UNIT-I
Computer Organization and Instructions
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EIGHT IDEAS
• The eight ideas that the computer architects have been
invented for computer design are as follows:
1. Design for Moore’s Law
2. Use abstraction to simplify design
3. Make the common case fast
4. Performance via parallelism
5. Performance via pipelining
6. Performance via prediction
7. Hierarchy of memory
8. Dependability via redundancy
EIGHT IDEAS
× 1. Design for Moore’s Law
• IC resources can double or quadruple
between start and end of the design.
• Computer architects must anticipate what
will be the technology at the end rather than
start of design.
× 2. Use abstraction to simplify design
• To represent the design at different levels.
• Reduces the design time considerably.
× 3. Make the common case fast
• It is better to favor the frequent (common)
case over the infrequent case.
• It makes design simple and can done faster.
EIGHT IDEAS
× 4. Performance via parallelism
• Get more throughput by performing operations
in parallel.
× 5. Performance via pipelining
• A pipeline is a set of data processing elements
connected in series, where the output of one
element is the input of the next one.
• The elements of pipeline are often executed in
parallel to improve performance.
× 6. Performance via prediction
• In some case it is better to predict (guess) and
start working rather than wait until we know
for sure.
• Assuming that the mechanism to recover from
a mis-prediction is not too expensive .
• Our prediction is relatively accurate.
× 7. Hierarchy of memory
• Memory should be fast, large and inexpensive.
• Impossible to meet all the three of these
requirements using one type of memory.
• Increased speed and size are achieved to
increased cost.
• The computer architects have found these
conflicting demands with a hierarchy of memory,
with the fastest, smallest & most expensive memory
at the top of the hierarchy and the slowest, largest
and cheapest at the bottom.
× 8. Dependability via redundancy
• Computer should be fast and it also should be
dependable.
• In a computer system a failure of any single
component can shut down the entire system.
• Make system dependable by including redundant
components that can take over when failure occurs.
COMPONENTS OF COMPUTER SYSTEM
COMPONENTS OF COMPUTER SYSTEM
× A computer is a fast electronic
calculating machine
× That accepts digitized information from
the user, processes it according to a
sequence of instructions and provides
the processed information to the user.
Hardware
× Electronic components interconnected
in the computer system as a whole.
Block diagram
Input unit
• A computer accepts a digitally coded
information through input unit using input
devices.
• This unit contains basic components for
accepting data and instruction in some
form and converting them into usable form
by the system.
• Most commonly used input devices are
keyboard and mouse.
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Memory unit
• Memory unit is used to store programs and data.
• Usually primary storage memory and secondary storage
memory devices form a total memory unit.
• Primary memory (main memory) is fast semiconductor RAM.
• Size of this main memory is kept smaller as it is very
expensive.
• Secondary storage memories such as magnetic tapes,
magnetic disk are used for the storage of larger amount of
data.
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Arithmetic and Logic unit
• ALU is responsible for performing
arithmetic and logical operations.
• To perform these operations operands
from main memory are brought into
internal registers of processor.
• After performing operation the result is
either stored in the register or memory
location.
Control unit
• A control unit co-ordinates and controls all the
activities amongst the functional units.
• Fetch the instructions stored in main memory,
identify the operations and devices involved in
it and accordingly generate control signals to
execute the desired operations.
• It uses control and timing signals to determine
when a given action is to take place.
Output unit
× A system for reporting a result is needed and
this forms a output unit.
× The output unit sends the processed results to
the user using output devices such as video
monitor, printer, plotter etc.
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Software
× Computer software is divided into two
broad categories:
* System software
* Application (user) software.
Software Types
System software
× It is collection of programs which is needed in
the creation, preparation and execution of
other program.
× Typical system software includes editors,
assemblers, linker, loader, compilers,
interpreters, debuggers and operating system
and their roles are explained in the table.
System Software
System Role
Software
Editor • Creates and modifies source programs
/ text.
• It has command to change or delete or
insert lines / characters.
Assembler • Translates an assemble language
source file created using editor into
machine language such as binary or
object code.
System Software
System Role
Software
Linker • It is used to join together several object files into one
large object file
Locator • It is used to assign the specific addresses of where
object code is to loaded into memory.
Interpreter • It processes higher level language programs line by
line.
• It executes only one statement of higher level language
at a time.
System Software
System Role
Software
Compiler • It takes entire source program written in higher level
language and translates whole program into a machine
language.
• It allows the user to load his object code program into
system memory, execute it and debug it.
Operating • Performs resource management and provides interface
System between the user and machine.
• It is collection of system programs that tells the machine
what to do under variety of conditions.
Application software
× Allows to perform specific task on a computer
using the capabilities of a computer.
× The computer system cannot be used for
performing different tasks just by loading the
system software.
× It needs application software to accomplish a
task. Different application software are
needed to perform different tasks.
Application Software
× Application programs are usually written in a
higher-level programming language, such as
C, C++, Java or Fortran, in which the
programmer specifies mathematical or text-
processing operations as per the task it has to
perform.
× These operations are written in such a format
that any computer can be used for its
execution.
Application Software
× Programmer uses Text editor for entering &
editing application programs.
× It allows statements of a source program
entered at a keyboard to be accumulated in a
file.
× A file is simply a sequence of alphanumeric
characters or binary data that is stored in main
memory or in secondary storage.
Application Software
× A file can be referred to by a name specified
by the user.
× Compiler translates the high level language
program into a suitable machine language
containing instructions such a Add and Load
instruction.
Operating System
× OS is a collection of routines that tells the
computer what to do under a variety of conditions.
× It is used to control the sharing of and interaction
among various computer units as they execute
application programs.
× Allocate resource, assigns memory and magnetic
disk space to program and data files, move data
from memory and disk units and handles I/O
operations.
Multiprogramming & Multitasking
× OS manages the concurrent execution of
several application programs to make the best
possible use of computer resources.
