Computer Architecture and Number Systems

Topics
• What is Computer?
• Major Computer Components
• Computer Components Interconnection
• Data Representation
o Bits, Bytes, and Words
o The Decimal Number System
o The Binary Number System
o Converting from Binary to Decimal, Decimal to Binary
o The Hexadecimal Number System
o Converting from Hexadecimal to Decimal, Decimal to
Hexadecimal
CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 1 Lecture 02, 9/04/02
 What is Computer?

• A data processing machine capable of performing

computations and making logical decisions very
fast.
• Consists of hardware such as keyboard, screen,
mouse, disks, memory, CD-ROM, and processing
units.
• A program (software) is a set of instructions
written in a computer language that runs on a
computer.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 2 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Major Computer Components

• Memory Unit (Main Memory, Secondary

Storage Unit)
• Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU), Central
Processing Unit (CPU)
• Input/Output (I/O) Unit

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 3 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Memory Unit
• Memory unit stores information such as computer
programs, data, or documents.

• Two types of memory devices:

1. Primary Storage or Main Memory
2. Secondary Storage

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 4 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Memory Unit (con’t)
• Main memory is fast and expensive .
• Stores frequently accessed information such as
programs and data during their execution.
• Is volatile storage. That is, if power is lost, the
information in main memory is lost.
• Secondary storage is slower and cheaper.
• Disks (floppy, hard, removable), Tapes, CDs,
DVDs.
• Is non-volatile, that is persistent (permanent)
storage.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 5 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Memory Unit (con’t)
• Main memory consists of a collections of
storage locations.
• Data are read from or written to memory in
cells. A cell can be 8 – 64 bits.
• Address is used to uniquely identify a cell
location.
• Cells may be grouped into words. E.g., four
8-bit cells forms one word.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 6 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Memory Unit (con’t)
• Memory Access Methods
• Sequential access memory
• Read memory address one after
another, e.g. tape.
• Random-access memory (RAM)
• Any location can be read by specifying
its address, e.g. main memory, disks,
CDs, DVDs.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 7 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Input/Output (I/O) Unit
• Input/Output Unit
Input unit accepts input data and programs from
o
an input device.
o Output unit sends the results of processing
(output) to an output device.
• More generally, these devices are known as
peripheral devices.
o Input device - keyboard, mouse, scanner
o Output device - monitor, printer
o I/O device - disk drive (floppy, hard, removable),
CD or DVD drive
CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 8 Lecture 02, 9/04/02
 ALU, CPU
• ALU performs calculations (such as addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division) and logical
operations (e.g. comparing two numbers).
• CPU is the “brain” of the computer.
• Controls operations of other components,
memory, ALU, I/O.
• Tells input unit when info is ready to be read
into the memory unit.
• Tells output unit when to send info from the
memory unit to an output device.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 9 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Computer Components Interconnection

• CPU and memory are connected by a bus.

• Connecting I/O devices
o I/O devices are slower than CPU/memory.
o Can’t connect directly to Bus. Need an I/O controller or
interface to handle the differences in speed between
the I/O device and the bus.
• A bus is a group of parallel wires that carry
control signals and data between CPU and
memory.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 10 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Computer Components Interconnection

• Three types of Bus -

o Data Bus
o Address Bus
o Control Bus
• Data bus consists of many wires. Each wire
carries 1 bit at a time. The # of wires (bits) needed
= size of a word. If the word is 32 bits in a
computer, then we need 32-bit data bus.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 11 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Computer Components Interconnection

• Address bus allows access to a particular word in

a memory. The number of wires = log2(total
number of memory words). If the memory has 2n
words, address bus needs to carry n bits at a
time.
• Control bus carries communication signals
between CPU and memory. The number of bits
used = log2(total number of control commands).

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 12 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Data Representation

Data types:
• Text
• Number
• Image
• Audio
• Video

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 13 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Bits, Bytes, and Words

• A bit is a single binary digit (a 1 or 0).

• A byte is 8 bits
• A word is 32 bits (that is, 4 bytes)
• Long word = 8 bytes = 64 bits
• Quad word = 16 bytes = 128 bits
• Programming languages use these standard
number of bits when organizing data storage
and access.
• What do you call 4 bits?
(hint: it is a small byte)

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 14 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Number Systems

• The data in memory is represented in

terms of 1’s and 0’s.
• Therefore, thinking about how
information is stored in RAM requires
knowledge of the binary (base 2)
number system.
• Let’s review the decimal (base 10)
number system first.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 15 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 The Decimal Number System

• The decimal number system is a

positional number system.
• Example:
1 2 65 5 X 100 = 5
10 10 10 10 3
6 X 101
2 1 0
= 60
2 X 102 = 200
1 X 103 = 1000

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 16 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 The Decimal Number System (con’t)

• The decimal number system is also

known as base 10. The values of the
positions are calculated by taking 10
raised to some power.
• Why is the base 10 for decimal numbers?
o Because we use 10 digits, the digits 0
through 9.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 17 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 The Binary Number System

• The binary number system is also

known as base 2. The values of the
positions are calculated by taking 2 to
some power.
• Why is the base 2 for binary numbers?
o Because we use 2 digits, the digits 0 and
1.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 18 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 The Binary Number System (con’t)

• The binary number system is also a

positional numbering system.
• Instead of using ten digits, 0 - 9, the
binary system uses only two digits, 0
and 1.
• Example of a binary number and the
values of the positions:
1 0 0 1 1 0 1
26 25 24 23 22 21 20
CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 19 Lecture 02, 9/04/02
 Converting from Binary to Decimal

1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 X 20 = 1
2 6 2 5 2 4 23 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 X 21 = 0
0 X 22 = 0
20 = 1 24 = 16 1 X 23 = 8
21 = 2 25 = 32 0 X 24 = 0
22 = 4 26 = 64 0 X 25 = 0
23 = 8 1 X 26 = 64
7310
CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 20 Lecture 02, 9/04/02
 Converting from Binary to Decimal (con’t)

Practice conversions:
Binary Decimal
101
1101
101101

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 21 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Converting From Decimal to Binary (con’t)

• Perform successive divisions by 2, placing the remainder

(0 or 1) in each of the positions from right to left.
• Continue until the quotient is zero.
• Example: 4410

44 / 2 = 22 rem = 0
22 / 2 = 11 rem = 0
11 / 2 =5 rem = 1
5/2 =2 rem = 1
2/2 =1 rem = 0
1/2 =0 rem = 1
Done answer = 1 0 1 1 0 0 2
CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 22 Lecture 02, 9/04/02
 Converting From Decimal to Binary (con’t)

Practice conversions:
Decimal Binary
59
82
175

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 23 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Working with Large Numbers

1101000010100110 = ?

• Humans don’t work well with binary

numbers; there are too many digits to deal
with.
• Memory addresses and other data can be
quite large. Therefore, we sometimes use
the hexadecimal number system.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 24 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 The Hexadecimal Number System

• The hexadecimal (hex) number system is

also known as base 16. The values of the
positions are calculated by taking 16 to
some power.
• Why is the base 16 for hexadecimal
numbers ?
o Because we use 16 symbols, the digits 0
and 1 and the letters A through F.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 25 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 The Hexadecimal Number System (con’t)

• Example of a hexadecimal number and the

values of the positions:

3 C 8 B 0 5 1
166 165 164 163 162 161 160

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 26 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 The Hexadecimal Number System (con’t)

Binary Decimal Hexadecimal Binary Decimal Hexadecimal

0 0 0 1010 10 A
1 1 1 1011 11 B
10 2 2 1100 12 C
11 3 3 1101 13 D
100 4 4 1110 14 E
101 5 5 1111 15 F
110 6 6
111 7 7
1000 8 8
1001 9 9

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 27 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Converting From Hexadecimal to Decimal

• Example: Convert 1A5F16 to decimal.

1 A 5 F
163 162 161 160
4096 256 16 1
Recall: A16 = 1010 and F16 = 1510 .
= 1 x 4096 + A x 256 + 5 x 16 + F x 1
= 1 x 4096 + 10 x 256 + 5 x 16 + 15 x 1
= 4096 + 2560 + 80 + 15
= 675110

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 28 Lecture 02, 9/04/02

 Converting From Decimal to Hexadeciaml

• Perform successive divisions by 16, placing the

remainder (0-9, A-F) in each of the positions from right to
left.
• Continue until the quotient is zero.
• Example: Convert 14310 to hex.

143 / 16 = 8 rem = 1510 = F16

8 / 16 = 0 rem = 8
Done answer = 8F16

To Check: 8 x 16 + 15 = 128 + 15 = 14310

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 29 Lecture 02, 9/04/02
 Example of Equivalent Numbers

Binary: 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 12

Decimal: 2064710

Hexadecimal: 50A716

Notice that the number of digits needed

is smaller as the base increases.
CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 30 Lecture 02, 9/04/02
 Next Class

• Operating System and Using Linux.

• Homework #1 due beginning of class on
September 9.

CMSC 104, Section 301, Fall 2002 31 Lecture 02, 9/04/02