Chapter 3:

Inside the Computer:

Processing and Memory

Instructor : Ali Alsbou

Inside the System Unit

• System Unit
– The main case of a computer
– Houses the processing hardware for a computer
– Also contains storage devices, the power supply, and
cooling fans
– Houses the CPU, memory, interfaces to connect to
peripheral devices (printers, etc), and other components
such as CD/DVD drives
– With a desktop computer, usually looks like a rectangular
box

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Inside the System Unit

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Inside the System Unit
• Motherboard or System Board
The main circuit board inside the system unit.
– Circuit Board :A thin board containing computer chips and
other electronic components (transistors, microscopic
pathways,… )
– Computer Chip (also called integrated circuits (ICs) )
• Very small pieces of silicon or other semi-conducting
material onto which integrated circuits are embedded

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Inside the System Unit

All devices used with a computer need to be connected

via a wired or wireless connection to the motherboard
• External devices (monitors, keyboards, mice,
printers) typically connect by plugging into a port
exposed through the exterior of the system unit. The
port is either built directly into the motherboard or
created via an expansion card .

• Wireless devices connect through a transceiver or

wireless networking technology (like Bluetooth)

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The Power Supply and Drive Bays
– Power Supply
• Connects to the motherboard to deliver electricity
(personal computer)
• Portable computers use rechargeable battery pack
– Non-removeable batteries more difficult and expensive to replace
,resulting in electronic waste (e-waste)
– Drive Bays
• Rectangular metal racks inside the system unit that house
storage devices
– Hard drive, CD/DVD drive, flash memory card reader
– Connected to the motherboard with a cable
Inside the System Unit
• The CPU (Central Processing Unit)
– Circuitry and components packaged together and
connected directly to the motherboard
– Does the vast majority of processing for a computer
– Also called a processor; called a microprocessor
when talking about personal computers
– Typically different CPUs for desktop computers,
portable computers, servers, mobile devices,
consumer devices, etc.
• Personal computer CPU often made by Intel or
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices)
• Netbooks and mobile devices use processors
made by other companies such as ARM.

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Inside the System Unit
–CPU Cores (processing components )
• Originally, CPUs had a single core.
• Multi-core CPUs contain the processing
components (cores) of multiple independent
processors in a single CPU.
• Multi-core processors allow computers to work
on more than one task at a time
• Dual-core CPU
Contains the processing components (cores) of two
separate processors on a single CPU
• Quad-core CPU :Contains four cores .

‘’use Windows’ Task Manager

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Inside the System Unit
Examples of CPUs

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Inside the System Unit
Examples of CPUs

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Inside the System Unit
• Processing Speed
– CPU clock speed is one measurement of processing speed
– Measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz)
– Higher CPU clock speed = more instructions processed per
second
– Alternate measure of processing speed is the number of
instructions a CPU can process per second
• Megaflops (millions), gigaflops (billions), teraflops
(trillions)
– Other factors (CPU architecture, memory, bus speed, amount
of RAM, etc.) also affect the overall processing speed of a
computer
– Benchmark tests can be used to evaluate overall processing
speed
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Inside the System Unit
• Word Size
– The amount of data that a CPU can manipulate at
one time
– Typically 32 or 64 bits word

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 Inside the System Unit
•Cache Memory
– Special group of very fast memory chips located on or close
to the CPU, usually internal cache (built into the CPU)
– Cache memory level numbers indicate the order in which
the various levels of cache are accessed by the CPU
Level 1 is fastest, then Level 2, then Level 3.
– More cache memory typically means faster processing
― Often some cache dedicated to each core; may also have
some shared cache accessible by any core
― If data or instructions are not found in the cache memory,
the computer looks for them in RAM .If not found in RAM,
they are retrieved from the hard drive
• RAM is slower than cache memory
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Inside the System Unit
Bus Width, Bus Speed, and Bandwidth
A bus is an electronic path over which data can travel ,
found inside the CPU and on the motherboard.
–Bus width is the number of wires in the
bus over which data can travel
• A wider bus allows more data to
be transferred at one time
–Bus width and speed determine the
throughput or bandwidth of the bus
• The amount of data that can be
transferred by the bus in a given
time period
Inside the System Unit
– Memory
o Refers to chip-based storage or locations that a computer uses
to store data on a temporary basis .
o located inside the system unit
• RAM :Random Access Memory
• Computer’s main memory
• Consists of chips arranged on a circuit board called a
memory module which are plugged into the motherboard
• Mobile devices typically use embedded memory chips
• Stores essential parts of operating system, programs, and
data the computer is currently using

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Inside the System Unit
•Volatile
– RAM content lost when the device is shut off
•RAM capacity is measured in bytes
Amount installed is depends on the CPU and operating
system being used
•Most personal computers use SD-RAM (synchronous dynamic RAM)
•Double-Data Rate (DDR) RAM sends data twice as often as
ordinary SDRAM or prior versions of RAM (DDR2, DDR3, DDR4)
•Dual-channel memory architecture has two paths that go
to and from memory; tri-channel ( three paths ) and quad
channel (four paths) memory architecture used for
higher performance.

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Inside the System Unit
• Each location in memory has an address
– Each location typically holds one byte
– Computer system sets up and maintains directory
tables to facilitate retrieval of the data

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Inside the System Unit
– Registers
• High-speed memory built into the CPU
• Used to store data and intermediary results during processing
• Fastest type of memory
– ROM (read-only memory)
• Non-volatile chips located on the motherboard into which data
or programs have been permanently stored
• Retrieved by the computer when needed
• Being replaced with flash memory

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Inside the System Unit
–Flash Memory
• Type of nonvolatile memory that can be erased and
reprogrammed
• Some flash memory chips are used by the computer
– Used to store the computer’s BIOS(basic input/output system) and
firmware ,
E.g. a power-on self-test or POST
• Flash memory chips are also used in flash memory storage
media (sticks, cards, and drives) and devices such as digital
cameras, mobile phones, handheld gaming devices, and
digital media players

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Inside the System Unit
• Fans, Heat Sinks, and other Cooling Components
– Fans
• Fans used on most personal computers to help cool
the CPU and system unit
• Heat is an ongoing problem for CPU and computer
manufacturers
– Can damage components
– Cooler chips run faster
– Heat Sinks
• Small components typically made out of aluminum
with fins that help to dissipate heat
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Inside the System Unit
– Water Cooling Systems
Cool the computer with liquid-filled tubes
– Notebook Cooling Stand
Allows for better air circulation which helps cool the
underside of a notebook computer
– Other cooling methods, such as ion pump cooling systems,
are under development
• cools the air but has no moving parts

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Inside the System Unit

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 Inside the System Unit
• Expansion Slots, Expansion Cards, and ExpressCard Modules
– Expansion Slot
• A location on the motherboard into which expansion cards are inserted
– Expansion Card
• A circuit board inserted into an expansion slot
• Used to add additional functionality or to attach a peripheral
device (PCI and PCIe)
– ExpressCard Modules
• Designed for notebook computer expansion

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Inside the System Unit

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Inside the System Unit

–Bus
• An electronic path within a computer over which data travels
– Located within the CPU and etched onto the motherboard
• Expansion Bus
– Connects the CPU to peripheral (typically input and output) devices
• Memory Bus
– Connects CPU directly to RAM
• Frontside Bus
– Connects CPU to the controller chipset that connects the CPU to the
rest of the bus architecture

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Inside the System Unit
• PCI and PCI Express (PCIe) Bus
– PCI(Peripheral Component Interconnect)
– PCI has been one of the most common types
– Today, PCI Express bus, which is extremely fast, has replaced the PCI
bus
• Universal Serial Bus (USB)
– Extremely versatile
– Allows 127 different devices to connect to a computer via a single USB
port
– 12 Mbps :the original USB 1.0 , USB 2.0 standard supports data
transfer rates of 480 Mbps and 4.8 Gbps for USB 3.0
• FireWire/IEEE 1394 Bus
– Developed by Apple to connect multimedia devices to a computer
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Inside the System Unit

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Inside the System Unit
–Ports and Connectors
•A port is a connector on the exterior of a computer’s system unit
to which a device may be attached
•Typical desktop computer ports include:
- Power connector - FireWire
- VGA monitor - Network
- USB - Audio - HDMI
•Others include IrDA and Bluetooth ports, eSATA ports,
Thunderbolt ports (MacBook Pro notebooks)
•A wired or wireless hub can connect many devices to a single USB
or FireWire port
•Most computers support the Plug and Play standard

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Inside the System Unit

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Inside the System Unit
•Portable computers have ports similar to desktop computers,
but often not as many
•Smart phones have more limited expansion capabilites
– Usually have a USB port
– Some have a flash memory card slot
– Some have a Subscriber Identify Module (SIM) slot to hold a
SIM card

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How the CPU Works
• CPU (Central Processing Unit)
– Consists of a variety of circuitry and components packaged
together
– Transistor: Key element of the microprocessor
• Made of semi-conductor material that acts like a switch
controlling the flow of electrons inside a chip
– Today’s CPUs contain hundreds of millions of transistors;
the number doubles about every 18 months (Moore’s Law)

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 How the CPU Works
• Typical CPU Components
– Arithmetic/Logic Unit (ALU)
• Performs arithmetic involving integers and logical
operations
– Floating Point Unit (FPU)
• Performs decimal arithmetic
– Control Unit
• Coordinates and controls activities within a CPU core
– Prefetch Unit
• Attempts to retrieve data and instructions before they
are needed for processing in order to avoid delays
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How the CPU Works

– Decode Unit
• Translates instructions from the Pre-fetch unit so they
are understood by the control unit, ALU, and FPU
– Registers and Internal Cache Memory
• Store data and instructions needed by the CPU
• Status information, program counters, or memory
addresses.
– Bus Interface Unit
• Allows the core to communicate with other CPU
components

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 How the CPU Works

Understanding Computers: Today and Tomorrow, 14th Edition 34

How the CPU Works
• The System Clock and the Machine Cycle
Each machine language instruction in a CPU's instruction set (the
collection of basic machine language commands that the CPU can
understand) is broken down into several smaller, machine-level instructions
called microcode.
– System Clock
• Small quartz crystal on the motherboard In order to synchronize all
of a computer's operations
• Timing mechanism within the computer system that synchronizes the
computer’s operations
– Sends out a signal on a regular basis to all computer components
– Each signal is a cycle
– Number of cycles per second is measured in hertz (Hz)
– One megahertz = one million ticks of the system clock

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 How the CPU Works
– Many PC system clocks run at 200 MHz
– Computers can run at a multiple or fraction of the system clock
speed
– A CPU clock speed of 2 GHz means the CPU clock “ticks” 10
times during each system clock tick
– During each CPU clock tick, one or more pieces of microcode
are processed
– A CPU with a higher clock speed processes more instructions
per second than the same CPU with a lower CPU clock speed

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How the CPU Works
– Machine Cycle
• The series of operations involved in the execution of a
single machine level instruction

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Making Computers Faster and Better
• Improving the Performance of Your System Today
– Add more memory
– Perform system maintenance
• Uninstall programs properly
• Remove unnecessary programs from the Startup list
• Consider placing large files not needed on a regular
basis on external storage
• Delete temporary files
• Error check and defrag the hard drive periodically
• Scan for viruses and spyware continually
• Clean out dust once or twice a year

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Making Computers Faster and Better
– Buy a larger or second hard drive
– Upgrade your Internet connection
– Upgrade your video graphics card
• Strategies for Making Faster and Better Computers
– Improved Architecture
• Smaller components, faster bus speeds, multiple
CPU cores, improved computer instruction sets
– Improved Materials
• New backing materials and flexible electronic
components
– Copper, high-k, graphene chip

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Making Computers Faster and Better
– Pipelining
• Allows multiple instructions to be processed at one
time
– Multiprocessing and Parallel Processing
• Use multiple processors to speed up processing

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