GXEST203 - FOUNDATIONS OF COMPUTING:

FROM HARDWARE ESSENTIALS TO WEB DESIGN

(Common to Group A & B)

Module1

Computer Hardware – CPU, Memory - Memory

hierarchy: registers, cache, RAM, virtual memory,
Motherboard - Computer Peripherals - I/O devices,
Storage devices- HDDs, SSDs, optical drives, I/O
communication and device management, Interface
cards – Buses – Firmware - Boot process
The Computer Defined
 Electronic device
 Converts data into information
 Modern computers are digital
 Two digits combine to make data
 Older computers were analog
 A range of values made data
Computers For Individual Use
 Desktop computers
 The most common type of computer
 Sits on the desk or floor
 Performs a variety of tasks
 Workstations
 Specialized computers
 Optimized for science or graphics
 More powerful than a desktop
Computers For Individual Use

 Notebook computers
 Small portable computers
 Weighs between 3 and 8 pounds
 About 8 ½ by 11 inches
 Typically as powerful as a desktop
 Can include a docking station
Computers For Individual Use
 Tablet computers
 Newest development
in portable computers
 Input is through
a pen
 Run specialized
versions of office
products
Computers For Individual Use

 Handheld computers
 Very small computers
 Personal Digital Assistants (PDA)
 Note taking or contact management
 Data can synchronize with a desktop
 Smart phones
 Hybrid of cell phone and PDA
 Web surfing, e-mail access
Computers For Organizations
 Network servers
 Centralized computer
 All other computers connect
 Provides access to network resources
 Multiple servers are called server farms
 Often simply a powerful desktop
Computers For Organizations

 Mainframes
 Used in large
organizations
 Handle thousands
of users
 Users access through
a terminal
Computers For Organizations

 Minicomputers
 Called midrange computers
 Power between mainframe and desktop
 Handle hundreds of users
 Used in smaller organizations
 Users access through a terminal
Computers For Organizations

 Supercomputers
 The most powerful
computers made
 Handle large and
complex calculations
 Process trillions of
operations per second
 Found in research
organizations
Computers In Society

 More impact than any other invention

 Changed work and leisure activities
 Used by all demographic groups
 Computers are important because:
 Provide information to users
 Information is critical to our society
 Managing information is difficult
Computers In Society

 Computers at home
 Many homes have multiple computers
 Most American homes have Internet
 Computers are used for
 Business
 Entertainment
 Communication
 Education
Computers In Society

 Computers in education
 Computer literacy required at all levels
 Computers in small business
 Makes businesses more profitable
 Allows owners to manage
 Computers in industry
 Computers are used to design products
 Assembly lines are automated
Computers In Society

 Computers in government
 Necessary to track data for population
 Police officers
 Tax calculation and collection
 Governments were the first computer users
Computers In Society

 Computers in health care

 Revolutionized health care
 New treatments possible
 Scheduling of patients has improved
 Delivery of medicine is safer
 Parts of the Computer System
 Computer systems have four parts
 Hardware
 Software
 Data
 User
Parts of the Computer System
 Hardware
 Mechanical devices in the computer
 Anything that can be touched
 Software
 Tell the computer what to do
 Also called a program
 Thousands of programs exist
Parts of the Computer System
 Data
 Pieces of information
 Computer organize and present data
 Users
 People operating the computer
 Most important part
 Tell the computer what to do
 Information Processing Cycle
 Steps followed to process data
 Input
 Processing
 Output
 Storage
Essential Computer Hardware
 Computers use the same basic hardware
 Hardware categorized into four types
Essential Computer Hardware
 Processing devices
 Brains of the computer
 Carries out instructions from the program
 Manipulate the data
 Most computers have several processors
 Central Processing Unit (CPU)
 Secondary processors
 Processors made of silicon and copper
Essential Computer Hardware
 Memory devices
 Stores data or programs
 Random Access Memory (RAM)
 Volatile
 Stores current data and programs
 More RAM results in a faster system
 Read Only Memory (ROM)
 Permanent storage of programs
 Holds the computer boot directions
Essential Computer Hardware
 Input and output devices
 Allows the user to interact
 Input devices accept data
 Keyboard, mouse
 Output devices deliver data
 Monitor, printer, speaker
 Some devices are input and output
 Touch screens
Essential Computer Hardware
 Storage devices
 Hold data and programs permanently
 Different from RAM
 Magnetic storage
 Floppy and hard drive
 Uses a magnet to access data
 Optical storage
 CD and DVD drives
 Uses a laser to access data
Software Runs The Machine
 Tells the computer what to do
 Reason people purchase computers
 Two types
 System software
 Application software
Software Runs The Machine
 System software
 Most important software
 Operating system
 Windows XP
 Network operating system (OS)
 Windows Server 2003
 Utility
 Symantec AntiVirus
Software Runs The Machine
 Application software
 Accomplishes a specific task
 Most common type of software
 MS Word
 Covers most common uses of computers
Computer data
 Fact with no meaning on its own
 Stored using the binary number system
 Data can be organized into files
Computer users
 Role depends on ability
 Setup the system
 Install software
 Mange files
 Maintain the system
 “Userless” computers
 Run with no user input
 Automated systems
System Block Diagram

The computer unit is made up conceptually of three major components,

the arithmetic/logic unit (ALU), the control unit (CU), and memory. The
ALU and CU together are known as the central processing unit (CPU).

I/O Interface: The I/O interface corresponds in function roughly to the input
and output baskets
CPU: Major Components

 ALU (arithmetic logic unit)

 The arithmetic/logic unit is the component of the CPU where

data is held temporarily and where calculations take place.

 It corresponds directly to the calculator in the Little Man

Computer.
 CPU: Major Components
 CU (control unit)
 Performs fetch/execute cycle
 Accesses program instructions and issues commands to the
ALU
 Moves data to and from CPU registers and other hardware
components

 The control unit determines the particular instruction to be

executed by reading the contents of a program counter (PC),
sometimes called an instruction pointer (IP), which is a part of the
control unit.
The Little Man Computer
 Concept of Registers
 Small, permanent storage locations within the CPU
used for a particular purpose
 Register equivalent to the calculator is known as an
accumulator
 They are not addressed as a memory location
 Manipulated directly by the Control Unit
 Each register is wired within the CPU to perform its
specific role.
 Size in bits or bytes (not in MB like memory)
 Ranges usually from 1 to 128 bits.
 Can hold data, an address or an instruction
Registers
 Use of Registers
 Scratchpad for currently executing program
 Holds data needed quickly or frequently
 Stores information about status of CPU and currently
executing program
 Address of next program instruction
 Signals from external devices

 General Purpose Registers

 User-visible registers
 Hold intermediate results or data values, e.g., loop counters
 Equivalent to LMC’s calculator
 Typically several dozen in current CPUs
Special-Purpose Registers
 Program Count Register (PC/IP)
 Also called instruction pointer
 Holds the address of the current instruction being
executed.
 Instruction Register (IR)
 holds the actual instruction being executed currently
by the computer

 Memory Address Register (MAR)

 holds the address of a memory location.
Special-Purpose Registers
 Memory Data Register (MDR)/Memory Buffer Register
 Hold a data value that is being stored to or retrieved
from the memory location currently addressed by the
memory address register.
 Flags (one bit Boolean variable) The control unit will
also contain several 1-bit registers, known as flags
 It track condition like arithmetic carry and overflow,
power failure, internal computer error
 Status Registers
 several flags are grouped into one or more status
registers.
 Status of CPU and currently executing program
Register Operations
 Registers can be loaded with values from other
locations
 Addition and subtraction from the
value previously stored in a register
 Shift or rotate data in a register right or left by one or
more bits.
 Test contents for conditions such as zero, positive,
negative, or too large to fit in the register
MEMORY UNIT-Operation of
Memory
 Each memory location has a unique address
 Address from an instruction is copied to the
MAR which finds the location in memory
 CPU determines if it is a store or retrieval
 Transfer takes place between the MDR and
memory
 MDR is a two way register
Relationship between MAR,
MDR and Memory
Address Data
Relationship between MAR,
MDR and Memory
• The output from the memory address register is passed
to an address decoder.
• The output from the address decoder consists of a
series of lines, each of which can light up the bulbs in a
single row of cells.
• Only one line at a time can be activated—specifically,
the one corresponding to the decoded address.
• The active line will light the bulbs that correspond to
“1s”, leaving the “0s” dark.
• The viewer therefore will see only the single group of
cells that is currently addressed by the memory address
register.
MAR-MDR Example
Visual Analogy of Memory
Memory Capacity
Determined by two factors
1. Number of bits in the MAR
 LMC = 100 (00 to 99)- two-digit addresses in the Little
Man Computer resulted in a maximum of one hundred mailboxes
 2K where K = width of the register in bits
2. Size of the address portion of the instruction
 4 bits allows 16 locations
 8 bits allows 256 locations
 32 bits allows 4,294,967,296 or 4 GB
RAM: Random Access Memory
 DRAM (Dynamic RAM)
 Most common, cheap, less electrical power, less heat,
smaller space
 Volatile: must be refreshed (recharged with power) 1000’s
of times each second
 requires extra electronic circuitry that “refreshes”memory
periodically

 SRAM (static RAM)

 Faster and more expensive than DRAM
 Volatile, Lower in bit density.
 Small amounts are often used in cache memory for high-
speed memory access
Nonvolatile Memory
 ROM
 Read-only Memory
 Holds software that is not expected to change over
the life of the system
 EEPROM
 Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM
 Flash Memory
 Faster than disks but more expensive
 Uses hot carrier injection to store bits of data
 Slow rewrite time compared to RAM
 Useful for nonvolatile portable computer storage
Fetch-Execute Cycle

 Two-cycle process because both instructions and

data are in memory
 Fetch
 Decode or find instruction, load from memory into
register and signal ALU
 Execute
 Performs operation that instruction requires
 Move/transform data
 Cache Memory
 Most modern systems also provide asmall
amount of static RAM memory that is used for
high-speed access.
 This memory is known as cache memory
Cache Memory
 If the required memory data is not already present in
cache memory, an extra step is required. In this case,
a cache line that includes the required location is
copied from memory to the cache.
 When cache memory is full, some block in cache
memory must be selected for replacement(LRU, Least
Recently Used)
 The entire cache operation is managed by the cache
controller.
Two level Cache

A personal computer secondary cache commonly

provides an additional 512 KB–2 MB of cache.

The use of a dedicated on-chip bus between level 1

cache and level 2 cache provides faster response
than connecting the level 1 cache to memory or to a
level 2 cache on the regular memory bus.
Memory/Storage Hierarchy
 Memory/Storage Hierarchy
 At the top of the hierarchy are the CPU registers used
to hold data for the short term while processing is taking
place.
 Cache memory, is the fastest memory outside the CPU-
used to hold current data and instructions. There may be
as many as three different levels of cache.
 The CPU accesses the data or instruction in
conventional memory if cache memory is not present.
 Next in the hierarchy is conventional memory(DRAM)
 Both conventional and cache memory are referred to
as primary memory. Both provide immediate access to
program instructions and data by the CPU.
Memory/Storage Hierarchy
 Storage in the hierarchy that is not immediately
available to the CPU, is referred to as secondary
storage and is treated as I/O.
 Data and programs in secondary storage must be
copied to primary memory for CPU access.
 Access to secondary storage is significantly slower
than primary storage except flash memory.
 One important advantage of secondary storage, is its
permanence, or nonvolatility- used to store massive
amounts of data
Memory/Storage Hierarchy
 Flash memory uses a special type of transistor that
can hold data indefinitely without power
 Eg: a flash memory card may be used to store digital
camera photographs until they are moved to a
computer for long-term storage
 The magnetic media used for disk and tape and the
optical media used for DVD and CD also retain data
indefinitely.
 Large amounts of online secondary storage may be
provided at low cost.
Memory/Storage Hierarchy
 Most flash memory devices, optical disks, and many
magnetic disks are designed for easy removal from
the computer system.

 Well suited for backup and for off-line storage of

data that can be loaded when the data is needed.

 Secondary storage may be used for off-line archiving,

for moving data easily from machine to machine, and
for off-line backup storage.
Memory/Storage Hierarchy
 Data and programs may be stored on a secondary
storage device connected to a different computer and
accessed through a network connection between the
computers.

 In this context, the computer with secondary storage

is sometimes known as a server or a file server.

 Large-scale storage services are frequently organized

and implemented as storage area networks (SANs).
Virtual Memory/Virtual Storage

 Universally accepted solution to the problems inherent

in memory management

 Uses a combination of operating system software and

special purpose hardware to simulate a memory that
meets the management needs of a modern system

 The primary method of implementing virtual storage is

called paging.
Virtual Memory/Virtual Storage
 Pages and Frames
 Assume that memory is divided into blocks. These
blocks are called frames.
 all the frames are of equal size, typically 1 KB–4 KB.
 The blocks are numbered, starting from 0.
 We are dividing each memory address into two parts:
a frame number and the specific address within the
particular frame. The address within the frame is
called an offset, because it represents the offset from
the beginning of the frame.
 Virtual Memory/Virtual Storage

 We also divide a program into blocks, where each block

in the program is the same size as a frame. The blocks
in a program are called pages.
 Dynamic address translation is built into the CPU
hardware of every modern computer
 The hardware automatically and invisibly translates
every individual address in a program
(the virtual addresses) to a different corresponding
physical location (the physical addresses)- by the
processor's memory management unit (MMU)
Virtual Memory/Virtual Storage
 This allows the operating system's program loader to
place the pages of a program into any available
frames of physical memory, page by page,
noncontiguously, so that it is not necessary to find a
contiguous space large enough to fit the entire
program.

 Any page of any program can be placed into any

available frame of physical memory.

 For each program, the operating system creates a

page table, which keeps track of the corresponding
frame location in physical memory where each page is
stored.
Virtual Memory/Virtual Storage
Motherboard

 Here considers discussion of computer system

hardware by showing you how all these pieces fit
together in real modern computer systems.

 Major components that make up a computer system:

one or more CPUs, primary storage, I/O modules,
various I/O devices, and the buses that connect
everything together
Motherboard-Typical Smartphone System
Motherboard-Typical Smartphone System

 One or more CPUs

 Memory
 One or more hard disks or solid-state disks
 Keyboard and pointing device
 Built-in graphics, video, and audio capability.
 USB, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi interface
controllers
 Ports (perhaps, also, Bluetooth, SATA, and/or
Thunderbolt), network connections, printers, mice,
external drives, SD cards, and other devices.
Motherboard
In most computer systems, the CPU, memory,
and other major components are mounted to
wiring on a printed circuit board known as a
motherboard.

Major CPU System Components

Motherboard

A Personal Computer Motherboard

 Motherboard

Components of a typical Desktop PC

 System Architecture

Two basic I/O system architectures in common use:

 Bus architecture - used in almost all embedded

and mobile devices, personal computers,
workstations, and in some mainframe computers

 Channel architecture - found primarily in IBM

mainframe computers.
System Architecture(Bus)
 System Architecture(Bus)
 There are five basic components

1. The CPU or CPUs.

2. The I/O peripheral devices.

3. Memory

4. I/O modules, controllers, or I/O channel subsystem

units. The I/O modules act as interfaces between the
CPU and memory and one or more I/O devices.

5. The buses connecting the various components together.

Generalized Bus Interface Configuration
Generalized Bus Interface Configuration
 Two so-called bridges divide the workload.
 Speed-critical components, in particular, the CPU and
memory, are interconnected through a memory
bridge, sometimes called the northbridge in computer
literature.
 More traditional I/O is typically connected using
various standard buses, such as SATA, Thunderbolt,
and USB, through I/O controllers and PCI-Express
buses to an I/O bridge, sometimes called the
southbridge.
 A high-speed bus interconnects the two bridges.
 I/O DEVICES
 Keyboard : an input device.
 Basically a character-based device
 Typing on the keyboard of your PC results in Unicode
or ASCII input to the computer, one character at a
time.
 Input from the keyboard is very slow because it is
dependent on the speed of typing, as well as on the
thought process of the user.
 For “input” statement of some kind requesting input
data for the program.
 There are other times when the user wishes to
interrupt what the computer is doing.
 On a multiuser system, there may be many keyboards
connected to a single computer
 I/O DEVICES

 Mouse: an input device

 When you move the mouse, you expect the cursor to
move on the screen.
 Clicking on a mouse button may serve as expected input
to a program, or it may be unexpected and change the
way in which the program is executing.
 When the user selects an item on a drop-down menu or
clicks on a toolbar icon, she expects a timely response.
 Here also, data rates are slow.
I/O DEVICES

Printers: Output device

 Operate over a wide range of data rates.
 Most modern output is produced graphically or as a
mixture of font descriptors, text, bitmap graphics, and
object graphics, a page or a screen at a time, using a
page description language.
 The choice of page description language and mixture of
elements is determined by the capabilities of the printer
or graphics card.
 Disks, printers, screens, and most other I/O devices
operate almost completely under CPU program control.
I/O DEVICES
I/O DEVICES

I/O controllers may be very simple and control a single

device, or they may be complex, with substantial built-in
intelligence, and may control many devices.

I/O controllers that control a single type of device are

often called device controllers.

For example, an I/O controller that controls disks would

be a disk controller.
 HDD
MAGNETIC DISKS:
• Consists of one or more flat, circular platters made of
glass, metal, or plastic, and coated with a magnetic
substance.
• Particles within a small area of the magnetic substance
can be polarized magnetically in one of two directions
with an electromagnet
• Thus, magnetic polarization can be used to distinguish
1s and 0s.
• Electromagnetic read/write heads are used for this
purpose.
 HDD
• A drive motor rotates the disk platter(s) about its
central axis.
• On most drives, the motor rotates the disk at a fixed
speed.
• An arm has the read/write head mounted at the end.
• The arm makes it possible for the head to move
radially in and out across the surface of the disk.
• A head motor controls precisely the position of the
arm on the disk.
HDD
 HDD
Most hard disk drive contain multiple platters, all mounted on the
same axis, with heads on both surfaces of each platter.
The heads move in tandem, so they are positioned over the same
point on each surface.
With the head in a particular position, it traces out a circle on the disk
surface as the disk rotates; this circle is known as a track.Each track
contains one or more blocks of data.
Since the heads on each surface all line up, the set of tracks for all the
surfaces form a cylinder
The surface of the disk platter as divided into equally sized pie shape
segments, known as sectors.
Each sector on a single track contains one block of data, typically 512
or 4,096 bytes
Block represents the smallest unit that can be independently read or
written
 HDD
The transfer time is kept constant with the motor rotating at a fixed
speed.
This technique is called CAV, for constant angular velocity.
1CAV has the advantage of simplicity and fast access.
Modern disk drives divide the disk into a number of zones, typically
sixteen.
 HDD

 The platter on a hard disk drive is made of a rigid

material and is precisely mounted.
 The location of the heads radially is tightly
controlled.
 A disk that can store large amounts of data and
that retrieves data quickly.
 A typical hard disk rotates at 5400 revolutions per
minute (rpm) or 7200 rpm
 HDD

A disk platter, arm, and read/write head is shown in the

above figure.
Here, the hard disk drive contains three platters and six
heads.
 HDD

 The time that is required to move from one track to

another is known as the seek time.
 Since the distance between the two tracks is
obviously a factor, the average seek time is used
as a specification for the disk.
 Once the head is located over the desired track, the
read/write operation must wait for the disk to rotate
to the beginning of the correct sector.

 The time for this to occur is known as the rotational

latency time, or sometimes as rotational delay or
simply latency time.
HDD
 HDD

 Thus, the average latency time can be calculated

from the rotational speed of the disk as

Eg: For a typical hard disk rotating at 3600

revolutions per minute, or 60 revolutions per second,
the average latency is
 HDD

 If the hard drive in the example contains 30 sectors per

track, the transfer time for a single block would be

Eg: If the hard drive in the above example contains 30

sectors per track, the transfer time for a single block
would be
 HDD – Disk Arrays
 In larger computer environments, with mainframe
computers or large PCs that provide program and data
storage facilities for a network, we group multiple disks
together.
 Such a grouping of two or more disk drives is called a
disk array or a drive array.
 Used to reduce overall data access time by sharing the
data among multiple disks
 Increase system reliability by providing storage
redundancy.
 One useful type of disk array is known as RAID, which
stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. (or
“Redundant Array of Independent Disks”)
 HDD – Disk Arrays

Two standard methods of implementing a disk array:

1. Mirrored array: consists of two or more disk drives.

 each disk stores exactly the same data.
 If a read failure occurs in one of the drives, the data can
be read from another drive and the bad block marked to
prevent future use of that block, increasing system
reliability.
 This technique is particularly suitable for highly reliable
computer systems known as fault-tolerant computers.
 HDD – Disk Arrays
2. Striped array:
 A file segment to be stored is divided into blocks. Different
blocks are then written simultaneously to different disks.
 Multiplies the throughput rate by the number of data disks in
the array.
There are five well-defined RAID standards: RAID 1 through
RAID 5
RAID 1 - A mirrored array, provides protection by storing
everything at least twice
RAIDs 2, 3, and 4 : arrays that are striped in different ways,
Each uses a separate disk for error checking.
RAID 5 eases the roadblock by spreading the error-checking
blocks over all of the disks.
 SSD

 Large-capacity flash memory units called solid-state drives

(SSDs)are used to access stored data quickly.
 It is used as the long-term storage device of choice in
computers, particularly in systems requiring moderate
storage capacity.
 Most SSDs provide 60–512 GB of storage.
 Large solid-state drives, with capacities in the 10 TB range,
have begun to enter the market.
 The capacity of SSDs is continually expanding, and the cost
falling, suggesting that SSDs may replace magnetic disk
storage for many, if not most, applications within the next few
years.
 I/O COMMUNICATION

Input from the peripheral device is transferred from the I/O

controller or buffer for that peripheral device one word at a
time to the I/O data register and from there to an
accumulator or general-purpose register under program
control.
 I/O COMMUNICATION

 Similarly, individual words of output data pass from

a register to the I/O data register where they can be
read by the appropriate I/O controller, again under
program control.

 Each instruction produces a single input or output.

 This method is known as Programmed I/O.
I/O COMMUNICATION
I/O COMMUNICATION
 I/O COMMUNICATION
Interrupts
 Circumstances under which it is important to interrupt the
normal flow of a program in the computer to react to special
events.
Eg: An unexpected user command from the keyboard
 a click of a mouse or touch of a finger on a screen
 external input from a device requiring attention
 an abnormal situation, such as a power failure, that requires
immediate attention from the computer
 an attempt to execute an illegal instruction, a request for
service from a network controller
 the completion of an I/O task initiated by the program
 I/O COMMUNICATION

 Computers provide interrupt capability by providing one or

more special control lines to the central processor known
as interrupt lines.
 The messages sent to the computer on these lines are
known as interrupts.
 The presence of a message on an interrupt line will cause
the computer to suspend the program being executed and
jump to a special interrupt processing program.
 Interrupt messages are triggered primarily by the various
I/O controllers in the system.
 I/O COMMUNICATION
 Since the computer is capable only of executing
programs, interrupt actions take the form of special
programs.
 I/O COMMUNICATION
 The interrupt causes the temporary suspension of the
program in progress. All the pertinent information
about the program being suspended, including the
location of the last instruction executed, and the
values of data in various registers, is saved in a
known part of memory, either in a special area
associated with the program, known as the process
control block (PCB), or in a part of memory known
as the stack area.
 This information is known as the program's context,
and will make it possible to restart the program
exactly where it left off, without loss of any data or
program state.
 I/O COMMUNICATION
 The memory belonging to the original program is kept intact.
The computer then branches to a special interrupt handler
program elsewhere in memory; the interrupt handler program
is also known as an interrupt routine or an interrupt service
routine.
 The interrupt handler program determines the appropriate
course of action. This process is known as servicing the
interrupt.
 Since many interrupts exist to support I/O devices, most of
the interrupt-handling programs are also known as device
drivers.

 When the interrupt routine completes its task, it normally

would return control to the interrupted program, much like
any subprogram.
 I/O COMMUNICATION
 The Uses of Interrupts:
1. THE INTERRUPT AS AN EXTERNAL EVENT NOTIFIER:
interrupts are useful as notifiers to the CPU of external
events that require action
 I/O COMMUNICATION
2. THE INTERRUPT AS A COMPLETION SIGNAL :the
interrupt serves to notify the computer of the completion of a
particular course of action.
 I/O COMMUNICATION
3. THE INTERRUPT AS A MEANS OF ALLOCATING CPU
TIME: Each program sequence is allowed to execute some
instructions.
After a certain period of time, that sequence is interrupted
and relinquishes control to a dispatcher program within the
operating system that allocates the next block of time to
another sequence.
 I/O COMMUNICATION
4. THE INTERRUPT AS AN ABNORMAL EVENT
INDICATOR: Under certain conditions, we would like the
computer to respond with a specific course of action quickly
and effectively. Eg: power failure(A power line monitor that
connects to the interrupt facility provides this capability) –Eg:
of nonmaskable interrupts(interrupts that are never
disabled)
Another application : When a program attempts to execute
an illegal instruction such as a divide by 0 or a nonexistent
op code, or when a hardware error is detected
 I/O COMMUNICATION
SOFTWARE INTERRUPTS: Modern CPU instruction sets
include an instruction that simulates an interrupt.
The software interrupt is very similar to a subroutine
jump to a known, fixed location.
Software interrupts make the interrupt routines available
for use by other programs. Programs can access these
routines simply by executing the INT instruction with the
appropriate parameter.
An important application for software interrupts is to
centralize I/O operations.
 I/O COMMUNICATION
DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS(DMA) :
 A more efficient form of I/O that transfers block data
directly between the I/O controller and computer
memory, under control of the I/O controller.
 The transfer is initiated by a program in the CPU, using
programmed I/O, but the CPU can then be bypassed
for the remainder of the transfer.
 The I/O controller will notify the CPU with an interrupt
when the transfer is complete.
 Once this has occurred, the data is in memory, ready
for the program to use.
 This technique of I/O–memory data transfer is known
as direct memory access, or more commonly, simply as
DMA.
 Device Management
 The I/O controller serves as an interface between the
CPU and the specific device.
 The disk controller is, an example of an I/O controller.

• The disk controller recognizes messages addressed to it

and accepts commands from the CPU, establishing
what the disk drive is to do.

• In this case, the disk controller recognizes that a block

of data is to be written from memory to disk using DMA.

• The disk controller provides a buffer where the data

from memory can be held until it can be transferred to
the disk.
Device Management
 Device Management
• The disk controller provides the necessary registers and
controls to perform a direct memory transfer.

• The disk controller have access to a memory address register

and a memory data register separate from those of the CPU,
either within the disk controller or as a separate DMA
controller.

• The disk controller controls the disk drive, moving the head to
the physical location on the disk where data is to be written.

• The disk controller copies data from its buffer to the disk.

• The disk controller has interrupt capability, which it uses to

notify the CPU when the transfer is complete
 Device Management

• I/O controllers simplify the task of interfacing peripheral devices

to a CPU.

• I/O controllers offload a considerable amount of work from the

CPU.

• They make it possible to control I/O to a peripheral with a few

simple I/O commands from the CPU. They support DMA, so that
the CPU may be free to perform other tasks.

•Device controllers provide the specialized circuitry required to

interface different types of peripherals to the computer.
 INTERFACE CARDS(NIC)

• Network Interface Cards allows computers to be joined

together in a network, usually through Local Area
Connection (LAN).
• The NIC acts as an interpreter, allowing the
computer to send and receive data from one
computer to another in a network.
 INTERFACE CARDS(NIC)

The role of the NIC is to:

• Prepare data from the computer for the network
cable.
• Send the data to another computer.
° Control the flow of data between the computer
and the cabling system.
° Receive incoming data from the cable and translate it
into bytes that can be understood by
the computer's CPU.
 How it works?
• An Ethernet network interface card is installed in an
available slot inside the computer, typically on the
motherboard.
• The NIC assigns a unique Media Access Control (MAC)
address to the machine, which is used to direct traffic
between the computers on a network. Network cards
also change data from a parallel format, used by
computers, to a serial format necessary in data
transfers; and then back again for received information.

Etrerret r red l u (caole)

o co re
Preparing the Data
• Before data can be sent over the network, the NIC must
change it from a form the computer can understand to a
form that can travel over a network cable. Data moves
through a computer along paths called busses. These
are actually several data paths placed side by side.
Because the paths are side by side (parallel), data can
move along them in lateral groups instead of in a single
(serial) data stream.
• The Transceiver converts the parallel data to serial data
on the network. This is accomplished through the
translation of the computer's digital signals into
electrical or optical signals that can travel on the
network's cables.
Buses
 A bus allows the
various devices both
inside and attached to
the system unit to
communicate with each
other
 Data bus
 Address bus
 Word size is the
number of bits the
processor can interpret
and execute at a given
time
Buses
 Buses
• The major computer system components (processor, main
memory, I/O modules) need to be interconnected in order to
exchange data and control signals.
• A bus is a communication pathway connecting two or more
devices
• A bus that connects major computer components
(processor, memory, I/O) is called a system bus.
• Bus = a shared transmission medium.
• Only one device at a time Can successfully transmit.
• Shared system bus consists of multiple lines- a hierarchy of
buses is used to improve performance.
Key design elements for buses include:
Arbitration
Timing
width
Bus Types
 Industry standard architecture (ISA) bus
 Local bus
 Peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus
 Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) bus
 Universal Serial Bus (USB)
 IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
Buses
 Expansion slots connect to expansion buses
 Common types of expansion buses include:

PCI Express Accelerated

PCI bus
bus Graphics Port

USB and
PC Card bus
FireWire bus
Data Transfer Rate

 The amount of data buses can transfer in a

second

 Measured in megabits per second (Mbps) or

megabytes per second (MBps)
 FIRMWARE

 Some of the program code used to start a

computer must be present in a nonvolatile
segment of primary memory.
 This code is known as firmware.
 This program area in a PC is the BIOS, or Basic
Input Output System,
 A newer version, called EFI or SEFI, for [Secure]
Extensible Firmware Interface, is replacing the
BIOS in newer machines.
 Boot Process
 Hardware doesn’t know where the operating
system resides and how to load it.

 Need a special program to do this job –

Bootstrap loader.
 E.g. BIOS – Basic Input Output System.

 Bootstrap loader locates the kernel, loads it

into main memory and starts its execution.
 How Boot process occurs ?
 Reset event on CPU (power up, reboot) causes
instruction register to be loaded with a predefined
memory location. It contains a jump instruction that
transfers execution to the location of Bootstrap
program.

 This program is form of ROM, since RAM is in

unknown state at system startup. ROM is convenient
as it needs no initialization and can’t be affected by
virus.
BIOS Interaction
 Tasks performed at boot up
 Run diagnostics to determine the state of
machine. If diagnostics pass, booting continues.
 Runs a Power-On Self Test (POST) to check the
devices that the computer will rely on, are
functioning.

 BIOS goes through a preconfigured list of devices

until it finds one that is bootable. If it finds no such
device, an error is given and the boot process
stops.

 Initializes CPU registers, device controllers and

contents of the main memory. After this, it loads
the OS.
BIOS Setup
Boot Procedure
 Tasks performed at boot up (Contd)

 On finding a bootable device, the BIOS loads and

executes its boot sector. In the case of a hard
drive, this is referred to as the master boot record
(MBR) and is often not OS specific.

 The MBR code checks the partition table for an

active partition. If one is found, the MBR code
loads that partition's boot sector and executes it.

 The boot sector is often operating system

specific, however in most operating systems its
main function is to load and execute a kernel,
which continues startup.
 Secondary Boot Loaders
 If there is no active partition or the active
partition's boot sector is invalid, the MBR may
load a secondary boot loader and pass control
to it and this secondary boot loader will select
a partition (often via user input) and load its
boot sector.
 Examples of secondary boot loaders
 GRUB – GRand Unified Bootloader
 LILO – LInux LOader
 NTLDR – NT Loader
GRUB Loader
 Booting and ROM

 System such as cellular phones, PDAs and game

consoles stores entire OS on ROM. Done only for small
OS, simple supporting hardware, and rugged operation.
 Changing bootstrap code would require changing ROM
chips.

 EPROM – Erasable Programmable ROM.

 Code execution in ROM is slower. Copied to RAM for

faster execution.
 Questions
1. List the four parts of a complete computer system.
2. What are the four phases of the Information processing
cycle?
3. Identify four categories of computer hardware.
4. List four units of measure for computer memory and
storage, not including the byte.
5. What are the two most common input and output
devices?
6. Name and differentiate the two main categories of
storage devices.
7. Name and differentiate the two main categories of
computer software.
8. What is the difference between data and information?
9. What is a fundamental difference between data and
programs?
 Questions
10. Ust five tasks a user may be responsible for,
when working with a personal computer.
11. What does ALU stand for? What is its corresponding
component in the Little Man Computer? What does CU
stand for? What is its corresponding LMC component?
12. What is a register? Be precise. Name at least two
components in the LMC that meet the qualifications for a
register. Name several different kinds of values that a
register might hold.
13. What is the purpose of the instruction register? What
takes the place of the instruction register in the LMC?
14. When a value is copied from one register to another,
what happens to the value in the source register? What
happens to the value in the destination register?
 Questions
20. There are four primary operations that are normally
performed on a register. Describe each operation.
21. Explain the relationship between the memory
address register, the memory data register, and memory
itself.
22. If the memory register for a particular computer is 32
bits wide, how much memory can this computer support?
23. What is the difference between volatile and
nonvolatile memory? Is RAM volatile or nonvolatile? Is
ROM volatile or nonvolatile?
24. Registers perform a very important role in the fetch–
execute cycle. What is the function of registers in the
fetch–execute instruction cycle?
 Questions
25. Explain each step of the fetch part of the fetch–
execute cycle. At the end of the fetch operation, what is
the status of the instruction? Specifically, what has the
fetch operation achieved that prepares the instruction for
execution? Explain the similarity between this operation
and the corresponding operation-performed steps
performed by the Little Man.
26. Assume the following values in various registers and
memory locations at a given point in time:
PC: 20 A: 150 Memory location 20: 160 [ADD 60]
Memory location 60: 30. Show the values that are stored
in each of the following registers at the completion of the
instruction: PC, MAR, MDR, IR, and A.
 Questions
27. Define a bus. What are buses used for?
28. What three types of “data” might a bus carry?
29. One large modern computer has a 48-bit memory
address register. How much memory can this computer
address?
30. Peripheral devices can be categorized into three classes.
What are the three classes? Give an example of each.
31. State at least three reasons why storage in a computer is
organized hierarchically.
32.What is the advantage of flash memory over RAM? What
is the advantage of RAM over flash memory? What is the
advantage of flash memory over magnetic hard disk?
33. Draw a circle representing one platter surface of a hard
disk. On your drawing show an example of a track, of a
sector, and of a block.
 Questions
34. Suppose a disk is rotating at 7200 rpm. What is the
minimum latency time for this disk? What is the maximum
latency time for this disk?
35. What is a disk array? What advantages does a disk array
offer over those of a single disk?
36.How does the layout of a typical optical disk differ from
that of a magnetic disk? How many tracks does a standard
single-layer CD- ROM contain?
37. What are the advantages and disadvantages of magnetic
tape as compared to other peripheral storage devices?
38.What do the numbers 1920 × 1080 represent when
describing a display?
39.How many pixels are there in a 1024 × 768 display? What
is the picture ratio of this display?
 Questions
34. Suppose a disk is rotating at 7200 rpm. What is the
minimum latency time for this disk? What is the maximum
latency time for this disk?
35. What is a disk array? What advantages does a disk array
offer over those of a single disk?
36.How does the layout of a typical optical disk differ from
that of a magnetic disk? How many tracks does a standard
single-layer CD- ROM contain?
37. What are the advantages and disadvantages of magnetic
tape as compared to other peripheral storage devices?
38.What do the numbers 1920 × 1080 represent when
describing a display?
39.How many pixels are there in a 1024 × 768 display? What
is the picture ratio of this display?
 Questions
40. What does DMA stand for? What capability does
DMA add to a computer?
41. What data must an I/O controller have before a DMA
transfer takes place? How is this data sent to the
controller?
42. What is the purpose of a completion interrupt at the
conclusion of a DMA transfer?
43. Name at least three benefits that are provided by I/O
controllers.
44. What are the five basic hardware components that
make up a computer?
45. What is the purpose of a bus interface or bus bridge?
 Questions
46.Explain what you expect to find on a motherboard.
47. Briefly describe each of the major disadvantages of
parallel buses.