALU.
7. Add 1 to operand in ALU and transfer incremented address to PC.

Problem 3:
(a) Give a short sequence of machine instructions for the task “Add the contents of memory-location A
to those of location B, and place the answer in location C”. Instructions:
Load Ri, LOC
and
Store Ri, LOC
are the only instructions available to transfer data between memory and the general purpose registers.
Add instructions are described in Section 1.3. Do not change contents of either location A or B.
(b) Suppose that Move and Add instructions are available with the formats:
Move Location1, Location2
and
Add Location1, Location2
These instructions move or add a copy of the operand at the second location to the first location,
overwriting the original operand at the first location. Either or both of the operands can be in the
memory or the general-purpose registers. Is it possible to use fewer instructions of these types to
accomplish the task in part (a)? If yes, give the sequence.
Solution:
(a)
Load A, R0
Load B, R1
Add R0, R1
Store R1, C
(b) Yes;
Move B, C
Add A, C

Problem 4:
A program contains 1000 instructions. Out of that 25% instructions requires 4 clock cycles,40%
instructions requires 5 clock cycles and remaining require 3 clock cycles for execution. Find the total
time required to execute the program running in a 1 GHz machine.
Solution:
N = 1000
25% of N= 250 instructions require 4 clock cycles.
40% of N =400 instructions require 5 clock cycles.
35% of N=350 instructions require 3 clock cycles.
T = (N*S)/R= (250*4+400*5+350*3)/1X109 =(1000+2000+1050)/1*109= 4.05 μs.

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Problem 5:
For the following processor, obtain the performance.
Clock rate = 800 MHz
No. of instructions executed = 1000
Average no of steps needed / machine instruction = 20
Solution:

Problem 6:
(a) Program execution time T is to be examined for a certain high-level language program. The
program can be run on a RISC or a CISC computer. Both computers use pipelined instruction
execution, but pipelining in the RISC machine is more effective than in the CISC machine. Specifically,
the effective value of S in the T expression for the RISC machine is 1.2, bit it is only 1.5 for the CISC
machine. Both machines have the same clock rate R. What is the largest allowable value for N, the
number of instructions executed on the CISC machine, expressed as a percentage of the N value for
the RISC machine, if time for execution on the CISC machine is to be longer than on the RISC
machine?
(b) Repeat Part (a) if the clock rate R for the RISC machine is 15 percent higher than that for the CISC
machine.
Solution:
(a) Let TR = (NR X SR)/RR & TC = (NC X SC)/RC be execution times on RISC and CISC processors.
Equating execution times and clock rates, we have
1.2NR = 1.5NC
Then
NC/NR = 1.2/1.5 = 0.8
Therefore, the largest allowable value for NC is 80% of NR.

(b) In this case,

1.2NR/1.15 = 1.5NC/1.00
Then
NC/NR =1.2/(1.15 X 1.5) = 0.696
Therefore, the largest allowable value for NC is 69.6% of NR.

Problem 7:
(a) Suppose that execution time for a program is proportional to instruction fetch time. Assume that
fetching an instruction from the cache takes 1 time unit, but fetching it from the main-memory takes
10 time units. Also, assume that a requested instruction is found in the cache with probability 0.96.
Finally, assume that if an instruction is not found in the cache it must first be fetched from the main-
memory into the cache and then fetched from the cache to be executed. Compute the ratio of program
execution time without the cache to program execution time with the cache. This ratio is called the
speedup resulting from the presence of the cache.
(b) If the size of the cache is doubled, assume that the probability of not finding a requested
instruction there is cut in half. Repeat part (a) for a doubled cache size.
Solution:
(a) Let cache access time be 1 and main-memory access time be 20. Every instruction that is
executed must be fetched from the cache, and an additional fetch from the main-memory must
be performed for 4% of these cache accesses.
Therefore,

(b)

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