Computer

Architecture
CPE123
 Evolution of
Microprocessor
Generation 0: Mechanical
• uses gears, shafts, and levers
• requires user intervention for it to work
• e.g. Difference engine, Analytical engine,
Tabulating Machine

Difference Engine Analytical Engine Tabulating Machine

https://www.computerhistory.org/, https://www.britannica.com, https://www.computerhistory.org/
Generation 1: Vacuum Tubes
• 1-3 in high
• requires space
• generate tremendous heat
• requires large amount of power
Enigma

Colossus
https://www.tnmoc.org/colossus, By Karsten Sperling, http://spiff.de/photo - Own work - EnigmaMachine.jpg
Electronic Numerical Integrator
and Calculator (ENIAC) Tubes
• a huge machine
• over 17,000 vacuum tubes
• 500 miles of wires
• weighed over 30 tons
Enigma
• about 100,000 operations
per second
• Programmed by rewiring
its circuits
• vacuum tube service life a
problem

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/tech-history/
Generation 2: TRANSISTORS
• act as a logical switches in digital
circuits
• replaced the vacuum tubes
• Invented at Bell lab in 1947
• ¼ in high, little power.

John Bardeen, William Shockley,

and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs,
1948.

By AT&T; photographer: Jack St., New York, New York.

Generation 3: INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
• JACK KILBY (Texas instrument) used very
small wires to connect transistors (first IC),
that was in 1958.

https://history-computer.com/People/KilbyBio.html
PRACTICAL IC
• ROBERT NOYCE (Fairchild Semiconductor)
▪ developed a method of evaporating aluminum
in specific places on a silicon wafer to
connect transistors
▪ first practical IC was developed in 1959.

http://www.monolithic3d.com/blog/jack-kilby-bob-noyce-and-the-3d-integrated-circuit
Generation 4: MICROPROCESSOR
• ROBERT NOYCE and GORDON MOORE started
INTEL
▪ develop integrated electronic structure and
computer memories. That was in 1968.
• BUSICOM with the help of TED HOFF in 1971
▪ First microprocessor
TED HOFF
• developed a single general-purpose chip that
could be programmed to carry out a
calculator’s function.
• BUSICOM was bankrupted and INTEL bought
the right to manufacture the said chip.
INTEL 8080
• used in the first PC (ALTAIR)
• created at MITS by ED ROBERTS
• no keyboard and monitor
• can only be programmed in straight binary
BILL GATES & PAUL ALLEN
• started out Microsoft.
• first product of Microsoft was a BASIC
interpreter for ALTAIR.
MOS 6502
• MOST-TECH
• 8-bit Microprocessor/machine
• Low cost
• Used in COMMODORE PET and APPLE 2. That
was in 1975.
Z80
• ZILOG introduced in 1976
• 8-bit chip
• Used by RADIO SHACH in its TRS-80 computer
in 1977.
 Standards
Organization
 Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

• advancement of professions of electronic

and computer engineering

• publishes array of technical literature

• standards for various components,

signaling protocols, and data
representation

• democratic procedure for new standards

 International
Telecommunications Union (ITU)
formerly know Comite Consulatif
International Telegraphique et
Telephonique (International Consultative
Committee on Telephony and Telegraphy)

is the United Nations specialized agency

for information and communication
technologies – ICTs.

 interoperability of telecommunications
system
Standards Organization in Other
Countries
American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
▪ United States

British Standards Institution (BSI)

▪ Great Britain

Comite Europeen de Normalisation (CEN)

▪ European Committee for Standardization
International Organization
for Standardization (ISO)

fr. Greek word isos (equal)

worldwide standards development
165 national standards bodies
 activities of ANSI, BSI and others

range of interest: photographic film to the

pitch of screw threads to complex of
computer engineering
 Computer
Architecture &
Organization
Computer Architecture
• focuses on the structure and behaviour of the
computer system
• attributes visible to the programmer
• Instruction set, number of bits used for data
representation, I/O mechanisms, addressing
techniques.
▪ e.g. Is there a multiply instruction?

• The computer architecture for a given machine

is the combination of its hardware and its
instruction set architecture (ISA)
Computer Organization
• To become familiar with how various
circuits and components fit together to
create working computer systems, we
study computer organization.
• Organization is how features are
implemented
▪ Control signals, interfaces, memory
technology.
▪ e.g. Is there a hardware multiply unit or is it
done by repeated addition?

• It encompasses all physical aspects of

computer systems.
Architecture & Organization
• All Intel x86 family share the same basic
architecture
• The IBM System/370 family share the same
basic architecture

• This gives code compatibility

• At least backwards
• Organization differs between different
versions
Structure & Function

• Structure is the way in which components relate

to each other
• Function is the operation of individual
components as part of the structure
Function

• All computer functions are:

• Data processing
• Data storage
• Data movement
• Control
Functional View

https://cnx.org/contents/K6UTbrNN@1/Introduction-to-Computer-Organization-and-Architecture
Possible Computer Operations
Top-level Structure (Computer)

Peripherals Computer
Central Main
Processing Memory
Unit

Computer
Systems
Interconnection

Input/
Output
Communication
lines
Main Components of a Computer
• At the most basic level, a computer is a device
consisting of four pieces:

• A central processing unit or processor to interpret and

execute a program

• A main memory to store both data and programs

• A input/output the mechanism for transferring data to and

from the outside world

• A system interconnection the mechanism for that provides

communication among CPU, main memory and I/O
Structure - The CPU

CPU
Computer Arithmetic
Registers Logic Unit
I/O (ALU)
System CPU
Bus
Internal CPU
Memory Interconnection

Control
Unit
Major Structural Components

• At the most basic level, a CPU is a device

consisting of three parts:

• A control unit to controls the operation of the CPU and

hence the computer

• A arithmetic logic unit to perform computer’s data

processing functions

• A register to provides storage internal to the CPU

Structure - The Control Unit

Control Unit
CPU
Sequencing
ALU Logic
Control
Internal
Unit
Bus
Control Unit
Registers Registers and
Decoders

Control
Memory
Main components of a computer
 Computer scientists design algorithms
implemented as programs (Java, or C)

 But what makes an algorithm run?

▪ Answer: Another algorithm

 Another algorithms runs an algorithm,

until we get down to the machine level
(which can be thought of as an algorithm
implemented as an electronic device)
Main Components of a Computer
• Thus, modern computers are actually
implementations of algorithms that execute
other algorithms.

• This chain of nested algorithms leads us to the

following principle:

• Principle of Equivalence of Hardware and

Software:
• Anything that can be done with software
can also be done with hardware, and
anything that can be done with hardware
can also be done with software
 Computer
Level Hierarchy
Computer Level Hierarchy

Level 6 • USER
• Executable Programs

Level 5 • HIGH-LEVEL LANGUAGE

• C++, Java, Fortran, etc.

Level 4 • ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE

• Assembly code

Level 3 • SYSTEM SOFTWARE

• Operating System, Library Code

Level 2 • MACHINE
• Instruction Set Architecture

Level 1 • CONTROL
• Microcode or Hardwired

Level 0 • DIGITAL LOGIC

• Circuits, Gates, etc.
Computer Level Hierarchy
Level 6: USER LEVEL
▪ applications & executable program

Level 5: HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE

 C, C++, C#
 Translated using compilers to a machine
language

Level 4: ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE

• TASM
• Assembly Language
Computer Level Hierarchy
Level 3: SYSTEM SOFTWARE
 OS instructions
 multiprogramming, protecting memory,
synchronizing process

Level 2: MACHINE
▪ machine language recognized by a particular
architecture
▪ programs written in computer’s true machine
language on a hardwired computer without any
compiler, etc.
Computer Level Hierarchy
Level 1: CONTROL
▪ instructions are decoded and executed
▪ interprets the machine instructions passed to it
▪ Control units can be designed into hardwired or
microprogram

Level 0: DIGITAL LOGIC

▪ physical component of the system (gates, wires)
Moore’s Law
• the density of transistors in an integrated circuit
will double every year
• Gordon Moore (1965)
• Co-founder of Intel

• Higher packing density means shorter electrical

paths, giving higher performance
• Smaller size gives increased flexibility
• Reduced power and cooling requirements
• Fewer interconnections increases reliability
Rock’s law
• the cost of capital equipment to build
semiconductors will double every 4 years
• new chip facilities: $12,000 (1986) to $12 million (late
1990s) and has reached $3 billion as of 2003

• Arthur Rock – early Intel capitalist

Amdahl’s law
• Gene Amdahl [AMDA67]

• Potential speed-up of program using multiple

processors
• Concluded that:
• Code needs to be parallelizable
• Speed up is bound, giving diminishing returns for more
processors
• Task dependent
• Servers gain by maintaining multiple connections on multiple
processors
• Databases can be split into parallel tasks
Von Neumann Model
• Before ENIAC was completed, John W. Mauchly
and J. Presper Eckert conceived of an easier
way to change the behavior of their machine:
• They believe that memory devices could
provide a way to store program instructions

• After reading Mauchly and Eckert’s proposal

for EDVAC, John von Neumann published and
publicized the idea
• All stored-program computers have come
to be known as von Neumann systems using
the von Neumann architecture
Von Neumann Model
• Today’s version of the stored-program
machine architecture satisfies at least the
following:

• Three hardware systems: A central processing

unit (CPU), main-memory, and an I/O system.

• Capacity to carry out sequential instruction

processing

• Contains a single path, either physically or

logically, between the main memory system and
the control unit of the CPU (von Neumann
bottleneck)
Von Neumann Model

von Neumann Architecture

Von Neumann Architecture
CPU

Registers RAM | ROM

program data
storage storage

Control, data, address bus

ALU

Control unit
output input
unit
unit
Von Neumann Model
• The central processing unit contains:

▪ Control unit (CU)

▪ Arithmetic-Logic unit (ALU)

▪ Registers (small storage areas)

▪ Program counter (PC)

Von Neumann Model

von Neumann Architecture

Von Neumann Execution Cycle
 FETCH
1. Output instruction address onto address bus
2. Read instruction pattern from memory onto data bus
3. Increment instruction pointer

 DECODE
▪ Determines the type of instruction has been fetched

 EXECUTE
▪ May need to read more data from memory or write results to
memory
Non-von Neumann Model
computation is distributed among different
processing units for parallel processing

▪ neural algorithms (brains as computer

paradigm)
▪ genetic algorithms
▪ quantum computation
▪ dataflow computation
▪ parallel computation
BLUE GENE (1999)
IBM’s parallel computer
1 million processors each with dedicated memory
behavior of protein molecules
Limitation: tasks-distribution
slowest part of the system is the least used
 End of
Discussion
Computer Architecture