COMPUTER ORGANIZATION

MODULE 1: 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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Functional Unit

A computer in its simplest form comprises five functional units namely input unit, output unit
memory unit, arithmetic & logic unit and control unit. Figure 2 depicts the functional units of
a computer system.

Figure 2: Basic functional units of a computer

Let us discuss about each of them in brief:

1. Input Unit: Computer accepts encoded information through input unit. The
standard input device is a keyboard. Whenever a key is pressed, keyboard
controller sends the code to CPU/Memory.

Examples include Mouse, Joystick, Tracker ball, Light pen, Digitizer, Scanner etc.

2. Memory Unit: Memory unit stores the program instructions (Code), data
and results of computations etc. Memory unit is classified as:

 Primary /Main Memory

 Secondary /Auxiliary Memory

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 Primary memory is a semiconductor memory that provides access at high speed.
Run time program instructions and operands are stored in the main memory. Main
memory is classified again as ROM and RAM. ROM holds system programs and
firmware routines such as BIOS, POST, I/O Drivers that are essential to manage the
hardware of a computer. RAM is termed as Read/Write memory or user memory that
holds run time program instruction and data. While primary storage is essential, it is
volatile in nature and expensive. Additional requirement of memory could be supplied
as auxiliary memory at cheaper cost. Secondary memories are non volatile in nature.

3. Arithmetic and logic unit: ALU consist of necessary logic circuits like adder,
comparator etc., to perform operations of addition, multiplication, comparison of two
numbers etc.

4. Output Unit: Computer after computation returns the computed results, error
messages, etc. via output unit. The standard output device is a video monitor,
LCD/TFT monitor. Other output devices are printers, plotters etc.

5. Control Unit: Control unit co-ordinates activities of all units by issuing control
signals. Control signals issued by control unit govern the data transfers and then
appropriate operations take place. Control unit interprets or decides the
operation/action to be performed.

The operations of a computer can be summarized as follows:

1. A set of instructions called a program reside in the main memory of computer.

2. The CPU fetches those instructions sequentially one-by-one from the main memory,
decodes them and performs the specified operation on associated data operands in
ALU.

3. Processed data and results will be displayed on an output unit.

4. All activities pertaining to processing and data movement inside the computer
machine are governed by control unit.

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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
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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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
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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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
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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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
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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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION

MODULE 1 (CONT.): MACHINE INSTRUCTIONS &

PROGRAMS

MEMORY-LOCATIONS & ADDRESSES

• Memory consists of many millions of storage cells (flip-flops).
• Each cell can store a bit of information i.e. 0 or 1 (Figure 2.1).
• Each group of n bits is referred to as a word of information, and n is called the word length.
• The word length can vary from 8 to 64 bits.
• A unit of 8 bits is called a byte.
• Accessing the memory to store or retrieve a single item of information (word/byte) requires distinct
addresses for each item location. (It is customary to use numbers from 0 through 2k-1 as the
addresses of successive-locations in the memory).
• If 2k = no. of addressable locations;
then 2k addresses constitute the address-space of the computer.
For example, a 24-bit address generates an address-space of 224 locations (16 MB).

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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
BYTE-ADDRESSABILITY
• In byte-addressable memory, successive addresses refer to successive byte locations in the memory.
• Byte locations have addresses 0, 1, 2. . . . .
• If the word-length is 32 bits, successive words are located at addresses 0, 4, 8. . with each word
having 4 bytes.

BIG-ENDIAN & LITTLE-ENDIAN ASSIGNMENTS

• There are two ways in which byte-addresses are arranged (Figure 2.3).
1) Big-Endian: Lower byte-addresses are used for the more significant bytes of the word.
2) Little-Endian: Lower byte-addresses are used for the less significant bytes of the word
• In both cases, byte-addresses 0, 4, 8. . . . . are taken as the addresses of successive words in the
memory.

Consider a 32-bit integer (in hex): 0x12345678 which consists of 4 bytes: 12, 34, 56, and 78.
 Hence this integer will occupy 4 bytes in memory.
 Assume, we store it at memory address starting 1000.
 On little-endian, memory will look like
Address Value
1000 78
1001 56
1002 34
1003 12

 On big-endian, memory will look like

Address Value
1000 12
1001 34
1002 56
1003 78

WORD ALIGNMENT
• Words are said to be Aligned in memory if they begin at a byte-address that is a multiple of the
number of bytes in a word.
• For example,
 If the word length is 16(2 bytes), aligned words begin at byte-addresses 0, 2, 4 . . . . .
 If the word length is 64(2 bytes), aligned words begin at byte-addresses 0, 8, 16 . . . . .
• Words are said to have Unaligned Addresses, if they begin at an arbitrary byte-address.

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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
ACCESSING NUMBERS, CHARACTERS & CHARACTERS STRINGS
• A number usually occupies one word. It can be accessed in the memory by specifying its word
address. Similarly, individual characters can be accessed by their byte-address.
• There are two ways to indicate the length of the string:
1) A special control character with the meaning "end of string" can be used as the last character
in the string.
2) A separate memory word location or register can contain a number indicating the length of
the string in bytes.

MEMORY OPERATIONS
• Two memory operations are:
1) Load (Read/Fetch) &
2) Store (Write).
• The Load operation transfers a copy of the contents of a specific memory-location to the processor.
The memory contents remain unchanged.
• Steps for Load operation:
1) Processor sends the address of the desired location to the memory.
2) Processor issues „read‟ signal to memory to fetch the data.
3) Memory reads the data stored at that address.
4) Memory sends the read data to the processor.
• The Store operation transfers the information from the register to the specified memory-location.
This will destroy the original contents of that memory-location.
• Steps for Store operation are:
1) Processor sends the address of the memory-location where it wants to store data.
2) Processor issues „write‟ signal to memory to store the data.
3) Content of register(MDR) is written into the specified memory-location.

INSTRUCTIONS & INSTRUCTION SEQUENCING

• A computer must have instructions capable of performing 4 types of operations:
1) Data transfers between the memory and the registers (MOV, PUSH, POP, XCHG).
2) Arithmetic and logic operations on data (ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV, AND, OR, NOT).
3) Program sequencing and control (CALL.RET, LOOP, INT).
4) I/0 transfers (IN, OUT).

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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
REGISTER TRANSFER NOTATION (RTN)
• The possible locations in which transfer of information occurs are: 1) Memory-location 2) Processor
register & 3) Registers in I/O device.
Location Hardware Binary Address Example Description
Memory LOC, PLACE, NUM R1  [LOC] Contents of memory-location LOC
are transferred into register R1.
Processor R0, R1 ,R2 [R3]  [R1]+[R2] Add the contents of register R1 &R2
and places their sum into R3.
I/O Registers DATAIN, DATAOUT R1  DATAIN Contents of I/O register DATAIN are
transferred into register R1.

ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE NOTATION

• To represent machine instructions and programs, assembly language format is used.
Assembly Language Format Description
Move LOC, R1 Transfer data from memory-location LOC to register R1. The contents of LOC
are unchanged by the execution of this instruction, but the old contents of
register R1 are overwritten.
Add R1, R2, R3 Add the contents of registers R1 and R2, and places their sum into register R3.

BASIC INSTRUCTION TYPES

Instruction Syntax Example Description Instructions
Type for
Operation
C<-[A]+[B]
Three Opcode Source1,Source2,Destination Add A,B,C Add the contents of
Address memory-locations A & B.
Then, place the result into
location C.
Two Address Opcode Source, Destination Add A,B Add the contents of Move B, C
memory-locations A & B. Add A, C
Then, place the result into
location B, replacing the
original contents of this
location.
Operand B is both a source
and a destination.
One Address Opcode Source/Destination Load A Copy contents of memory- Load A
location A into accumulator. Add B
Add B Add contents of memory- Store C
location B to contents of
accumulator register &
place sum back into
accumulator.
Store C Copy the contents of the
accumulator into location C.
Zero Opcode [no Source/Destination] Push Locations of all operands Not possible
Address are defined implicitly.
The operands are stored in
a pushdown stack.
• Access to data in the registers is much faster than to data stored in memory-locations.
• Let Ri represent a general-purpose register. The instructions: Load A,Ri
Store Ri,A
Add A,Ri
are generalizations of the Load, Store and Add Instructions for the single-accumulator case, in which
register Ri performs the function of the accumulator.
• In processors, where arithmetic operations as allowed only on operands that are in registers, the task
C<-[A]+[B] can be performed by the instruction sequence:
Move A,Ri
Move B,Rj
Add Ri,Rj
Move Rj,C

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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
INSTRUCTION EXECUTION & STRAIGHT LINE SEQUENCING
• The program is executed as follows:
1) Initially, the address of the first instruction is loaded into PC (Figure 2.8).
2) Then, the processor control circuits use the information in the PC to fetch and execute
instructions, one at a time, in the order of increasing addresses. This is called Straight-Line
sequencing.
3) During the execution of each instruction, PC is incremented by 4 to point to next instruction.
• There are 2 phases for Instruction Execution:
1) Fetch Phase: The instruction is fetched from the memory-location and placed in the IR.
2) Execute Phase: The contents of IR is examined to determine which operation is to be
performed. The specified-operation is then performed by the processor.

Program Explanation
• Consider the program for adding a list of n numbers (Figure 2.9).
• The Address of the memory-locations containing the n numbers are symbolically given as NUM1,
NUM2…..NUMn.
• Separate Add instruction is used to add each number to the contents of register R0.
• After all the numbers have been added, the result is placed in memory-location SUM.

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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
BRANCHING
• Consider the task of adding a list of „n‟ numbers (Figure 2.10).
• Number of entries in the list „n‟ is stored in memory-location N.
• Register R1 is used as a counter to determine the number of times the loop is executed.
• Content-location N is loaded into register R1 at the beginning of the program.
• The Loop is a straight line sequence of instructions executed as many times as needed.
The loop starts at location LOOP and ends at the instruction Branch>0.
• During each pass,
→ address of the next list entry is determined and
→ that entry is fetched and added to R0.
• The instruction Decrement R1 reduces the contents of R1 by 1 each time through the loop.
• Then Branch Instruction loads a new value into the program counter. As a result, the processor
fetches and executes the instruction at this new address called the Branch Target.
• A Conditional Branch Instruction causes a branch only if a specified condition is satisfied. If the
condition is not satisfied, the PC is incremented in the normal way, and the next instruction in
sequential address order is fetched and executed.

CONDITION CODES
• The processor keeps track of information about the results of various operations. This is
accomplished by recording the required information in individual bits, called Condition Code Flags.
• These flags are grouped together in a special processor-register called the condition code register (or
statue register).
• Four commonly used flags are:
1) N (negative) set to 1 if the result is negative, otherwise cleared to 0.
2) Z (zero) set to 1 if the result is 0; otherwise, cleared to 0.
3) V (overflow) set to 1 if arithmetic overflow occurs; otherwise, cleared to 0.
4) C (carry) set to 1 if a carry-out results from the operation; otherwise cleared to 0.

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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
ADDRESSING MODES
• The different ways in which the location of an operand is specified in an instruction are referred to as
Addressing Modes (Table 2.1).

IMPLEMENTATION OF VARIABLE AND CONSTANTS

• Variable is represented by allocating a memory-location to hold its value.
• Thus, the value can be changed as needed using appropriate instructions.
• There are 2 accessing modes to access the variables:
1) Register Mode
2) Absolute Mode
Register Mode
• The operand is the contents of a register.
• The name (or address) of the register is given in the instruction.
• Registers are used as temporary storage locations where the data in a register are accessed.
• For example, the instruction
Move R1, R2 ;Copy content of register R1 into register R2.
Absolute (Direct) Mode
• The operand is in a memory-location.
• The address of memory-location is given explicitly in the instruction.
• The absolute mode can represent global variables in the program.
• For example, the instruction
Move LOC, R2 ;Copy content of memory-location LOC into register R2.
Immediate Mode
• The operand is given explicitly in the instruction.
• For example, the instruction
Move #200, R0 ;Place the value 200 in register R0.
• Clearly, the immediate mode is only used to specify the value of a source-operand.

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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
INDIRECTION AND POINTERS
• Instruction does not give the operand or its address explicitly.
• Instead, the instruction provides information from which the new address of the operand can be
determined.
• This address is called Effective Address (EA) of the operand.
Indirect Mode
• The EA of the operand is the contents of a register(or memory-location).
• The register (or memory-location) that contains the address of an operand is called a Pointer.
• We denote the indirection by
→ name of the register or
→ new address given in the instruction.
E.g: Add (R1),R0 ;The operand is in memory. Register R1 gives the effective-address (B) of
the operand. The data is read from location B and added to contents of
register R0.

• To execute the Add instruction in fig 2.11 (a), the processor uses the value which is in register R1, as
the EA of the operand.
• It requests a read operation from the memory to read the contents of location B. The value read is
the desired operand, which the processor adds to the contents of register R0.
• Indirect addressing through a memory-location is also possible as shown in fig 2.11(b). In this case,
the processor first reads the contents of memory-location A, then requests a second read operation
using the value B as an address to obtain the operand.

Program Explanation
• In above program, Register R2 is used as a pointer to the numbers in the list, and the operands are accessed
indirectly through R2.
• The initialization-section of the program loads the counter-value n from memory-location N into R1 and uses the
immediate addressing-mode to place the address value NUM1, which is the address of the first number in the list,
into R2. Then it clears R0 to 0.
• The first two instructions in the loop implement the unspecified instruction block starting at LOOP.
• The first time through the loop, the instruction Add (R2), R0 fetches the operand at location NUM1 and adds it to
R0.
• The second Add instruction adds 4 to the contents of the pointer R2, so that it will contain the address value
NUM2 when the above instruction is executed in the second pass through the loop.

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 COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
INDEXING AND ARRAYS
• A different kind of flexibility for accessing operands is useful in dealing with lists and arrays.
Index mode
• The operation is indicated as X(Ri)
where X=the constant value which defines an offset(also called a displacement).
Ri=the name of the index register which contains address of a new location.
• The effective-address of the operand is given by EA=X+[Ri]
• The contents of the index-register are not changed in the process of generating the effective-
address.
• The constant X may be given either
→ as an explicit number or
→ as a symbolic-name representing a numerical value.

• Fig(a) illustrates two ways of using the Index mode. In fig(a), the index register, R1, contains the
address of a memory-location, and the value X defines an offset(also called a displacement) from this
address to the location where the operand is found.
• To find EA of operand:
Eg: Add 20(R1), R2
EA=>1000+20=1020
• An alternative use is illustrated in fig(b). Here, the constant X corresponds to a memory address, and
the contents of the index register define the offset to the operand. In either case, the effective-address
is the sum of two values; one is given explicitly in the instruction, and the other is stored in a register.
BYSRI
VTUNOTES

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COMPUTER ORGANIZATION
Base with Index Mode
• Another version of the Index mode uses 2 registers which can be denoted as
(Ri, Rj)
• Here, a second register may be used to contain the offset X.
• The second register is usually called the base register.
• The effective-address of the operand is given by EA=[Ri]+[Rj]
• This form of indexed addressing provides more flexibility in accessing operands because
both components of the effective-address can be changed.
Base with Index & Offset Mode
• Another version of the Index mode uses 2 registers plus a constant, which can be denoted as
X(Ri, Rj)
• The effective-address of the operand is given by EA=X+[Ri]+[Rj]
• This added flexibility is useful in accessing multiple components inside each item in a record, where
the beginning of an item is specified by the (Ri, Rj) part of the addressing-mode. In other words, this
mode implements a 3-dimensional array.

RELATIVE MODE
• This is similar to index-mode with one difference:
The effective-address is determined using the PC in place of the general purpose register Ri.
• The operation is indicated as X(PC).
• X(PC) denotes an effective-address of the operand which is X locations above or below the current
contents of PC.
• Since the addressed-location is identified "relative" to the PC, the name Relative mode is associated
with this type of addressing.
• This mode is used commonly in conditional branch instructions.
• An instruction such as
Branch > 0 LOOP ;Causes program execution to go to the branch target location
identified by name LOOP if branch condition is satisfied.

ADDITIONAL ADDRESSING MODES

1) Auto Increment Mode
 Effective-address of operand is contents of a register specified in the instruction (Fig: 2.16).
 After accessing the operand, the contents of this register are automatically incremented to
point to the next item in a list.
 Implicitly, the increment amount is 1.
 This mode is denoted as
(Ri)+ ;where Ri=pointer-register.
2) Auto Decrement Mode
 The contents of a register specified in the instruction are first automatically decremented and
are then used as the effective-address of the operand.
 This mode is denoted as
-(Ri) ;where Ri=pointer-register.
 These 2 modes can be used together to implement an important data structure called a stack.

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