Computer Architecture and Organization

• Computer Architecture: The attributes of a computer system

visible to the user, such as instruction sets, data bit usage, and
addressing techniques. It focuses on the design and structure
of a computer system from the user's perspective, specifically
the interface and instruction set architecture (ISA).
• Computer Organization: Defines how the system is structured
to use the tools cataloged in the architecture. Key components
of computer organization are the ALU, CPU, and memory. It
deals with how the system is implemented and how its
hardware components are connected.
o Computer architecture deals with high-level design issues
and is concerned with the structure and behavior of a
computer system as seen by the user. It acts as the
interface between hardware and software and can be
viewed in terms of instructions, addressing modes, and
registers.
o Computer organization deals with low-level design
issues, expressing the realization of the architecture and
how all the units in the system are arranged and
interconnected.
Functions and Components of a Computer
• A computer performs four basic functions: data processing,
data storage, data movement, and control. Data movement
includes input/output (I/O) and data communications.
• The five classic components of a computer are input, output,
memory, datapath, and control.
• The main structural components of a computer are the CPU,
main memory, I/O, and system interconnection.
 • The CPU includes a control unit, an arithmetic and logic unit
(ALU), registers, and CPU interconnection.
• A multicore processor contains multiple cores, each of which
may be equivalent in functionality to a CPU on a single-CPU
system.
• Cache memory is a smaller, faster memory used to speed up
access to frequently used data, often in multiple levels.
Integrated Circuits and Moore's Law
• Integrated circuits consist of gates, memory cells, and
interconnections. They are built from simple digital electronic
components fabricated from semiconductors like silicon.
• Moore's Law states that the number of transistors on a single
chip doubles approximately every 18 months. This has led to
reduced costs, shorter electrical paths, increased speed, smaller
size, and reduced power requirements.
Abstraction and Instruction Set Architecture
• Abstraction omits unnecessary detail to help manage
complexity.
• Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is the interface between
hardware and low-level software, standardizing instructions
and machine language bit patterns. It enables different
implementations of the same architecture.
Computer Evolution and Generations
• Computers have evolved through five generations,
characterized by the technology used:
o First Generation (1946-1954): Vacuum tubes.
o Second Generation (1955-1965): Transistors.
o Third Generation (1968-1975): Integrated Circuits (ICs).
 o Fourth Generation (1976-1980): Microprocessors.
o Fifth Generation (1980-Present): Advanced
microprocessors, AI, parallel processing.
• Embedded systems are computer systems embedded within
larger devices and are often tightly coupled to their
environment.
• Deeply embedded systems use microcontrollers and are
dedicated, single-purpose devices with extreme resource
constraints.
• The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the expanding
interconnection of smart devices, driven by deeply embedded
devices.
Computer Performance
• Performance is measured to compare different designs and
technological approaches. Key factors include clock speed,
instruction set architecture, and memory size.
• Performance can be measured by response time (how long a
task takes) or throughput (how many tasks are completed in a
given time).
• CPU time is calculated as the product of the instruction count,
clock cycles per instruction (CPI), and clock cycle time.
• Improving performance involves reducing clock cycle time,
reducing the number of cycles per program, or increasing the
clock rate.
• Amdahl's Law states that the performance improvement from
an enhancement is limited by how much that enhancement can
be used.
 • Strategies for enhancing performance include multi-core
processors, vector processing, GPU acceleration, and advanced
memory technologies.
• Software and algorithmic strategies for enhancing performance
include code optimization, parallel programming, and cache
optimization.
• Challenges in performance enhancement include power
consumption, the memory wall, limitations of Amdahl's Law,
and scalability issues.
Von Neumann Architecture
• The Von Neumann architecture is based on storing programs in
memory and executing instructions sequentially. It consists of
memory, an ALU, a control unit, and an I/O system.
• The stored-program concept means that instructions are
represented as numbers and can be stored in memory.
• Flynn's classification categorizes computer organization by the
number of instructions and data items manipulated
simultaneously.
• Memory stores both program instructions and data. Memory is
accessed using addresses and has a width (bits per cell) and an
address space (maximum memory size).
• Memory operations include fetch (copying data from a
memory cell) and store (writing data to a memory cell).
• I/O subsystems handle communication with the outside world
and mass storage. I/O controllers manage I/O devices and use
interrupts to signal the CPU.
• The ALU performs mathematical and logical operations. It
includes circuits, registers, and a bus.
 • The control unit fetches, decodes, and executes instructions. It
uses a program counter (PC) to track the next instruction, and
an instruction register (IR) to hold the current instruction.
• Machine language instructions consist of an operation code
and address fields.
• The data bus moves data among system modules, the address
bus designates the source or destination of data, and the
control bus manages access and use of the data and address
lines.
• Other computer architectures include synchronous processing,
pipelining, and shared memory.
General Microprocessor Organization
• A microprocessor is the CPU of a computer, responsible for
arithmetic, logic, control, and I/O operations.
• A bus is a communication pathway connecting devices. Buses
transfer data, addresses, power, and timing signals.
• Types of buses include the system bus, data bus, address bus,
control bus, and expansion bus.
• Bus arbitration is the process of deciding which device can use
the bus, using centralized or decentralized methods.
• Bus gating controls when a bus can transfer data to prevent
conflicts.
• Control sequences are a series of signals that coordinate the
execution of instructions.
• Timing diagrams represent control signals over time.
• Synchronous buses use clock signals to coordinate events,
while asynchronous buses do not.
• Registers are high-speed storage within the CPU for temporary
data, instructions, or addresses.
• Types of registers include the instruction register (IR), general-
purpose registers, program counter (PC), stack pointer (SP),
memory address register (MAR), and memory data register
(MDR).
• Registers are important because they reduce instruction
length, cut down execution time, and ease programming.