Computer Architecture 125R

CATF16D

by

Elias Khoza (MCOMP, CSE)

Email: [email protected]
10 February 2025
Basic concepts and computer evolution
(part one)
About the class…
 We’ll start with a sign in sheet that include
questions about your computer architecture
experience and goals.
 We’ll end with a class evaluation.
 We’ll cover as much as we can in the time

allowed, starting with the easiest and most

important material. Don’t feel rushed; if we
don’t cover everything, you’ll pick it up as
you continue working with course.
 Ask questions every after topic or session.
Basic concepts and computer
evolution
 1.1 A Brief History of Computers
 1.2 Organization and Architecture
 1.3 Structure and Function
 1.4 The Evolution of the Intel x86
Architecture
 1.5 Embedded Systems
 1.6 Cloud Computing
Learning Objectives
 After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
 Explain the general functions and structure of a
digital computer.
 Present an overview of the evolution of computer
technology from early digital computers to the
latest microprocessors.
 Present an overview of the evolution of the x86
architecture.
 Define embedded systems and list some of the
requirements and constraints that various
embedded systems must meet.
Generations of Computer

 Currently, there are five generations of

computer. In the following subsections, we
will discuss the generations of computer in
terms of the technology used by them
(hardware and software), computing
characteristics (speed, i.e., number of
instructions executed per second), physical
appearance, and their applications.

© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 6
First Generation Computers
(1940-1956)
 The first computers used vacuum tubes(a sealed glass tube
containing a near-vacuum which allows the free passage of
electric current.) for
circuitry and magnetic drums for memory.
 They were often enormous and taking up entire room.
 First generation computers relied on machine language.
 They were very expensive to operate and in addition to
using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat,
which was often the cause of malfunctions(defect or
breakdown).
 The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-
generation computing devices.

© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 7
First Generation
Computers
Advantages :
 It was only electronic device
 First device to hold memory

Disadvantages :
 Too bulky i.e large in size
 Vacuum tubes burn frequently
 They were producing heat
 Maintenance problems
© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 8
1.3 A brief history of
computers
 The first publication of the idea was in a 1945 proposal by von Neumann
for a new computer, the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer)
 Six types of registers that are found in CU & ALU:
 Memory buffer register (MBR): Contains a word to be stored in memory
or sent to the I/O unit, or is used to receive a word from memory or from
the I/O unit.
 Memory address register (MAR): Specifies the address in memory of
the word to be written from or read into the MBR.
 Instruction register (IR): Contains the 8-bit opcode instruction being
executed.
 Instruction buffer register (IBR): Employed to hold temporarily the
right-
hand instruction from a word in memory.
 Program counter (PC): Contains the address of the next instruction pair
to be
fetched from memory.
 Accumulator (AC) and multiplier quotient (MQ): Employed to hold
temporarily
operands and results of ALU operations.
Second Generation Computers
(1956-1963)
• Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and
ushered in the second generation of
computers.
• Second-generation computers moved from
cryptic binary machine language to
symbolic.
• High-level programming languages were
also being developed at this time, such as
early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN.
• These were also the first computers that
stored their instructions in their memory.
© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 10
1.3 A brief history of
computers cont.....
 Example of second gen is IBM 7094 COMPUTER.
Second Generation
Computers
Advantages :
 Size reduced considerably
 The very fast
 Very much reliable

Disadvantages :
 They over heated quickly
 Maintenance problems
© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 12
Third Generation Computers
(1964-1971)
 The development of the integrated circuit was
the hallmark of the third generation of
computers.
 Transistors were miniaturized and placed
on siliconchips, called semiconductors.
 Instead of punched cards and printouts, users
interacted with third generation computers
through keyboards and monitors and interfaced
with an operating system.
 Allowed the device to run many
different applications at one time.
© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 13
Third generation
computers
Advantages :
 ICs are very small in size
 Improved performance
 Production cost cheap

Disadvantages :
 ICs are sophisticated

© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 14
Fourth Generation Computers
(1971-present)
 The microprocessor brought the fourth
generation of computers, as thousands of
integrated circuits were built onto a single
silicon chip.
 The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971,
located all the components of the computer.
 From the central processing unit and memory
to input/output controls—on a single chip.
 . Fourth generation computers also saw the
development of GUIs, the mouse and
handheld devices.
© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 15
Fourth Generation
Computers

© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 16
Fifth Generation Computers
(present and beyond)
 Fifth generation computing devices, based
on artificial intelligence.
 Are still in development, though there are
some applications, such as voice recognition.
 The use of parallel processing and
superconductors is helping to make artificial
intelligence a reality.
 The goal of fifth-generation computing is to
develop devices that respond to natural
language input and are capable of learning
and self-organization.
© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 17
Fifth Generation
Computers

© Educational Technology
Department, Group Head Office,
The City School. 18
1.2 Organization &
Architecture
 Computer architecture refers to those
attributes of a system visible to a
programmer
or, put another way, those attributes that
have a direct impact on the logical
execution of a program.
 Examples of architectural attributes include the

instruction set, the number of bits used to

represent various data types (e.g., numbers,
characters), I/O mechanisms, and techniques
 for addressing memory.
1.2 Organization &
Architecture cont......
 Computer organization refers to the
operational units and their interconnections
that realize the architectural specifications.
 Examples of architectural attributes include

the instruction set, the number of bits used

to represent various data types (e.g.,
numbers, characters), I/O mechanisms, and
techniques for addressing memory.
1.3 Structure & Function
 A computer is a complex system;
contemporary computers contain millions of
elementary electronic components.
 Structure: The way in which the

components are interrelated.

 Function: The operation of each individual

component as part of the structure.

 In general terms, there are only four basic

functions that a computer can perform:

1.3 Structure & Function cont...
 Data processing: Data may take a wide variety of forms,
and the range of processing requirements is broad.
 Data storage: Even if the computer is processing data on
the fly (i.e., data come in and get processed, and the
results go out immediately), the computer must
temporarily store at least those pieces of data that are
being worked on at any given moment.
 Data movement: The computer’s operating environment
consists of devices that serve as either sources or
destinations of data.
 Control: Within the computer, a control unit manages the
computer’s resources and orchestrates the performance of
its functional parts in response to instructions.
1.3 Structure & Function cont...
 There are four main structural components:
 Central processing unit (CPU): Controls the
operation of the computer and performs its data
processing functions; often simply referred to as
processor.
 Main memory: Stores data.
 I/O: Moves data between the computer and its
external environment.
 System interconnection: Some mechanism
that provides for communication among CPU,
main memory, and I/O.
1.3 Structure & Function cont...
1.3 Structure & Function cont...
 The most complex component is the CPU. Its
major structural components are as follows:

 Control unit: Controls the operation of the CPU

and hence the computer.
 Arithmetic and logic unit (ALU): Performs the

computer’s data processing functions.

 Registers: Provides storage internal to the CPU.

 CPU interconnection: Some mechanism that

provides for communication

among the control unit, ALU, and registers.
1.4 The evolution of the intel
x86 architecture
 We will look into two processor families namely: intel x86
and ARM architecture.
 The current x86 offerings represent the
results of decades of design effort on
complex instruction set computers
(CISCs). The x86 incorporates the
sophisticated design principles once found
only on mainframes and supercomputers
and serves as an excellent example of CISC
design.
1.4 The evolution of the intel
x86 architecture
 We will look into two processor families namely: intel
x86 and ARM architecture.
 The ARM architecture is used in a wide variety of
embedded systems and is one of the most powerful
and best-designed RISC-based systems on the market.
 A six-core Core i7 EE 4960X introduced in 2013
 operates at 4 GHz, a speedup of a factor of 800, and
has 1.86 billion transistors, about 64,000 times as
many as the 8086. Yet the Core i7 EE 4960X is in only
a slightly larger package than the 8086 and has a
comparable cost.
1.4 The evolution of the intel x86
architecture
Embedded Systems

 The term embedded system refers to the use of electronics

and software within a product, as opposed to a general-
purpose computer, such as a laptop or desktop system.
Millions of computers are sold every year, including laptops,
personal computers, workstations, servers, mainframes,
and supercomputers.
 Examples include cell phones, digital cameras, video
cameras, calculators, microwave ovens, home security
systems, washing machines, lighting systems, thermostats,
printers, various automotive systems (e.g., transmission
control, cruise control, fuel injection, anti-lock brakes, and
suspension systems), tennis rackets, toothbrushes, and
numerous types of sensors and actuators in automated
systems.
Embedded systems cont........
Embedded Systems cont............

 Embedded systems often interact (sense, manipulate, and

communicate) with external world through sensors and
actuators and hence are typically reactive systems; a
reactive system is in continual interaction with the
environment and executes at a pace determined by that
environment.
Embedded Systems cont............

 The human interface may be as simple as a flashing light or as complicated

as real-time robotic vision. In many cases, there is no human interface.
 The diagnostic port may be used for diagnosing the system that is being
controlled—not just for diagnosing the computer.
 Special-purpose field programmable (FPGA), application-specific (ASIC), or
even nondigital hardware may be used to increase performance or
reliability.
 Software often has a fixed function and is specific to the application.
 Efficiency is of paramount importance for embedded systems. They are
optimized for energy, code size, execution time, weight and dimensions,
and cost.
 Even with nominally fixed function software, the ability to field upgrade to
fix bugs, to improve security, and to add functionality, has become very
important for embedded systems, and not just in consumer devices.
 One comparatively recent development has been of embedded system
platforms that support a wide variety of apps. Good examples of this are
smartphones and audio/visual devices, such as smart TVs.
Embedded Systems cont............

 Embedded Operating Systems

 There are two general approaches to developing
an embedded operating system (OS).
 The first approach is to take an existing OS and
adapt it for the embedded application.
 For example, there are embedded versions of
Linux, Windows, and Mac, as well as other
commercial and proprietary operating systems
specialized for embedded systems.
Embedded operating systems............

 There are two general approaches to developing

an embedded operating system(OS). The first
approach is to take an existing OS and adapt it
for the embedded application.
 For example, there are embedded versions of
Linux, Windows, and Mac, as well as other
commercial and proprietary operating systems
specialized for embedded systems.
 The other approach is to design and implement
an OS intended solely for embedded use. An
example of the latter is TinyOS, widely used in
wireless sensor networks.
Cloud Computing

 Although the general concepts for cloud

computing go back to the 1950s, cloud
computing services first became available in the
early 2000s, particularly targeted at large
enterprises.
 Basic concepts: There is an increasingly
prominent trend in many organizations to move a
substantial
 portion or even all information technology (IT)
operations to an Internet-connected
 infrastructure known as enterprise cloud
computing.
Cloud Computing cont...........

 Cloud computing: A model for enabling

ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network
access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources (e.g., networks, servers,
storage, applications, and services) that can
be rapidly provisioned and released with
minimal management effort or service
provider interaction.
 Types of cloud are cloud networking, cloud
storage, etc.
 END
Thank
you!!