Grade 11:

Topic 1: System Technologies – Hardware and Software (11.1.x)

11.1.3 - Components Interaction:

Latency
• Time taken for a component to respond
CPU Design
• Has 2 main sections which both contain small storage locations called registers
o Control Unit (CU)
▪ Controls the execution of each instruction
o Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
▪ Calculations and logical comparisons take place in ALU

•
• Registers
o Stores the current instruction and its data
o Made from static RAM (SRAM)
▪ Fast
• Does not contain capacitors
▪ Expensive
• Single vs Parallel Processing
o Single
▪ 1 instruction at a time
o Parallel
▪ Simultaneously breaking up and running program instructions on multiple
microprocessors
▪ Reduces processing time
• RAM vs Processor
RAM Processor
Measured in: • Size type • Clock speed
• Access speed • Cores
• Cache
Acts as: Storage for information Brain of the system
Function: Handles opened programs Opens programs (Faster
(Good for multitasking) execution of programs)
Cost: Less expensive More expensive
 • Cache Memory
o Made from SRAM chips
o Stores blocks of program instructions and data that have been pre-fetched from RAM in
hopes that they will be needed next by the CPU
o ALTERNATIVE DEFINITION: Stores data so that future requests for that data can be
served faster
RAM
• Stores programs that are currently in use and the data associated with them
o Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM
▪ Data is transferred twice per clock tick
▪ Commonly used
▪ DRAM (Dynamic RAM)
• Each chip contains a capacitor
▪ SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM)
• Refreshing of RAM chips is synchronised with the CPU
o CPU does not have to wait
System Clock
• A microchip that regulates the timing and speed of all computer functions
o Within chip, a crystal vibrates at a specific frequency when electricity is applied
• Overclocking
o Making computer components run at a faster speeds by manipulating the frequencies
at which the components are set to run
o Can be done in 2 ways:
▪ per component
• Increasing the clock multiplication factor
▪ the whole system
• Increasing the system clock
o Can be cooled by:
▪ Fans
▪ Heat sink
▪ Liquid cooling
Internal Bus / Front Side Bus (FSB)
• Usually connect to CPU and RAM
• Consists of
o Data bus
▪ Transfers the actual instruction/data between CPU and RAM
▪ More signals sent at same time along data bus, more data transmitted
▪ Wider bus enables greater throughput
o Address bus
▪ Transfers physical address of instruction/data between CPU and RAM
▪ Width determines the amount of memory a system can address
o Control bus
▪ Carries commands between CPU and RAM
External Bus
• Primarily connects external devices to a computer
• Composed of electrical circuits that connect and transmit data between the computer and the
external device
• Much slower than internal buses
 • Can be serial or parallel
• The size of the bus and the rate at which the connected device can send data to the computer
will strongly affect the processing speed of the computer
11.1.4 - Primary vs. Secondary Storage:

Primary Memory – Volatile (content is erased when power is turned off)

• ROM
• RAM – DRAM
• BIOS
o Resides on ROM
• CMOS
o Needs battery
• UEFI
Secondary Memory – Non-volatile
• Hard Drive Mechanical – HDD
• Solid State Hard Drive – SSD
• Flash Drives
• Optical Drives
• SD cards
• External Hard Drives
• M.2 card on motherboard
• Cloud storage
11.1.5 - Processing Techniques and Memory Management:

Machine Cycle
• Fetch
o Processor retrieves instruction from memory
• Decode
o Processor translates instruction into a series of computer commands
• Execute
o Processor performs the computer commands
• Store
o Processor writes the results back to memory
Multiprocessing
Using 2 or more processors for computer operations

Multiprogramming
Interleaved execution of 2 or more jobs by the same computer

Multitasking
The process of a computer performing multiple tasks simultaneously

Multithreading
To run multiple threads of the same program at the same time

UEFI vs. BIOS

UEFI BIOS
UEFI is a newer firmware interface The traditional firmware interface
 Supports 32-bit and 64-bit architectures Supports 16-bit architectures
Faster boot times
Supports larger hard drives
Better security features

Interrupts
Signals sent to the CPU by hardware devices to request attention from the CPU

Virtual memory
Allows computer to use more memory than it physically has by temporarily transferring data from RAM
to disk storage.

11.1.6 - Programming Tools:

Language translators
o Compilers
▪ Convert entire high-level language to machine language at once
o Interpreters
▪ Convert high-level language to machine language line by line
o Assemblers
▪ Convert low-level languages to machine code