Introduction to Information Technology: Chapter 3

Computer Organization
Hardware

Khalid Rabayah

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Outline
 Definition of computer system
 Brief look inside the PC
 Classification of computers
 Interaction with the PC
 Detailed description of the PC
 Motherboard
 Microprocessor
 Computer memory
 Interaction among the different
components
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Definition of computer
 A programmable, general-purpose
device that can perform multiple
functionalities.

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 General overview of the computer hardware
 Case: A computer case (also known as the
computer chassis, box or housing)
 Power Supply: An electrical transformer regulates harddisk
secondarystorage
the electricity used by the computer.
 Motherboard: This is the main circuit board that monitor
output
all of the other internal components connect to.
 Hard Disk: This is a large-capacity permanent
storage used to hold information such as programs systemunit
process
and documents.
 Central Processing Unit (CPU): The
microprocessor (brain) of the computer system is
called the central processing unit. The CPU
oversees everything that a computer does. printer
 output
Memory: This is a very fast storage used to hold disk drive mouse
secondarystorage keyboard input
data and instructions. input
  Types of Memory
 Random-access memory (RAM
 Read-only memory (ROM):
 Basic input/output system (BIOS
 Cache
 Virtual memory

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Classification of computer systems
 portable computers –
 Smart phone
 Laptop
 Tablet
 Desktop computer
 Servers
 Main frame computer
 Super computer

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Inside a computer case
 The motherboard:
main electronic
components
 The power supply:
Transformer to
provide computer
with power
 The drives:
CD drive
Hard disk

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 Motherboard
• Carrier of main computer
components
• provides each component with
power and transportation bus
• Holds the following elements
• One or more microprocessor.
• A basic input/output system
chip (BISOS) or ROM.
• Memory (RAM) slots.
• The cache.
• The expansion slots
(graphics sound, video,
network . . .).
• Peripheral component
interconnects (printer,
mouse, keyboard, . . .).
• CMOS unit.
• IDE or EIDE (Enhanced
Integrated Drive Electronics)
disk controllers. 7
Microprocessor - CPU
 Does all processing
 Consists of three
main components:
 ALU
 Control unit
 Registers
 Needs to be cooled
down

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 Main Memory -RAM
 Random Access memory
 Second fastest component
 All active programs are
stored in the RAM
 Very easily accessed by
the CPU
 In the pathway between
the Hard disk and the
CPU
 The bus between the
RAM and CPU is
important to transfer data
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Cache memory
 There is a speed
mismatch between CPU
and RAM
 Cache is introduced to
reduce that speed
mismatch
 Three levels for cache
 Cache level 1; on CPC
 Cache level 2; on CPC
 Cache level 3; next to
CPU
 Stores the most
frequent instructions

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Communication ports: serial
 Connects
motherboard with
external devices
 Communicate data bit
by bit at a time
 The slowest computer
port
 known as the RS-232
interface

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Communication ports: Parallel
 Communicate group
of bits at a time
 Contains 25 pins
 Pins are divided into
data and control
 Used mostly for
printers

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 Communication ports: USB
 Universal Serial Bus
 USB is more robust and
faster than other
connections
 Supports three data rates:
 A Low Speed rate of 1.5 Mbit/s
 A Full Speed rate of 12 Mbit/s
 A Hi-Speed rate of 480 Mbit/s
 Becomes the standard
connection in PCs

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Expansion slots
 Expand the basic
computer capabilities
 Comes into 4 kinds

ISA : Industry standard

architecture.

PCI : Peripheral component

interconnect.

AGP: Advanced graphics

port.

PCM: Personal computer

memory.

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Computer Buses
 Capacity: number of bits transmitted per cycle,
and the transmission speed
 Three kinds of buses:
 Data bus: carries data
 Address bus: Carries the address from which it
reads/writes
 Control bus: gives orders related the flow of data
between memory locations and the CPU

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 BIOS: Basic Input Output System Unit
 Built-in software that
determines what a computer
can do without accessing
programs from a disk
 Initialize and test the system
hardware components,
 Load a bootloader or an
operating system from a
mass memory device
 Allows application programs
and operating systems to
interact with the keyboard,
display, and other
input/output devices

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CMOS chip
 CMOS chip has a small on-board battery that
provides power,
 Retains all the information necessary to start
the PC properly:
 boot order (the order the computer looks for
information, such as A drive first, C drive second, and
so on),
 real-time system clock,
 calendar settings,
 hardware passwords,
 hard drive configuration settings,
 the installed memory (RAM)

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Motherboard

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Inside the microprocessor
CPU performance
 Clock Speed: The clock speed is measured in
Hz (MHz, GHz), where Hz is defined as
cycle/sec.
 The Word Length: Number of bits that can be
processed in the CPU at one time.
 Data Bus Width: The amount of data that can
be transferred between the CPU and primary
storage at one time.
 MIPS: Stands for million of instruction per
second. It is a rough estimate or measure of the
performance of the CPU

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 Inside a microprocessor
• Performs
mathematical
operations like
addition,
subtraction,
multiplication and
division.

• Moves data from

one memory
location to another.

• Makes decisions
and jump to a new
set of instructions
based on those
decisions. 20
How Microprocessor works
 An address bus (that may be 8, 16 or 32 bits wide) that
sends an address to memory.

 A data bus (that may be 8, 16 or 32 bits wide) that can

send data to memory or receive data from memory.

 An RD (read) and WR (write) line to tell the memory

whether it wants to set or get the addressed location

 A reset line that resets the program counter to zero (or

whatever) and restarts execution.

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How Microprocessor works ….2
 A microprocessor executes a collection of machine
instructions that tell the processor what to do
 A microprocessor is in continuous interaction with
the RAM, and from there it fetches the instructions and
the data to be processed.
 The RAM is also the place where the CPU keeps the
results of the processed data
 The instruction decoder receives the instruction in a
form called assembly language. But this form is not
understandable by the CPU
 The instruction decoder decodes the instruction to a
from that is understandable by the CPU called the
“machine language”.

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How Microprocessor works ….3

 Decoded instructions in their machine language format

are kept in the instruction register
 At the same time the data to be processed is
transferred from RAM into the registers (A,B,C)
 The instruction is then transferred to the ALU, to do
the operation, dictated by the instruction.
 The ALU does the operation and sends the result to
register C.
 The result of the calculation is then transferred to the
RAM to be saved later in the Hard Disk

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Structure of computer memory
The number of memory Data
Address
units Is decided by the Memory unit
0000000 101110111
number of Bits in the
address bus; 0000001 000111001
Number of memory units
= 2^ #of bits in address bus 0000010 100101010

0000011 .
The size of each unit is
Determined by the . .
Number of bits in each
Unit. Data bus
Address bus

000000 101010101010101
Total size =
number of cells
x size of each cell

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How Microprocessor works .Machine cycle
2. Decode instruction 3. Place into instruction
register Instruction
Cycle: 1,2,3,4
Decoder

1. Fetch instruction 4. Place it in address

Instruction register
register
Address register

5. Send data from

Storage register main memory to
storage register
8. Send result to Accumulator
accumulator
CPU
Execution Cycle:
5,6,7,8
7. ALU performs desired 6. Command ALU to perform
operation desired operation
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 Computer memory Hierarchy
The CPU accesses memory According to this hierarchy

Size
Speed

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 The need for speed

Cache

virtual
Disk Storage
CPU
L1
Cache RAM
L2

• Fast and powerful CPUs need quick and easy access

• Use expensive memory in large quantities and back it

up with less expensive memories

• Cheapest is hard disk – access time ~ 1 sec
• RAM, access time ~ 50 – 70 nanosecond
• Cache, - level 1 - level 2
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The hard drive – the virtual memory
• Provides big benefits for users at very low cost
• The amount of RAM is not enough to run all of the
programs that most users expect to run at once
• This frees up space in RAM to load the new application
• Penalty: significant performance drop

RAM Hard drive

Virtual memory 28
The PC booting sequence
 Turn on the computer
 The computer loads data from read-only memory (ROM)
and performs a power-on self-test (POST) to make sure all
the major components are functioning properly.
 As part of this test, the memory controller checks all of
the memory addresses with a quick read/write operation
to ensure that there are no errors in the memory chips.
Read/write means that data is written to a bit and then
read from that bit.
 The computer loads the basic input/output system (BIOS)
from ROM.
 The BIOS provides the most basic information about
storage devices, boot sequence, security, Plug and Play
(auto device recognition) capability and a few other
items.

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The PC booting sequence
 The computer loads the operating system (OS) from
the hard drive into the system's RAM. Generally, the
critical parts of the OS are maintained in RAM as long as
the computer is on. This allows the CPU to have
immediate access to the OS, which enhances the
performance and functionality of the overall system.
 When you open an application, it is loaded into RAM. To
conserve RAM usage, many applications load only the
essential parts of the program initially and then load
other pieces as needed.
 After an application is loaded, any files that are opened
for use in that application are loaded into RAM.
 When you save a file and close the application, the file is
written to the specified storage device, and then the
applications are released from RAM.

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