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Basic Structure of Computers

Computer Architecture in general covers three aspects of computer design namely: Computer
Hardware, Instruction set Architecture and Computer Organization.
Computer hardware consists of electronic circuits, displays, magnetic and optical storage
media and communication facilities.
Instruction set Architecture is programmer visible machine interface such as instruction set,
registers, memory organization and exception handling. Two main approaches are mainly
CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) and RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer)
Computer Organization includes the high level aspects of a design, such as memory system, the
bus structure and the design of the internal CPU.

Computer Types
Computer is a fast electronic calculating machine which accepts digital input, processes it
according to the internally stored instructions (Programs) and produces the result on the
output device. The internal operation of the computer can be as depicted in the figure below:

Figure 1: Fetch, Decode and Execute steps in a Computer System

The computers can be classified into various categories as given below:

 Micro Computer
 Laptop Computer
 Work Station
 Super Computer
 Main Frame
 Hand Held
 Multi core

Micro Computer: A personal computer; designed to meet the computer needs of an

individual. Provides access to a wide variety of computing applications, such as word
processing, photo editing, e-mail, and internet.

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Laptop Computer: A portable, compact computer that can run on power supply or a battery
unit. All components are integrated as one compact unit. It is generally more expensive than a
comparable desktop. It is also called a Notebook.

Work Station: Powerful desktop computer designed for specialized tasks. Generally used for
tasks that requires a lot of processing speed. Can also be an ordinary personal computer
attached to a LAN (local area network).

Super Computer: A computer that is considered to be fastest in the world. Used to execute
tasks that would take lot of time for other computers. For Ex: Modeling weather systems,
genome sequence, etc (Refer site: http://www.top500.org/)

Main Frame: Large expensive computer capable of simultaneously processing data for
hundreds or thousands of users. Used to store, manage, and process large amounts of data that
need to be reliable, secure, and centralized.

Hand Held: It is also called a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). A computer that fits into a
pocket, runs on batteries, and is used while holding the unit in your hand. Typically used as
an appointment book, address book, calculator and notepad.

Multi Core: Have Multiple Cores – parallel computing platforms. Many Cores or computing
elements in a single chip. Typical Examples: Sony Play station, Core 2 Duo, i3, i7 etc.

GENERATION OF COMPUTERS
Development of technologies used to fabricate the processors, memories and I/O units of
the computers has been divided into various generations as given below:
 First generation
 Second generation
 Third generation
 Fourth generation
 Beyond the fourth generation

First generation:
1946 to 1955: Computers of this generation used Vacuum Tubes. The computes were built using
stored program concept. Ex: ENIAC, EDSAC, IBM 701.
Computers of this age typically used about ten thousand vacuum tubes. They were bulky in
size had slow operating speed, short life time and limited programming facilities.

Second generation:
1955 to 1965: Computers of this generation used the germanium transistors as the active
switching electronic device. Ex: IBM 7000, B5000, IBM 1401. Comparatively smaller in
size About ten times faster operating speed as compared to first generation vacuum tube
based computers. Consumed less power, had fairly good reliability. Availability of large
memory was an added advantage.

Third generation:
1965 to 1975: The computers of this generation used the Integrated Circuits as the active
electronic components. Ex: IBM system 360, PDP minicomputer etc. They were still smaller
in size. They had powerful CPUs with the capacity of executing 1 million instructions per
second (MIPS). Used to consume very less power consumption.
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Fourth generation:
1976 to 1990: The computers of this generation used the LSI chips like microprocessor as
their active electronic element. HCL horizen III, and WIPRO‟S Uniplus+ HCL‟s Busybee
PC etc.
They used high speed microprocessor as CPU. They were more user friendly and highly reliable
systems. They had large storage capacity disk memories.

Beyond Fourth Generation:

1990 onwards: Specialized and dedicated VLSI chips are used to control specific functions
of these computers. Modern Desktop PC‟s, Laptops or Notebook Computers.

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.

Basic Operational Concepts

An Instruction consists of two parts, an Operation code and operand/s as shown below:

OPCODE OPERAND/s

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

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 R0 Step 4: Store the result (sum) in R0.
The same instruction can be realized using two instructions as
Load LOCA,R1
Add R1, R0
The steps to execute the instructions can be enumerated as below:

Step 1: Fetch the instruction from main memory into the

processor Step 2: Fetch the operand at location LOCA from
mainmemory into the processor Register R1
Step 3: Add the content of Register R1 and the contents of
registerR0 Step 4: Store the result (sum) in R0.

Figure 3 below shows how the memory and the processor are connected. As shown in the
diagram, in addition to the ALU and the control circuitry, the processor contains a number
of registers used for several different purposes. The instruction register holds the
instruction that is currently being executed. The program counter keeps track of the
execution of the program. It contains the memory address of the next instruction to be
fetched and executed. There are n general purpose registers R0 to Rn-1 which can be used
by the programmers during writing programs.

Figure 3: Connections between the processor and the memory

The interaction between the processor and the memory and the direction of flow of information as
shown in the diagram below:

Figure 4: Interaction between the memory and the ALU

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 BUS STRUCTURES
Group of lines that serve as connecting path for several devices is called a bus (one bit
per line). Individual parts must communicate over a communication line or path for
exchanging data, address and control information as shown in the diagram below. Printer
example – processor to printer. A common approach is to use the concept of buffer
registers to hold the content during the transfer.

Figure 5: Single bus structur

SOFTWARE
If a user wants to enter and run an application program, he/she needs a System Software.
System Software is a collection of programs that are executed as needed to perform functions
such as:

 Receiving and interpreting user commands

 Entering and editing application programs and storing then as files in
secondarystorage devices
 Running standard application programs such as word processors, spread
sheets,games etc…
Operating system - is key system software component which helps the user to
exploit thebelow underlying hardware with the programs.

PERFORMANCE
The most important measure of the performance of a computer is how quickly it can
execute programs. The speed with which a computer executes program is
affected by the design of its hardware. For best performance, it is necessary to
design the compiles, the machine instruction set, and the hardware in a coordinated
way.
The total time required to execute the program is elapsed time is a measure of the
performance of the entire computer system. It is affected by the speed of the
processor, the disk and the printer. The time needed to execute a instruction is called
the processor time.
Just as the elapsed time for the execution of a program depends on all units in a
computer system, the processor time depends on the hardware involved in the
execution of individual machine instructions. This hardware comprises the
processor and thememory which are usually connected by the bus.
The pertinent parts of the fig. c is repeated in fig. d which includes the cache
memory aspart of the processor unit.
Let us examine the flow of program instructions and data between the memory and
the processor. At the start of execution, all program instructions and the required
data are stored in the main memory. As the execution proceeds, instructions are
fetched one by one over the bus into the processor, and a copy is placed in the cache
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 later if the same instruction or data item is needed a second time, it is read directly
from the cache.
The processor and relatively small cache memory can be fabricated on a single IC
chip. The internal speed of performing the basic steps of instruction processing
on chip is very high and is considerably faster than the speed at which the
instruction and data can be fetched from the main memory. A program will be
executed faster if the movement of instructions and data between the main memory
and the processor is minimized, which is achieved by using the cache.
For example:- Suppose a number of instructions are executed repeatedly over a short
period of time as happens in a program loop. If these instructions are available in the cache,
they can be fetched quickly during the period of repeated use. The same applies to the
data that are used repeatedly.

Processor clock:
Processor circuits are controlled by a timing signal called clock. The clock designer
the 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 that each
step can be completed in one clock cycle. The length P of one clock cycle is an
important parameter that affects the processor performance.
Processor used in today‟s personal computer and work station have a clock rates
that range from a few hundred million to over a billion cycles per second.

Basic performance equation:

We now focus our attention on the processor time component of the total elapsed time.
Let „T‟ be the processor time required to execute a program that has been prepared
in some high-level language. The compiler generates a machine language object
program that corresponds to the source program. Assume that complete execution of
the program requires the execution of N machine cycle language instructions. The
number N is the actual number of instruction execution and is not necessarily equal
to the number of machine cycle instructions in the object program. Some instruction
may be executed more than once, which in the case for instructions inside a program
loop othersmay not be executed all, depending on the input data used.
Suppose that the average number of basic steps needed to execute one machine
cycle instruction is S, where each basic step is completed in one clock cycle. If
clockrate is „R‟ cycles per second, the program execution time is given by
T=N*S/R
this is often referred to as the basic performance equation.
We must emphasize that N, S & R are not independent parameters changing one
may affect another. Introducing a new feature in the design of a processor will lead
to improved performance only if the overall result is to reduce the value of T.

Performance measurements:
It is very important to be able to access the performance of a computer, comp
designers use performance estimates to evaluate the effectiveness of new features.
The previous argument suggests that the performance of a computer is given by the
execution time T, for the program of interest.
Inspite of the performance equation being so simple, the evaluation of „T‟ is highly
complex. Moreover the parameters like the clock speed and various architectural
features are not reliable indicators of the expected performance.
Hence measurement of computer performance using bench mark programs is done
to make comparisons possible, standardized programs must be used.
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 The performance measure is the time taken by the computer to execute a given
bench mark. Initially some attempts were made to create artificial programs that
could be used as bench mark programs. But synthetic programs do not properly
predict the performance obtained when real application programs are run.
A non profit organization called SPEC- system performance evaluation
corporation selects and publishes bench marks.

The program selected range from game playing, compiler, and data base
applications tonumerically intensive programs in astrophysics and quantum
chemistry. In each case,the program is compiled under test, and the running
time on a real computer ismeasured. The same program is also compiled and
run on one computer selected as reference.
The „SPEC‟ rating is computed as follows.

computer SPEC rating = ___Running time on the reference______

Running time on the computer under test
If the SPEC rating = 50

Multiprocessor & microprocessors:

Large computers that contain a number of processor units are called
multiprocessor system. These systems either execute a number of different
application tasks in parallel or execute subtasks of a single large task in parallel.
All processors usually have access to all memory locations in such system &
hence they are called shared memory multiprocessor systems. The high
performance of these systems comes with much increased complexity and cost.
In contrast to multiprocessor systems, it is also possible to use an
interconnected group of complete computers to achieve high total
computational power. These computers normally have access to their own
memory units when the tasks they are executing need to communicate data they
do so by exchanging messages over a communication network. This properly
distinguishes them from shared memory multiprocessors, leading to name
message-passing multi computer.

DATA REPRESENTATION
Information that a Computer is dealing with Data
Numeric Data
Numbers (Integer, real)
Non-numeric Data Letters, Symbols
Relationship between data
elementsData Structures
Linear Lists, Trees, Rings, etc
Program(Instruction)

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 Numeric Data Representation
Decimal Binary Octal Hexadecimal
00 0000 00 0
01 0001 01 1
02 0010 02 2
03 0011 03 3
04 0100 04 4
05 0101 05 5
06 0110 06 6
07 0111 07 7
08 1000 10 8
09 1001 11 9
10 1010 12 A
11 1011 13 B
12 1100 14 C
13 1101 15 D
14 1110 16 E
15 1111 17 F

**** Number formats, code conversions you can get from regular note book. ****

FixedPoint Representation:
It‟s the representation for integers only where the decimal point is always
fixed. i.e atthe end of rightmost point. it can be again represented in two ways.
1. Sign and Magnitude Representation
In this system, he most significant (leftmost) bit in the word as a sign bit. If the
sign bitis 0, the number is positive; if the sign bit is 1, the number is negative.
The simplest form of representing sign bit is the sign magnitude representation.
One of the draw back for sign magnitude number is addition and subtraction need
toconsider both sign of the numbers and their relative magnitude.
Another drawback is there are two representation for 0(Zero) i.e +0 and -0.
2. One’s Complement (1’s) Representation
In this representation negative values are obtained by complementing each bit
of the corresponding positive number.
For example 1s complement of 0101 is 1010 . The process of forming the 1s
complement of a given number is equivalent to subtracting that number from
2n -1 i.e from 1111 for 4 bit number.
Two‟s Complement (2‟s) Representation Forming the 2s complement of a
number is done by subtracting that number from 2n . So 2s complement of a
number is obtained by adding 1 to 1s complement of that number.
Ex: 2‟s complement of 0101 is 1010 +1 = 1011
NB: In all systems, the leftmost bit is 0 for positive number and 1 for negative number.

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Floating-point representation
Floating-point numbers are so called as the decimal or binary point floats over the base

depending on the exponent value.

It consists two components.
• Exponent
• Mantissa
Example: Avogadro's number can be written as 6.02x1023 in base 10. And the mantissa
and exponent are 6.02 and 1023 respectively. But computer floating-point numbers are
usually based on base two. So 6.02x1023 is approximately (1 and 63/64)x278 or
1.111111 (base two) x 21001110 (base two)

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