Structure and Function ■ Processor: A physical piece of silicon containing

one or more cores. The

Structure: The way in which the components are processor is the computer component that interprets
interrelated. and executes instructions.
Function: The operation of each individual If a processor contains multiple cores, it is referred to
component as part of the structure. as a multicore
Four Basic Function North Bridge and South Bridge
Data Processing. The data may take a wide North Bridge- CPU, PCLe Graphics, PCL, Dual
variety of forms, and the range of processing Channel memory slot
requirements is broad. However, we
shall see that there are only a few fundamental South Bridge – SATA Drives, Ethernet, USB Bus,
methods or types of data processing. Sound, PCL Bus
Data Storage. Even if the computer is processing
data on the fly (i.e., data come in and get processed, Generations of Computers
and the results go out The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes
immediately), the computer must temporarily store at for digital logic elements and
least those pieces of data memory. A number of research and then commercial
that are being worked on at any given moment. Thus, computers were built using
there is at least a short-term vacuum tubes. For our purposes, it will be instructive
data storage function. Equally important, the to examine perhaps the most
computer performs a long-term data famous first-generation computer, known as the IAS
storage function. Files of data are stored on the computer. A fundamental design approach first
computer for subsequent retrieval implemented in the IAS computer is
and update. known as the stored-program concept. This idea is
Data Movement. The computer’s operating usually attributed to the mathematician
environment consists of devices that serve as either John von Neumann. Alan Turing developed the idea
sources or destinations of data. When data are at about the same time.
received from or delivered to The first publication of the idea was in a 1945
a device that is directly connected to the computer, proposal by von Neumann for a new
the process is known as input– computer, the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable
output (I/O), and the device is referred to as a Computer). In 1946, von Neumann and his
peripheral. When data are moved colleagues began the design of a new stored program
over longer distances, to or from a remote device, the computer, referred to as the IAS computer, at the
process is known as data Princeton Institute for
communications. Advanced Studies. The IAS computer, although not
Control. Within the computer, a control unit completed until 1952, is the
manages the computer’s resources and prototype of all subsequent general-purpose
orchestrates the computers.
performance of its functional parts in response to
those instructions. IAS Structure

Top- Down View of a Computer ALU- AC, MQ, Arithmetic Logic Circuit, MBR

Computer- I/O, main memory, System Bus, CPU CU- PC, IBR, MAR, IR, Control Units

CPU- registers, ALU, Internal bus, Control Unit Six Main CPU Registers

Control Unit- Sequencing Logic, Control Unit Memory buffer register (MBR): Contains a word to
Registers and Decoders, Control Memory be stored in memory or sent
to the I/O unit, or is used to receive a word from
CPU, Core, Processor memory or from the I/O unit.
Central processing unit (CPU): That portion of a Memory address register (MAR): Specifies the
computer that fetches and address in memory of the word
executes instructions. It consists of an ALU, a control to be written from or read into the MBR. Instruction
unit, and registers. In a register (IR ): Contains the 8-bit opcode instruction
system with a single processing unit, it is often being executed.
simply referred to as a processor. Instruction buffer register (IBR): Employed to
■ Core: An individual processing unit on a processor hold temporarily the right-hand
chip. A core may be instruction from a word in memory.
equivalent in functionality to a CPU on a single-CPU Program counter (PC): Contains the address of the
system. Other specialized processing units next instruction pair to be
such as one optimized for vector and matrix fetched from memory.
operations, are also referred to as cores. Accumulator (AC) and multiplier quotient (MQ):
Employed to hold temporarily
operands and results of ALU operations. For These features can be
example, the result of attractive to companies large and small, government
multiplying two 40-bit numbers is an 80-bit number; agencies, and individual PC
the most significant 40 bits and mobile users. The individual or company only
are stored in the AC and the least significant in the needs to pay for the storage
MQ. capacity
and services they need. The user, be it company or
Moore’s Law individual, doesn’t have
Observed number of transistors that could be put on the hassle of setting up a database system, acquiring
single chip was doubling every year the hardware they need, doing
maintenance, and backing up the data—all these are
The consequences of Moore’s law are profound: part of the cloud service.
1. The cost of a chip has remained virtually In theory, another big advantage of using cloud
unchanged during this period of computing to store your data
rapid growth in density. This means that the cost of and share it with others is that the cloud provider
computer logic and memory takes care of security. Alas, the
circuitry has fallen at a dramatic rate. customer is not always protected. There have been a
2. Because logic and memory elements are placed number of security failures
closer together on more among cloud providers. Evernote made headlines in
densely packed chips, the electrical path length is early 2013 when it told all of its
shortened, increasing users to reset their passwords after an intrusion was
operating speed. discovered.
3. The computer becomes smaller, making it more
convenient to place in a Chapter 2. TOP LEVEL VIEW COMPUTER
variety of environments. Fetch, Execute, Interrupt Cycle
4. There is a reduction in power and cooling
requirements. The processing required for a single instruction is
5. The interconnections on the integrated circuit are called an instruction cycle.
much more reliable than Using the simplified two-step description given
solder connections. With more circuitry on each chip, previously, the instruction cycle is
there are fewer interchip. depicted in Figure 3.3. The two steps are referred to
as the fetch cycle and the execute
Core vs. threads cycle. Program execution halts only if the machine is
turned off, some sort of
unrecoverable
error occurs, or a program instruction that halts the
computer is encountered.

Six steps of program execution

Classes of Interrupts

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing: A model for enabling ubiquitous,

convenient, on-demand
network access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources (e.g., networks,
servers,
storage, applications, and services) that can be
rapidly provisioned and released with
minimal management effort or service provider
interaction. Interrupt handler
Basically, with cloud computing, you get economies
of scale, professional network When the external device becomes ready to be
management, and professional security management. serviced—that is, when it is
ready to accept more data from the processor—the
I/O module for that external
device sends an interrupt request signal to the
processor. The processor responds by suspending
operation of the current program, branching off to a
program to service
that particular I/O device, known as an interrupt
handler, and resuming the original
execution after the device is serviced

Control, Address, data lines

QPI and its layers