Saba institute of higher education

Faculty of Computer Science

Computer Fundamentals

Basic Computer
Architecture

Khalil Ahmad Faizi

1
Contents
● Functions of a Computer
● CPU
– ALU

– CU
–Registers

● Memory
● Cash Memory
● Simple Program
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Introduction: What is a computer?
● Simply, a computer is an electronic machine that:
– Accepts input information,
– Processes the information according to a list
of internally stored instructions, and
– Produces the resulting output information.

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Introduction: What is a computer?...
●
Functions performed by a computer are:
– Accepting information to be processed as input.
– Storing a list of instructions to process
the information.
– Processing the information according to the list
of instructions.
–Providing the results of the processing as output.

What are the functional units of a computer?

4
Organization of a Computer System

Central
Processing
Unit
Input Output
Device
Main Device
Memory

Secondary
Storage

Slide 1- 5
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Functional units of a computer
Input unit accepts Arithmetic and logic unit(ALU):
information: •Performs the desired
• Human operators, operations on the input
• Electromechanical devices information as determined
• Other computers by instructions in the
memory
Memory
Arithmetic
Input & Logic
Instr1

Instr2
Output Instr3 Control

Data1
I/O Stores Processor
Data2
information: Control unit coordinates
Output unit sends various actions
• Instruction
results of processing: • Input,
• To a monitor display, s,
• Data • Output
• To a printer 8
• Processing
Input Devices
● Any type of device that provides data to a
computer from the outside world
● For example:
– Keyboard
– Mouse
– Scanner

Slide 1- 8
Output Devices
●
Any type of device that provides data from a computer
to the outside world
●
Examples of output data:
– A printed report
– An image such as a picture
– A sound
● Common output devices include:
– Monitor (display screen)
– Printer

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Slide 1- 9
 Central
Processing Unit
CPU Input/

Bus Output
Devices

RAM

10
CPU and System
Hardware

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Processors (CPU)

● Component which executes a program.

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Processor (CPU)...
● Fetches instructions from main memory
● Carries out the operations commanded by the instructions
● Each instruction produces some outcome
●
A sequence of instructions to perform a task is called
a program.
●
Instructions are stored in the memory as binary
numbers
➔ – Binary number - a sequence of 1’s
and 0’s
Processor fetches instructions that make up a program
from the memory and performs the operations stated in 14

those instructions.
Slide 1- 14
Information in a computer -- Instructions
●
Instructions specify commands to:
●
Transfer information within a computer (e.g., from
memory to ALU)
●
Transfer of information between the computer and I/O
devices (e.g., from keyboard to computer, or computer to
printer)
●
Perform arithmetic and logic operations (e.g., Add two
numbers, Perform a logical AND).

●
What do the instructions operate upon?

14
Information in a computer -- Data
●
Data are the “operands” upon which instructions operate.
●
Data could be:
●
Numbers,
● Encoded
characters.
●
Data, in a broad sense means any digital information.
●
Computers use data that is encoded as a string of
binary
digits called bits.

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CPU and System
Hardware

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 CPU ..
● .The CPU consists of 3 main parts:
– ALU - where arithmetic and logical operations performed

– Control Unit (CU) - controls data movement and execution of

– Registers - small high speed storage areas

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Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
● The actual processing of the data and instruction are
performed by Arithmetic Logical Unit
● The major operations performed by the ALU are
addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, logic and
comparison.
● Data is transferred to ALU from storage unit when
required

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Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)...
– AC = accumulator holds results
– MQ = memory-quotient holds second portion of
long results
– MBR = memory buffer register holds data while
operation executes

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Control Unit
(CU)
● The Control Unit acts like the supervisor
● It extracts instructions from memory and decodes and
executes them, and sends the necessary signals to the
ALU to perform the operation needed.
●
The control unit determines the sequence in
which computer programs and instructions are
● executed.
Processing of programs stored in the main memory,
interpretation of the instructions and issuing of signals
for other units of the computer to execute them.

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Functioning of Control Unit
(CU)
Start

Is there No
instructions
any
awaiting
execution?

Yes

Fetch the Instruction

No Execute the Instruction

Transfer Control to
error handler Are there any errors?

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Ye
s
Control Unit
(CU)...
●
Program control determines what computer does based
on instruction read from memory
– MAR = memory address register holds address of memory cell to be
– read PC = program counter; address of next instruction to be read
– IR = instruction register holds instruction being executed
– IBR holds right half of instruction read from memory

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 Registers:
• The CPU processes data and instructions
• It is necessary to transfer the processed data with
high speed.
• So the computer uses a number of special
memory units called registers.
• They are not part of the main memory but they
store data or information temporarily and pass it on
as directed by the control unit.

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MAR,
MDR
• MAR (Memory Address Register) holds the
address of the memory location being read from or
written to memory
• MDR (Memory Data Register) holds the data that
is being read from or written to memory
– Bi-directional connection to bus for reading and
writing

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Thank you for your attention!

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