COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND

ARCHITECTURE
Dr.M.Sindhuja
Assistant Professor(Senior Grade)
School of Electronics
VIT, Chennai
 MODULE-1

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER
ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE
 OUTLINE

COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE

COMPUTER ORGANIZATION

FUNCTION AND STRUCTURE OF COMPUTER

 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
•It refers to those attributes of system visible to programmer

•Also called Instruction set Architecture(ISA)

•Example: Instruction set, number of bits used for data representation,

I/O mechanisms, addressing techniques

•High-level design issues

Eg: Is there a multiply instruction in its instruction set?
 COMPUTER ORGANISATION
•It refers to the operational units and their interconnections that realize the
architectural specifications.

• Example:
Hardware details transparent to the programmer, such as control signals;
interfaces between the computer and peripherals; and the memory
technology used.

•It addresses low level design issues

- eg: Is multiply instruction will be implemented by special
hardware unit or by technique of add-shift operations?
 ARCHITECTURE VS ORGANIZATION

• Computer manufacturer offer different computer models

- same architecture, but with differences in organization

• Models have different price and performance characteristics

• When technology changes, only organization changes (new h/w)

• Same software can run on multiple models while the hardware changes
improves speed and performance
 ARCHITECTURE VS ORGANIZATION
•All Intel x86 family share the same basic architecture

•The IBM System/370 family share the same basic architecture

•This gives code compatibility

•Organization differs between different versions

 FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS OF COMPUTER

• The Control Unit and the Arithmetic and Logic Unit constitute the Central
Processing Unit
• Data and instructions need to get into the system and results out
• Input/output
• Temporary storage of code and results is needed
• Main memory
 INPUT UNIT
• Computers accept coded information through input units.

•The most common input device is the keyboard.

•Whenever a key is pressed, the corresponding letter or digit is automatically

•translated into its corresponding binary code and transmitted to the processor

Input
devices
 MEMORY UNIT
• Function: Used to store program and data
• Two types of memory:
- Primary memory or Main memory
- Secondary memory or Auxiliary memory

PRIMARY MEMORY

• fast memory that operates at electronic speeds.

• Programs must be stored in this memory while they are being executed.
• memory consists of a large number of semiconductor storage cells, each
capable of storing one bit of information
• cells are handled in groups of fixed size called words
• The number of bits in each word is referred to as the word length of the
computer, typically 16, 32, or 64 bits
 MEMORY UNIT
• To provide easy access to any word in the memory,
a distinct address is associated with each word
location.

• Instructions and data can be written into or read

from the memory under the control of the processor

•A memory in which any location can be accessed in a

short and fixed amount of time after specifying its
address is called a random-access memory (RAM)

•The time required to access one word is called the

memory access time.
 CACHE MEMORY
• As an adjunct to the main memory, a smaller, faster RAM unit, called a cache,
is used to hold sections of a program that are currently being executed,
along with any associated data.

• The cache is tightly coupled with the processor and contained on

the same integrated-circuit chip.

• Purpose of the cache is to facilitate high instruction execution rates

 CACHE MEMORY
• At the start of program execution, the cache is empty.

• As execution proceeds, instructions are fetched into the processor chip, and a
copy of each is placed in the cache.

• When the execution of an instruction requires data located in the main

memory, the data are fetched and copies are also placed in the cache.

• suppose a number of instructions are executed repeatedly as happens in a

program loop.

• If these instructions are available in the cache, they can be fetched quickly
during the period of repeated use.
 SECONDARY MEMORY
• Primary memory is expensive and does not retain information when power is
turned off.

• Thus additional, less expensive, permanent secondary storage is used when

large amounts of data and many programs have to be stored.

• Access times for secondary storage are longer than for primary memory.

• secondary storage devices are including magnetic disks, optical disks (DVD
and CD), and flash memory devices
 ARITHMETIC AND LOGIC UNIT(ALU)
• Carry out arithmetic operation such.as addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division.

• Carry out logic operations like AND, OR, NOT, shift, Compare etc.

•During instruction execution, the data (operands) are brought into processor
and performed by ALU

ADD R1, R2
Opcode Operand

•Once the operation carried out , the results are stored back in memory or
retained in processor for immediate use
 CONTROL UNIT
• Coordinate and control the activities between various functional units

• Act as nerve center that send control signals to various functional units and
sense their states

• It fetch instructions ,identify the operation and devices involved in it and

generate control signal to execute operations.

•Use timing signals to determine when a give action is to take place

•Manage data transfer between processor ,memory and I/O devices using
timing signal
 OUTPUT UNIT
• Its function is to send processed results to the outside world.

.
FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS OF COMPUTER-
TOP LEVEL VIEW
 REGISTERS
Program Counter (PC): Keeps track of the memory location of the next
instructions to be dealt with. The PC then passes this next address to Memory Address
Register (MAR).

Memory Address Register (MAR): It stores the memory locations of instructions

that need to be fetched from memory or stored into memory.

Memory Data Register (MDR): It stores instructions fetched from memory or any
data that is to be transferred to, and stored in, memory.

Instruction Register (IR): It stores the most recently fetched instructions while it is
waiting to be coded and executed.

Instruction Buffer Register (IBR): The instruction that is not to be executed

immediately is placed in the instruction buffer register IBR.
 Internal Communications

• The internal communication of a processor in the computer system can be

divided
into two major categories:
(1) Processor to memory communication
(2) Processor to I/O devices communication
 Processor to Memory Communication

• The direct communication between the processor and memory of the

computer system is implemented with the help of two registers:
• MemoryAddress Register
• Memory Buffer Register

• The reading and writing operations performed by the processor are

called memory read and memory write operations
Processor to I/O device Communication

• The communication between I/O devicesand processor of the computer

system is implemented using an interface unit.
• The interface unit acts as an intermediarybetween the processor and the
device controllers of various peripheral devices in the computer system.
 BASIC OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS
• Computer activity is governed by instructions.

• To perform certain operation, program need list of instructions which stored in

memory

•Instructions and data(operands) are stored in the memory are brought into
processor for execute the operations.

• A typical instruction is,

Load R2, LOC

•Instruction read content of memory location (LOC) and load into processor
Register R2.

•Control unit determine the operation to be performed. Next, operand at LOC fetched
from memory into processor register R2.
•After operand loaded , arithmetic or logic operations can be performed

Add R4, R2, R3

•Add contents of registers R2 and R3 and place their sum in register R4. R4 is
overwritten

Store R4, LOC

•After completing operation, the results from register R4 are transferred to LOC.
The original content of LOC are overwritten.

•For load and store instructions, data transfer between memory and processor are
initiated by sending memory location address to memory unit and asserting control
signals.
 Computer Function

• The basic function performed by a computer is execution of a program, which

consists of a set of instructions stored in memory.
• Instruction processing consists of two steps: the processor reads (fetches)
instructions from memory one at a time and executes each instruction.
• Program execution consists of repeating the process of instruction fetch and
instruction execution.
• The instruction execution may involve several operations and depends
on the nature of the instruction.
 Instruction Cycle

• The processing required for single instruction is called aninstruction cycle.

• Fetching: The CPU retrieves the instruction from the main memory of the
computer system.
• Decoding: Breaking down the instruction into different parts, so that it
can be easily understood before being processed by the CPU
 INSTRUCTION CYCLE
Two steps:
• Fetch cycle
• Execute cycle

Reference:William Stallings, “Computer Organization and Architecture”, 2016, 10th edition, Pearson / PHI, USA
FETCH CYCLE
• Register called program counter (PC) holds the address of the instruction to
be fetched next.

•Processor fetches instruction from memory location pointed to by PC

•PC get incremented after each instruction fetch

•The fetched instruction is loaded into a register in the processor known as

the instruction register (IR)
EXECUTE CYCLE

Processor interprets instruction and performs required actions, such as:

• Processor - memory
-data transfer between CPU and main memory
• Processor - I/O
-data transfer between CPU and I/O module
• Data processing
-Some arithmetic or logical operation on data
• Control
- Alteration of sequence of operations
 INTERRUPT

• Mechanism by which other modules (e.g. I/O) may interrupt normal

sequence of processing.
 INSTRUCTION CYCLE WITH INTERRUPT
• Added to instruction cycle
• Processor checks for interrupt
• Indicated by an interrupt signal
• If no interrupt, fetch next instruction
• If interrupt pending:
• Suspend execution of current program
• Save context
• Set PC to start address of interrupt handler routine
• Process interrupt
• Restore context and continue interrupted program