Basic structure of

computers
Computer organization
It describes the functions of
various hardware components Computer architecture : It refers to
of digital computer and the instruction set, no. of bits used for
data representation, I/O mechanism
interconnections to achieve
and addressing techniques used for
architectural specifications. The memory. Deals with selection of
organization attributes include functional units such as
the hardware details processor and memory and how
transparent to the programmer they shoud be interconnected in a
computer system It deals more on
such as control signals,
design aspects.
interface between the computer
Both hardware and software design
and peripherals and memory
aspects of various computer
technology used. Computer components are to be considered to
hardware consists of electronic achieve a good understanding of
circuits,storage computer systems.
media,electromechanical
equipment and commn.facilities
 Computer types
Digital computer is a fast
electronic calculating
Computers are of different types that
machine.

differ widely in size, cost,

It accepts digitized computational power and intended
use
information, processes as
PCs are used in homes, schools and
per the list of stored business offices which comes under
instructions and produces desktop computer
the resulting output Portable notebook computers are a
compact version of he PC
information
Workstations have graphics
List of instructions are input/output capability, have
called computer significantly more computational
power than PCs but with the size of
program PCs
Internal storage is called
computer memory
 Computer types
A range of large and very
powerful computer systems In many cases servers are widely
exist beyond workstations accessible to the education, business
Enterprise systems and and personal user communities. The
servers comes at the low end requests and response are usually
transported over Internet
of the range and super communication facilities
computers at the high end. Supercomputers are used for the
Enterprise systems or large- scale numerical calculations
mainframes are used for required in applications such as
business data processing in weather forecasting and aircraft
design and simulation
medium to large corporations
In enterprise systems, servers and
Servers contain sizable
supercomputers, the functional units,
database storage units and are including the multiple processors,
capable of handling large may consist of a number of separate
volume of requests to access and often large units
the data.
 Functional units
Input,memory,arithmetic and logic, Information must be encoded into a
output and control units are the main suitable format so that it can be
functional units. handled by a computer.
Machine Instructions: 1.govern the Each number ,character or
transfer of information within the instruction is encoded as a string of
computer as well as between the binary digits called bits, each
computers and its I/O devices 2. having one of two possible
Specify the arithmetic and logic values, 0 or 1.
operations to be performed Numbers are represented in
A list of instructions that perform a positional binary notation or BCD
task is called a program. format
Data: Data are numbers and Alphanumeric characters are
encoded characters, that are used as expressed in terms of binary codes.
operands in instructions. It is also, ASCII and EBCDIC are two most
often used to mean any digital widely used codes.
information. For example, a source
program is data for a compiler which
The computer is completely
coverts it into machine controlled by stored program except
for external interupttion from
instructions( object program}
operator or I/O devices.
Basic functional units of a
computer

Arithmetic
Input and
Lgic unit
Memory

Output Control

I/O Processor
 Memory Unit
It store programs and
data. Primary storage
and secondary storage The memory is organized so that one
word of n bits can be stored or
are 2 classes of storage retrieved from memory in one basic
Primary storage: It is operation .
A given word is accessed by
fast memory.It contains a

specifying its address and issuing a

large number of control command.
semiconductor storage Typical word-lengths range from 16
to 64 bits.
cells that is capable of
Small machines consists of 10s of
storing one bit of

millions of words. Medium and large

information.These cells machines normally have many 10s
or 100s of millons of words
are processed in groups
of fixed size called words
Memory unit or primary
storage
Memory in which any
location can be reached
in a short and fixed The memory of a computer is
amount of time after normally implemented as a memory
hierarchy of 3 or 4 levels of
specifying its address is semiconductor RAM units with
called random-access different speeds and sizes.
The small, fast, RAM units are called
memory(RAM). The

caches .They are tightly coupled

time required to access with the processor and is often
provided on the processor chip itself
one word is called the to achieve high performance
memory access time. The largest and slowest unit is
It typically ranges from referred to as the main memory

a few ns to 100 ns for

modern RAM units.
Secondary storage And I/O
Although primary storage
Input unit: Keyboard is well known.
is essential, it tends to be Others include joysticks, trackballs
expensive. When large and mouse are used as graphic input
amounts of data and many devices in conjunction with displays.
Microphone is used along with ADC.
programs are to be stored, Output Unit:
cheaper secondary Most familiar example is printer.
storage is used Printer employs mechanical impact
particularly for information heads, ink jet streams, or
photocopying techniques as in laser
that is infrequently used.A printers to perform printing. Printers
wide range of secondary are capable of printing 10000 lines
per minute.
storage is available,
Some units such as graphic displays
including magnetic disks

provide both an output function and

and tapes and optical an input function. Hence in many
disks( CD-ROMS) cases the term I/O is used .
Arithmetic and logic unit
( ALU )
Most computer operations are
executed in the ALU of the
processor. Arithmetic and logic
operation is performed by the ALU
OUTPUT UNIT
by bringing the required operands
into the processor registers. Access It function is to send the processed result
times to registers are faster to outside world.eg. Printer.
than the access time to the Printers employ mechanical impact
fastest cache unit in the heads, ink jet streams or
memory hierarchy. photocopying techniques, as in laser
The control and ALU units are printers, to perform the printing.
many times faster than other Printers can be produced to print 10,000
devices connected to the lines per minute. This is tremendous
computer system. This enable a speed for a mechanical device but
single processor to control a no: of still very slow when compared to
external devices such as keyboards, electronic speed of processor unit.
displays magnetic and optical disks,
sensors and mechanical controllers.
 Control unit
It co-ordinates the operation of ALU,
I/O , and memory. It sends control
signals to other units and senses Summary of computer operations
their states.
I/O transfers are controlled by the The computer accepts information in the
instructions of I/O programs that form of programs and data through
identify the devices involved and the an input unit and stores it in the
information to be transferred. But the memory.
actual timing signals that govern
the transfers are generated by Information stored in the memory is
the control circuits. fetched, under program control, into
an arithmetic and logic unit, where it
Data transfers between the processor is processed.
and memory are also controlled by
the control unit through timing signals. Processed information leaves the
computer through an output unit.
Much of the control circuitry is
physically distributed throughout the All activities inside the machine are
machine. A large set of control lines directed by the control unit
carries the signals used for timing and
synchronization of events in all units
Basic operational concepts
Performing a task
Store the program in the memory; fetch BUS STRUCTURE: For reasonable speed of
operation, a computer must be
the individual instructions from memory
organized so that all of its units handle
to processor for execution.
one full word of data at a given time.
Instructions with memory access and ALU
operation are combined in one During data transfer between units, all bits
instruction. in a data word are transferred in
parallel.That is, the bits are transferred
Ex: ADD LOCA, R0 1.Instn. Fetch from
simultaneously over many lines, one bit
memory 2. fetch operand from LOCA
per line.
from memory. 3. Add operand to
contents of R0 and store the result into A group of lines that serve as a
R0.Modern computers perform it in two connecting path for several devices
instns. is called a bus.Bus lines carry data,
That is load LOCA , R1 and Add R1, R0 address and control information
Process of execution of these instructions The simplest way to interconnect functional
Few operational details of processor units is to use a single bus.
operation with memory Buffer registers to smooth out the
MAR,MDR,IR,PC and registers differences in timing among processors,
memories and external devices. Only
Interrupt Signal and interrupt-service
two units use the bus at any given time
routine
Connections between processor and
memory

Memory

MAR MDR
Control

PC R0
R1
.
ALU
IR ALU
NRgen-i
Control
general purpose
Registers
 SYSTEM SOFTWARE
System software is a collection of Functions of compiler, text editor and
programs that are executed as needed to
perform functions such as operating system
Receiving and interpreting user commands OS is a large program, or
Entering and editing application programs actually a collection of routines,
and storing them as files in secondary that is used to control the sharing
storage devices of processor time and interaction
Managing the storage and retrieval of files among various computer units as
in secondary storage devices they execute application
Running standard application programs programs.
such as word processors, spreadsheets or The OS routines perform the tasks
games, with data supplied by the user
required to assign computer
Controlling I/O units to receive input
resources to individual application
information and produce output results
programs.These tasks include
Translating programs from source form
assigning memory and magnetic disk
prepared by the user into object form
consisting of machine instructions
space to program and data files,
moving data between memory and
Linking and running user- written
application programs with existing
disk units and handling I/O operations.
standard library routines, such as Multiprogramming or multitasking
numerical computation packages
Time Line Diagram
 PERFORMANCE
Speed of execution of programs is a The sum of the periods in which the
performance measure processor is active is called
processor time needed to execute
The design of computer hardware
the program.
and machine language instructions,
affect the speed of program Processor time depends on the
execution hardware involved in the execution of
instructions .This hardware comprises
Compiler design also affect the processor and the memory which are
performance connected by a bus.
For best performance, it is If the data and instructions are
necessary to design the complier, available in the processor chip in
the machine instruction set and the cache memory, then the instruction
hardware in a co-ordinated way execution is faster
Elapsed time, the total time To execute a machine
required to execute a program is a instructions, the processor divides
measure of performance of the the actions to be performed into a
entire computer system. It is sequence of basic steps, such that
affected by the speed of the each step is completed in one clock
processor, disk and the printer cycle. The clock rates ranges from few
100 MHz to a few GHz.
BASIC PERFORMANCE EQUATION

T = NxS/R is often
referred to as the
performance equation
T is the processor time S is the average number of basic
steps needed to execute one
required to execute a machine instruction, where each
program made in HL basic step is completed in one clock
cycle
language. R is the clock rate in cycles per
N is the number of second.
To achieve high performance, the
machine language

computer designer must find ways to

instructions in the object reduce N and S and increase R
program which was
made using a compiler
on source program
 PIPELINING AND SUPERSCALAR
OPERATION
A substantial improvement in performance
can be achieved by overlapping the A high degree of concurrency can
execution of successive instructions, be achieved if multiple
using a technique called pipelining. instructions pipelines are
Ex. Add r1, r2,r3 ; this causes r3=r2+r2;
implemented in the processor.
The process is as below
This is done by using multiple
R1 and r2 are first transferred to the inputs
functional units and thereby creating
of ALU; Addition operation is done; the sum
is transferred to r3.Pipelining can be done parallel paths to execute different
as below. instructions in parallel
Processor can bring the next instruction fro The above scheme causes the
m memory while addition is being done; if execution of several instructions in
the next instruction also uses Alu, the every clock cycles. This mode of
operands for the same can be transferred operation is called superscalar
to ALU inputs during the same time, the
execution. If it can be sustained for a
sum of add instruction is transferred to r3.
In ideal case maximum degree of long time during program execution,
overlapping is possible when execution the effective value of S can be
proceeds at the rate of one instruction reduced to less than one.
completed in each clock cycle. Individual Clock rate can be increased by using
instructions still require several clock
better IC technology
cycles to complete.
 CISC vs RISC
CISC: RISC:
1. Uses large no: of instns. And large variety of
1. Uses relatively less no of instn. and few
addressing modes addressing modes.
2. Has variable lenth instruction formats
2. Has fixed length , easily decoded instn.
3. Program length is less
Format
4. No. of instn. formats is more
3. Program length is more
5. Instn. Decoding is complex
4. No. of instn. formats is less
6. Regiser memory management is required

Main memory management is not required 5. Instn decoding is simpler.

6. Regiser memory management is not
required
7. The control logic design is complex 7. Main memory management is required
8. The control logic design is simple
8. Slower computation due to more instructions 9. Faster computation due to less instructions
and addressing modes and addressing modes
9. CISC implements microprogramed control
10. RISC implements hardware control
10. Instruction is executed in multiple clock
cycle 11. Instruction is executed in a single clock
cycle
It support indirect addressing modes
Includes memory to register, memory to memory 12. RISC does not support indirect addressing
alongwith register to register operations. mode
13. Includes only register to register operations
 Performance measurement
Computer designers use performance Programs selected range from game
estimate, manufacturers use performance playing, compiler and database
indicators in the marketing process, Buyer applications to numerically intensive
use such data to choose one from many programs in autophysics and quantum
computer models chemistry. In each case the program is
Execution time T , is not easy to compute; compiled for the computer under test and
clockspeed and various architectural the running time on a real computer is
features are not reliable indicators of measured. The same program is compiled
expected performance. Hence computer also run on a reference computer
performance is measured by benchmark The spec rating is computed as follows
programs Running time on the ref.
The performance measure is given by the comp.
time to execute a given benchmark SPEC rating =
program.
---------------------------------------
Real application program s are used as
benchmark programs. SPEC, a non-profit
running time on the com. Under
organisation, SYSTEM PERFORMANCE test
EVALUATION CORPORATION, selects and
publish different application programs for The test is repeated for all the programs in
different application domains, together the SPEC suit, and the geometric mean of
with test results for many commercially the program is computed.
available computers
Multiprocessors and
Multicomputers
Multiprocessor systems
contain a no of processor
units and provide high
performance. High performance can be achieved
They execute different by interconnecting group of complete
application tasks in parallel computers
or subtasks of a large task in The computers have normally have
parallel access to their own memory units
They are called shared The tasks executed by these
computers exchange messages over
memory multiprocessor a communication network
systems as all processors These computers are called message
usually have access to all of passing mlticomputers
the memory in such systems
Systems are of increased
complexity and cost and use
more complex
interconnection network